The FCC has been picketed this week by the owner of a company awa...
The FCC has been picketed this week by the owner of a company awaiting approval to sell TV stations for about $20 million, said people monitoring the proceeding. Norm Shapiro of Weigel Broadcasting and his daughter were said to…
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be the people outside the commission’s 12th Street SW entrance holding a sign saying “FCC Please Decide” and listing the application numbers for three low-power stations in South Bend, Ind., that Shapiro has agreed to sell to Schurz Communications. The bottom of the sign reads, “By July 31st. Thank you.” That’s the deadline for FCC approval that the companies set in a contract to transfer WMYS, a MyNetworkTV affiliate, WCWW (CW) and WBND (ABC), said lawyers including Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman. He’s representing Free Press, which asked the commission to block the deal because it would give Schurz stations in addition to a full-power TV station, two radio stations and the daily newspaper in South Bend that it already owns. “Grant of these applications would give one company an unprecedented degree of power over viewpoints and advertising in any market in the United States,” Schwartzman said. He said he hasn’t heard from the FCC whether it will approve or deny the transaction by today, as Shapiro seeks. Shapiro didn’t reply to a message seeking comment. “The commission is studying carefully all the issues raised in this transaction and is working to reach a decision as expeditiously as possible,” said an FCC spokesman. “As in all transactions, the parties can extend the termination date in their sales contract if they so choose.” The FCC, he added, has “no objections to lawful picketing.”