DENNIS THOMPSON
And in old news, (yesterday). . . The Federal Communications Commission voted to lift the requirement, established in 1940, known as the Main Studio Rule. The regulation, requires broadcasters to have a physical studio in or near the areas where they have a license to transmit TV or radio signals. In theory, the regulation was to ensure that residents of a community could have a say in their local broadcast station’s operations. The FCC’s position is, that with the rise of social media, consumers now have other ways to get in touch with their local broadcasters. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai stated that current technology allows broadcast stations to produce local news even without a nearby studio. So will this new rule prompt large media congloms to take over small, local TV and radio stations? Or is it a blessing for station owners to transfer the costs of operating a physical studio into creating more local TV and radio programming. Perhaps that dimly lit engineering office will be replaced by a large Winebago, we will find out.
The National SBE will be holding the Annual Membership meeting tomorrow from the Crown Plaza Denver Airport Convention Center in Denver. For those who may be interested, here is a L I N K to the live stream of the event which begins at 1:00 PM.
RF Specialties will be hosting the October SBE66 meeting at Mitsui Buffet. Tom Driggers will be presenting various products from Anywave Communications including their encoders. Plus he’ll have some other items of interest available from RF Specialties of California, so you’ll want to be at the Mitsui at 12 noon for an informative presentation and hosted lunch. As always, bring any frequency coordination issues or other engineering questions/concerns for the group. I hope to see you there.
