The FCC's Media Bureau is staffing up, including recruiting some wireless officials to make the jump to media and naming a former TV station head to work on media ownership issues.
Kalpak Gude will be associate bureau chief, Julissa Marenco assistant bureau chief, and Susan Singer chief economist of the bureau, which has a full plate of issues to deal with including once-in-a-regulatory lifetime broadcast incentive auctions and a couple of merger reviews—Comcast/Time Warner Cable and AT&T/DirecTV.
In addition, Holly Saurer, senior counsel, has been named an associate bureau chief.
Marenco was president of ZGS Communications from 2009 to 2013, which owns nine Telemundo-affiliated TV stations along the East Coast and Texas. She was also a board member of the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation.
Gude comes from the Wireline Competition Bureau, where he was a division chief. Singer had been chief economist of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
“I am delighted that Kalpak, Julissa, and Susan have joined MB’s team,” said Media Bureau chief Bill Lake. “Their breadth of knowledge and expertise will greatly enhance the Bureau as we continue to focus on the incentive auction, broadcast ownership, merger reviews, and the many other complex issues currently before us as well as those yet to come.”
"NAB looks forward to working with the three individuals added to the FCC's Media Bureau,"s aid National Association of Broadcasters spokesman Dennis Wharton. "In particular, we welcome the addition of Julissa Marenco, who has served on the NAB Education Foundation's Board of Directors. Julia is an experienced broadcaster who understands the importance of localism and being part of the fabric of the communities that we serve."
