FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday
announced that Steven Wildman, an economist and professor at Michigan State University has been named chief
economist, succeeding Marius Schwartz, who is returning to Georgetown University.
Wildman,
who joins the FCC next month, holds the James H. Quello Chair of
Telecommunications Studies at the university as is acting chair of the
Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media. The late Jim
Quello was a one-time acting chair of the FCC and a long-time commissioner.
Wildman
is no stranger to the FCC or its current focus on revamping its media ownership
rules. In 2010, he was among the academics brought to the FCC for a workshop on
the 2010 quadrennial review of media ownership rules, a review the FCC is still
trying to wrap up, but has delayed to collect more info on an ownership
diversity study.
For
that 2010 workshop, Wildman -- not to be confused with Steven Waldman, whoheaded up the FCC's information needs of communities report
-- came armed with a study of 120 markets that found that most TV stationsweren't doing news and those that were weren't covering local issues.
But
Genachowski focused on other research, praising him for "important
research on broadband adoption and spectrum management."
