FCC Chief Resigns After Big Merger

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” With one of his agency's largest tasks now complete, the nation's top communications regulator announced his resignation Friday. <br><br>William Kennard, the Federal Communications

Friday, January 12th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” With one of his agency's largest tasks now complete, the nation's top communications regulator announced his resignation Friday.

William Kennard, the Federal Communications Commission chairman, said he would leave his post Jan. 19 to become a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute. He made the announcement at a news conference to discuss the government's approval of the America Online-Time Warner deal.

Republican Commissioner Michael Powell, son of Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell, is the leading contender to be nominated by President-elect Bush as the next FCC chairman. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer declined to comment Friday, when asked about whether Powell would be named to the FCC post.

Although Kennard, a Democrat, could have stayed on as one of the five commissioners until June, he said he felt his work at the agency was done.

A former general counsel for the FCC, Kennard took over as chairman in 1997, just after Congress passed a landmark law that largely deregulated the communications industries. Much of his tenure has been spent implementing pieces of the 1996 Telecommunications Act and fighting court challenges to the new regulations.

The first black to head the agency, Kennard said he sought to bring new telecommunications services to groups that historically have had less access than other Americans.

He spearheaded initiatives to expand basic telephone service on American Indian reservations and include descriptions of TV programming for those who have visual disabilities.

The agency was ``always alert to the fact that no American should be left behind,'' he said Friday.

But the agency, under Kennard's leadership, also faced heated attacks from Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, who felt that the commission was trying to act beyond the scope of its authority.

The FCC has been criticized for seeking too many conditions when approving mergers. And the agency's GOP members, including Powell, also have argued that the commission should take a more limited view of its authority to review communications deals.

Kennard's effort to create a new low-power FM radio service for schools and churches met with fierce opposition from the broadcasting lobby â€” which asserted that the proposal would result in interference for listeners. The industry eventually persuaded Congress to scale back the plan considerably.

Several hundred low-wattage stations are still expected to go on the air in the next year.