Federal Communication Commission

A traffic information and emergency radio station will be available next year for commuters traveling to Los Angeles from Pacific Coast Highway or the 101, 405 and 10 freeways, a Caltrans official said Wednesday. If there's an accident that will create more than a half-hour delay, Caltrans personnel will relay the problem, the time estimated to clear it and alternate routes to motorists when it is on the air next year, said Sameer Haddadeen, Caltrans' senior transportation engineer.

Los Angeles school board member Roberta Weintraub has turned in her clip-on microphone and put her television career on hold for a while because of the Federal Communication Commission's fairness doctrine. The 35-year-old fairness regulation requires that radio and television stations provide equal time to all political candidates and opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.

A town hall meeting on a controversial area code overlay for the San Fernando Valley is set for Aug. 5 to give residents and small-business owners the chance to question state regulators about the plan, officials said Tuesday. The public meeting, called by state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), is scheduled for 6 p.m. in a 250-seat auditorium at the Van Nuys State Building, 6150 Van Nuys Blvd.

When Congress passed the Cable Act last year, it was with the promise that it would result in a 10% to 15% rate reduction nationwide. For most customers, this promised rate reduction was the main focus of the law. Across the board reductions were probably the original intent, but for many customers rate increases are the final result of the Federal Communication Commission's complex rate regulation formulas. At Ventura County Cablevision, our new rate structure was determined by comparing our old rates to a "benchmark."

Officials of the National Cable Television Assn. promise to continue fighting this city's planned cable television system, saying that, if necessary, they will go to federal court to block construction of the long-awaited system. James P. Mooney, the association's president, said that his group intends "to pursue all available remedies to reverse" the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) approval of the Cerritos proposal. "We will not rest until it is, in fact, reversed."

Publisher Rupert Murdoch will sell the Chicago Sun-Times for $145 million to a group of investors led by Sun-Times Publisher Robert Page, marking the second time the newspaper has changed hands in less than three years, officials said today. Murdoch, chief executive officer of News America Holdings Inc., also owns WFLD-TV in Chicago and was forced to sell the paper under Federal Communication Commission rules banning cross ownership of television stations and newspapers in the same city.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Friday left government restrictions in place on the ownership of a newspaper and broadcast station in the same market, turning down an appeal by media companies. The high court declined to take the case, which involved appeals of a lower court ruling filed by Media General Inc., the National Assn. of Broadcasters, Tribune Co. (which owns the Los Angeles Times) and other media companies The companies had argued that decades-old Federal Communication Commission rules limiting dual ownership of media outlets in the same city were outdated in the Internet era, when people have many more ways to access news than they did when the rules were first enacted.

An Aug. 5 hearing on a controversial area code overlay for the San Fernando Valley will very likely be postponed one month to allow for a town hall meeting on the issue, officials said Thursday. The public meeting was called by state Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar), who said he wants to give residents and small-business owners in the 818 area code the chance to question state regulators and phone company representatives on the overlay plan.

Responding to public concern about sex and violence on television, Congress is considering legislation which would require television broadcasters and TV manufacturers to implement a ratings system technology known as the V-chip. (The "V" stands for violence.) Other proposed names include the choice chip.