Greetings from your broadcast friends out on the Desert…This is BDR Newsletter 842, Volume 17, #9 for October 1, 2025
YES, WE HAVE NO GOVERNMENT (Well … parts of it)
The impasse between the political parties did indeed shut down large parts of the government this morning. In general, those deemed “essential services” will continue, while non-essential services are paused. Of course, if someone is inconvenienced the designation of non-essential would be debatable. Reports that essential workers have to work without pay is not correct; they will be paid in full once the government returns to “normal.”
THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN EFFECT ON FCC
Something like 1200 FCC staffers are being furloughed; Broadcasters are mostly impacted in several ways:
1. the LMS and OPIF are unavailable until normal operations resume.
2. All filing deadline during the shutdown are extended until the day after operations resume.
More specific information is here.
A BLESSING OR A CURSE?
Not just the government shutdown. According to stats, 98% of the population owns a cell phone. (There is likely some “slop” there for folks with two or three, balancing those who do not have cell phones). Is having a cell phone a blessing or a curse? For some, the convenience and connectivity is essential; for others trying not to be addicted to social media, it is an annoying device watching and feeding ads, often at inconvenient times.
Thinking about those ubiquitous “appendages” we are going to have a chat with our friend Jeff Welton this week. During the discussion, we will talk about what benefits our phones bring us – what are our favorite job related apps, what are the gotchas, what are the things to watch out for.” Why does Jeff still have an iPhone 11? Join us and hear Jeff’s opinions, and share yours.
As usual, we meet at 2 PM Eastern (11 AM Pacific) on Thursday. Link requests are easily found at www.theBDR.net/TLG/ Our videos are also shown on the youtube.com/thebdrnet channel.
