An interesting filing against the proposed XM/Sirius merger from one of the oldest civil rights groups in the United States, the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). The January 24th statement goes against the tendency of minority advocacy groups to support the union, lauding either XM or Sirius for their niche programming. Not NCNW. They call the merger "a clear, present and unmitigated threat to decency and greater diversity of media ownership."

They continue:

"One only has to evaluate the current programming now offered by Sirius and XM to recognize that our concerns and fears are well founded. Programming such as Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, and Bubba the Love Sponge—which help to perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes in our culture—drive the business of both companies. A Sirius - XM satellite radio monopoly will focus its resources on only its most profitable audiences, which more of the same lower common-denominator programming of the Howard Stern variety. Yet the audiences of those shows do not reflect the broader spectrum of the American listening public. It is imperative that satellite radio exists for all of the public, and not simply to put profits in the pockets of the combined Sirius and XM."

NCNW says they support the Georgetown Partners proposal resubmitted to the FCC yesterday. To wit:

Georgetown proposes that Sirius and XM restructure the merger and lease to Georgetown their broadcast infrastructure and at least 20% of the combined entity’s capacity on a long term or permanent basis. Georgetown, a minority-controlled company, would use the capacity to offer free, family-friendly, non-subscription-based programming with limited commercials. Further, Georgetown would do so in full compliance with the FCC’s terrestrial broadcast regulations governing indecent programming that Sirius and XM avoid by their non-broadcast subscription status. Restructuring the merger as proposed by Georgetown assures competition. It is the only proposal that promotes the public interest and provides consumers true benefits on a sustainable basis.

Georgetown’s proposal requires the combined Sirius-XM to carry Georgetown’s advertiser-supported programming to everyone with a satellite radio receiver – subscriber or not. The result would be immediate, continuing and permanent tangible benefit to the public. By contrast, under the Sirius-XM “A La Carte” proposal, millions of consumers who have recently purchased new satellite radios and who want to choose the content they receive would be disenfranchised unless they purchase the next-generation satellite radios – but the next-generation radios are not available now and won’t be any time in the foreseeable future. Of the more than 30 million receivers in the market today, already some 15 million are owned by consumers who neither subscribe to Sirius nor XM. Georgetown’s proposal offers these non-subscribers an opportunity to obtain substantial benefit from the money they paid for their radios. Georgetown offers a home to the disenfranchised and a use for the millions of expensive unused receivers. Subscribers of the combined company and non-subscribers alike would receive Georgetown’s free programming. The result would be greater options in the marketplace for all consumers.

Luis G. Fortuño

As the first anniversary of the proposed merger of XM and Sirius satellite radio approaches, critics and opponents of the union continue to weigh in with the Federal Communications Commission. This week's commenters included the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico's sole representative in Congress, and iBiquity HD radio.

When the FCC created the Digital Satellite Radio service in 1997, it did not require coverage for Puerto Rico's four million residents, Representative Luis G. Fortuño noted in his letter to the Commission sent on Friday, January 18th.

"My official position is to oppose the merger until such time that the exclusion of Puerto Rico and other noncontiguous United States jurisdictions from coverage area of satellite radio service ceases," Fortuño's statement concludes. "My interest and concern include providing equal access to this technology to all U.S. citizens and encouraging industries doing business in the mainland to extend their services to the Puerto Rican market."

Just days after the Federal Communications Commission asked for public input on whether certain broadband service providers are degrading peer-to-peer traffic, dozens of users have filed their comments. They identify Comcast as the culprit, and call for the cable giant to be honest about its broadband management practices.

"As a comcast home user I have seen my P2P traffic interfered with," one network administrator wrote to the FCC today. "I see connection throughput rate DROP after a short period of full speed. Even during off hours. Comcast is clearly selling me 2 Mb/s of networking at their discretion. They and all other ISP's should be forced to sell a real CIR (committed information rate) and to advertise ONLY that number."

