Jessell At Large

After weathering Hurricane Gustav this week, Communications Corp. of America's Steve Pruett was more convinced than ever that when the power lines are down, cable is no substitute for over-the-air news and information provided by TV stations like his with strong local roots. Also, a tip of the trade journalist's hat to the late Ike Blonder.

As TV stations find greater revenue opportunities from the Internet, it's becoming clear that they — and the NAB— should demand that cable and telcos treat all Internet content and service providers equally and not discriminate in the quality of service or pricing.

While the Olympics underscore the value that NBC brings to its affiliates, that's still no reason the stations should stand still for demands to pay for programming. The network needs the stations to ensure it reaches every TV set within every home.

The old idea of two well-groomed people of just the right gender/ethnic mix sitting behind a desk needs to be retired. Where's the next format going to come from? TMZ? Also, did ABC get dissed in the presidential debates? And honor the memory of broadcast pioneer Ragan Henry through a contribution to the Broadcasters Foundation of America.

The FCC's approval of the XM-Sirius satellite radio merger is just the most recent setback for the NAB and its leader David Rehr. In the broadcasting industry's most important regulatory battles, he keeps coming up short. He needs to be championing regulatory relief and developing better relationships at the FCC and in Congress.

The savvy stations — the ones that will not only survive, but prosper — would do well to draw up some aggressive plans to deal with this to-do list of critical challenges and opportunities.

Broadcasters need to develop an ironclad system for distributing their signals locally over the Web — one that will not only satisfy the copyright owners, but also themselves.

Obama's few comments on communications policy are not hostile toward broadcasting and the well-known communications advisers who will have a hand in picking his FCC chairman should recognize that broadcasting no longer dominates the mediascape as it did when they were running the FCC during the Clinton years.

The networks and their affiliates have amicably ended a seven-year fight over the networks' bullying tactics and their desire to own more stations. That's the good news. The bad news is that the end of hostilities underscores the networks' waning interest in station ownership.

Capitol Broadcasting's Jim Goodmon says the Wilmington, N.C., stations that are participating in the FCC's September test switch-over to digital will run explanatory information on their analog channels for viewers who aren't ready after the switch over. He's urging the FCC to allow all stations to do the same following next February's for-real transition.