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David Oxenford in the Broadcast Law Blog reports that industry representatives and FCC officials keep saying that the only way to fix AM radio is by broadcasting AM signals on FM radio. FCC commissioners with fond memories of growing up with AM radio want to help bring back the format, a fool's errand since AM's sonic limitations don't make it of much use for music programming. But if AM owners could just broadcast on FM, then AM would be saved, is the logic from Washington D.C. these days. The latest proposal would allow AM station licensees to buy FM translators located as far as 250 miles away from the AM station, and then move the translator to an area where the station can be rebroadcast on FM. So buying a translator station gives that licensee the right to file for a vacant frequency in its market on a first-come, first-served basis. Class C and D AM stations may get first shot at the translator stations if word about the plan is correct.

Ewen MacAskill in The Guardian reports that the U.S. Justice Department has not contacted Edward Snowden about a plea deal, the whistleblower said in an interview BBC interview. “We are still waiting for them to call us back,” he said. Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently said Snowden’s revelations had, “spurred a necessary debate.” But former National Security Administration head Michael Hayden was asked by the BBC what should happen to Snowden for leaking national security information said, “If you’re asking me my opinion, he’s going to die in Moscow. He’s not coming home.” Snowden says, “I’ve volunteered to go to prison with the government many times. What I won’t do is I won’t serve as a deterrent to people trying to do the right thing in difficult situations.” Snowden, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, Brazilian privacy activist David Miranda and others recently proposed an International Treaty on the Right to Privacy, Protection Against Improper Surveillance and Protection of Whistleblowers that would require states to ban mass data collection and implement public oversight of national security programs.

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Matthew Lasar at Radio Survivor reports that BBC World Service is accepting scripts for its 25th international radio play competition. “Anyone over 18, living outside the UK – whether you’re a new or established writer" can send a 53-minute-long radio script that includes no more than six central characters, plus a synopsis no longer than 400 words. Scripts compete for an English as a first language prize, English as a second language prize, and the Georgi Markov prize for scripts that show “outstanding potential.” The BBC is the most widely distributed audio platform on Earth, so this is a chance to reach a truly global audience, with a January 31, 2016 deadline. Click here for prize information and rules.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/1DM9W7gGSVkjsg38mJHrzpm/the-prizes-and-the-rules-for-the-25th-international-play-writing-competition-2016

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The Federal Communications Commission recently approved the new "Citizens Broadband Radio Service," a sort of digital version of the CB radios that became a fad in the mid-1970s, and are still used by truck drivers. The CBRS takes over frequencies between 3.5-3.7 GHz that have traditionally been reserved for military radar and satellite uplinks. Now the FCC will attempt to set up a system that automatically assigns users to open frequencies with a control database mechanism known as the Spectrum Access System. Instead of U.S. military radar taking valuable spectrum whether it was using it or not, this new system allows much more public access to its own airwaves. Much of the anticipated use of the new system is expected to be from unlicensed wireless, allowing experiments with small-scale mesh networks. Eight groups or companies have petitioned the FCC, asking for adjustments to the new systems. These include petitions from CTIA – The Wireless Association; Verizon; Motorola Solutions, Inc.,; Nokia Networks; The Satellite Industry Association; The National Association of Broadcasters; and Jon M. Peha, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University (and a former FCC Chief Technologist). The Communications Law Blog outlines each requested change and links to the petitions, and reports that the public can comment on any (or all) of the petitions until Oct. 19, 2015 at FCC.gov.

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The Federal Communications Commission will vote Oct. 22 on whether to limit rates and fees for phone calls made by prison and jail inmates. The proposal would cap rates at:
• 11 cents/minute for debit/prepaid calls, in state or federal prisons.

• 14 cents/minute for debit/prepaid calls in jails with 1,000 or more inmates.

• 16 cents /minute for debit/prepaid calls in jails with 350-999 inmates.

• 22 cents /minute for debit/prepaid calls in jails of up to 349 inmates.

Rates for collect calls will be slightly higher in the first year under the plan, and will be phased down to these caps after a two-year transition period. The New York Times reports phone calls from jails and prisons can cost as much as $14 a minute, with service fees often adding another 40 percent. The FCC will vote on the measure at its Oct. 22 open meeting, which includes a live webcast. See the full proposal at the FCC website.

[caption width="300" align="alignleft"] Folkways LP.[/caption]Click here to play or download an audio version of this report.

