The FTC wants broadcasters to screen out advertising for fraudulent diet and weight-loss products, using a list of seven claims commonly made in such ads that “can’t be true,” said an agency news release. Ads for “bogus” products do “incalculable damage to the reputation for accuracy that broadcasters and publishers work hard to earn,” said an FTC letter to broadcasters (http://1.usa.gov/1ddzoEn) announcing the new campaign, called “Gut Check.” The list of tell-tale signs that should flag a fraudulent ad for broadcast ad sales teams includes claims that a product causes substantial weight loss “no matter what or how much the consumer eats,” or by rubbing a product into skin, or “causes permanent weight loss even after the consumer stops using product.” The FTC takes law enforcement action against fraudulent product sellers after such ads run, but “the most effective front-line defense is when media outlets have an effective in-house clearance program that screens out clearly deceptive diet ads,” said the letter to broadcasters. It urged broadcasters to point their ad sales teams to an online tutorial that teaches users how to spot weight-loss fraud (http://1.usa.gov/1adifII). The campaign also includes an FTC-created website for a fake weight-loss product called “FatFoe” (http://bit.ly/1htHpa1). “When consumers try to order FatFoe, they learn the ad is a warning from the FTC about diet rip-offs,” said the FTC in the release.

The FCC Media Bureau upheld its dismissal of an application from Wynnewood Community Radio Association for a new noncommercial educational FM station in Wynnewood, Okla. WCRA’s application was filed by Tony Malaska, whose name served as the unincorporated association, the bureau said in a letter. The bureau said “unincorporated associations generally consist of two or more people, whereas Malaska is the sole officer and director of WCRA.” WCRA’s claim that the bureau erred on its ineligibility is based largely upon a new legal opinion, “which allegedly confirms and bolsters information that we previously rejected from WCRA’s principal about Oklahoma law,” it said. “This new evidence is inadmissible under the rules and thus forms no basis for reconsideration."

Common Frequency urged the FCC to protect low-power FM station and translator opportunities as it moves toward opening an FM translator application window for AM stations. “No filing window for translators should be enacted until the LPFM 90-day settlement window period for LPFM applicants occurs,” said the organization, which advocates for community and college radio broadcasting, in comments in docket 13-249 (http://bit.ly/1bLprry). If mutually exclusive groups of LPFM applicants aren’t dealt with prior to creating additional translator mutually exclusive groups, “it would be an insurmountable engineering pile-up of pending applications,” it said. The commission should expedite the 250-watt upgrade opportunity before opening another FM translator auction, Common Frequency said. “If an AM translator filing auction is enacted prior to [an] LP-250 upgrade, current LPFM permittees and licensees would be boxed in and unable to upgrade.” Common Frequency also recommended the creation of an incentive program for AM licensees choosing to donate their licenses to local nonprofit groups and educational institutions, it said.

More than 90 percent of current commercial TV station owners “did NOT get free spectrum,” NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said in response to comments from CEA President Gary Shapiro on an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, that was set for telecast Saturday (CD Jan 3 p1). “In fact, today’s TV station owners paid BILLIONS of dollars IN TOTAL for properties that have been sold and re-sold since the 1940s,” Wharton said in an email. “Spectrum was part of that price.” Wharton also challenged Shapiro’s comments that only 10 percent of people watch over-the-air TV. “GfK’s annual survey released last June showed that non-pay TV households now represent 19.3 percent of the population, up from 17.3 percent a year earlier and 14 percent the year before that,” he said. “A leading factor is cord-cutting and the multiplicity of ‘multicast DTV channels’ (especially foreign language channels and channels like Bounce, and 24/7 all-African American broadcast network).” Shapiro was confused in his comments on must-carry rules, Wharton said. “The ‘92 Cable Act simply requires a cable company to sit down every few years with a broadcaster and negotiate terms under which the highly valuable local TV signal is carried,” he said. “If a broadcaster elects ‘must carry,’ the broadcaster CANNOT demand payment. If a broadcaster elects retransmission consent, the broadcaster CANNOT demand carriage. The law does NOT require cable companies to pay broadcasters A PENNY if the broadcaster elects retransmission consent, and the law does NOT allow a broadcaster that elects retransmission consent to default to mandatory ‘must-carry’ if retrans negotiations break down and there is an impasse in service."

