Guest is former senator gordon smith who is president and ceo of the National Association of broadcasters. We certainly appreciate you coming into the studio for this interview. Always a pleasure. Thank you for having me. In this age of coronavirus, how has this affected broadcasters . In many ways it has affected us. I think perhaps it is unfortunate, but it seems the United States and our citizens become aware of broadcasting and its indispensable, in irreplaceable role, in the firmament of american life, when there are natural or other catastrophes and calamities that befall us. Because it is then that the architecture of broadcasting, a source to everybody and agreed in a geographic area. Without stress on the system, people realize how valuable broadcasting remains. Survey after survey continues to show that broadcasting remains the most important source of journalism. When people just want the facts. You know, the nab, since its founding, in 1923, has had a big tradeshow. Only on
Provider. Americas Cable Television companies. This is the Communicators Program on cspan. It looks different in this age of social distancing and the coronavirus, we have set up in separate studios here in cspan. Pleased with the editor of camino occasions daily, our guest reporter and our guest this week. This former senator gordon smith, president and ceo of the National Association of broadcasters. Senator smith we appreciate your coming into the studio for this interview. A pleasure, peter, glad to be with you. You and jonathan, thank you. Coronavirus,e of how has this affected broadcasters . In many ways it has affected us. I think perhaps it is unfortunate, but it seems the United States and our citizens become aware of broadcasting and its indispensable, in irreplaceable role, in the firmament of american life, when there are natural or other catastrophes and calamities that befall us. Because it is then that the architecture of broadcasting, a source to everybody and agreed in
We are kind of glad the heat was not honest because it is a principled issue. I remember wrestling over it in the senate g7 television stations is a quaint term anymore when local channels are online just as much as televisions back they are. And most members say they have internet site but nobody tries to restrict their access. In the end that is the debate as i wrestled with it came down if there is a shortage is a best managed by Market Forces or government regulation unfortunately it is a very partisan issue. But i think our chairman has long had a principled position he has been selected as chairman of the fcc and yet he has taken a lot of heat for that. But we were unable to deal with it in congress so it does fall to the fcc and i suspect that will pingpong back and forth as to the right policy until the evidence is in and proven to be a problem that congress can address and come up with a constitutional majority. Host before we get any further into the issues that finger guest
Is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Host and this week on the communicators we want to introduce you to Shirley Bloomfield who runs an Organization Called the ntca, the Rural Broadband association. Ms. Bloomfield be, what is that group . Guest so thank you for asking, peter. It is a national organization. We represent about 850 communitybased communication providers who actually started off as Telephone Company in areas where the Large Companies chose not to provide service 50, 100 years ago because it is rural, it is remote, hard to make a Business Case for a large corporation. So these folks actually built up these Telephone Networks and have evolved service wise and are now, essentially, broadband providers. Weve got about twothirds of our membership that also do video, about half to a wireless play of some sort. So they are truly the onestop shop for Communication Service in Rural America. Cover about 40 of the land mass. They are folks who literally live a
Because you dont, youre not paying for data bits based on usage. And we just acquired three Additional Properties in florida and california and texas where we bought some of the fios assets from verizon, and weve got lightning fast speeds with lot of content, lots of choice for consumers. Host how big is frontier . Guest we are the fourth largest telco, so think at and t, verizon, and im not saying these in order, i dont know whats first, at t or verizon, then century link, then us. Host well, we invited you this week on the communicators to talk about the rollout of 5g. The fcc is meeting next week, of course, about that. I want to show some video of fcc chairman tom wheeler talking about 5g. If the Commission Approves my proposal next month, the United States will be first country in the world to open up high band spectrum for 5g networks and applications. And thats damn important. Because it means that u. S. Companies will be the first out of the gate. We will be repeating the formu