Around the Water Cooler

We don’t yet have a deadline for the new Emergency Alert System cybersecurity rules, but when the rules are published, that date will come fast.

Update: The deadline is September 29.

As some stations try to get ahead of the crunch, they are managing many, new complex passwords and that can be a bit of a lift.

On a recent Radio for People call, William Bilancio, of WBWK-LP in Brunswick, Georgia, offered to help others in community radio with the Bitwarden password manager, which is professionally maintained, secure, and out of reach of big tech.

David Klann then posted to the Grassroots Radio listserv how to get going:

• Bilancio did the heavy lifting so all you need is a browser extension and/or the Bitwarden desktop app.

• Sign up for Community Radio password management at https://www.brunswickcommunityradio.org/strengthening-community-airwaves/ (mention “passwords” or “Bitwarden” in the “Challenges” text box).

• Contact William at wbilancio@brunswickcommunityradio.org for more information.

Find the updated registration page here.

The event is scheduled for Sept. 24-26 in Pensacola, Florida. The theme is “community radio as cultural production and preservation.” Organizers plan several tracks for sessions, including: Community radio leadership; Engineering and compliance; Production/journalism/oral history; and, Disaster/climate response. Organizers say they have room for other proposed topics. They are particularly interested in sessions that would tackle the upcoming FCC translator window; New FCC regulations; Cybersecurity compliance; New technology; and, RSS automation.

After ABC’s The View aired an interview with James Talarico (a Texas Democrat running for U.S. Senate) the FCC brought its full weight to bear, calling out the network for violating ‘equal time’ rules. While viewers have noticed that the network has stayed away from booking political figures since then, ABC/Disney lawyers came out swinging against the claim.

They filed a 35-page brief earlier this month, saying:

Nothing about ‘The View’, that the law cares about, has changed since the commission last answered that question more than two decades ago. … The program remains regularly scheduled, remains under ABC’s control, and remains driven by the same lodestar — newsworthiness — that has long led it to interview the day’s most consequential figures.

The Pew Research Center followed this month with a newsletter highlighting, in part, its earlier research into how news has changed, and that audiences have become a driver in its definition—including where they find it.

This coming showdown between ABC and Disney could change how the ‘equal time’ law is interpreted for many media outlets.

Reporters Without Borders notes that the current administration is attacking ABC on multiple fronts, and the attacks continued last week after ABC and NBC did not air the president’s primetime address. The president once again threatened broadcast licenses from the podium, and then he underscored his desire for media control when he called into Jake Tapper’s show and said, “we’re trying to have CNN go in a normal path, and we’ll do that.”

The comment raised some eyebrows across the news business. Who was the “we” in this case? The U.S. government? Trump and Paramount CEO David Ellison, who is trying to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111 billion megadeal? The comment raised more questions than it answered, with a producer at a CNN competitor noting that Tapper met with Paramount CEO David Ellison earlier this year. - Alex Weprin, Hollywood Reporter

In other media consolidation moves, the FCC chairman announced that the agency will consider exceptions to the media ownership cap on a case-by-case basis. Ars Technica notes that the announcement is part of a continuing effort to push broadcast media ownership into limited hands. But the Broadcast Law blog also looked closer at the issue and said that the broader context—competing with unregulated digital media giants—also matters.

FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, called the chairman’s announcement an “unlawful effort to hand control of the public airwaves to billionaire buddies of this administration,” adding that they are “poised to allow local broadcasters to sell those airwaves off to the highest bidder.”

Earlier this month, ProPublica looked at financial disclosures and noted that FCC Commissioner Olivia Trusty accepted tickets to a Kennedy Center gala with the president and first lady, tickets worth $12,000 provided by courtesy of Paramount.

The other commissioner who approved the merger watched from a prized perch. FCC Chair Brendan Carr and his wife sat in a private skybox with Paramount CEO David Ellison and other executives from Paramount and CBS. Such seats sold for $125,000 a ticket, according to Kennedy Center guidelines. It’s unclear if Paramount gifted Carr the premium seats because the FCC has yet to make public his financial disclosure for last year. — ProPublica

IHeartRadio settled the FCC’s payola case against them. The FCC was investigating whether the media group was coercing musical acts to play for free at its events in exchange for airtime.

The Current reports that Wyoming Public Television will drop its PBS branding, although it will remain a full affiliate. The network has not announced whether they are dropping PBS Newshour and other PBS news shows from their programming, which Arkansas Public Television announced earlier this summer.

Communications Act of 1934, Sect. 326.

Nothing in this Act shall be understood or construed to give the Commission the power of censorship over the radio communications or signals transmitted by any radio station, and no regulation or condition shall be promulgated or fixed by the Commission which shall interfere with the right of free speech by means of radio communication.