FCC Public Meeting Start Delayed ... Big-Time

In what has become a predictable start -- make that nonstart -- to Federal Communications Commission public meetings, the FCC's Sept. 11 meeting did not begin at 9:30 a.m. as scheduled, with none of the commissioners seated by 5 p.m..


Numerous meetings have been delayed, sometimes for hours, as commissioners worked on statements or tried to resolve last-minute differences.

Several items were deleted from the agenda as late as Monday night, but still on the docket are votes on renewing the program-access rules and tightening the defnition of the "viewability" of the TV-station signal, or signals, that cable operators must carry.


Both items contain contentious elements that apparently have made marshalling a majority for the chairman, who controls the agenda, problematic.


FCC spokespeople were unavailable for comment on a possible start time.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.