Keeping Close Watch On FCC Auction Plans

Rep. Greg Walden, an Oregon Republican who chairs the House Telecommunications subcommittee, said Monday that legislators are keeping close watch on the FCC to make sure neither small broadcasters nor consumers are hurt by voluntary spectrum auctions.

“We want the auctions to proceed but we do not want to wipe out small-power broadcasters,” Walden said at the NAB Show in Las Vegas.

“Voluntary means voluntary,” said Walden, adding that he is committed to making sure that remains true as the FCC creates rules for conducting the first voluntary incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum for wireless broadband. Congress authorized the FCC to do so last year.

Walden says he is committed to preserving a “vibrant post-auction” environment for broadcasters that choose not to participate — and that the FCC, at which he took numerous potshots, needs to reform its processes to improve transparency. At one point, he said the FCC’s more clandestine way of doing business, and past problems that it has created, “leaves the impression that commission considers itself above due process.”

Walden, a former radio station owner, says he will ensure  “that broadcasters who want to be broadcasters stay broadcasters.” At the same time, Walden says he does not believe the auction is tantamount to a battle for spectrum between broadcasters and wireless companies.

Rather, Walden said, the growth of wireless technologies offers opportunities for broadcasters that could transmit video and radio via devices like smartphones. He said the recent announcement that Sprint customers will be able to listen to Emmis Broadcasting FM stations on their smartphones is “the marketplace at work.”