NAB launched a website and ad campaign aimed at helping broadcasters find and hire talent and increase the industry’s diversity and inclusiveness, an NAB news release said Tuesday. Called You Belong Here, the campaign seeks to attract “fresh and diverse talent” and inform job seekers about the variety of careers in broadcasting. The effort includes 30-second customizable spots for broadcasters, a longer video for classrooms and career fairs, and assets for social media and digital ads. Those materials direct candidates to the You Belong Here website. “Our goal is to attract a broad range of talent, showcasing broadcasting as a career that provides unique opportunities to make meaningful contributions to local communities across the country,” said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt in the release.

Sixteen Pennsylvania House of Delegates Democrats and Drexel University law professor Tabatha Abu El-Haj are supporting calls for the FCC to approve the license renewal of Fox’s TV station WTXF Philadelphia, according to ex parte filings in docket 23-293 last week (see 2403060088). “If the FCC removes FOX 29’s broadcasting rights, it will deny Pennsylvanians a local outlet that helps increase political engagement,” said Abu El-Haj's letter. “The FCC should not go down this dangerous path and allow FOX 29 to get back to serving the state of Philadelphia without distraction.” The TV station “provides high-quality, unbiased coverage of Philadelphia and Delaware County’s news and reports on important issues affecting some of the most vulnerable groups in our state,” said the legislators' letter.

NAB filed a challenge Friday to the FCC's Dec. 26 quadrennial review order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, joining a number of similar challenges filed in other circuits (see 2402250001). The cases are all to be consolidated in the 8th Circuit under the order of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (see 2403050075). The FCC failed to meet its statutory obligation to review ownership rules every four years, exceeded its authority by tightening rules rather than relaxing them, and violated the First Amendment by limiting stations from airing multiple top-four networks on multicast channels, alleged NAB in its petition for review (docket 24-1055). The new rules are content-based restrictions on television stations outside the FCC's authority, said the petition. The FCC also ignored the will of Congress and violated the Administrative Procedure Act by not considering evidence in the record on competition faced by broadcasters. “The record shows that advertisers are increasingly diverting resources away from local radio and television stations in favor of digital promotions,” the petition said. “But the Quadrennial Order disregards these bedrock changes in the media and advertising landscape.” The court should vacate and set aside the order, NAB said.

The numerous testimonials from local residents and public officials supporting the renewal of Fox's TV station WTXF Philadelphia “stand in stark contrast” to the “continued stunts” of the Media and Democracy Project, Fox said in an ex parte filing posted in docket 23-293 Wednesday. FCC rules require the agency to consider "four specific categories of non-FCC conduct" as relevant to the character of a licensee, “none of which pertain to anything alleged by MAD,” Fox said. Those categories are criminal convictions, mass-media antitrust violations, crimes involving false statements to other government entities, and “egregious” misconduct. MAD’s recent request that the FCC grant it access to nonpublic court documents related to defamation cases against Fox (see: 2403040080) to bolster its arguments shows that MAD admits it hasn’t adequately made its case, Fox said. “Whether ‘bolster[ed]’ or not, such allegations are irrelevant to this proceeding,” Fox said. “Put simply, there is no justification for continued delay, and the Commission should move swiftly to conclude this proceeding by granting Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal application.” MAD didn’t comment.

FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks should ask the Media Bureau to develop a fuller record on the FM nonduplication rules before restoring them (see 2402270019), NAB said during an ex parte meeting with an aide to Starks last week, according to a filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-310. The agency should “pause” action on a circulated reconsideration order because three years have passed since the rules were eliminated, the filing said. “The benefit of this significant passage of time is that the Commission can actually collect and analyze information to better understand whether, and in what circumstances, broadcasters are taking advantage of the rule’s elimination,” NAB said.

The legal battle over the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order appears headed to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation randomly selected that circuit from the three where petitions for review were filed, said a consolidation order Tuesday (see 2402250001). The 8th Circuit was the venue for an appeal filed by Zimmer Radio. The other possible circuits in the lottery were the 5th and 11th, where appeals were filed by Nexstar and Beasley Media, respectively. All previous QR challenges were decided by a panel in the 3rd Circuit, but after a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision, that panel no longer has jurisdiction in the matter. The 5th, 8th and 11th circuits are seen as having conservative leanings, while the 3rd Circuit is considered more favorable to parties seeking to uphold regulations. Parties in the case could still seek to have it moved to a different circuit, but attorneys familiar with appellate procedure told us that rarely occurs. With the circuit for the case decided, it's likely that more challenges to the order will be filed, including an anticipated one from NAB, attorneys told us. Only circuits where appeals were filed in the 10 days after the order appeared in the Federal Register are added to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation’s lottery.

