Lauren Frayer

How your regulation dollars serve you: WWL-TV New Orleans, owned by Belo, took advantage of the federally mandated conversion to digital television to revamp its internal disaster preparedness plan. In 1999, the station replaced its transmitter for digital conversion -- and relocated it to a more secure site 18 feet above sea level in Gretna, a New Orleans suburb. But a competing broadcaster warns that the federal government is moving too quickly to force television stations to relinquish spectrum as part of the conversion to digital TV.

The loss of lines and revenue from telephone and cable wires submerged by Hurricane Katrina will pose long-term challenges for consumers charged for telecommunications services in the hardest-hit areas -- as well as for companies that rely on a government-administered fund designed to deliver phone service to all Americans. After initial repair efforts, the number of BellSouth lines lost in the hurricane damage stands at 636,000, down from 1.75 million in the immediate aftermath.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is holding an open meeting Sept. 26. One of the agenda items will be to elect a new chairman to replace Ken Tomlinson, whose tenure ends that day. Already scheduled to get five minutes apiece during the public comment portion of the meeting are Chellie Pingree of Common Cause and Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy. Both groups are part of a wider coalition pushing for more CPB transparency and accountability.

NAB President/CEO Eddie Fritts says that it took him a long time to get acclimated in Washington, and politics today is so intense that someone without strong connection inside the beltway could let to much grass grow under his or her feet before being effective. What would Fritts tell his successor, if asked about how to lead the nation’s largest trade association for broadcasters?

Fewer than half of Arizona's rural residents have access to high-speed Internet. Tired of waiting for big telecommunications companies to bring broadband access to them, small communities throughout the state are going after it themselves. More than 850 rural communities across the nation have established their own municipal high-speed systems. Small and growing Arizona communities from Wellton to Flagstaff and Littlefield to Queen Creek are also using innovative ways to gain the faster Internet access they need.

The Senate unanimously adopted an amendment to the Commerce-State-Justice appropriations bill that would exempt the Universal Service Fund E-Rate program from Anti-Deficiency Act rules until Dec. 31, 2006.
[SOURCE: Communications Daily]
(Not available online)

Momentum behind a rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act has been building for several years. And while it is unclear whether a rewrite of the Telecom Act will pass the 109th Congress, interested companies have already spent millions of dollars on advocacy and lobbying in their drive to change the law to benefit their industries -- while House and Senate committees have put telecom reform on their agendas for this Congress. The House Energy and Commerce Committee is moving the quickest.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced that it will provide an additional $500,000 in immediate assistance to public television and radio stations in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. The additional funds bring the total of CPB's emergency assistance to stations in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to more than $1,000,000. CPB has already made 23 grants totaling $582,000 to public radio and television stations throughout the area.

The long-term impact of Hurricane Katrina on most telecom companies is expected to be minimal. Moreover, some companies are expected to benefit from the storm. Equipment vendor Alcatel, for instance, saw its shares rise more than $1 to the $12.75 range in the days following the disaster, partly on investor sentiment that the company would be providing gear to the affected phone companies.

On an ABC special following President Bush's speech from New Orleans, Ted Koppel interviewed two former members of the 9/11 Commission, led by Tom Kean, about emergency preparedness. Kean took the opportunity to push Congress to pass Senator John McCain's SAVE LIVES bill, which calls for the return of broadcasters' analog spectrum by 2009, or 2007 if McCain has his way, in part to turn over to first responders, Kean did not name the bill, but said the lack of spectrum for emergency workers was one of the problems identified by the commission after 9/11 that had not yet been rectified and Congress had yet to act on a bill. Kean and nine other former commissioners held a press conference earlier in the week pushing for return of analog spectrum, and Kean told Koppel Thursday night he thought lives had been lost because of the inability of emergency workers to talk to each other.
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