Garrison Keillor is the most prominent radio figure to be taken down by sexual harassment accusations, with Minnesota Public Radio cutting all ties to the host Nov. 29. Retired now from hosting “A Prairie Home Companion,” there weren't many ties to cut. MPR will no longer distribute and broadcast the 75-year-old Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac” and “The Best of A Prairie Home Companion Hosted by Garrison Keillor” after allegations of “inappropriate behavior with an individual who worked with him.” MPR said it was ending the relationship because of a single accusation; Keillor said later in the day, that he has to respect the privacy "of the two employees who made the allegations." He seemed to dispute the allegation, telling The Minneapolis Star Tribune, “I put my hand on a woman’s bare back. I meant to pat her back after she told me about her unhappiness and her shirt was open and my hand went up it about six inches. She recoiled.... I sent her an email of apology later and she replied that she had forgiven me and not to think about it. We were friends. We continued to be friendly right up until her lawyer called.” But then he also said, "I’m 75 and don’t have any interest in arguing about this, and I cannot in conscience bring danger to a great organization I’ve worked hard for since 1969.” Keillor also said, “If I had a dollar for every woman who asked to take a selfie with me and who slipped an arm around me and let it drift down below the beltline, I’d have at least a hundred dollars. So this is a poetic irony of a high order.” He was in Pittsfield, MA as the allegations became public, where he canceled a scheduled performance. In 1994, on C-Span, Keillor said, "We should be careful, though, not to make the world so fine and good that you and I can't enjoy living in it. A world in which there is no sexual harassment at all is a world in which there will not be any flirtation."

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai wants the end to the law that makes Internet providers treat all websites equally. Under Pai's plan, which will pass by a 3-2 vote on party lines on Dec. 14, net neutrality will end, and Internet providers can charge customers, or services such as Netflix or YouTube, more or less instead of treating them all the same. That has caused millions of comments to flow into the FCC's websites, and protests at the FCC's offices, and at Pai's home. One sign protesters had outside of Pai's house over Thanksgiving weekend seemed to be too much for for the Republican. The sign read, “They will come to know the truth. Dad murdered Democracy in cold blood.” Pai reacted on "Fox & Friends" Nov. 27, “I understand that people are passionate about policy, but the one thing in America that should remain sacred is that families, wives and kids, should remain out of it. And stop harassing us at our homes.” But former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler also had protesters outside his home before he came around to support net neutrality in 2015. There have, though, been racist comments posted online about Pai during the current debate about ending net neutrality, but that's true about almost any issue these days. Craig Aaron, the president of Free Press, an advocacy group that's working to keep net neutrality, told The Washington Post, “We condemn any racist comments or harassing messages sent to the chairman of the FCC. We don't think there is any place for that in the debate.” While Pai whined about one lone sign near his house, Comcast shifted its story on what will happen after net neutrality ends. The company had promised it wouldn't violate the principles of net neutrality even when the law does not hold them to those principles, but Comcast is now saying that it won't "discriminate against lawful content" or impose "anti-competitive paid prioritization." So Comcast may offer paid fast lanes to websites or video streaming providers. That's just what the rest of those signs outside Pai's house Thanksgiving warned would happen after the Dec. 14 vote to end net neutrality. It is also what, on Nov. 27, Airbnb, Etsy, Foursquare, GitHub, Pinterest, Reddit, Shutterstock, Sonos, Square, Squarespace, Tumblr, Twitter, and Vimeo warned about in a letter denouncing the FCC's impending vote.

