The FCC Media Bureau approved Media General’s merger with Young Broadcasting Friday, one day after Media General’s shareholders approved the all-stock transaction, according to an FCC order and a Media General news release (http://bit.ly/1bfSseV). The deal will add Young’s 12 network stations to the 18 already owned by Media General. The new company will be majority-owned by Young shareholders but retain the Media General name and headquarters, operating in 27 markets and reaching 16.5 million U.S. TV households. The approval comes over the objections of Dish Network, which is engaged in a retransmission consent battle with Media General (CD Oct 21 p7). Since Dish has already filed a complaint against Media General in the retrans dispute, the bureau said it couldn’t consider Dish’s retrans-related objections to the merger. “We will not take action in the context of this limited proceeding that will pre-judge the outcome of another proceeding pending before us,” said the order. The bureau also rejected an informal objection from Spartan Media, which had argued that Young Broadcasting had violated ownership rules with sharing arrangements in the past. Along with the merger, the FCC also approved “satellite exemptions” for several stations involved in the transactions, and a “failing” station waiver. Public interest attorney Andy Schwartzman said the FCC’s approval of the merger doesn’t indicate the commission’s stance on other opening mergers such as Sinclair/Allbritton or Tribune/Local, because those mergers involve controversial sharing arrangements.

Tom Wheeler was sworn in Monday as chairman of the FCC and Michael O'Rielly to the open Republican slot on the commission. Wheeler, who had all summer to think about first steps as chairman, almost immediately appointed his top staff at the agency, starting with Ruth Milkman as chief of staff (http://fcc.us/HFgesN). Industry observers said the choice of Milkman, who was Wireless Bureau chief, signals continuity on one of the top issues Wheeler faces, the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. Several of those appointed worked for Wheeler in the past and most came from jobs where past entanglements are unlikely to pose ethics issues.

A longtime opponent of Clear Channel’s KFI(AM) Los Angeles wants the FCC to deny the station’s license renewal or hold a hearing on the broadcaster’s application. The National Hispanic Media Coalition said the station is a “hate radio hot spot” that continues to air what NHMC called hate speech against immigrants and other racial minorities, women and those who aren’t heterosexuals. The center, which unsuccessfully sought an FCC proceeding in previous years on media hate speech, cited in Friday’s petition to deny KFI’s renewal agency records the group got through a Freedom of Information Act request showing more than 240 consumers complained about the outlet in 2008-2011. NHMC also cited content analysis by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center of recordings and transcripts of the John and Ken Show, which the group has long contended fostered violence against immigrants who have entered the country illegally. The group cited NTIA’s 1993 definition of hate speech as words that threaten to incite imminent unlawful acts that may be criminalized without violating the First Amendment or that may lead to hate or prejudice that fosters hate crimes. “Unfortunately, ‘more speech’ is not a viable solution to KFI’s hate and demagoguery because extensive media consolidation in Los Angeles makes it almost impossible for market forces to mitigate the harm caused by KFI,” said the petition. “Against this rich, multicultural backdrop” of the No. 1 Latino and Asian-American market in the U.S., “KFI regularly airs offensive and dehumanizing speech against nearly every segment of the diverse community,” said the filing. A Clear Channel spokeswoman had no comment. The FCC over the years hasn’t renewed some radio licenses, though none recently, said public-interest lawyer Andrew Schwartzman, who has been involved in other petitions to deny broadcaster license renewals. He said he could recall several such failures by the agency to renew licenses that were content related.

Lawyers and other communications industry officials hope acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and the rest of the commission will provide information quickly on what happens next, as soon as the partial government shutdown ends and the agency and the rest of federal Washington gets back to work. Industry officials we spoke with Wednesday expressed the same emotions, relief combined with anxiety as both the House and Senate move forward on votes on a bipartisan Senate agreement to end the shutdown. Another fight could loom because the agreement would fund the government only through Jan. 15.

With many filing deadlines already having passed since the partial federal shutdown began Oct. 1, and more looming as the closure enters its third week Tuesday, the FCC potentially faces a land rush of comments the day after the government reopens. Unlike many other government sites, the FCC’s website was shuttered the day the government closed, cutting off access to documents lawyers and others need to prepare filings at the commission, especially reply comments. Several industry officials told us Friday they expect the FCC to grant a blanket waiver for all filings that came due during the closure.

The FCC should hold an open forum with broadcasters to discuss whether they should voluntarily stop using the name “Redskins” for Washington’s NFL team, said a group of former Democratic FCC officials and communications attorneys, academics and activists in a letter sent to acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Thursday. Former FCC Chairman Reid Hundt -- one of the letter’s co-signers -- said it had its genesis in a discussion he had with Minority Media and Telecommunications Council President David Honig, who also signed the letter. “We decided a disparagement of one minority group is a disparagement of all minority groups,” said Hundt in an interview. An FCC forum on the Redskins name “need not answer any questions of legality nor necessarily lead to regulatory intervention,” said the letter. Instead, the forum would focus on “self-regulation” by broadcasters and its application to the Redskins’ name. “The FCC has unquestioned authority to convene an open forum with broadcasters to discuss whether they should voluntarily stop using the name,” said the letter, citing several media personalities who have said they will no longer use the word “Redskins.” Those who signed the letter “hope that an open forum hosted by the FCC will encourage broadcasters to follow suit,” said a news release issued by Hundt. By using its authority to convene the forum, the FCC “has the opportunity to act as a principled and transparent leader during a time of distressing difficulty in the nation’s capital,” said the letter. The letter was signed by former FCC commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Nicholas Johnson and Tyrone Brown, Ambassador Karen Kornbluh, former FCC Chief of Staff Blair Levin, former FCC General Counsel Christopher Wright now of Wiltshire Grannis, public-interest attorney Andrew Schwartzman, who consults for Free Press, Charles Firestone of the Aspen Institute, former NTIA administrators Henry Geller and Larry Irving, Communications Workers of America Telecommunications Policy Director Debbie Goldman, Wiltshire Grannis telecom lawyer John Nakahata, Best Best municipal lawyer Nicholas Miller, the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development and others.

The partial federal government shutdown may not mean that the Senate won’t act on the nominations of Tom Wheeler as chairman of the FCC and Michael O'Rielly for its open Republican seat, said industry lobbyists in interviews Tuesday. After all, they said that senators will continue to work and draw a salary with few hearings to attend because many hearings were canceled because some government witnesses can’t attend. The level of enmity among senators appears lower than that between Democrats and Republicans in the House.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai will vote against an NPRM seeking comment on eliminating the UHF discount on TV station ownership at the commission’s open meeting Thursday, a spokesman for his office told us. The item will likely still be approved on the strength of votes from Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel and acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn, said an FCC official. Neither commissioner’s office commented.

Two chairs of House panels that oversee the FCC don’t want the elimination of the UHF discount to “punish business” by affecting existing ownership groups or pending transactions, they said in a letter to acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn Thursday (http://1.usa.gov/1aHA9VF). “Specifically, we are concerned that elimination of the UHF discount could inequitably harm those broadcast owners with pending transactions that were initiated under the existing UHF discount rule,” said House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore.

FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler is expected to arrive at the agency sometime later this year with an ambitious agenda, but the time he will have in office is limited and several issues loom which could take up much of his first year. Industry and FCC officials told us that then-Chairman Julius Genachowski did Wheeler no favors by staying into May rather than leaving after the end of Barack Obama’s first term as president. Several industry officials who have spoken with Wheeler said he has a big agenda, but is all too aware that he will have limited time as chairman.