The full FCC rejected an application for review from radio broadcaster Americom appealing a Media Bureau denial of its request to increase the power of a Carson City, Nevada, FM translator station. The rejection was detailed in an order released Tuesday. “We find no error in the Staff Decision,” the order said. Americom had sought a waiver to increase the translator’s power from 40 watts to 250 watts to better reach Nevada's Reno and Sparks markets and better serve Carson City, the order said. The Media Bureau found that “neither the irregular size and shape of the Nielsen Reno Market nor the signal degradation due to terrain obstruction, were unusual circumstances sufficient to justify grant of a waiver,” the order said. In its application for review, Americom argued that the Media Bureau decision didn’t match the spirit of the FCC’s AM Revitalization order, and that the bureau should have been more flexible and didn’t give Americom’s request sufficient consideration. The order said that Americom’s request would have conflicted with language in the AM Revitalization order limiting AM station service areas, and affirmed the Media Bureau ruling. “The benefits of Americom increasing its service area beyond the parameters set forth in the FM Translator Siting Rule do not outweigh the public interest benefits of applying that rule in a fair and consistent manner,” the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau has created two dockets associated with the draft NPRM on new requirements for low-power television stations, said a public notice Monday. Docket 24-147 is for filings on “Political Programming and Online Public File Requirements for Low Power Television Stations” and 24-148 is for “Amendment of the Commission’s Rules to Advance the Low Power Television, TV Translator and Class A Television Service,” the PN said. The draft LPTV NPRM is slated for the June 6 open meeting (see 2405160076).

Expanding the scope of the foreign-sponsored content rules “would create substantial operational burdens and legal costs for all local broadcast stations that sell advertising,” said Fox, CBS, NBC and ABC affiliate associations in videoconference meetings with FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington and an aide to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Monday, according to an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 20-299. Expanding the rules would encourage advertisers to stop using broadcast outlets in favor of less-regulated internet and social media ads, the filing said. That doesn’t make sense “in a marketplace where most video advertising platforms will not be subject to the rules,” the affiliate groups said. The affiliate groups also objected to their 2021 petition seeking clarification of the foreign-sponsored content policy serving as the basis for expansion of the rules, the filing said (see 2403210071).

The FCC should fundamentally change its relationship with broadcasting, provide more flexibility for the ATSC 3.0 transition, and not allow broadcasting to decline as newspapers have, Commissioner Brendan Carr said Tuesday. Speaking at the Radio and Television Summit of the Americas, Carr referenced The Washington Post slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The FCC “may be the one flipping out the light” through recent actions that discourage investment in broadcasting, he said. For example, Carr mentioned the Standard General/Tegna deal and the proposed enforcement action against Nexstar and Mission related to their local marketing agreement for WPIX New York. The FCC is “going down the path of imposing enforcement -- fines -- against broadcasters doing exactly what they told us they were going to do,” Carr said. The agency has allowed wireless companies to sunset and transition to new wireless technologies and should do the same for broadcasters on ATSC 3.0, he said.

The Texas Association of Broadcasters filed a petition for review Thursday (docket 24-60226) in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the FCC’s gathering of equal employment opportunity workforce diversity data. TAB's filing alleges the agency, through its Feb. 22 EEO order, “seeks to deputize private activists to pressure” broadcasters to “achieve the FCC’s long-held goal of imposing race and gender quotas on broadcast stations.” The order violates broadcasters' constitutional rights and is arbitrary and capricious, the petition said. The TAB appeal joins another filed in the 5th Circuit earlier this month by the National Religious Broadcasters and the American Family Association (see 2405060057). In addition, groups of religious broadcasters, including the Catholic Radio Association, filed several applications for review (see 2405010070).

The National Religious Broadcasters and the American Family Association filed a joint petition for review asking that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturn the FCC’s February Equal Employment Opportunity order. The EEO order requires that broadcasters file workforce diversity information with the agency using Form 395-B. The Media Bureau issued a public notice Monday announcing that the EEO order would take effect June 3 but said the compliance date hasn't yet been set because the information collection is still under the OMB Paperwork Reduction Act. The bureau will issue a subsequent PN announcing the compliance date, it said. The form was "suspended for 20 years for good reason and revived on highly questionable grounds,” NRB President Troy Miller said in a release late Friday. Requiring the information to be public and attributable to individual broadcasters, the FCC is “opening the door to third-party weaponization of the public file to target specific broadcast stations,” NRB said. The EEO order “violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment and the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment,” said the brief petition. Bringing back Form 395-B exceeds the FCC’s authority and is “an abuse of discretion,” the order said. America First Legal Foundation, a litigation nonprofit led by Stephen Miller, adviser of former President Donald Trump, is representing NRB and AFA in the case. It often represents conservative causes and entities. The petition for review comes on top of two appeals of the order filed at the FCC by religious broadcasters and groups objecting to the planned updating of Form 395-B to recognize nonbinary gender (see 2405010070).

