Former FCC Chairman Richard Wiley predicted relatively smooth sailing for the digital conversion coming in February. He spoke at the On Screen Media Summit in New York City this week. 

The former chairman predicted the digital transition won’t be the nightmare some are predicting, based on the small number of people likely to be affected by next February. On February 17, television broadcasters must shut down their analog transmitters and will broadcast exclusively on their digital transmitters.

Wiley believes that any problems that may occur won’t last longer than a few days for older or more technologically-challenged consumers. But he said, “It’s not like we’re shutting off their electricity. We’re not taking away their food. I think within a week or so we can have this problem solved.”

He also addressed, with some alarm,  the so-called white spaces issue in which the FCC will give vacant space between used bits of spectrum to unlicensed users. While he finds the potential for use of the white spaces sounds exciting, “I’d have some concerns there are going to be some real problems for stations out there.” For the sake of them, he said, “I don’t think we want to lose the wonder of the broadcasting industry” to the uncertainty over white space issues. 

Somebody had to say it, and appropriately, it was the most iconic critic of TV content and a symbol of deregulation that asked the Supreme Court to strip the Federal Communications Commission of its power to regulate indecency. And, their stand demonstrates how far the politically-motivated commission has strayed.

Former FCC chairman Newton Minow joined two other former Federal Communications Commission chairmen, telling the high court that the FCC is on a “Victorian crusade” that hurts broadcasters, viewers and the Constitution. Democratic chairman Minow famously dubbed TV a “vast wasteland” back in the 1960s, but he’s ready to let TV programmers in the 21st century have more say over content, especially if the alternative is the current FCC.

Seconding that opinion was former Republican chairman Mark Fowler, who once described TV to as a “toaster with pictures.” Fowler became a symbol of the deregulatory 1980s. Also weighing in was Jim Quello, former acting chairman and longest-serving Democratic commissioner. Citing the predictions of a political scientist back in the early 1980s, they called the Supreme Court’s 1978 “Pacifica Decision“ that justified the FCC’s indecency-enforcement powers a legal time bomb that had exploded into radical censorship.

They argued that the commission “has radically expanded the definition of indecency beyond its original conception; magnified the penalties for even minor, ephemeral images or objectionable language; and targeted respected television programs, movies and even noncommercial documentaries.”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not for indecency but this current FCC really is stuck back in the last century, or perhaps the one before that. Holding broadcasters to their prurient standards doesn’t mesh with reality. Community standards are different. And, if they’re trying to “protect” the public, they’re tilting at windmills. In Indianapolis, 87% of the populace receives their television from cable, satellite or means other than over the air. That 87% is subject to all kinds of materials, including some that most in the community would consider indecent.

Also mirroring the arguments of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, the chairmen argued that broadcasting is no longer uniquely pervasive or accessible to children given the Internet and multichannel video.

The trio were joined by other former FCC commissioners and staffers including Henry Geller, former general counsel at the FCC; Glen O. Robinson, a former commissioner and Kenneth G. Robinson, a former FCC legal adviser.

They filed an amicus brief Friday in the FCC’s challenge to a lower-court ruling that the FCC’s finding that language on a Fox network awards show was indecent was arbitrary and capricious and a violation of the Administrative Procedures Act. That act requires regulators to sufficiently justify their decisions and forewarn regulated industries.

The chairmen agreed that it violated the act but said the Supremes needed to go farther. “It is time for the Court to bring its views of the electronic media into alignment with contemporary technological and social reality,” they said. And that means getting the FCC entirely out of the business of regulating indecent content, they added.

Looks like the long-awaited merger of the two satellite radio giants, Sirius and XM, will finally take place. Federal regulators formally approved the merger of the nation’s only two satellite radio operators last week.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to approve the buyout, with the tiebreaker coming Friday night from Republican commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate. She had insisted that the rival companies settle charges that they violated FCC rules before she would approve the deal. So, the companies agreed this week to pay $19.7 million to the U.S. Treasury for violations related to radio receivers and ground-based signal repeaters.

Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. will buy rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. for $3.3 billion. The buyout means millions of subscribers will be able to receive programming from both services.

Executives say the merger will create hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings. The savings will come in handy as Sirius chokes on its deal to lure Howard Stern to satellite with a five year, $100 milion a year deal.

In the old days, a company that foolishly invested a half billion dollars and hadn’t thoroughly thought out its business plan, went under. Not so today. See Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The approval was a major blow for the broadcast radio industry, which has lobbied long and hard against the merger. Also opposing the merger were consumer groups, various members of Congress and state attorneys general. All argued a satellite radio merger would hurt consumers and was not in the public interest. Satellite radio has more than 18 million customers who watched anxiously to find out what would happen to their service.

Subscribers will not have to buy new radios to receive a mix of programming from both services, according to the companies. But if they want to pursue a special pay-per-channel a la carte option, they will need new sets.

”They kept each other on their toes,” Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said of the two companies. ”I hope they keep their edge and don’t become a fat and happy monopoly.” Right.

Adelstein and fellow Democrat Michael Copps voted against the merger. Joining Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and Tate in approving the deal was Republican commissioner Robert McDowell.

