By EDWARD O. FRITTS
ly sent its $1.77 trillion budget to Congress. One line of the budget would require free, over-the-air broadcasters to pay a yearly $200 million fee to fund various spending items in the budget. The analog spectrum fee comes at the worst of all-possible times. Broadcasters are currently investing millions per station to transition to digital television (DTV). By the end of the transition to DTV, broadcasters will have spent nearly $16 billion. Whats more, as broadcasters give back analog spectrum, the fee on the remaining analog broadcasters would increase proportionally to continue to cover the $200 million price tag. This would likely penalize small-market broadcasters that are on a slower time-line for the digital transition.
The Clinton administration proposal would jeopardize a public-private partnership between government and free, over-the-air local broadcasters that dates back to the 1934 Communications Act. The deal is this: that broadcasters provide community interest and public service programming in exchange for a small slice of the spectrum.
Last year alone, NAB documented that broadcasters voluntarily provided $6.8 billion in annual public service programming and fund-raising for local charities, making broadcasters the nations number one provider of public service. To suggest that $6.8 billion in public service is somehow inadequate for use of a sliver of the spectrum is nothing short of sheer folly.
Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. Explore Generations, Old School vs. New School, In “Poppa’s House”
Boundaries between work and family don't just blur in the new CBS sitcom "Poppa's House" starring father-and-son comedy duo Damon Wayans and Damon Wayans Jr. They shatter.
"It's wonderful to come to work every day and see him and some of his kids and my sister and my brother and nieces and nephews. They all work on this show. They all contribute," says the senior Wayans. "I don't think there are words to express how joyful I am."
Wayans plays the titular Poppa, a curmudgeonly radio DJ who's more than comfortable doing it his way, while Wayans Jr. plays his son, Damon, a budding filmmaker who's stuck in a job he hates.
"My character, Pop, is just an old school guy who's kind of stuck in his ways," says Wayans, who starred in "In Living Color" and "My Wife and Kids."
Pop yearns for the days when a handshake was a binding contract and Michael Jordan didn't complain if he got fouled on the court. Pop laughs at the younger generation's participation trophies.
"It's old school versus new school and them teaching each other lessons from both sides," says Wayans Jr., who played Coach in the Fox sitcom "New Girl."
"They (the characters) bring the best out in each other and they're resistant initially. But then throughout the episode they have revelations and these revelations help them become better people," he adds.
The two have worked together before — dad made an appearance on son's "Happy Endings" and "Happy Together," while son was a writer and guest star on dad's "My Wife and Kids." But this is the first time they have headlined a series together.
The half-hour comedy — premiering Monday and co-starring Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson — smartly leaves places in the script where father and son can let... Read More