The Republicans on the Federal Communications Commission announced their plan to eliminate the net neutrality rules on the day before Thanksgiving. Even with a clearly pre-determined 3-2 vote in favor of the roll back scheduled for Dec. 14, activists are doing what they can to avoid the end to net neutrality. While there have already been a historic 22 million comments made to the FCC on the issue -- the majority of which were opposed to its rollback -- Congressional representatives and the FCC got more calls and comments over the holiday weekend. Ars Technica reported that more than 180,000 people had made calls through the Battle for the Net activist site on Nov. 22. The calls may be helping, as a first Republican senator, Susan Collins from Maine, announced her opposition to the rollback, with Collins’ spokesperson Annie Clark saying she opposes ending net neutrality because it would allow internet providers to “manage their system in an anti-competitive way that limits consumers’ choices.” Protests at Verizon stores across the nation are being organized for Dec. 7 by Demand Progress, Fight For The Future, and the Free Press Action Fund (including one locally in Pittsfield, MA). "The company has been spending millions on lobbying and lawsuits to kill net neutrality so they can gouge us all for more money," the protest organizers write. "We’re calling on our lawmakers to do their job overseeing the FCC and speak out against Ajit Pai’s plan to gut Title II net neutrality protections." Plus, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, the main force behind efforts to end net neutrality, used to work for Verizon as associate general counsel before moving to the Federal Communications Commission. Still, the phone calls and protests are tilting at windmills, as the FCC vote Dec. 14 is preordained. When the 2015 FCC passed the net neutrality rules, groups representing AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision unsuccessfully sued to stop them from being implemented. This time, activists will go to court to keep the net neutrality rules in place.

Steve Herman reports for the Voice of America, that President Donald Trump has given up recording a weekly presidential radio address, the first time a U.S. leader has not done so since 1982. Trump stopped recording the radio addresses Oct. 13, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the presidential spokesperson, didn't take a question about it until Nov. 20. "We're looking at different ways that we can revamp that and make it where it’s more beneficial and gets more information out," said Sanders, who wouldn't rule out the end of the tradition. The media was not the only group who did not notice the end of the radio address. "We haven't received any reaction about the missing addresses. Not by phone or email. That is in some contrast to feedback from listeners in prior years who feared we might not choose to carry the new president's remarks, especially when there was a change in parties," said Steve Butler, the program director at KYW in Philadelphia. Franklin D. Roosevelt famously addressed the nation through radio during the depression. Since 1982, every president recorded a weekly radio announcement, except George H.W. Bush who only occasionally recorded the messages. While Trump won't be heard on the radio on Saturdays anymore, he is known to make his most outlandish Twitter messages on weekend mornings.

Wave Farm and WGXC 90.7-FM present avant-garde holiday tradition, Phil Kline's "Unsilent Night" in Hudson, NY, December 23, 2017.

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Sean Gallagher at Ars Technica revisits the still-unsolved Nov. 22, 1987 pirate television hijacking of the signal of two Chicago television stations. A man in a Max Headroom mask broadcast a taped message interrupting a prime-time news broadcast on Chicago's WGN, and a broadcast of "Dr. Who" on the Chicago public television station WTTW. Whoever was responsible for the most famous pirate broadcast in United States history has never been identified by authorities. The pirate overpowered the signals sent by the television studios to a transmitter and antenna atop the John Hancock building in Chicago, replacing the scheduled programming with their own. WGN engineers were able to to switch frequencies on the studio-to-transmitter link to quickly take back the broadcast signal. The WTTW takeover lasted 90 seconds, with the audio audible. Gallagher reports a similar signal hijacking took place in England in 1977. An ITV Southern Television broadcast showed an alien representative of an "Intergalactic Association" with the message, "All your weapons of evil must be removed… You have but a short time to learn to live together in peace." There are also reports that in 1986, supporters of the Polish labor movement Solidarność took over state television stations with "printed anti-government messages," and other reports of state television stations in the Soviet Union frequently being taken over by pirate transmissions around the same time. More recently, an HDTV broadcast of a Washington D.C. ABC affiliate was taken over in 2007, with a morning news broadcast replaced by a black and white photo of a man and woman. Radio station signals get hijacked more often. Earlier this year several U.S. radio stations lost their signals, with a profane song about the current president replacing regularly scheduled programming.

