NAB CEO Gordon Smith told FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Monday about the association’s concerns on a new TV station resource-sharing attribution order and that agency staff shouldn’t change Office of Engineering and Technology bulletin 69 on predicting a TV licensee’s coverage area. Another new FCC item, adopted March 31 along with the sharing order, asked about changing network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules (CD April 1 p11) (http://fcc.us/1hXNQBE). Those rules serve the public interest by promoting localism, Smith and another NAB executive told Rosenworcel and an aide, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 14-50 (http://bit.ly/1hXOijn).
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 FCC Media Bureau opened a two-month settlement period for FM translator Auction 83 applicants with proposals in mutually exclusive groups. The applications “are subject to the commission’s competitive bidding procedures,” the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1u5vm7m). Settlement agreements and primary station specification amendments are due June 30, it said. Applicants that must sign agreements or resolve their “mutual exclusivities” include KMBQ Corp. looking to serve Wasilla, Alaska; Alaska Educational Radio System looking to serve Willow, Alaska; and Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, looking to serve Ivins, Utah (http://bit.ly/1fQSfSB).
The FCC proposed fining a Louisville, Ky., man $15,000 for operating what it called a pirate radio station there at 87.9 and 99.5 MHz, said an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability released in Wednesday’s Daily Digest (http://bit.ly/1ftI9ws). It said Jose Alejandro Aguilar “continued to operate the radio station notwithstanding” a “warning ... warranting a significant penalty.” The FCC and other state and federal agencies have been cracking down on pirate FM stations (CD Sept 28/11 p4; April 22 p12).
The FCC should eliminate rather than relax the audio filtering requirements for Travelers’ Information Stations, commented the Hatfield & Dawson engineering firm in docket 09-19 (http://bit.ly/1iJ2n51). The firm said it supports a limitation in TIS operations that is similar to limiting the bandwidth of all medium frequency (MF) broadcast stations “to a specific value because of the known limited bandwidth of virtually all modern MF receivers."
The FCC Media Bureau again reminded TV stations not affiliated with ABC, CBS, Fox or NBC and those outside the top-50 U.S. markets “they must begin to comply with the online political file rules on July 1,” said an FCC notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1kqclYa). That publication summarized a bureau public notice reminding stations of the expanded applicability of the rule, which broadcasters took to mean they wouldn’t get the relief they sought from uploading all new records on fcc.gov (CD April 8 p5).
The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition urged the FCC to avoid requiring a low-power TV station to perform its own international coordination as a result of being displaced by the spectrum auction process. A coalition member was told by members of the Media and International bureaus about such a requirement, the coalition said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1hNM3PA). Doing so would require this small station to have to directly negotiate with the Mexican government for its new spectrum allocation and use, the coalition said. “This is a totally unacceptable additional condition put on an already highly-burdened LPTV industry, and does not meet any type of common sense test.” The coalition also urged the FCC to avoid creating guard bands that are larger than necessary to prevent interference between TV and the wireless services. The coalition repeated its request for having LPTV issues addressed in the NPRM on the auctions. Meanwhile, the FCC Monday proposed fining an LPTV station what some call a record amount. (See separate report in this issue.)
FCC members proposed fining a Class A TV station owner $89,200, said a notice of apparent liability Monday (http://bit.ly/S2VqBR). It alleged DTV LLC didn’t let commission agents inspect the facilities of WPHA Philadelphia on two occasions, didn’t maintain full staffing at its main studio and operated from an unauthorized location. Not allowing the inspections “is simply unacceptable,” said the NAL. The company had no immediate comment.
Sinclair asked the FCC to grant its application to assign the license of WMMP-TV Charleston, S.C., to Howard Stirk Holdings (HSH). Sinclair would like the FCC to give clarity by ruling that the public interest would be served by waiving the joint sales agreement attribution rule to permit HSH to acquire WMMP and WABM Birmingham, Ala., “and enter into sharing arrangements with Sinclair without causing such stations to be attributable to Sinclair,” Sinclair said in a letter to the commission (http://bit.ly/1kms0I2). Granting approval of the application concerning WMMP “would give all parties an opportunity to make an informed decision as to how to proceed with respect to the other stations,” it said. Sinclair hired investment banker Moelis & Co. as its financial adviser in connection with Sinclair’s purchase of TV stations from Allbritton Communications. “While Moelis has not yet identified a specific purchaser or purchasers of the stations, Sinclair continues to actively pursue this course of action,” Sinclair said in a letter to the FCC (http://bit.ly/1kms0I2).
The Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition asked the FCC to provide as much information as possible about how the commission will establish offers to broadcasters on the upcoming broadcast spectrum incentive auctions. A coalition member said that, due to the mistrust created by efforts “to limit payments to broadcast participants, she is less inclined to participate in the auction today than she was a year ago,” EOBC said in an ex parte filing posted Monday to docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1hIZ5xy). The coalition urged the commission to “disavow any explicit use of scoring in the auction, or, if the commission insists on any further ’scoring’, to base it solely on demonstrated interference or preclusion factors,” it said. The coalition also urged the FCC to establish prices that are sufficient to incentivize participation and establish a market for broadcast spectrum, it said. The filing pertains to meetings last week with commissioners Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel and staff from the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force.