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks rely on users to share files, rather than concentrating the data on a few large servers. Comcast has been accused of degrading access to popular P2P sites like BitTorrent and Gnutella. In October of last year, Associated Press reported that the news company's own investigation found that in some instances Comcast "hindered file sharing by subscribers who used BitTorrent."

Nevada's Supreme Court today upheld NBC's exclusion of presidential contender Dennis Kucinich from tonight's MSNBC Democrats' debate. But the TV network's own appeal to the court reveals that its managers changed the program's qualification rules—a move that threw Kucinich off the program.

An NBC Emergency Petition's "statement of facts" filed today admits that Kucinich may have qualified for the debate under the rules outlined by Democratic party consultant Jenny Backus. Those guidelines said that a candidate had to finish in at least fourth place in the New Hampshire primary or Iowa Caucus to participate in the January 15th debate.

A candidate could also qualify by being included "in the top four in one of six credible random-sample telephone national news media polls conducted since the Iowa Caucus."

NBC's statement acknowledges that in a Gallup Poll completed soon after the Iowa Caucus, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama received the support of 33 percent of those polled, John Edwards obtained 20%, and Kucinich won 3%. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson picked up only 1% of those surveyed.

"We intend to issue shortly a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to propose and seek comment on additional steps the Commission might take to further implement the Call Home Act and thus further reduce the cost to military personnel of calling home."

So the Federal Communications Commission declared on January 18th of last year. As the first anniversary of that promise approaches, LLFCC can find no sign that it will be kept. A spokesperson for the FCC contacted by this blog declined to comment on when such a proceeding might begin.

To recap: Congress passed the Call Home Act in December of 2006: "A bill to direct the Federal Communications Commission to make efforts to reduce telephone rates for Armed Forces personnel deployed overseas."

The FCC initially followed through on the mandate by permitting phone companies not to charge Universal Service Fund (USF) and Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) tolls on Armed Forces personnel collect calls, or those made with pre- and post-paid calling cards. The USF funds telephone service for low income families; TRS finances and regulates telecommunications services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.

Clear Channel Communications is leading a wave of filings asking the Federal Communications Commission to permit AM radio stations to broadcast over FM translators. Relatively few commenters in this proceeding oppose the plan, but they include the Prometheus Project, aided by attorneys from the Media Access Project.

In mid-July of 2006, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) petitioned the FCC to change its regulations so that AM broadcasters could operate FM translators. A translator is essentially a repeater station that takes a primary station's signal, then boosts and rebroadcasts it. The proposal would limit the FM translator reach to about 25 miles maximum.

Clear Channel's January 7th filing in support of the proposal argues that because many AM stations operate at reduced power during the early morning or evening (in order not to interfere with other AM stations) they are "challenged in providing coverage of local issues, such as school closings, weather emergencies, local election returns, local government meetings and high school sports." Many AM stations also lower or turn off their power at night.

Spam has gone beyond just irritating, the Federal Trade Commission warns. It has become downright dangerous.

"This new generation of spam is no longer a mere annoyance to email recipients and a burden to ISPs; often it is a vector for criminal activity," the FTC's Spam Summit report, released on December 28th, concludes. The document summarizes the findings of the Commission's Division of Marketing Practices on spam and "phishing."

Not your grandfather's spam

In the relatively innocent 1990s, spammers used automated search software to "harvest" e-mail addresses off Web sites, then dumped them into scripts to mass market products via email. The messages used phony headers so you couldn't trace them to their source.

But those were the good old days, the FTC report explains. Today's New and Improved spam sends you malicious "bots" that implant software in your computer, turning it into part of a network of hosts that send unprecedented quantities of spam into cyberspace.

And the spam doesn't just try to get you to buy V1a@ra; it directs you to "phishing" sites—phony Web pages that look like your banking, credit card, or cell phone account site—then tells you the site crashed and needs you to submit your account information again in the hope that you'll fall for this dodge and the spammer can rob you silly.