Politico outlines the various parts of Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai's proposal to dismantle net neutrality. Internet service providers now be able to charge different amounts for various services. So there might be a basic fee for sending email, and consumers can pay a little more to use the internet, a little more to use an audio service such as Spotify, and a little more to watch video streams, or live webcasts. At the FCC's Dec. 14 meeting, the Republican commissioners will win a 3-2 vote that also will get rid of the so-called general conduct standard, which allows the FCC authority to police behavior by internet service providers. And the FCC will let the Federal Trade Commission decide whether internet service providers are acting in an anti-competitive manner. Earlier this month, the FCC allowed broadcasters to own more media companies such as other radio or television stations and a daily newspaper in towns around the country. When the Obama administration had a 3-2 majority on the FCC and passed the net neutrality rules in 2015, AT&T, USTelecom, and other industry trade groups took them to court. This time net neutrality advocates will take the FCC to court, after the inevitable Dec. 14 vote.

CNN and many other news outlets are reporting that the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit in federal court Nov. 20 to block AT&T's $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner, the parent company of CNN. The DOJ claims the deal, "would result in fewer innovative offerings and higher bills for American families." Later in the week, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to unveil its proposal to eliminate net neutrality, which would result in fewer innovative offerings and higher bills for American families. In the merger deal, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, "The rule of law is at issue here." President Trump's attacks constant attacks on CNN are said to be part of the reason the Department of Justice is fighting the merger. "There's been a lot of reporting and speculation whether this is all about CNN, and frankly I don't know," Stephenson said. "But nobody should be surprised that the question keeps coming up because we've been witnessing such an abrupt change in the application of antitrust law here." Just last week, Trump tweeted, "While in the Philippines I was forced to watch @CNN, which I have not done in months, and again realized how bad, and FAKE, it is. Loser!" This, and many other anti-CNN tweets are expected to be evidence in the lawsuit. If Trump is behind the lawsuit, he is siding with liberals who are generally against large media corporations getting larger, and in favor of anti-trust measures.

Slate, and many other news outlets, report that the Republicans who lead the Federal Communications Commission will release a new set of rules to end net neutrality just before Thanksgiving, and then vote on those rules Dec. 14, ending the law that makes the internet a level playing field. Announcing the rules on the day before a major holiday is what the new FCC does. Earlier in the year, when the FCC received 22 million comments about ending net neutrality, computer bots, or dead people, wrote most of the comments in favor, and living human beings wrote most of the comments against. When comedian John Oliver devoted most of his "Last Week Tonight" show on HBO to the issue, the FCC's website suspiciously froze, due to an alleged computer hacking attack. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, says, “I’ve got concerns.... There were some procedural problems with the way this all came together.” The Slate story says, "the Government Accountability Office is now investigating that DDoS attack because the FCC’s description of what happened raised some red flags, including questions as to whether or not the attack actually happened, since, according to a letter from two congress members who called for the investigation, the FCC hasn’t 'released any records or documentation that would allow for confirmation that an attack occurred.'" If current net neutrality rules are discarded, and new rules put in place expect internet companies to raise rates for those who can afford so-called fast-lane speeds, and everyone else will pay the same or more for slower internet speeds.

Susan Ashworth in Radio World backs up the Federal Communications Commission's claim that it is doing much work to stop the scourge of pirate radio in a Nov. 15 story. The headline says, "In One Day, FCC Snares 10 Alleged Pirates." "Snares," though, actually means "sends a letter to" and the number ten seems more like the number three. The Radio World article only lists three specific pirate radio operations: John Pierre on Albemarle Road in Brooklyn on 93.7 MHz. Victor Miller's unlicensed FM station on 90.1 MHz, "possibly from a residence on Byron Ave." in Brooklyn; and in Pennsylvania, World Hype Radio operated by Ray Daniels on 100.9 MHz in Stroudsburg. The day before, in a separate story, Ashworth reported about four different stations in Stamford (106.5-FM), Hartford (93.3-FM), Bridgeport (106.5-FM), and Waterbury (106.3-FM) in Connecticut operated by Oraine Ennis. The FCC also sent a letter to an unrelated pirate station in East Hartford, on 107.5-FM with the signal coming from the Power Tabernacle Ministries church. The FCC has cut much of its enforcement division, and even before at full strength, just sends warning letters when it is first notified of unlicensed activity on the dial.

