FCC prepares for LPFM; Senate considers surveillance

Sep 26, 2013 10:14 pm
Radio news from Wave Farm‘s WGXC 90.7-FM in the Hudson Valley, New York. PLAY AUDIO (3:33)

REC Networks reports that at the Sept. 26 Federal Communications Commission monthly "open meeting" the Audio Division staff presented to the full Commission an update on the progress of the Auction 83 translator processing and the upcoming LPFM window. "All but eight translator applications have been given an opportunity to file a long form application or settlement related change," REC reported. The FCC also announced that the first singleton Low Power FM applications (those that do not face any competing applications) will be processed in mid-January, 2014 and MX groups (competing applications) will be announced later in 2014. REC will have predictive information on MX applications posted after the FCC publicly releases the information about the applications. FCC officials also reported how cleaning up the translator issues were going ahead of the LPFM filing window.


Paul Lewis and Dan Roberts in The Guardian reports about the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Sept. 26, discussing potential legislative changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law that governs a large portion of electronic and phone surveillance by intelligence agencies. Several Senators are proposing changes to the law. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander, and Deputy Attorney General James Cole were among those testifying about the surveillance program. Alexander and Clapper refused to say on the record where the NSA had ever sought to trawl cell site data, pinpointing the location of individuals via their phones.