Under the terms of the consent decree, XM will pay $17.5 million and Sirius will pay $2.2 million to resolve interference complaints and violations related to land-based signal repeaters the companies operate to deliver programming.

Tate, who was lobbied intensely by the broadcast radio industry in the final weeks to include a chip in its radios that will allow customers to receive digital signals from land-based radio stations, said she ”could not in good conscience support a government-mandated requirement on the backs of American consumers at this time.”

The companies first applied for permission to combine in March 2007. The Justice Department approved the deal in March of this year without conditions, saying the companies don’t really compete because customers must buy equipment that is exclusive to either XM or Sirius, and subscribers rarely switch providers. Justice also agreed with the satellite companies’ argument that they compete with other forms of audio entertainment, including digital radio, Internet-based radio stations and even mp3 players.

FCC approval faced a steeper climb because the companies were prohibited from combining under terms of their licenses. The agency struggled to come up with a way to show that allowing a satellite radio monopoly was in the public interest. But, rules were made to be changed and promises were made to be broken.

The companies voluntarily agreed to a set of conditions, including a three-year price cap and an eight percent set-aside of ”full-time audio channels” for public interest and minority programming. They will also adopt an ”open radio” standard that may lead to a greater variety of features in radios and greater competition among manufacturers.

Sirius and XM also have promised to include a limited ”a la carte” offering that would be available within three months of the close of the deal and allow listeners to pay only for the channels they want to receive.

Watch for these conditions to be rethought and relief sought before the year is out.

Warning. The following blog may come off as self-serving. It’s not intended to be.

One of the tenets of local television broadcasting is service to its community. The Federal Communications Commission has made a lot of noise lately about localism. And, in some cases they have a point. Many opportunistic owners snatch up an available license and promise to serve an area but soon forget that promise. A station licensed to New Jersey is more apt to cover New York City. I worked for a station that was licensed to Muskogee, Oklahoma. The money was in Tulsa. Guess where we concentrated our efforts.

Today, a great example of localism in broadcasting is going on in central Indiama. In response to the recent tornadoes that have ripped through central Indiana and the massive flooding left behind from recent storms, RTV6 is teaming up with the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis for a special Storm Relief Telethon.

The Storm Relief is an all-day event that began at 6am and culminates tonight with a special one-hour, live telethon. RTV6 is giving Hoosiers three ways to donate; by phone, in person and online. The special phone bank opened at 6am with volunteers from Conseco Insurance accepting credit card donations. The lines will stay open until 9pm.

RTV6 is partnering with several radio stations from the region. Emmis Communications’ 93.1 WIBC, B105.7, 97.1 HANK FM and 1070 The Fan is accepting cash donations in front of their headquarters on Monument Circle. The White River Broadcasting Company’s WKKG-FM, Y106, WCSI 1010AM and (aptly named) The River (WINN-FM) will be at the Rural King in Columbus, also accepting cash donations. And Indianapolis’ two Spanish language stations, Radio Latina 107.1 and La Que Buena AM 80 will have their personalities on Indianapolis’ west side gathering donations for Indiana’s storm relief victims.

Donations can also be made online through rtv6’s website theIndyChannel.com

All the money raised will be donated to the Greater Indianapolis Red Cross and designated for storm victims in Central Indiana.

That’s localism. Thanks for letting me show off.

Following up on a blog earlier this year, there’s new information about the fate of low power TV stations after the switchover to digtial broadcasting for full power stations.  A federal appeals court has denied a request from owners of thousands of those low-power television stations that would have banned the government-subsidized converter boxes that went on sale earlier this year.  The LPTV folks complaint is that the boxes cannot display the low power signals, which will still remain mostly in the analog format.

There are a couple of LPTV’s in the central Indiana area:  WALV-TV, owned by the folks that also own Channel 13 and WDNI-TV, owned by the Radio One group, that runs WTLC radio, among others.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Wednesday rejected the request for help filed by the Community Broadcasters Association (CBA). The industry says it’s facing a “death sentence” because of a flaw in the government’s plan to force broadcasters to shift to digital broadcasting. In March the CBA asked the court to order the Federal Communications Commission to ban all digital set-top converter boxes that are not equipped to receive an analog signal. 

Granting of that request would possibly derail the biggest broadcasting transition since color television. As of Feb. 19, 2009, all full-power television stations in the U.S. are required to stop broadcasting an analog signal. Anyone who gets programming through an antenna and does not have a newer-model digital TV set will need to buy a box that converts the digital signal to analog.  Those boxes, in the $50-80 range are on sale at most big box electronics retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City and at other retailers like Wal-Mart.  The government has set up a program that provides two $40 coupons per household that can be used to buy these boxes. (Complete information is available at theINDYchannel.com by clicking on the DTV Answers icon on the home page.)

The problem facing the 2,600 low-power television stations represented by the association is that they are not subject to the February 2009 deadline. Most of the converter boxes now on sale will actually block the low-power analog signal from those stations, while the full-power digital signals will display normally. The appeals court’s decision said the association failed to adequately make its case that the order, known as a “writ of mandamus,” was necessary.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has posted a list of low power stations as well as thousands of signal-relay stations known as translators that will also be affected on its Web site.