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SBE Pleased With Field Office Compromise

Snelson hopes EB will turn to interference and pirate issues

The Society of Broadcast Engineers is among those relieved that more FCC field offices will remain open.

“We’re pleased that a compromise was negotiated by the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology with the commission that would keep open more of the FCC field offices and retain more of the skilled engineers in those offices than the Commission had previously proposed,” said SBE President Joe Snelson, CPBE, 8-VSB, in a statement emailed to Radio World in response to our request for comment.

“SBE had shared with the subcommittee and the commission its view that compliance in all radio services is dependent on FCC visibility and timely enforcement actions where warranted,” Snelson continued. “The good work of the field office engineers is critically important and has now been recognized.”

He ended with a hope that the Enforcement Bureau “will now turn its attention toward effectively dealing with interference and unlicensed operation in the broadcast service.”

In May, SBE sent a letter to Chairman Wheeler about the proposed Enforcement Bureau restructuring, saying the plan “should be revisited following an opportunity for input by the stakeholders.”

The society wrote then, “The field offices are already operating at well below efficient levels due to the longer-term effects of hiring freezes and attrition in the offices due to retirement of experienced staff. It is SBE’s view that the draconian cuts proposed now will have a substantially adverse effect on compliance in virtually all radio services.”

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