Awesome Questions For FCC’s Genachowski

Last week, I generously offered a number of questions for NAB President Gordon Smith’s on-stage interview of Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam next Tuesday at the NAB Show (9 a.m. in Paradise hall of the Las Vegas Hotel).

I received no feedback from Smith or anyone else at the NAB, which I figure means that they were mighty grateful for the input. So, I’m back today with more questions that NAB Joint Board Chairman Paul Karpowicz can use when he interviews outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday (9 a.m.,  Ballroom A of the Las Vegas Hotel).

Here we go:

1) You announced a couple weeks ago that you would soon be stepping down as FCC chairman so we really appreciate your keeping your commitment to appear here today, especially since I’m sure you heard how Gordon Smith eviscerated Lowell McAdam on stage yesterday. To show our appreciation, I’ll start you off with a softball. You were part of Barry Diller’s USA Broadcasting, a short-lived effort to reinvent local broadcast television. It was a big and famous flop. Is this why you and Barry hate broadcast TV today?

2) Yes, that was the softball. Speaking of Diller, do you think you could get him to back off on Aereo? It’s threatening broadcasters’ retransmission consent revenue and it’s really becoming annoying.

3) I read your list of accomplishments that you released when you announced you would be resigning. It was broadband this and broadband that. Don’t you feel bad now that you didn’t do anything positive for commercial TV broadcasting?

4) I used to think that every newspaper would have to die before the FCC would get rid of the newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule. Now, I think that only Rupert Murdoch has to die. Don’t you think it is an affront to the First Amendment to keep this rule in place simply because Democrats don’t like Murdoch’s politics and don’t want him to own the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times?

5) You know that most TV stations aren’t interested in selling their spectrum. Rather, they are afraid that the related repacking of the TV band will significantly diminish their over-the-air service. The FCC didn’t help to quell those fears by tampering with OET-69 — the tried-and-true way of measuring station coverage. Are you intentionally trying to stir up trouble? Or do you just like to see every FCC ruling get dragged into the D.C. Circuit?

6) The FCC has long professed an interest in increasing minority and female ownership of broadcast stations. But frankly I can’t think of anything that would better undermine that goal than to eliminate marginal TV stations, which is what you are trying to do in the incentive auction. Don’t such stations represent the best opportunity for small operators to get into the business?

7) In retrospect, do you think it was smart to require TV stations to post their political files online? After all, it proved a big pain for broadcasters and as far as I can tell yielded no tangible benefit to the functioning of representative democracy.

8) You hired ex-journalist Steve Waldman and gave him ample resources to conduct a big study on the information needs of communities in the broadband age. He did a nice, thorough job, examining all the local media in the light of public policy. But he threw up his hands on whether common ownership or operations of two TV stations in small markets was a good or bad idea. If your own guy can’t say it’s bad, how can you justify the ban on small-market duopolies and your current effort to ban shared services and joint sales agreements?

9) Heaven forbid, but let’s say you found yourself trapped in a hurricane along the coast — the wind and rain are slamming against the plywood with which you hastily covered the windows, power has been out for hours with no chance of restoration and ocean water is surging to your doorstep. What would you rather have in your survival kit: 1) An Apple iPad third-generation tablet with built-in Wi-Fi and 9.7-inch Retina display; 2) a Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II with virtual and physical keyboards and S Beam sharing; or 3) a 30-year-old, portable AM-FM radio with a pile of batteries.

10) Smartphones might actually be of value when the cell networks go down in emergencies if wireless carriers would allow phone makers to enable the FM receive chips embedded in them. Do you think you could twist some arms and make that happen before you leave?

11) Last week, you said that while the FCC works to come up with a new indecency policy — one that might actually withstand court scrutiny — it would focus on, quote, egregious cases. I understand you have a compilation video showing examples of what you believe to be egregious indecency. Will someone lower the lights?

12) Well, that was informative and stimulating. Is there any chance that in our lifetimes the FCC will get out of the business of policing broadcast indecency so that TV stations will have the same freedom as cable networks?

13) Just between you and me, who are you pushing to be your successor: Tom Wheeler or Jessica Rosenworcel? It’s Tom, isn’t it?

I’ve tried to think up good questions on retransmission consent and public interest standards that I could zap you with, but came up empty. Your hands-off policy has been a blessing to broadcasters. Thank you. I mean that.

Harry A. Jessell is editor of TVNewsCheck. He can be contacted at 973-701-1067 or[email protected]. You can read earlier columns here.