On March 5th and 6th New York State Broadcasters were in Washington meeting with members of the NY Delegation. A special thank you to the following members of the board, who took time out of their busy schedules to help us out: Dave Davis (WABC-TV), Deon Levingston (WBLS), Eric Meyrowitz (WPIX-TV), Ramon Pineda (Univision), Steve Baboulis (WNYT-TV), Kristen Delaney (Clear Channel – Albany), Alan Bishop (Finger Lakes Broadcasting), Bob Krummenacker (WBNG-TV), Chuck Carver (WAVR), Chuck Samuels (WHAM-TV) and Chris Musial (WIVB-TV).
We reviewed the outstanding public interest efforts of local broadcasters in response to Superstorm Sandy as “First Informers.”
On the radio side we urged members of the New York Delegation to oppose the imposition of a performance tax on local radio stations. An important part of this message is to have the members of the New York delegation support the Free Local Radio Act of 2013, (H. Con. Res. 16). This is the same resolution that passed the House previously. It seeks to get members of the House on record supporting local radio and opposing the imposition of a government sponsored performance tax. We also discussed the importance of including radio chips in cell phones.
With respect to television, our primary concern is the FCC’s incentive auction and repacking plan. There are significant issues with repacking along the Canadian border. The FCC’s plan could affect every TV station in the state. New York City is the most congested spectrum market in the country and it is entirely possible that the FCC’s repacking plan may lead to a decrease in service area or populations covered. We want the NY Congressional delegation to keep a very close watch over the FCC’s activity as it moves forward. We also discussed the importance of retaining private negotiations between television stations and cable and satellite operators.
During our two day marathon meetings, we met with:
Sen. Charles Schumer
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
Rep. Tim Bishop
Rep. Chris Collins
Rep. Joseph Crowley
Rep. Eliot Engel
Rep. Chris Gibson
Rep. Richard Hannah
Rep. Brian Higgins
Rep. Peter King
Rep. Daniel Maffei
Rep. Carolyn Maloney
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy
Rep. Gregory Meeks
Rep. Grace Meng
Rep. Bill Owens
Rep. Tom Reed
Rep. Jose Serrano
Rep. Louis Slaughter
Rep. Paul Tonko
Rep. Nydia Velazquez