Television station WKRG in Alabama reports that at least one person in the station's viewing area received an obviously fake robocall that could be deemed anti-Semitic from someone claiming to be a Washington Post reporter seeking more damaging information about Senate candidate Roy Moore. Here is the text of that voicemail message received by Pastor Al Moore in Creola. The call said, "Hi, this is Bernie Bernstein, I’m a reporter for the Washington Post calling to find out if anyone at this address is a female between the ages of 54 to 57 years old willing to make damaging remarks about candidate Roy Moore for a reward of between 5,000 and 7,000 dollars. We will not be fully investigating these claims, however, we will make a written report. I can be reached by email at albernstein@washingtonpost.com, thank you." The email address is not functional, and the newspaper has no such reporter. Washington Post Executive Editor, Marty Baron released this statement: “The Post has just learned that at least one person in Alabama has received a call from someone falsely claiming to be from The Washington Post. The call’s description of our reporting methods bears no relationship to reality. We are shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.” John Rogers with the Roy Moore campaign said they knew nothing about the call. A Washington Post story recently reported that four women accused the candidate of sexual misconduct. In one case, the woman making the charges was 14-years-old at the time of the incident.

Dan Seifert reports in The Verge that researchers at China's Zheijiang University have found that it is possible to use inaudible ultrasound commands to control Siri, Alexa, and other voice-activated computer programs. The ultrasound commands use frequencies greater than 20 kHz, the type that dolphins and bats can hear. Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Dash Buttons also use those frequencies to link to cell phones, and advertisers also broadcast ultrasonic codes in TV commercials to follow a user’s activity across devices. The researchers tested 16 voice control systems, including Siri, Google Now, Samsung S Voice, Cortana, Alexa, and several in-car interfaces. They were successful in, “activating Siri to initiate a FaceTime call on iPhone, activating Google Now to switch the phone to the airplane mode, and even manipulating the navigation system in an Audi automobile.” The researchers could also cut up syllables and rearrange them for voice command systems that respond to only one person’s voice. That's the bad news. The good news is that to use ultrasound voice command hacking, one has to be no more than a few feet away from the device to be hacked. And it has to be quiet -- asking, "Siri to turn on airplane mode was 100 percent successful in an office; 80 percent successful in a cafe; and just 30 percent successful in the street," according to The Verge. And they need a particular type of speaker, and sometimes needed multiple attempts to locate the exact frequency that worked on the device in question. So, at this point in history, ultrasound voice command hacking is not very practical, or something to be worried about. But that may change as technology evolves.

Chas Danner reports in New York Magazine that on Nov. 11, President Donald Trump claimed that he has nothing to do with the Justice Department’s handling of the $85.4 billion AT&T–Time Warner merger. Several reports recently have said that to get the deal approved, Time Warner would have to sell off Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of his news nemesis CNN. “I didn’t make that decision,” Trump said on Air Force One, “it was made by a man who’s a very respected person — a very, very respected person.” The president was probably referring to DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim, who informed AT&T last week that the government would sue to block the merger unless Time Warner sold off some assets due to anti-competition concerns. Trump has been an ongoing critic of CNN and said near the end of last year’s presidential campaign that the merger was, “a deal we will not approve in my administration because it’s too much concentration of power in the hands of too few” and that it was “an example of the power structure I’m fighting.” In January, Bloomberg reported that a Trump source said he was against the merger, in part, because of his frustration with CNN’s coverage of him. “I did make a comment as to what I think,” Trump said Nov. 11, and “you should have as many news outlets as you can — especially since so many are fake.... I didn’t make a statement on it, but I made that statement long before at the very early part. So we’ll see how that — it will probably end up being maybe litigation, maybe not. We’ll see how it all plays out.” The Wall Street Journal reported that senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and Trump son-in-law, met a top executive at Time Warner earlier this year to complain about CNN’s coverage of the Trump campaign. Last year Delrahim said that he didn’t see the merger, “as a major antitrust problem.” In July, a senior Trump official told The New York Times that White House advisers had discussed using the merger as leverage to pressure CNN for more favorable coverage.

