The FCC should “think long and hard” about adopting any repacking plan that would cost more than the $1.75 billion set aside to reimburse repacked broadcasters, said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a speech Monday at the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters Convention (http://fcc.us/1njcPAn). “If broadcasters that stay in business are repacked and are required to pay some of their relocation costs, can we say that the incentive auction is truly voluntary?” Pai asked. The commission should ensure that non-participating broadcasters are “held harmless,” and make it simple for broadcasters to channel-share with the goal of encouraging them to participate in the auction, he said. “Channel sharing can allow broadcasters to stay in business while still receiving a cash infusion that can be used to improve their services or facilities,” he said. Keeping the repacking cost under the $1.75 billion mark is one of several ways Pai said the FCC could improve its relationship with broadcasters. “Every segment of the industry we regulate should have confidence that the commission will give them a fair hearing, and none should be under the impression that the FCC is out to get them.” Pai said it isn’t the commission’s role to urge broadcasters into the over-the-top video marketplace, a reference to Chairman Tom Wheeler’s speech at the National Association of Broadcasters show last month (CD April 9 p1). “For all of the talk of over-the-top programming, it’s still over-the-air programming that draws the largest crowds,” Pai said. Another way to help broadcasters would be to “modernize” the commission’s media ownership rules and eliminate the prohibition against newspaper-radio cross-ownership, he said. “The commission has signaled an openness to getting rid of this anachronism,” he said. “The FCC has no evidence at all justifying our newspaper-radio cross-ownership prohibition -- and nobody even bothers trying anymore.” The AM revitalization proposal could also be a way for the FCC to help broadcasting, and enjoys broad support, Pai said. “There are many issues at the FCC that are controversial. AM radio isn’t one of them.” The FCC should move forward with an FM translator window for AM broadcasters, Pai said. The commissioner said he will hold meetings with stakeholders this summer to collect more ideas for improving the AM band. “Our decisions should reflect a consistent regulatory philosophy instead of appearing to help or harm a particular segment of the industry,” Pai said.

Broadcasters should always allow the FCC access for inspection to avoid fines, a broadcast attorney said. Pillsbury lawyer Christine Reilly referenced the $89,200 fine proposed by the FCC to Class A station WHPA Philadelphia (CD April 30 p13). The language used by the FCC in this particular notice of apparent liability “leaves no doubt that the commission was not happy with the licensee, particularly with what the FCC believed was blatant disregard for its authority,” she said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1apzXs4). “The obvious lesson learned here is that if the FCC comes knocking at your door, let them in.”

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on a series of NPRMs on FM channel allotments. The bureau’s Audio Division seeks comment on a proposal from Bryan Broadcasting to substitute Channel 274A for Channel 267A at Centerville, Texas, it said in an NPRM (http://bit.ly/1rYgLIU). The division invites comment on Ashley Bruton’s proposal to allot Channel 280A at McCall, Idaho, as the community’s eighth local service, said a separate NPRM (http://bit.ly/1joRGUT). Bruton also filed a Form 301 application for Channel 280A at McCall, it said. The Navajo Nation proposed to allot FM Channel 258C2 at Rough Rock, Arizona, as a first local service, the division said (http://bit.ly/1joSpFz). Initial comments in all proceedings are due June 23, replies July 8.

The Wireless Bureau granted CBS a waiver for KCNC-TV Denver and broadcast auxiliary station KPF238 to permit operation of KPF238 using digital radio devices. CBS has shown that a broadcast auxiliary facility “can operate on the proposed frequencies with the requested emission designator without causing interference or other adverse effects to other spectrum users,” the bureau said in a letter to CBS (http://bit.ly/Sil5qe). The use of digital equipment will enable CBS to transmit both voice and data with a single 12.5 KHz channel, “which cannot be done when the station is operating in analog mode,” it said.