The Gray Miller Persh law firm launched this month. The firm was founded by former Dow Lohnes attorneys Todd Gray, Margaret Miller and Barry Persh, said Miller. Their practice areas are noncommercial radio and TV broadcasting, and educational communications, she said. Cooley acquired Dow Lohnes effective Jan. 1, and announced the acquisition in the fall (CD Oct 16 p13). The public broadcasting and educational communications practice of Dow Lohnes broke off into a separate firm, Gray said.

Emergency alert system experts called for an AM band “resurrection” as part of the FCC’s AM revitalization effort. The commission should enforce Part 15 of FCC rules for the AM band, which governs unlicensed communication transmissions, the Broadcast Warning Working Group said in comments in docket 13-249 (http://bit.ly/1grK80S). Stations that previously had “listenable” signals “have seen their audiences gradually stolen by all types of electronic noise that are the result of the commission not treating the intentional and unintentional radiators of that noise as Part 15 devices and applying strong enforcement to the offenders,” it said. Continued allowance of technologies like broadband Internet over power lines contributes to the problem, it said. Part 15 should be amended to make it clear that unintentional radiators, like long-wire antennas used to broadcast harmonic noise based on high tension power distribution, are held accountable for the harmful interference caused to the AM band, BWWG said. The group also urged the FCC to take action to end overmodulation of AM transmitter carriers, which “creates harmful interference to adjacent channels."

Telemundo Rio Grande Valley closed on its buy of station KTLM Rio Grande City, Texas, from Sunbelt Media, said broker Patrick Communications in a news release Thursday. The $8.5 million sale was announced in September but the regulatory approval process was only just completed, said the broker.

Nexstar Broadcasting relocated to new headquarters in Irving, Texas, the company said in a news release Thursday. The company’s previous offices were also in Irving, but the new offices are larger. Nexstar relocated because of its expansion over the past two years, said CEO Perry Sook. “Since July 2012, Nexstar has completed or announced over $855 million in accretive transactions, adding 55 television stations and expanded digital media operations to its portfolio,” said Sook, saying the new headquarters provides “capacity for continued growth.” Nexstar’s new address is 545 East John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 700, Irving, Texas, 75062-3932. Other contact information for the company’s employees hasn’t changed, the release said.

An FCC proposal seeking comment on eliminating the sports blackout rules “raises thorny questions,” said a Fletcher Heald CommLaw blog post Monday (http://bit.ly/1dRLEqo). If sports blackout rules are eliminated, copyright licenses might allow multichannel video programming distributors to retransmit distant games even when the local broadcast of those games is blacked out, the blog said. “Avoiding that result could force renegotiation of a wide range of agreements involving TV networks, their affiliates, the sports leagues and MVPDs,” the blog said. Dropping the blackout rule could also cause sports leagues to leave broadcast networks for direct carriage on multichannel video program distributors, the blog said. Since compulsory copyright licenses don’t apply to MVPDs, “leagues interested in exercising maximum control of their game content might, absent governmentally-imposed blackout rules, be inclined to abandon [over the air] broadcast distribution in favor of other methods,” the blog said. These could take the form of dedicated sports networks distributed on MVPD channels or over the Internet, the blog said. That result could mean higher costs for fans, since games wouldn’t be on free broadcast networks. However, that’s more likely a long term issue, the blog said. “The NFL has recently re-upped its deals with CBS, NBC and Fox through the 2022 season, so we're all presumably safe for the time being,” said the CommLaw blog.

The FCC Media Bureau should reverse a market modification decision to give WHIO-TV Dayton must-carry status in 23 communities in the area of Ohio’s Auglaize County, said Block Communications in an application for review (http://bit.ly/19YTik3). “Unless reversed, the decision will produce a result inconsistent with the purpose of the must carry rules and undermine, rather than further, localism,” said the filing. WHIO licensee Miami Valley Broadcasting -- an affiliate of Cox Media -- filed a request Tuesday for a time extension to respond to Block’s application for review (http://bit.ly/1kYUjg5). Block owns Lima, Ohio, stations WLIO and WOHL, and had opposed WHIO’s must-carry petition. The bureau did not give enough weight to the Block stations’ historical carriage and “superior” signal coverage, said the application for review. The must-carry decision “directly conflicts with the statute, case precedent and established Commission policy,” said the Block application.