This week tune in to a little of the life of Henry Jacobs (October 9, 1924 - September 25, 2015), who was an American sound artist and humorist. Known for his early electronic collages of tapes, sometimes of "everyday" sounds. Jacobs worked with Pacifica radio station KPFA in Berkeley and recorded the "Radio Program No. 1" Folkways disk. He later met Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Kenneth Rexroth, Alan Ginsberg, comedian Lenny Bruce, and percussionist Mongo Santamaría, and worked with Ken Nordine, "the father of word jazz", and Alan Watts, a radio talker. Also, headlines from the world of radio including: FCC Commissioner O'Rielly shouts about pirate radio again; FCC router regulation may hurt mesh networks; Nonprofit creates Pocket FM and Syrian radio network; Apple won't sell app that reports radio-controlled drone hits. Hosted by Tom Roe from Wave Farm in New York.

[caption width="600" align="alignleft"] From Nieman Labs website.[/caption]Shan Wang at the Nieman Foundation reports that the Berlin-based nonprofit Media in Cooperation and Transition in collaboration with design firm IXDS have created Pocket FM, "a portable FM transmitter the size of a shoebox that starts working as soon as it’s connected to a small antenna, a power source, and an audio signal." Pocket FM looks like a radio receiver more than a transmitter, and can reach a radius of about six kilometers. A Raspberry Pi mini-computer drives the transmitter, and is being used by the Media in Cooperation and Transition group worked with the German Federal Foreign Office to set up an independent Syrian radio network called the "Syrian Radio Network," or "Syrnet," with stations within Syria and outside sharing programming. “The challenge in Syria is that it can be scary, in some areas, to set up big FM transmitters, because they are easy to detect, easy to destroy, and expensive to run,” said Klaas Glenewinkel, MiCT’s co-founder and director. “We had the idea of bringing in many small ones and creating a mesh of radio transmitters so people can access local information where TV and other means have failed.” Larger transmitters could be stolen, or taken over, while anyone can easily walk away with the Pocket FM at the first sign of trouble. The transmitter can also find new open frequencies when broadcasts are jammed, and can send listeners text messages. Now developers are trying to add the ability to turn off the transmitter remotely by mobile phone, a solar panel, GPS, and Internet connectivity, all for a $2,000 cost. Read the full story at the Nieman Lab website.

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The march of broadband all over the world continues forward, but it is a battle of wins and losses. Let's take India in the past week, for example. Google announced a plan last week to bring Wi-Fi signals to 10 million rail passengers a day there. The broadband will be free at first, and available in 400 train stations across India. But while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Google in California for that announcement, he was being criticized back home for cutting off the internet. Radio Survivor reports that India has been blocking Internet service in Jammu and Kashmir and New Delhi Television quotes Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police calling the ban on Internet services a “precautionary measure” in light of “communal tensions.” That internet jamming comes as Radio Maej Kasheer, a Kashmiri radio station, launched its online webstream.

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FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, the leading critic of the commission's recent decision to cut back spending on the enforcement division, and someone who is very close with the National Association of Broadcasters lobbyists, sounded another warning about the microradio menace with the Sept. 24 release of "A Draft Pirate Radio Policy and Enforcement Statement." The statement lacks any specifics, and instead restates the need for FCC action on the issue.

The Commission reiterates our firm position, as articulated in the Communications Act and Commission rules, that unauthorized broadcast operations within the FM and AM radio broadcast bands – often referred to as pirate radio broadcasting – is strictly prohibited and subject to enforcement measures. Violations are not to be taken lightly, as the harmful interference caused by pirate operations sabotages licensed broadcasters serving their communities and puts the valuable public safety contributions of these stations in jeopardy to the detriment of the American people who count on them, including diverse and underserved populations.

Further, the Commission makes clear that it intends to enact a vigorous campaign of enforcement activities to disrupt and permanently terminate all pirate radio stations that are in operation today and prevent those that may attempt to come online in the future. We will collaborate with federal and state law enforcement authorities, as needed, to enhance and complement our enforcement operations. Our effort will include an education component for those entities that may knowingly or unknowingly assist pirate radio operations in any capacity, including building owners and managers, national and local campaigns for political office, media advertisers, radio programming suppliers, concert promoters and venue operators, and equipment manufacturers and importers. All interested parties should be on notice that facilitating pirate radio broadcasting will not be tolerated, and may be subject to enforcement or legal actions, as permitted under law. Accordingly, we seek full cooperation by anyone who may have relevant information to help identify, locate, and take action against the operators and owners of pirate radio stations.

