Last week LLFCC published a playful little piece: "Faux Celebrity FCC filings on the rise." Overnight it became the blog's most popular story, logging more hits in less time than anything else on the site. It also generated several interpretations with which I disagree.

The "Faux" article disclosed something that I've noticed over the last year or so. Every now and then some wag files comments with the FCC using the name of a famous person: Donald Trump, Paris Hilton, even Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, George W. Bush, and Jesus Christ. The filings often mangle some auto-comment available on the Web site of a public interest or lobbying group.

They can be pretty funny, too.

"I'm a dead Communist, but I don't want to pay more for my telephone service!" declared "Leon Trotsky" in an FCC comment submitted in March of 2005 regarding a Commission proposal to boost Universal Service Fund rates.

So I compiled all these comments into a story, posted it, and sent it to the mother of all media regulation sites: Techdirt, whose lead writer Mike Masnick generously mentions my blog from time to time.

The Federal Communications Commission today dismissed a host of broadcast radio, amateur, and aerospace industry concerns about Access Broadband over Power Line (Access BPL) systems, reaffirming agency rules for the relatively new technology.

"We all have high hopes for Broadband over Power Line and I think we would all like to see some non-duopoly pipes bringing broadband access to, particularly, hard-to-reach Americans," FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said in a statement about the Memorandum and Order on BPL. "We are behind the game in putting high-speed, high value bandwidth to work for all our citizens."

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein announced today that the agency had entered into the "formal phase" of a payola investigation of four media companies: Clear Channel Communications, CBS Radio, Entercom Communications, and Citadel Broadcasting.

"This should put to rest any question about the FCC's commitment to enforce the law," Adelstein said. "Our investigation will be a thorough and complete review of the industry's alleged payola practices."

Adelstein said that the FCC had sent letters of inquiry to the four companies regarding the problem. The move follows a reported breakdown in negotiations. Reuters news service, citing anonymous sources, reports that the talks stalled over possible fines and the amount of information the FCC wants the companies to disclose.

FCC rules say that broadcasters can accept money or gifts for playing certain songs, but they have to disclose the payment at the time of airing and acknowledge who paid for the music. Last month New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer criticized the FCC for not moving more aggressively on the issue.

"The agency's inaction is especially disappointing given the pervasive nature of this problem and its corrosive impact on the entertainment industry," Spitzer declared in a March 8th press statement.

Calling the new agency "a critical step forward in its plan to strengthen public safety," the FCC today voted to set up a Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau.

FCC officials disclosed that the new agency would centralize the regulation of emergency/security communications functions that have been spread out among seven different offices and bureaus. These include emergency 911 phone line access, disaster management coordination, and the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA).

"This Bureau will provide a single central hub for the development of policies and rules to promote reliable communications for public safety, national security, and disaster management," FCC Chair Kevin Martin declared at today's Open Commission meeting. Congress must approve the plan before it goes into effect.

Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo of Colorado has called for an FCC investigation of KROM in San Antonio, Texas, accusing the radio station of tipping off undocumented workers about the location of border agents in the area. "According to recent media reports, KROM . . . has been broadcasting the location of Border Patrol personnel in an effort to help immigrants avoid checkpoints and patrols," Tancredo charges.

Actually the reports from the San Antonio Express News say that KROM deejays jokingly disclose the location of "limones verdes," or "green limes" around the San Antonio area, a euphemism for the green sports utility vehicles immigraton police drive. The border patrol has never complained about the practice. The San Antonio office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

The Federal Communications Commission will hold a day long panel on the effect of Hurricane Katrina on electronic media in the New Orleans region. The conference will take place on January 30 in Washington and be streamed over the Internet via Real Audio.

Representatives from Louisiana law enforcement and the telecommunications industry will make up the majority of panelists. Speakers from the industry group include Clear Channel, Bell South, Cox Communications, Sprint, Cingular Wireless, Entercom, CenturyTel, and Motorola. Officials from the fire and police departments of Mobile, Alabama, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Harrison County, Mississippi will also comment.

Two representatives from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) are scheduled to appear at the event. As of yet the list of panelists includes no engineers or telecommunications experts from schools and universities in the south Louisiana region.

The unsolicited calls from Clear Channel station WLTW landed in the voicemail boxes of New York residents in June 2005. A prerecorded message from Al "Bernie" Bernstein urged them to tune into the station for Motown, Elton John, Carol King, and prizes.

"This week, when the music stops at 9:20, be the tenth caller ," the message continued. "Tell us the name of the Motown song we played during that hour, and you'll win one thousand dollars. Easy money. And the best variety from 106.7 Lite FM."

Thousands of New Yorkers got the message whether they wanted it or not. But the mass call was probably least appreciated by New Yorker Mark Leyse, who filed a class action suit against Clear Channel charging that the company violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) of 1991.