There’s been a change of leadership within the Amherst Alliance. Don Schellhardt has left the post of president after several years of hard but not futile work, for which he deserves a boatload of thanks. The new Amherst honcho is Stacie Trescott.
REC Networks is again on the ball with “a special message for listeners of K-Love and Air-1” about Educational Media Foundation’s misguided anti-LPFM public comment crusade.
Finally, Mediageek’s got some prognostications on the shape and form of the FCC under the second coming of Bush II. It’s agreeably cynical.
Tag: don schellhardt
December Amendment One: A Push for LPAM
As part of the FCC’s current study of localism, an effort’s afoot to lobby the agency to leaglize a form of low power AM radio service. Not only would LPAM be a good supplement to LPFM in general, but it might allow for placement of new community radio stations where congestion on the dial precluds new LPFMs.
Included in this month’s A1 is a supplement that summarizes the process for filing comments with the FCC’s Localism Task Force, and contains a list of recommended issues to emphasize.
Schellhardt & Schnazz Updated
Don Schellhardt’s got a good overview of several other notable proposals and rulemakings taking place at the FCC in November’s Amendment One, and there have been plenty ignored in all the hoopla over media ownership and digital broadcast copyright protection. The Latest Schnazz has 18 links this week, a bit bigger than usual to make up for the missed update.
Another interesting rulemaking just opened is the FCC’s potential overhaul of interference standards. It is looking into adopting an “interference temperature” as a part of any future spectrum management protocol; instead of the FCC’s traditional method of regulating spectrum by limiting power at the transmitter (regardless of band), the “interference temperature” method would assume a tolerable level of interference from the outset. This has the potential to significantly change the way the FCC manages spectrum use in the future.
According to the announcement on the proposed rulemaking, the “interference temperature” idea may get a test run in reality as a factor in spectrum allocations involving the 6525-6700 MHz and portions of the 12.75-13.25 GHz bands.
October Amendment One: "Halftime" In Washington
Don Schellhardt weighs in with some excellent analysis in October’s hefty Amendment One. He’s got harsh words for Senator John McCain and even harsher words for Kevin Klose and National Public Radio.
McCain may ultimately stall media reform efforts in Congress by protecting his own committee turf, while NPR’s stalling tactic in the FCC’s resolution of the LPFM interference issue has apparently torpedoed a proposed Senate committee hearing on LPFM, which would’ve been chaired by (yes, the same) John McCain last month.
Outside of the folks at Free Press (who are actually being paid to work Capitol Hill), nobody’s got a closer read on the situation than Don. Detail-wise, he’s the man in all respects.
September Amendment One Parses Politics of Media Reform
In an exhaustive feature this month, the Amherst Alliance’s Don Schellhardt not only breaks down the situation in Congress on the prospects for media reform, but whomps you with charts detailing the latest Senate vote, including a symbol-laden synopsis of each vote-caster’s current political situation. It is a huge mass of information, with a grassroots lobbying tips for your own use sprinkled through.
August Amendment One: Capitalizing Media Reform
Like it or not, to run with the big dogs in Congress it takes funds. Money, moolah, dinero, cash, the stuff everyone likes but others would rather not think about. Don Schellhardt gives a glimpse of the hard reality: even the cost of postage is out of most of our means individually, if one were to go into lobbying full-time. People also need to be paid for spending time on the Hill.
In completely unrelated news, the latest addition to Truthful Translations of Political Speech deserves special mention. Tom Compagnoni perfectly beat-matches the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Australia with G.W. Bush in
WMD – American Justice (MP3, 1.7 MB). This is, amazingly, just Track One of a forthcoming album’s worth.
Latest Amendment One: "LPFM Summer"
Don Schellhardt’s newest column is about a grassroots lobbying effort taking place over the next couple of months while Congress takes a summer break: call your Senators and Representatives and bug them at home about media reform.
The goal is twofold: build momentum for rollback of the FCC’s June media ownership rule changes and convince Congress to restore the FCC’s LPFM service to its original parameters.
Since the political conditions are ripe for success on both fronts, the timing for such a campaign couldn’t be better.
Amendment One Gauges Senate Media Reform Stances
Don Schellhardt’s June installment of Amendment One summarizes the latest action on various legislative efforts to reform or repeal the FCC’s decision earlier this month to relax media ownership rules. It includes an excellent supplement that details each individual Senator’s position on the issue.
June has been a busy month for media reform forces in Washington, D.C. Don’s handling the beat for us, but another excellent news source for congressional news is the Free Press Media Reform Network’s Washington Watch, as they have people working Capitol Hill. Continue reading “Amendment One Gauges Senate Media Reform Stances”
NRA Fusillade Felt at FCC; May Amendment One Online
The National Rifle Association’s “urgent bulletin” to its membership on the FCC’s upcoming media ownership rules revision unleashed a flood of petitions and complaints to the agency, at last count topping 100,000 – five or six times the number of public comments filed during the course of the rulemaking itself. The NRA’s bulletin is now online if you’d like to read the full pitch.
Don Schellhardt’s latest installment of Amendment One is also up, adding his voice to the still-growing chorus calling for Congressional involvement to stop Mikey Powell’s grand designs. Continue reading “NRA Fusillade Felt at FCC; May Amendment One Online”
Introducing Amendment One
Don Schellhardt, the attorney extraordinaire who co-wrote the first LPFM petition and has been coordinating the resistance campaign against IBOC digital audio broadcasting, is hankering for some writing experience. He’s now writing a monthly column called Amendment One, featuring various pontifications on issues of media and media reform.
The March and April columns are up now. Don’s latest work, “The Kahn Connection,” will bring you up to speed on the latest happenings with radio’s transition to digital. One must wonder, though, if the proposed alternative arrived too late in the game to change the FCC’s mind on what digital standard to officially adopt (IBOC stations are on the air now, and the FCC recently relaxed the transition rules allowing stations to convert immediately and go digital before notifying Washington).