Michael Marcus, a spectrum tech and policy consultant who used to work in the FCC's enforcement bureau on rules for Wi-Fi and 60 GHz policy, replied to O'Rielly's post saying that if the FCC is going to cut staff in the enforcement bureau, it should at least adequately fund the part of the office that improves productivity through technology. "Specialized equipment can improve the efficiency of monitory for intermittent signals such as pirate broadcasting and intentional interference to other services by collecting data 24/7 for later analysis that can be used to refine location and operating details. E[nforcement ]B[ureau]'s field staff has been notoriously underfunded in technical equipment - as has the OET Lab. The FCC 2016 budget proposal has $167,132 for EB tech equipment and $121,920 for OET's Lab. EB's Equipment Development Group in Powder Springs, GA will shrink from 10 positions to 7 under the present plan." That sounds like specific criticism that might be useful in shaping policy.

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pic.twitter.com/4jEnFbQgAT

— Dronestream (@dronestream) September 27, 2015

The current United States political landscape is roly-poly, upside-down. One American presidential candidate this week, Carly Fiorina, bragged that she sold the National Security Agency the servers used to spy on Americans' metadata. American politicians are supposed to be optimistic, freedom-extollers, not dystopian McCarthyites. And Apple, seller of fart apps and a zillion other "offensive" products, and about as good a representative of American capitalism as there is, would seem to be an unlikely censor of news apps. But this week the Apple app store kept the fart apps but shut down the Metadata+ app that reports to users when America kills someone by radio-controlled drones. Apple has a history with this app, turning down artist and writer Josh Begley five times for the app version of his Twitter account @Dronestream, calling it “not useful or entertaining enough” and too narrow in focus. They accepted Metadata+ with its new name, until Sept. 27, when they said, "Apple has removed Metadata+ due to 'excessively crude or objectionable content.'" The app does not show corpses rotting in deserts with vultures circling overhead; it re-reports news already available in all sorts of apps in the Apple store. All it does it tell folks when America has killed someone with a radio-controlled drone. Apple apparently does not want anyone to contemplate the United States' current drone war in aggregate.

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Kyle Wiens reports at Wired that mesh networks in communities all over the world may be in danger from an unnoticed line of regulations from the Federal Communications Commission. In March, 2014 the FCC updated requirements for U-NII devices using 5 Ghz bandwidth that includes many Wi-Fi devices and routers. It took over a year for anyone to notice a bit of regulatory language that might affect the open source community:

“Manufacturers must implement security features in any digitally modulated devices capable of operating in any of the U-NII bands, so that third parties are not able to reprogram the device to operate outside the parameters for which the device was certified.”

The rule is meant to target movies theaters turning radio waves into a white noise generator that blocked Wi-Fi/Bluetooth within a 1500 foot radius, and others acting in bad faith. But this March the FCC published guidelines to help manufacturers stay within the law, with another worrying line: “Describe in detail how the device is protected from “flashing” and the installation of third-party firmware such as DD-WRT.” DD-WRT is free, Linux-based firmware for wireless routers, used in those community mesh networks that allow cheap access to broadband. But the FCC told TechDirt’s Karl Bode that modifications and open source software are fine, “as long as they do not add the functionality to modify the underlying operating characteristics of the RF parameters.” But Weins worries that chip manufacturers will say, "the easiest thing for us to do is lock down all the middleware rather than worry about where to draw the line." That means that folks experimenting, tinkering, and changing electronic devices that use software defined radio signals will have a tougher time innovating. “In at least the last 5 years, Amateur Radio operators have found new and inventive ways to use these inexpensive devices to build broadband networks in support of community events, and to prepare for deployment of these devices for emergency incidents,” wrote ham radio operator James Kinter, Jr. “…Third party software is the basis for many of the Amateur Radio projects, that we then expand and customise for our own projects to easily allow us to build these projects without reinventing the wheel.”

