The Connecticut Broadcasters Association has passed a resolution urging the White House and Congress to back a broadcaster as one of the next FCC commissioners.
The CBA wants the NAB and other state associations to pass similar resolutions.
The five-member panel is shorthanded after the recent departure of Meredith Baker. Michael Copps is expected to depart the Portals by year-end. The president nominates individuals to serve as commissioners for the FCC; those designees become FCC commissioners once the Senate confirms them and they’re sworn in.
No broadcaster has served as an FCC commissioner since the departure of the late Jim Quello more than a dozen years ago.
CBA Past Chairman Don DeCesare, who also owns WMRD(AM), Middletown, and WLIS(AM), Old Saybrook, Conn., said since Quello’s departure, massively important policy issues directly affecting broadcasters have been passed into law and practice “without the benefit of the direct contributions of a sitting broadcaster member.” Many commissioners have telecom or other industry experience.
As RW had reported, the Society of Broadcast Engineers and others have been pushing separately to require that someone with technical experience be added to the staff of each commissioner.
