NorthEast Radio Watch 1/27/2025: Waiting For Clarity

In this week’s issue… New FCC raises questions, few answers – Johnson out in Philly – Mendte in at WOR – Spadea steps aside – Canada’s Green retires – Remembering WJIB’s Mellgren

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada

(Publisher’s note: We’ve gotten through what we hope was the worst of our external winter issues, including family illness and moving a family member to a new home, and after this week we hope to be back to regular weekly Monday morning publication. Thanks again for your patience as we mark NERW’s 31st anniversary!)

*We’re one week into the new administration in Washington, and broadcasters across the Northeast and beyond are looking anxiously to see what’s in store from the new incarnation of the FCC.

So far, we have a lot of questions and very little clarity, but here’s what we think we know so far, as much as anyone knows anything:

Application processing: For a few days last week, the crew behind the scenes at the Audio Division that normally moves pretty quickly to review and approve applications from stations stopped granting any applications. Some of this might have been the federal holiday, and some might have been the change in leadership at the top – but as of today, we’re starting to see some grants flowing again.

Typically, the staff behind the scenes don’t change much from administration to administration. So much of what happens at agencies like the FCC is based on institutional knowledge and experience, following technical rules and precedent that usually doesn’t shift much when the political appointees at the top change.

This, however, isn’t the usual change of political appointees. If you’ve been following the bigger news out of DC, you know that this new administration is making everything political, including a much closer look at the sort of civil-service staffing that’s usually protected from big changes at times like this.

DEI and diversity: In particular, the new administration has entered office with a huge target on any program that it can tie in to “DEI,” and that’s already having an effect at the FCC. New chairman Brendan Carr has issued a list of programs he plans to cut going forward, including analysis of ownership data to determine whether or not goals for minority ownership of stations are being met.

Will that also include an end to the EEO reporting that stations with five or more full-time employees are required to provide? We simply don’t know yet – especially because so much in these new initiatives is certain to face court challenges that will likely lead to injunctions against some of these changes.

Remote staffing: Even before the pandemic, some FCC staffers were working from home, and during the pandemic most of the Commission’s staff became comfortable operating at a distance. Did it matter? From where we sit, it’s never had an effect on our interaction with bureau staff – we ask questions, we get answers, and life goes on. Now, however, there’s a push to get all staffers back in the office. Will that lead some veteran staffers who don’t want to deal with DC rush-hour traffic to move on? How much institutional knowledge stands to be lost, and to what benefit? We’ll be watching this closely.

Content control: Claiming to believe in “free speech,” the Carr FCC came into office with one especially strong message for the media outlets against which the new president has repeatedly railed. Before exiting as chair, Jessica Rosenworcel dismissed a series of complaints against the owned-and-operated stations of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, echoing the president-elect’s grievances about “unfair editing” of interviews and about debate questions.

Traditionally (and correctly), those complaints should get dismissed; there is, after all, the little matter of the First Amendment protecting journalists from government interference into the content of their reporting.

Carr, however, appears to see things differently. As soon as he took office, he announced that because those dismissals were less than 30 days old, he’d be using a technicality to have them reversed so the Commission can further study the issue – at least as it pertains to ABC, CBS and NBC. The complaint against Fox-owned WTXF, however, remains dismissed.

For CBS, in particular, this could be a fairly significant issue, as its parent company, Paramount, will need FCC permission when it comes time to transfer those owned-and-operated stations (including New York’s WCBS-TV) to a new buyer.

We’ll be watching closely to see what else emerges as the new Commission takes shape.