FCC Does Not "Get It" after Puerto Rico Hurricane

[davideduardo]

Inside Radio says, "In a move to help those stations impacted, the FCC has pushed back the annual regulatory fee deadline for Puerto Rican radio stations impacted by the hurricane. Those stations can now pay the annual fee up to 11:59pm ET on September 30. For all other stations the September 28 deadline remains in effect."

With much of the infrastructure not working even several days after the hurricane, the FCC magnanimously gives three extra days to pay regulatory fees.

In some municipalities on the Island, as much as 80% of cellular service is down. Electrical power is still not back to more than half of the Island and even where it is back, cable TV and Internet services are not working or are severely compromised.

So the FCC gives them three extra days! They just don't understand that without communications and internet, stations can't transfer money, file reports on the FCC system or even make phone calls.

"We're from the government and we're here to help" is definitely not what the FCC is showing Puerto Rico broadcasters.

 

[Kelly A]

Inside Radio says, "In a move to help those stations impacted, the FCC has pushed back the annual regulatory fee deadline for Puerto Rican radio stations impacted by the hurricane. Those stations can now pay the annual fee up to 11:59pm ET on September 30. For all other stations the September 28 deadline remains in effect."

Gee, that's big of them...not!

With much of the infrastructure not working even several days after the hurricane, the FCC magnanimously gives three extra days to pay regulatory fees.

And with no mail services nor Internet to make the payment? Good luck with that.

 

[Harvey_Dogg]

This hurricane was worse than the last one. More water. The places that are flooded may not get power for some time.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

Why isn't Puerto Rico's resident commissioner Nydia Velasquez intervening?

 

[davideduardo]

This hurricane was worse than the last one. More water. The places that are flooded may not get power for some time.

It was not "worse" in wind destruction. It was worse in flooding and disabling of the infrastructure. From what I hear from my friends and associates in radio there, no towers came down, and only a couple of transmitter sites were flooded above the building floor level (we have always built high foundations there).

Flooding in PR does not last long. By now, all the water has flown out to the ocean. Think of PR as an inverted "V" in the ocean where flooding happens when too much water falls on the higher areas and becomes a flood as it makes its way to the ocean. When the rain stops, the floods are gone in 12 to 23 hours; the island is only about 90 miles wide and 40 to 45 miles from north to south. From the NE corner to the SW corner it is 100 miles: Distance from Fajardo, Puerto Rico to Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

Irma brought down all the towers on Cerro La Santa, including 3 1000' ones for the major San Juan TV operators (2, 4 and 6). This one did not harm those towers. That is just one example.

The difference is that as time passes we are more and more dependent on the Internet and cellphones and the like. This recent storm showed how weak the cellphone system is in the event of a disaster.

 

[davideduardo]

Why isn't Puerto Rico's resident commissioner Nydia Velasquez intervening?

There is nothing she can do except request funding for disaster relief, and she has done that.

In the major damage areas of privately owned infrastructure such as power, phones, cellular and internet, those entities have to work on their own.

Federal funds can be given for damage to roads, dams, bridges and the like. And loans can be offered for homeowners.

The Resident Commissioner is already working on "opening doors" but there is no estimate, even, of what is needed for repairs. She got Biden to issue an emergency declaration, the first step in providing aid. Velázquez said "I will fight to ensure the full force of the federal government is standing ready and able to assist as Fiona impacts Puerto Rico."

 

[wadio]

A 25% mandatory late filing fee is usurious to begin with. That's what the State of Connecticut charges for a 1-day late business filing! But when an entire landmass is shut down and people are simply trying to survive it's beyond cruel. Government bureaucracy has no heart. And no brain!

 

[davideduardo]

A 25% mandatory late filing fee is usurious to begin with. That's what the State of Connecticut charges for a 1-day late business filing! But when an entire landmass is shut down and people are simply trying to survive it's beyond cruel. Government bureaucracy has no heart. And no brain!

Based on Irma, in Puerto Rico we learned that an island is not part of a power grid. We learned that nearby electric and utility companies could not send trucks, supplies and technicians to help restore services.

We learned that only a small part of needs could be airlifted to the small number of airports and we learned that it takes a shipment by sea about 10 days from when it arrives at a port on the mainland to when it leaves the port in San Juan. We learned that ports serving the Island have limited capacity for loading, docking and unloading.

It seems that the FCC thinks that Puerto Rico is like the Florida Panhandle... lots of easily repairable roads, dozens of nearby airports, thousands of vehicles available to bring supplies if needed.

The Flintstones showed better understanding of logistics at the quarry where Fred worked.

 

[Identnut]

There is nothing she can do except request funding for disaster relief, and she has done that.

In the major damage areas of privately owned infrastructure such as power, phones, cellular and internet, those entities have to work on their own.

Federal funds can be given for damage to roads, dams, bridges and the like. And loans can be offered for homeowners.

The Resident Commissioner is already working on "opening doors" but there is no estimate, even, of what is needed for repairs. She got Biden to issue an emergency declaration, the first step in providing aid. Velázquez said "I will fight to ensure the full force of the federal government is standing ready and able to assist as Fiona impacts Puerto Rico."