Federal Communications Commission Chairperson Ajit Pai seems set on eliminating most broadcast regulations by the time his term is over. On Nov. 9, The New York Times printed an op-ed that Pai wrote advocating that the FCC repeal its rule preventing local broadcasters from also owning a daily newspaper, or a radio or television station, in the same area. If Pai gets his way -- and with a Republican majority on the FCC now because the GOP controls the White House there's no reason to expect he won't -- broadcasters could own two television stations, an unknown amount of radio stations, and a local newspaper in the same market. Take Albany, New York, for instance. Sinclair Broadcasting already owns two stations, the CBS affiliate and the CW affiliate, on which they air national "news" that some say is closer to propaganda, often from recent Trump administration officials. If Pai's proposal is approved, The Albany Times Union could be purchased by Sinclair, and, maybe, several local radio stations too. Sinclair could have the power to change or control the public dialogue in Albany, quashing stories it does not like, and promoting others. Certainly, there would be fewer journalists working in Albany, as Sinclair would combine newsrooms to save money. The FCC is on the verge now of approving Sinclair's purchase of Tribune Media, which will change the number of stations they own from 173 to 215, with programming in 70 percent of American households. Slate reports, "In March the owner of [Sinclair] ordered its affiliates to double the amount of air time it gives to segments by its chief political analyst Boris Epshteyn, a former Donald Trump aide who slavishly parrots the administration’s line." Pai writes that if Facebook can own a newspaper and a television station in the same market, why can't Sinclair? Perhaps acknowledging that online media outlets need to play by the same rules as over-the-air stations could be a new regulation. But, there is little hope of that from the current lawmakers in Washington D.C., Instead, Pai says the FCC will vote on the proposal to deregulate the broadcast media at its Nov. 16 meeting. Expect it to be approved 3-2, then expect more journalists laid off, and less coverage of local issues. Pai has already jammed through similar proposals. Last month

Steven Overly reports in Politico that the Justice Department may be pressuring AT&T and Time Warner to sell off CNN to get the Trump administration's approval of their $85 billion merger. According to the report, on Nov. 6 Justice Department officials, "presented the companies with an ultimatum" to sell off Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN, TBS, and TNT, or jettison DirecTV. One source said "the real sticking point" was selling off the news network that President Donald Trump often criticizes. "The only reason you would divest CNN would be to kowtow to the president because he doesn't like the coverage," the source said. "It would send a chilling message to every news organization in the country." Justice Department officials later it was Time-Warner's idea to sell CNN. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson denied that was true. "Throughout this process, I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so," he said in a statement. AT&T and Time Warner lawyers say the Justice Department should not require them to sell off anything to approve the merger, and both sides are gearing up for a lawsuit. President Trump's call of “fake news” is most often linked to CNN. In July The New York Times reported that White House advisers discussed using the merger as “a potential point of leverage over their adversary” CNN. The companies had set an Oct. 22 deadline for the merger, which was announced last year. AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens said at a conference Nov. 8 that when the timing of the merger is "now uncertain."