Updates to FCC rules for full-power and Class A stations to reflect the digital transition and the broadcast incentive auction took effect Monday, said a Media Bureau public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. The update stems from a Sept. 22 unanimously approved order (see 2209290017). The changes update rules language and are largely ministerial, intended “to ensure the rules reflect the Commission’s requirements and are understandable for our licensees and the public,” the PN said.

A recent letter from Pennsylvania's two U.S. senators urging the FCC to swiftly act on Fox affiliate WTXF-Philadelphia's license renewal application was a "lukewarm endorsement" for the station, said the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) in a letter to the FCC posted in docket 23-293 Monday. MAD and former Fox and Disney lobbyist Preston Padden want the agency to designate WTXF's license for a hearing (see 2307060065). Sens. John Fetterman and Bob Casey, both Democrats, last month wrote a letter to the FCC supporting the station (see 2402260064): "Politicians -- even those of the highest integrity like Senators Casey and Fetterman -- don’t want to ‘piss off’ a TV station that will cover their election," Padden said in an email last week. MAD seconded the senators' call for swift action but said the agency "must first conduct a thorough investigation of the serious rule violations and character allegations" against Fox and that the FCC hasn't indicated it is conducting such a probe. An investigation would require granting MAD's request for nonpublic evidence submitted in court cases brought against Fox by voting machine companies, MAD said. "Airing of these documents is essential to the fair and neutral review that the senators request," the MAD letter said. Fetterman, Casey and Fox didn't comment.

Lawmakers should examine AI's implications, ensuring it doesn’t threaten broadcast journalism by spreading misinformation or using copyrighted content without compensation, NAB said Tuesday in a policy agenda for the 118th Congress. “The improper use of artificial intelligence poses novel threats to broadcasting’s unique and indispensable role in American life,” the agenda said. “The lack of attribution and sourcing in AI-generated outputs could undermine trust in broadcasters.” For example, the growing use of AI increases the likelihood that copyrighted broadcast content is ingested and mixed with “unverified and inaccurate third-party content.” In addition, AI-generated deepfakes created to look like broadcast talent could be used to spread misinformation, the agenda said. That can lead to broadcasters devoting more money and resources to fight disinformation, while AI cannibalizes their content without compensation, the agenda said. “Congress should closely evaluate how to harness the power of AI, while ensuring new technologies do not threaten the trusted local journalism broadcasters provide.” On Wednesday, NAB issued a news release announcing that it would open the NAB Show 2024 with a presentation on audience perspectives on AI's use in broadcast media and including an AI-powered humanoid robot. The policy agenda also called for lawmakers to address several longtime NAB causes: require AM radio in cars, prevent a performance tax on radio broadcasters, and allow broadcasters to jointly negotiate with tech companies about the use of their content. Lawmakers should also encourage the FCC to refresh the record on virtual MVPDs and to maintain “a reasonable, flexible framework” for ATSC 3.0 deployment, the policy agenda said.

Reinstating the FM portion of the radio non-duplication rule without collecting more information -- more than three years after it was eliminated -- would violate the Administrative Procedure Act, NAB told the FCC in a letter posted Monday in docket 19-310. “Given the long time lapse since the reconsideration petition was filed, and the lack of any new evidence to justify reversal,” it would be “unwise” for the FCC to reinstate the rule without more information, NAB said. The FCC “does not appear to have inquired in any meaningful way about whether, how or why stations have changed their operations following elimination of the rule,” NAB said. Meanwhile, REC Networks, the musicFIRST Coalition and the Future of Music Coalition told an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks that the FCC already violated the APA by eliminating the FM portion of the non-duplication rule without proper notice. The rule was eliminated on a 3-2 vote in 2020, under then-Chairman Ajit Pai. In her dissent, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, then a commissioner, said that just 36 hours before the vote the draft was changed from eliminating non-duplication rules for AM only to doing so for AM and FM (see 2008060072). REC and the music licensing groups said the “sudden elimination of the FM portion of the Radio Duplication Rule, without notice and adequate opportunity to comment, violated the Administrative Procedure Act.” Said NAB, “There were some complaints that the FM portion of the removal order came late in the process.” NAB continued, “If that’s one’s feeling, then compounding a perceived procedural foot fault with another by simply putting the rule back in place makes no sense.”