FCC Announces Media Bureau Staff Changes

The FCC announced several leadership changes within the Media Bureau’s Industry Analysis Division (IAD).  Effective Oct. 1, Radhika Karmarkar, currently a deputy chief in IAD, will become the chief of IAD, following Brendan Holland’s departure after leading the division for nearly seven years. Holland will assume a senior counsel role in the Audio Division. In addition, Chris Sova, a deputy in the Enforcement Bureau’s Investigations and Hearings Division, will begin transitioning into the role of deputy chief of IAD.

The Media Bureau plays a key role in promoting innovation in the media marketplace, as it develops, recommends, and administers the policy and licensing programs relating to the media industry, including cable television, broadcast television, and radio. The Industry Analysis Division conducts and participates in proceedings regarding media ownership and the economic aspects of existing and proposed rules and policies.

Radhika Karmarkar brings a broad range of communications regulatory experience to her new role as chief of IAD. For the past four years, she has worked as the deputey chief in IAD. Prior to that, she worked in the Wireline Bureau’s Telecommunications Access Policy Division, as the deputy chief overseeing at different points the Lifeline Program and then the Rural Healthcare Program.

Karmarkar began in private practice at what is now Squire, Patton, Boggs.  Since then, she has worked at the National Telecommunications Information Administration and the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. During an earlier stint at the commission she worked in the Enforcement Bureau and what was previously known as the Common Carrier Bureau. She received her law degree from the American University, Washington College of Law, and her undergraduate degree from Oxford University, U.K.

Christopher Sova has been practicing FCC regulatory law for over 25 years. For the past six years, Sova has been deputy chief in the Enforcement Bureau’s Investigations and Hearings Division, primarily supervising the division’s media-related cases. Prior to joining the Enforcement Bureau, Sova was an attorney in the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau for five years.

Prior to that, Sova worked for Nextel Communications, evaluating acquisitions of wireless licensees; in private practice with what is now Lerman Senter, where he primarily represented clients holding licenses issued by the FCC’s Media Bureau; and as senior counsel for Citadel Broadcasting, prior to its merger with Cumulus Broadcasting.

Sova received his law degree from Rutgers University School of Law, a master’s in business administration from Seton Hall University and an undergraduate degree from Montclair State University.

Brendan Holland will be joining the Media Bureau’s Audio Division as senior counsel. Holland joined the commission in May 2012 as assistant chief of IAD, before being promoted to deputy chief in 2014, and to chief of the division in 2016.

In his more than 10 years of management with the division, Holland has helped lead the Media Bureau’s efforts on several matters, including the quadrennial media ownership review, the identification of foreign-sponsored programming, and efforts related to the collection and analysis of ownership data, as well as helped guide the Media Bureau’s review of several large media mergers.

Prior to joining the commission, Holland was in private practice for nearly 14 years representing television and radio broadcasters, wireless providers, and cable programmers on matters before the commission. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from William & Mary Law School.