Incompetent @RichLowry lost it tonight on @FoxNews. He should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2015

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Running for the Republican nomination for president, so far Donald Trump has made very few policy proposals, and almost none having to do with communications policy. But on Sept. 23, Trump made a proposal that would change the Federal Communications Commission in a major way. His proposal was for the FCC to regulate speech on cable television. Currently, the FCC regulates speech over the airwaves, with vulgar language relegated to "safe harbor" between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., when children are asleep. But cable television does not use the public airwaves directly to get signals to the public. So the FCC did not tell Comedy Central to bleep Jon Stewart's profanity, they did that (sometimes) on their own, so advertisers would not be upset. Of course, Trump's proposal didn't come in a speech announcing a new idea, but in a veiled threat on Twitter. Trump is currently boycotting Fox News, and Sept. 23 National Review editor Rich Lowry appeared on the channel and, saying how candidate Carly Fiorina beat up on Trump at last week's Republican presidential debate said, "Let's be honest: Carly cut his balls off with the precision of a surgeon — and he knows it," on "The Kelly File." Trump fired back soon after on Twitter with, "Incompetent @RichLowry lost it tonight on @FoxNews. He should not be allowed on TV and the FCC should fine him!" So, perhaps it was not a policy proposal, but the off-the-cuff ramblings of someone who doesn't know what they are talking about. We report, you decide.

[caption width="264" align="alignright"] Neil deGrasse-Tyson speaks via radio waves with Edward Snowden. From "Star Talk" website.[/caption]The Fermi paradox, thought up by physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael H. Hart, is the apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, and the lack of any evidence for such civilizations. Now Edward Snowden -- the man who leaked evidence that the United States has been trawling the phone records of Americans for years -- may have an answer to the Fermi paradox in computer encryption. On celebrity astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson's "StarTalk" audio show this week, Snowden suggests that a need to keep communications secure could mean that alien signals are simply too well encrypted to be distinguished from background noise.

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In a July 16, 2015 Voice of America press release quotes new Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari: “My daily life starts at 6 a.m. by dedicating 30 minutes to listening to Voice of America. I am an avid listener of VOA because you are fair, professional, and balanced, which all add up to the fact that you are the station I love to fear." The British Broadcasting Corporation wants to get back to its glory days of providing "fair, professional, and balanced" reports to regimes around the globe that do not want to hear such tales. Faced with $1 billion in budget cuts from a conservative government, the BBC now wants to expand its worldwide services, specifically targeting listeners in countries with little free media. "Arguing that it had a mission to uphold the values of 'democracy and liberty,' the corporation said it would set up new shortwave services to broadcast into those countries with a deficit of both, namely North Korea, Eritrea and Ethiopia. It will boost its digital presence in Russia, where it may set up a satellite-television channel, and beef up its Arabic service," The Economist reported. The BBC's budget is also hurt by £240m a year in costs being transferred from the Foreign Office to the radio service last year, a nod that what was once propaganda is now more like journalism. But not all are happy about the budget battle over the BBC. Gary D. Rawnsley, Professor of Public Diplomacy at Aberystwyth University, writes in the USC Center on Public Diplomacy blog, "In announcing the creation of a satellite TV service for Russian speakers and a daily radio news program for North Korea, the Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall, is in danger of crossing the fine line between public diplomacy and propaganda." Rawnsley says Hall is wrong to claim the BBC has a mission to uphold liberty. "The BBC World Service has one commitment only: to provide timely, impartial, and accurate news and information for its listeners around the world. The BBC is not an instrument of Cold War politics; and it is not a mechanism for the promotion of democracy in any area of the world. It is a model of journalism that is the envy of news broadcasters across the globe."

[caption width="350" align="alignleft"] From Blackart.net.[/caption]"This Week in Radio News" is a magazine show with radio headlines about radio waves, features on radio art, and interviews. This episode is for the week of Sept. 19-26, 2015.

Mendi and Keith Obadike have a show called "Numbers Station [Furtive Movements]," at the Ryan Lee Gallery in New York City through Oct. 10. Host Tom Roe interviews them about how they are using NYC police stop-and-frisk data, and turning those numbers into sound in the form of a spy "numbers station." Other radio stories about radio waves this week: the U.S. Navy agrees to limit sonar for whales, dolphins; AM radio industry trying to get on FM; Fair Use wins in 9th Circuit Court; Company made music piracy ad, pirates music; and Robert Adrian, co-founder of Kunstradio, dies.

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John Eggerton in Broadcasting and Cable reports that the Federal Communications Commission unanimously decided to let radio and TV outlets post contest information online if they choose, rather than having to read sometimes-lengthy text with fast-talking announcing on-air. The change was announced at the FCC's Sept. 17 meeting, and broadcasters still must provide timely and accurate information about contests, periodically announcing a web address on-air for more information, and creating a tab or link on the home page to any contest information. The FCC has long regulated broadcast contests to eliminate consumer fraud. "We are moving old concepts to new realities," said FCC chairman Tom Wheeler. Read the full story in Broadcasting and Cable.