The FCC should scrutinize requests from restructuring radio group Audacy for expedited foreign-ownership review as part of the purchase of its stock by George Soros-affiliated entities (see 2404230054), said letters to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel from Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Nicholas Langworthy, R-N.Y., posted in docket 24-19 Friday. In nearly identical replies, Rosenworcel told the legislators that Media Bureau staff “would review the record and decide if the transfer is in the public interest.” She added, “A copy of your letter will be placed into the record of the proceeding.” Transfer of control of Audacy, the nation’s second-biggest radio group, “to a fund that itself is owned by a deeply partisan individual, could have a fundamental impact on the nature of local radio and potentially silence political viewpoints,” Langworthy wrote. “I believe that this sale is the latest in a series of moves by a partisan, progressive billionaire to consolidate control over the media and flood hundreds of local radio stations with far-left ideology and propaganda.” Roy focused on Audacy’s request for an expedited review process. “The FCC’s review of this Soros transaction will naturally draw close public scrutiny,” Roy wrote. “It is imperative that the FCC run a fair and transparent process -- one that abides by the requirements of the law -- that thoroughly reviews the concerns posed by foreign ownership of American radio stations.” Roy said Rosenworcel should “commit to not creating a Soros shortcut” by May 7. Rosenworcel’s reply didn’t mention Roy’s deadline.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a Cumulus "pro forma" request to assign several broadcast licenses from one Cumulus subsidiary to another and will seek comment on a remedial petition from the company to allow an increase in foreign ownership, said an order Friday. The foreign-ownership request is connected to a Singaporean company, Renew Group, which in January informed the SEC that it now owns approximately 9.8% of the equity and 10.01% of the voting interests in Cumulus. Under the terms of a 2020 foreign-ownership approval (see 2005290046), Cumulus must seek FCC approval for any foreign investor to own more than 5% of the voting interest in the company. Cumulus has certified that Renew’s acquisition of interests exceeding the 5% threshold “was an independent investment decision that occurred on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and was wholly beyond Cumulus’s control, was not reasonably foreseeable to Cumulus, and was not known to Cumulus before Renew reported the acquisition to the SEC.” Friday’s order grants the internal transfers of control but imposes conditions limiting the voting rights associated with the stock Renew owned until a declaratory ruling approving the foreign ownership is issued. The conditions would also limit Renew investors from serving as officers of Cumulus, attending board of directors meetings or having any role in management of Cumulus stations or decisions to buy or sell stations until a declaratory ruling is issued, the order said. Until the ruling, dividends payable to the Renew investors will be placed in escrow, the order said.

The FCC should change a draft order on foreign-sponsored content to clarify that the rules on disclosure of foreign sponsorship and certifications that companies aren’t foreign agents apply only to leased programming, not advertisements, NAB said in meetings Tuesday with Commissioner Geoffrey Starks and aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez, according to an ex parte filing in docket 20-299 (see 2403210071. The FCC “need only make clear” that language describing “short form advertising” as exempt from the rules means all advertising, NAB said. The FCC should avoid using language that inadvertently loops in longer infomercials, political ads or public service announcements, the group said. “Trying to provide a specific definition for advertising could easily lead to more problems,” NAB said. “An overlay of new diligence and disclosure rules” on top of the existing sponsorship ID rules “would be beyond the scope of the Notice in this proceeding and otherwise violate the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the First Amendment, and the FCC’s statutory authority,” the filing said. “NAB also reminds the Commission that no one has filed in support of the FCC proposals.”

The full FCC unanimously approved proposed forfeitures of $857,775 for operators of six Boston-area pirate radio stations at the commissioners' open meeting Thursday. The FCC is a “watchdog” for airwaves, said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel after the vote. When spectrum users fail to comply with FCC rules “and cause harmful interference to others, we take action,” she said. The Boston area has had increasing problems with pirate radio users over the past decade, said Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Executive Director Jordan Walton in an interview. “It’s difficult to stay on top of them and anything the FCC can do to help our taxpaying broadcasters is welcome,” he said. According to a release, the FCC voted a $597,775 notice of apparent liability against Jean Marius, operator of unauthorized radio station Radio Tele Planet Compas in Brockton, Randolph and Mattapan. Also in Brockton, a $120,000 NAL was approved against Renold David, of pirate radio station Lotnivo FM, while Brockton FM’s Joao Vieira and Brockton Heat’s Djovany Pierre and Mario Turner all face $40,000 NALs. Robert Bellinger of TBR Radio in Contuit also faces a $40,000 NAL and Shane Kelly, operator of the pirate radio station The Test 87.9 FM in Hyannis was approved for a $20,000 NAL. All the pirate stations were discovered during a recent Enforcement Bureau sweep of the Boston area, the agency said.