Representatives of the broadcast, wireless and consumer electronics industries met with Hill staffers on the FM chip issue.
The meeting with staffers from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was similar to a recent private briefing at the FCC.
In its member newsletter The NAB Pulse, NAB said the Sept. 14 briefing was an opportunity for Hill staffers to gather information on the issue of embedding FM chips into mobile devices. NAB advocacy and legal staff attended the hearing and will be following up with staffers present during the discussion.
Jeff Smulyan, president, Emmis Communications; Kevin Gage, chief technology officer, NAB; and Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president, Regulatory Affairs, CTIA, were panel participants for the discussion. The Consumer Electronics Association’s Congressional Affairs Vice President Veronica O’Connell and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Julie Kearney also participated in the panel.
The discussion focused primarily on public communications and emergency response alerts, the relationship between homeland security and radio enabled cellphones, and the public safety aspects of having an activated chip in mobile hand held devices.
Kevin Gage noted that Commercial Mobile Alert System wireless alerts routinely urge Americans to tune in to radio for further information and explained the benefits of having a radio built into that same device.