The FCC Audio Division’s increase in speed in the resolution of applications for review is notable, a broadcast attorney said. It is likely a result of an effort by the division to identify and “package” cases appropriate for relatively streamlined treatment, and “an affirmative response to that effort from the 8th floor,” Fletcher Heald attorney Donald Evans said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1uePPXl). The latter factor is particularly noteworthy because, under former chairmen Kevin Martin and Julius Genachowski, the commission “reportedly showed zero interest in dealing with pretty much any routine Media Bureau applications for review,” he said. The commission under Chairman Tom Wheeler “has encouraged disposition of those long-pending items,” he said. If only the other bureaus and divisions would follow a similar course, “those mountains of years-old applications for review could be reduced to molehills,” he said.

Bott Communications, Inc. (BCI) asked the FCC to reject Jet Fuel Broadcasting’s petition for reconsideration concerning Jet Fuel’s application for a new AM station at Orchard Homes, Mont. The commission rejected the application. The recon petition is “moot” and “untimely,” Bott said in its opposition. Jet Fuel’s petition was filed 26 days late, it said. Jet Fuel “should be admonished for making scurrilous and unsupported ad hominem attacks against BCI and its principals,” BCI said. The petition raises arguments “that are untimely, misplaced, unsupported, and which, through name calling, discredit Jet Fuel and its case,” it said.

Illinois low-power stations backed comments by Mako Communications urging the FCC to avoid treating low-power TV as a secondary service to mobile broadband and unlicensed services. LPTV’s WBKM Chana and WRDH Ashton commented Thursday in docket 12-268. They urged the commission “to adopt those comments in its ultimate ruling on the status” of LPTV in the repurposing of TV spectrum, the stations said in separate comments (http://bit.ly/1rMEwSq and http://bit.ly/1iLveR6). LPTVs willing to enter into channel-sharing agreements should be included in first priority grouping, Mako commented (http://bit.ly/1ue1gP7). WBKM and WRDH included Mako’s comments in their filings.

An FCC Media Bureau public notice announcing increased scrutiny for transactions involving sharing arrangements violates the Administrative Procedure Act, said NAB in a letter to the FCC Thursday (http://bit.ly/1uffkI8). The FCC should order the bureau to withdraw the notice ((http://fcc.us/OoNg4k) and “cease and desist” applying the stricter scrutiny to transactions by May 8, the letter says. The PN violated the APA by being “fatally premature,” since it was issued before the commission changed the rules governing joint sales agreements, NAB said. “The FCC cannot regulate on the basis of speculation and conjecture."

The FCC Media Bureau granted a rulemaking petition to Western Pacific Broadcast, which requested a change in community of license to Dover, Del. The public interest would be served by realloting Channel 5 from Seaford, and modifying the construction permit for Western’s WMDE-TV, an unbuilt station, accordingly, the bureau said in a report and order (http://bit.ly/1hXADc7). The change in community of license wouldn’t result in a change in Western Pacific’s proposed contour coverage of Seaford, it said. The bureau also dismissed a reconsideration petition filed by PMCM-TV on a report and order to amend the post-transition table of DTV allotments to allot Channel 5 to Seaford. The bureau dismissed the petition as untimely, it said in a memorandum opinion and order on further reconsideration (http://bit.ly/1n2O8L2).

The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition continued to caution the FCC against establishing too large a guard band between spectrum blocks in the final band plan for the broadcast spectrum auction framework. The Spectrum Act directs the guard band size “to be only as large as is ’technically reasonable’ to prevent inter-service interference,” the coalition said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday to docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1fBZIdH). There’s nothing in that legislation that directs the commission to provide unlicensed advocates “with anything at all in terms of accommodation for a scale of a service,” it said. The group opposed requests by Google, New America Foundation and others for a 24 MHz to 30 MHz contiguous band for unlicensed use, it said. Any attempt by the FCC to accommodate these positions by enlarging what’s technically needed for a guard band “will by considered by the LPTV community as a direct taking of the spectrum needed to repack our vital licensed services,” the coalition said.