Official FCC Blog

Jeff Riordan, the Deputy AV Officer in the Commission’s Audio-Visual Center, is another “behind the scenes” public servant who makes sure the numerous events held at the Commission and around the country each month run smoothly and are publicly accessible.

Have you ever attended an Open Commission Meeting or watched a live webcast of an FCC event?  For days before a public event, Jeff and our other expert audio-visual staff engage in meticulous planning and preparations to help ensure that these proceedings run without a glitch.  Jeff spends most of his day going over dozens of details to make sure that the technical aspects, such as sound, lighting, audio and video are carefully coordinated, and that the equipment is working properly, so the public can easily tune in to Commission events.

Recently, as part of the Commission’s efforts to solicit input from the public in the development a National Broadband plan, Jeff’s job has required him to travel across the country to work on FCC field events in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, to oversee the audio-visual and streaming needs of these events."

Through his job working on Commission events Jeff has met some well known people including Stevie Wonder, Marlee Matlin, Vinton Cerf and Elmo!

"I enjoy my job,” said Riordan.  “By working on FCC events held in Washington or across the country, and providing consumers with smooth webcasts, I feel like I’m doing my part.  Most people can’t come to D.C. to see Commission events first-hand.  I get to help bring the FCC to the public so they can be part of the important things we do.”

Jeff has worked in the FCC’s AV office for almost 19 years.  Before joining the Commission he worked for the EPA in their television studio.

He lives in Frederick, Maryland with his wife and their two children.

Shirley Suggs
Administrative Management Specialist, Media Bureau
President, Blacks in Government
Years at FCC: 37 years

Shirley Suggs was recruited to the FCC secretarial pool out of high school in 1973. She worked her way up in the agency, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees, all while raising her family and breaking through barriers for women. She has become a leader at the agency, currently serving as the President of Blacks in Government.

I’ve been here a long time so I’ve seen how things changed for women. … I remember having this male supervisor who … intimidated women. It was at a point he just wanted to make sure we stayed at our desks, but of course the men didn’t. The men weren’t intimidated like that. It came to a point where I said, “Okay, this has got to stop.”

She is grateful for the contributions of women in the past and present for helping to change not only the way that women are seen, but the way that they see themselves.

I think that women have chosen to be who they are and not be afraid of the consequences of standing up for themselves, and that’s the only way that change is going to occur, for us to move into better positions.

Women’s History Month and the honor of being profiled for this project were a welcome opportunity for her to reflect on her own path, and the paths of so many other women in our history.

I thought about all the women through history… Sojourner Truth, the women through the suffrage, you know all these women – women that kind of pushed, and still are pushing… [I admire] Michelle Obama, for obvious and less obvious reasons. Of course she is the first lady of the United States and she is African-American. She is a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, and a role model.

The FCC continued its active outreach program at CTIA [16] – The Wireless Association on Monday, March 22, in the Las Vegas Convention Center.  The convention was scheduled from March 23 – 25.  The FCC participated as part of an afternoon pre-show program and as usual, heard new, different, and important comments on our licensing systems and how we could improve them.

The FCC also hosted a booth on the convention floor which featured welcoming messages from the Chairman and commissioners.

The Brainstorming Session was to solicit ideas about how to improve the current licensing systems across the FCC Bureaus, and also entertained comments on the newly released beta version of Spectrum Dashboard which allows new search functionality, downloading and mapping for some of our radio services.  We also provided a high level overview of the Spectrum Dashboard beta.

Our outreach program will continue.  Watch for scheduled events [17] in early April where you will be able to join the discussion and learn more about the development of the Consolidated Licensing System [18].

We are busy assisting filers of the next round of Form 477 broadband subscribership data – which were due Monday, March 1 – but want you to know about some December 2008 data we've recently posted. If you've been zooming your browser to locate your census tract on the High-Speed Reports maps [24], help has arrived. Join the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act broadband stimulus grant applicants – who've been calling to ask – in checking out our new postings. Click here [25] and scroll down to the "Census Tract Info" item.

As in the past, we've posted the data needed to exactly replicate report maps. But like the maps, the data is now much more granular than in the past because it is reported by census tract. A Microsoft Excel version lists all the census tracts, by state and county. A separate Excel file organizes them into counties. Researchers and GIS specialists can check out the same information in CSV format or SAS dataset format. Don't ignore the data dictionary – it explains data-item names and the ranges into which data are coded. And, if you don't know your census tract, here's a lookup tool [26] that works for almost all areas (those with "E911" emergency phone service).