Puerto Rican here. Nydia Velázquez is not the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. She is a Puerto Rican congresswoman from New York and therefore, has a vote.

The actual Resident Commissioner is Jennifer González, who does not have a vote. Puerto Rico, lacking actual representation in Congress, often has to rely on mainland Puerto Ricans and their representation to get the federal government to pay attention to the Island.

 

[davideduardo]

Puerto Rican here. Nydia Velázquez is not the Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico. She is a Puerto Rican congresswoman from New York and therefore, has a vote.

The actual Resident Commissioner is Jennifer González, who does not have a vote. Puerto Rico, lacking actual representation in Congress, often has to rely on mainland Puerto Ricans and their representation to get the federal government to pay attention to the Island.

Adopted Puerto Rican with Puerto Rican family and three authentic Boricua daughters:

My bad too for not noticing the difference in title and name.

"Jenniffer González-Colón was elected November 8th, 2016 as Puerto Rico's sole Representative to the U.S. Congress, known as Resident Commissioner. The first woman to hold the office, Ms. Gonzalez-Colón received the most votes (over 718,000) of any elected official on the Island in that election."

Nydia Vázquez, while born in Puerto Rico, does not represent Puerto Rico any more than I do. While in Puerto Rico for the first nearly 40 years of her life, she was a partisan of the tiny independence movement that is now so small it can't get certified as a registered party.

 

[TheBigA]

"We're from the government and we're here to help" is definitely not what the FCC is showing Puerto Rico broadcasters.

That's not really the relationship the FCC has with radio stations. The FCC is a regulatory agency, and the license fee is basically rent for the frequency the licensee uses.

That phrase was said by Ronald Reagan, who almost single handedly cut down the size and role of the FCC. He was no fan of government regulators.

 

[davideduardo]

That's not really the relationship the FCC has with radio stations. The FCC is a regulatory agency, and the license fee is basically rent for the frequency the licensee uses.

But if all systems used to make payments are inoperative, it makes sense to extend the deadline for a period long enough for the infrastructure needed to submit payments is operative in every location on the Island where a station is licensed.

Most stations had waited to submit fees pending the NAB request for the new and vastly increased fees to be reviewed. The final decision on that came through last week, and immediately the hurricane came across the whole island.

As of this afternoon, many bank services are not accessible even where the Internet and related infrastructure has been restored. Over half the Island still has no electricity and about 70% of cellular towers were flooded or damaged; about 40% of cellulars are still in areas with no service and more in areas with weak or overloaded service..

We are 7 workdays until the new deadline (and all they did at the FCC was add one... just one... workday to the deadline as two of the added days are a weekend! They should have added at least 20 workdays to the deadline, subject to review in two weeks.

 

[TheBigA]

We are 7 workdays until the new deadline (and all they did at the FCC was add one... just one... workday to the deadline as two of the added days are a weekend! They should have added at least 20 workdays to the deadline, subject to review in two weeks.

As I've said, the FCC is the for-profit side of the government. They're not there to be helpful.

 

[davideduardo]

As I've said, the FCC is the for-profit side of the government. They're not there to be helpful.

It's not for-proft. It is supposed to self-finance its operations while controlling the limited resource of the spectrum for public benefit.

There is nothing "helpful" in adding three days to the payment deadline... two of which are not workdays. If they can add days, why did they not add 30 or 15 or 1000? If they can add 3, they can add what is actually reasonable considering that much of the data infrastructure of the Island is not working.

This is typical Federal Government ignorance and lack of respect for Puerto Rico. It is the same thing as when Trump threw rolls of paper towels to people after the prior huge hurricane. I've watched this kind of ignorance in play for 52 years since I first moved there and have even spoken in session to both the PR House and Senate about media-specific issues where Federal regulations seriously harm business in Puerto Rico.

 

[TheBigA]

This is typical Federal Government ignorance and lack of respect for Puerto Rico.

They're disrespectful to broadcasters in every state and territory.

 

[davideduardo]

They're disrespectful to broadcasters in every state and territory.

I'm speaking of the entire Federal Government and its management, attitude and lack of respect for Puerto Rico going back over a century.

 

[TheBigA]

I'm speaking of the entire Federal Government and its management, attitude and lack of respect for Puerto Rico going back over a century.

You think Guam gets better treatment?

 

[davideduardo]

You think Guam is treated better?

No, nor is American Somoa. But Puerto Rico has a history of actually voting for statehood and has a strong chance of eventually being accepted due to its more than 3.2 million population.

Further, Puerto Rico has a special status as a Commonwealth (actually "Free Associated State") and has a representative in the House.

How many American citizens are there in Guam?

 

[TheBigA]

No, nor is American Somoa. But Puerto Rico has a history of actually voting for statehood and has a strong chance of eventually being accepted due to its more than 3.2 million population.

Have you ever been a legal resident of the District of Columbia?

 

[davideduardo]

Have you ever been a legal resident of the District of Columbia?

Yes, I briefly lived on Newark in Northwest.

On a per-capita basis, DC is vastly over-funded compared to Puerto Rico.