[caption width="497" align="alignright"] From Wikipedia.[/caption]Brian Palmer in On Earth magazine reports that the U.S. Navy has agreed to reduce sonar sounds in the Pacific that have been bombarding whales and dolphins with noise. Since 2003, activists have been winning in courts efforts to quiet the intense, high-volume sounds that can travel hundreds of miles in water. Last weekend, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the U.S. Navy reached a federal court agreement, with the navy silencing its sonar in areas around Southern California and Hawaii during certain periods of the year when marine mammal populations are most vulnerable. The agreement runs until the end of 2018, and at that point the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service should issue new environmental impact statements and authorizations regarding military exercises. Activists claim mass strandings of large marince animals sometimes coincide with nearby naval deployments. The noise is so loud, whales will do anything to avoid it, leaving the water, the theory goes. The Navy told the judge during proceedings that the proposed closures would hamper its “ability to adapt training” and “evolve as the threat emerges.” U.S. District Court Judge Susan Oki Mollway described the national-security warnings as “pure hyperbole.” The NRDC says it will challenge sonar use in the Navy's other training areas, off the Pacific Northwest, in the Gulf of Alaska, and off northern Florida.

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John Anderson in DIYmedia.net reports that the National Association of Broadcasters are currently lobbying the Federal Communications Commission hard to allow AM radio stations to acquire FM translators. The FCC is considering ways to revitalize the AM band, and, apparently, the commericial radio industry thinks broadcasting on FM frequencies is the best method to fix AM radio. So far, the FCC has been resistant to allowing AM stations to rebroadcast their same signals on FM translator stations, keeping those frequencies for stations creating original content. "In the last month, a motley crew of advocates for more FM translators have been making the rounds at FCC HQ. These include trade groups, individual broadcasters and other interested parties," Anderson writes, saying that existing translators have been priced out of reach for small broadcasters, who want a new translator filing window exclusively for AM broadcasters. But Anderson also points out that the industry is not offering any prohibitions on AM stations selling any valuable translator permits that would result from a new filing window. Read the full story at DIYmedia.net. (FULL DISCLOSURE: John Anderson is on Wave Farm's board.)

Eriq Gardner in The Hollywood Reporter writes that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Sept. 14 ruled that copyright owners must "consider" fair use before sending internet takedown letters. The case revolved around a YouTube video of a toddler dancing to a 29-second clip from Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" song. Wikipedia says fair use is, "a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders." Circuit judge Richard Tallman wrote in this decision, "Even if, as Universal urges, fair use is classified as an 'affirmative defense,' we hold — for the purposes of the DMCA — fair use is uniquely situated in copyright law so as to be treated differently than traditional affirmative defenses. We conclude that because 17 U.S.C. § 107 created a type of non-infringing use, fair use is 'authorized by the law' and a copyright holder must consider the existence of fair use before sending a takedown notification under § 512(c) ... " But what does "consider" mean, and can the bots that currently send take-down notices on copyright issues "consider" fair use? "To be clear, if a copyright holder ignores or neglects our unequivocal holding that it must consider fair use before sending a takedown notification, it is liable for damages under § 512(f)," writes Tallman. "If, however, a copyright holder forms a subjective good faith belief the allegedly infringing material does not constitute fair use, we are in no position to dispute the copyright holder’s belief even if we would have reached the opposite conclusion," writes Tallman, who says juries will decide those questions. And a jury will decide the baby-dancing-to-Prince issue in a new trial.

Jason Mick at DailyTech.com reports that the makers of the "Piracy: It's a Crime" commercials used Dutch musician Melchior Rietveldt's song on that project, and then again, without permission, on many others, putting it in over 71 DVDs and pre-movie ads all over the world. Rietveldt discovered the piracy watching a "Harry Potter" DVD with a pre-ad that included his song. So he called Buma/Stemra, the agency he had worked with in 2006 on a project with that song. They promised to send him a list of all the instances the song had been used, and an advance of about $17,000, but never sent any accounting of use. Then he recorded Buma/Stemra board member Jochem Gerrits telling him if he wanted to get paid, he should sign with Mr. Gerrits' label, High Fashion Music, where Gerrits would take 33 percent of Rietveldt's royalties. When that was revealed, Buma/Stemra sent him another $35,000, and last week a court awarded another $68,000, plus legal fees, and a fine of $22,000 against the company to go to promote artist awareness of collecting royalties.