At every NFCB conference, the Ask the Attorneys are some of the most popular sessions. It’s an opportunity to ask questions and learn about what’s changing in the legal landscape of community radio. This year, we’ve got two Ask the Attorneys sessions planned for you with an excellent panel of legal pros.
Ask the Attorneys: FCC and Other Legal Issues
In this session, the panel will talk about a wide scope of topics, including the FCC and regulatory updates, copyrights, music licensing, EAS, and more. Thursday (6/29) at 10:45a-12:00p.
Ask the Attorneys: Underwriting and other Thorny Issues
In this session, the panel takes a deep dive into underwriting, sponsorships, political and related challenges. Friday (6/30) at 10:45a-12:00p,
Meet the Panel
The sessions will be led by NFCB Board member Colin Andrews. Colin joined the NFCB board in May of 2016 and is also an attorney who has represented non-commercial radio and television before the FCC. He has experience on advising broadcasters on compliance with regulatory requirements, including working on pleadings for administrative proceedings, responding to Letters of Inquiry, responding to EEO audits, and drafting comments on proposed rulemakings.
Melodie Virtue is a principal of the Washington DC office of Foster Garvey. For nearly four decades, Melodie has helped broadcast clients in their dealings with the Federal Communications Commission. She frequently advises commercial and noncommercial educational broadcasters in a wide array of matters before the FCC, including licensing, spectrum auctions, rulemakings, program content, forfeitures, and consent decrees. She also represents clients in transactions and regularly drafts agreements for asset sales, tower leases, programming, loans, and licensing. She provides intellectual property guidance on music licensing, service marks, online digital streaming and podcasting, and other website legalities.
She was named a Washington DC Super Lawyer, in each year from 2014 to present, and to The Best Lawyers in America©, 2013 to present, and holds a 5-star A/V Peer Review Rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Alan Korn is a Berkeley, California-based attorney with a law practice emphasizing broadcast, media, music, film, art, entertainment, and intellectual property issues. In the 1990s he helped lead the fight to overturn the FCC’s ban on low-power FM stations and has represented numerous LPFM and full-power NCE FM stations since the early 2000s. Under Discount Legal, Alan and attorney Michael Couzens began providing LPFM and NCE applicants with low-cost, fixed price services legal services during the 2007, 2010, and 2013 FCC filing windows, resulting in 50 new stations now on the air (36 NCE community stations and 14 LPFMs).
Alan is a longstanding panel attorney with California Lawyers for the Arts and frequently speaks on copyright and entertainment law issues. His blog on legal issues for musicians and his law review articles on music-related topics are available at his website: www.alankorn.com.
David Oxenford is a broadcast and digital media law thought leader and influencer. Representing clients in Washington, DC, for over 35 years, he understands issues crucial to organizations in today’s media landscape. With a wide-ranging practice, David represents broadcasters facing the FCC in regulatory matters and advises clients on transactions and other business matters. He also works with digital media companies navigating music licensing copyright and other content issues.
David’s interest in broadcasting began in college, where he managed The College of William and Mary’s student-run radio station and helped shepherd its application for a significant power increase through the FCC. After graduation, when many of his college friends went on to own and operate radio and TV stations, he became their lawyer.
Today, he works with everyone from Mom and Pop broadcasters to public companies, trade associations, financial institutions, and other broadcasting and digital media organizations and individuals. At the center of many of the debates over broadcast and music licensing issues, he is a regular speaker at broadcast and digital media conventions and seminars. At one recent conference, he was introduced as “the radio industry’s lawyer.” David is the editor and principal writer of the influential Broadcast Law Blog, read by thousands every month and widely quoted in broadcast, media and legal publications.
