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The House Commerce Committee may hold a public hearing on how Chairman Martin is running things at the FCC, while the Senate Commerce Committee unanimously votes to disapprove the Commission’s party-line vote to all but dissolve the cross-ownership ban. I also discuss NPR’s recent ludicrous comments to the FCC opposing protections for low-power FM stations.

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Hot on the heels of the FCC’s Stanford hearing on broadband network management practices, the Senate Commerce Committee had its own hearing on the issue, with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in the spotlight to explain how the Commission will guarantee a free and open internet. We’ll listen to some of Martin’s comments, and the grilling he received from key Senators. We’ll also listen to an excerpt from Prof. Larry Lessig’s excellent presentation on net neutrality that he gave at the Stanford hearing.

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On April 17 the FCC took another stab at holding a public hearing on broadband network management practices, aka Network Neutrality. This one was arguably more successful than the first Harvard one in Feb., if for no other reason than Comcast didn’t hire people to take seats away from interested members of the public. On this edition of the show we listen to some highlights from the expert testimony. We also hear a little bit of Tim Robbins’ speaking truth to the NAB.

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A news wrap-up this week: Comcast makes nice with BitTorrent and Chairman Martin wants to nix Skype’s petition for open wireless.

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The FCC just completed a set of auctions for radio frequency spectrum that will soon be vacated when analog TV goes dark in 2009. Spectrum is the valuable real estate for wireless communications, so the outcome of this auction will have significant long-lasting implications for the future of the internet, broadband and our ability to communicate freely. Craig Aaron, communications director for Free Press, helps break down what happened and what it means.

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Andrew O’Baoill joins me for an update on how the Irish state broadcaster is making waves with long wave and a discussion on his research about how new technologies are affecting community radio.

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Brad Johnson, a refugee of Clear Channel, is the man behind low-power community station KQRP in Salida, CA. Unfortunately, because the FCC still considers low-power stations to be a secondary service, KQRP is experiencing interference from translator repeater stations that aren’t originating local, community-oriented programming. Brad tells us more on this week’s show.

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Really bad luck this week, totally lost the audio for the March 7 show. My apologies to everyone. Standing in is a repeat of the Jan. 11 program:
Wally Bowen is the Executive Director of the Mountain Area Information Network, a non-profit which has provided internet and information services to Western North Carolina for more than a decade. He believes that a non-commerical alternative to the enormous commercial DSL and cable modem duopolies in most communities is absolutely essential for guaranteeing the future freedom of the internet. In this week’s program Wally tell us more about MAIN and why nonprofit information services are so important.

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At the FCC’s hearing on network neutrality on Feb. 24 Comcast admitting to hiring people off the street to be place holders for its employees in the face of limiting seating. Problem was, those mythical employees never showed up and helped Comcast pack the room instead. This week guest John Anderson returns to talk about the latest in Comcast’s dirty tricks to stack the deck against internet freedom.

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