Susan Ashworth in Radio Today reports that Federal Communications Commissioner Ajit Pai was in Puerto Rico Nov. 6 where at least half of the communications systems are down over six weeks after Hurricane Maria wiped out the American island. As of Nov. 6, 33 FM stations and 33 AM stations are either confirmed or are suspected to be off the air. Another 31 FM stations and one AM station, "have an unconfirmed status." Just 47 FM radio stations and 40 AM stations are on the air. The FCC also reports 47.8 percent of Puerto Rico's cell sites are still out of service. What's being done? A month ago, the FCC approved up to $77 million to restore cell phone networks on the island. The National Association of Broadcasters just distributed 10,000 battery-operated radios to folks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help them receive those static signals. AT&T just deployed its Flying COW (Cell on Wings) radio-controlled drone to temporarily provide data, voice and text services to Puerto Rico. This is the first use of the AT&T drone, which hovers 200 to 400 feet above the ground to provide wireless connectivity to a 40-square-mile area. Google also has stratospheric balloons flying over parts of the island, bringing Internet service to residents below with AT&T. The FCC also plans a Public Notice seeking input on what communications continuity and restoration plans worked and what did not after the hurricanes. Pai, asked recently how long it was going to take to restore communications, could not answer, saying, “One way or the other, I think the FCC is going to be in the mix, so to speak, for some time.” Click here to play or download an audio version of this report.

Jon Brodkin reports in Ars Technica that anyone who hopes the Federal Communications Commission will leave the net neutrality rules are probably not going to be happy with the FCC's Dec. 14 vote. Last week, Comcast officials met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's staff to prevent states from issuing their own net neutrality rules. Net Neutrality is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking any content, applications, or websites. It is supposed to give customers an even playing field, instead of having to pay more for services such as streaming audio. But while Pai is doing everything he can to eliminate those rules at the federal level, his Chief of Staff Matthew Berry and Senior Counsel Nicholas Degani met with Comcast Senior VP Frank Buono and a Comcast attorney last week to make sure states cannot make their own net neutrality rules. An ex parte filing about the meeting says the Comcast officials, "also emphasized that the Commission's order in this proceeding should include a clear, affirmative ruling that expressly confirms the primacy of federal law with respect to BIAS [Broadband Internet Access Service] as an interstate information service, and that preempts state and local efforts to regulate BIAS either directly or indirectly." Comcast is telling the public it supports net neutrality, but wants the FCC to do it in the way they tried in 2010. Those rules were thrown out by a court. So Comcast is saying one thing, but asking for another. Expect your internet service to become more costly and slower after the Dec. 14 vote.

SpaceWeather.com reports that on Nov. 6, the Earth crosses a part of interplanetary space separating regions of opposite magnetic polarity. This "solar sector boundary crossing" could trigger geomagnetic activity around Earth's poles. This could mean bright northern lights, visible farther south than normal if skies are clear. Then, the next day, a high-speed solar wind stream will blow across the planet. "NOAA forecasters say there is a 45 percent chance of G1-class geomagnetic storms on Nov. 7 [and Nov. 8] when the emerging wind reaches Earth. That means faint auroras, or northern lights, may be seen in the northernmost United States.

Today @FCC changes way agency has reviewed mergers for decades. No warning. Just quietly eases the way for the next transaction. Watch this. pic.twitter.com/vBPlukkGfs

— Jessica Rosenworcel (@JRosenworcel) October 30, 2017

David Shepardson at Reuters reports that the Federal Communications Commission approved a deal for telecommunications provider CenturyLink Inc to buy Level 3 Communications Inc on Oct. 30. That does not seem too controversial, as both Republicans and Democrats on the FCC approved the $24 billion merger that will allow the company to compete with AT&T and Verizon. What may be more important was that, "the FCC outlined a new standard by which the agency will review future mergers -- a shift that could make it easier for other large media and telecommunications mergers to win approval," according to Reuters. Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel voted for the merger, but vigorously disagreed with the new way the FCC approved the deal. "I believe the Commission's review has a serious flaw," she said in a statement. "Instead of using the agency's decades-old merger review standard, it arbitrarily introduces a new one. This departure from the traditional merger balancing test should properly be the subject of public notice and comment. Our failure to do so is at odds with the most basic principles of administrative law. Moreover, I worry that our capricious disregard for precedent is simply part of a larger effort to speed the way for the next billion-dollar transaction before us." The FCC is expected to allow the Sinclair Broadcast Group to buy Tribune Media this month, and let the conservative-leaning broadcast group to exceed the current limits on number of stations owned by one company.