Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, mentioned the license renewal proceeding for Fox Television Stations-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia in a floor speech before the confirmation vote for FCC nominee Anna Gomez Thursday. The FCC “is now entertaining requests by radical left-wing groups to revoke a broadcast station’s license for alleged ‘misinformation’ and turning a routine FCC license renewal proceeding into a truth commission,” said Cruz. The petition to deny 's supporters are “bipartisan including Bill Kristol, former editor of Murdoch’s conservative Weekly Standard magazine, Al Sikes, former Republican Chairman of the FCC and me -- longtime Republican enabler of Fox!,” said former Fox executive and longtime lobbyist Preston Padden in an email. “No one except Senator Cruz is talking about a ‘truth Commission’.” "The Senator's characterization of this effort couldn't be further from the truth," said petitioner the Media and Democracy Project (MAD) in an emailed statement. "The issue here concerns a massive media corporation that, with management's full knowledge and approval, is documented to have lied to millions of Americans." None of the allegations made by MAD against owner Fox Television Stations and its parent company, Fox, should lead to the station’s license being designated for hearing, said Fox in an ex parte meeting Tuesday with FCC Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, said an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 23-293. The Communications Act and FCC rules “compel dismissal of MAD’s petition and related filings, and grant of renewal of Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license,” said the filing. FCC rules list a narrow range of categories of non-FCC related conduct that are relevant to considerations of a licensee's character, Fox said. Those include criminal convictions, mass-media antitrust violations, and crimes involving false statements to other government entities. The rules allow for consideration of “non-adjudicated misconduct” but require it to be “so egregious as to shock the conscience and evoke almost ‘universal’ disapprobation,” Fox said. Fox has the “requisite character qualifications and no allegations have been plead concerning potentially ‘relevant’ conduct," the filing said. The MAD petition should also be rejected because it was filed untimely, seeks to apply FCC broadcast rules to cable news, and would amount to changes in the FCC’s character policy without notice or comment, the filing said.

An effort to push the FCC to designate Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia's license for hearing is "a longshot" but isn’t “frivolous,” wrote Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld in a blog post Tuesday. The allegations from the Media and Democracy Project “raise real, if novel questions” on the boundaries of the FCC’s character policies and how the conduct of one part of a company reflects on another subsidiary’s fitness to hold a broadcast license, Feld wrote. The agency will eventually “have to actually write up a real and binding decision with real consequences and real precedential value,” Feld wrote. In an interview, he conceded the FCC could take a long time to do so and could even potentially let the matter sit until a new administration takes over. A previous dispute involving the license of Fox-owned station WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, caused the FCC to take seven years, from 2007 to 2014, to approve renewal.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $20,000 forfeiture over false certifications in an application for Olympia, Washington, translator owner Northwest Rock N Roll Preservation Society (NWR), and the full FCC separately rejected a related application for review from the same broadcaster, said a notice of apparent liability and an order in Monday’s Daily Digest. Both matters appear to involve a conflict between NWR and Bicoastal Media Licenses, with Monday’s orders referencing numerous objections and challenges the two broadcasters have filed against each other. The Media Bureau said NWR made “certifications with an intent to deceive” in a license to cover application after Bicoastal filed a series of objections, the NAL said. NWR falsely certified that new facilities had been constructed to prevent a 2017 permit from expiring, and Bicoastal’s objections presented evidence the station wasn’t operating. Meanwhile, NWR’s rejected application for review challenged a Media Bureau decision denying its appeal of the MB’s grant of a construction permit to Bicoastal. The FCC didn’t agree with NWR arguments that the Media Bureau dismissed NWR’s challenge improperly and didn’t act in a timely fashion, the order said. Despite NWR’s false certifications, the NAL stops short of taking the broadcaster’s license, noting NWR admitted the violations. “We believe NWR can reasonably be expected to deal truthfully with the Commission in the future,” said the NAL.

Comments are due Sept. 25, replies Oct. 10, in docket 23-281 on Vision Broadcasting’s request to be allotted noncommercial educational channel *4 in Alamogordo, New Mexico, as the community’s first local television service, said a notice in Friday’s Federal Register.

Several Philadelphia-area elected officials -- including Reps. Brendan Boyle (D) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R) -- supported Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia’s license renewal petition, in letters posted Friday in docket 23-393 (see 2308230053). A Media and Democracy Project (MAD) petition to deny renewal of the station -- also called Fox 29 -- “ignores Fox 29 Philadelphia’s long record of exemplary service to the communities,” Fox said. MAD argued a defamation suit brought against Fox over its 2020 election reporting shows the company isn’t fit to be an FCC licensee. WTXF provides “fact-based journalism and local programming which keeps our constituents safe and informed,” said Boyle and Fitzpatrick in a joint letter included in the filing. “Your news department has been professional, honest, and fair in their reporting,” said a letter from Camden, New Jersey, Mayor Victor Carstarphen (D). Pennsylvania state legislator Anthony Bellmon (D) also wrote in support of the station. “This service should be encouraged, not threatened by baseless license renewal challenges—particularly at a time when a rapidly evolving media marketplace is challenging local media across the nation,” said Fox.

The Public Media Venture Group, the Korea Radio Promotion Association (RAPA) and WCTE Cookeville, Tennessee, launched a low-power television testbed to demonstrate what ATSC 3.0 can bring to public media, said a PMVG news release Thursday. WCTE’s Monterey, Tennessee, transmitter site will be a platform “for developing and demonstrating various ATSC 3.0 applications and use cases, such as enhanced emergency alerting, interactive education, and datacasting,” the release said. The broadcasters “anticipate the commencement of full ATSC 3.0 service to the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky this fall,” the release said. The testbed was constructed with assistance from Korean ATSC 3.0 technology company DigiCAP. “In early August, a delegation of Korean engineers and technology suppliers visited WCTE to set up and test the new station,” the release said. “The launch of the testbed exemplifies the power of international collaboration and demonstrates how technology leaders and innovative broadcasters can come together to drive the future of broadcasting,” said DigiCAP Senior Vice President Joonyoung Park in the release.

Salem Media will sell South Carolina stations WGTK-FM Greenville, WRTH-FM Greer and WLTE-FM Pendleton to the Educational Media Foundation, said Salem in a news release Wednesday. “We have enjoyed our years in the Greenville-Spartanburg market but have made the strategic decision to divest our interests there,” said Salem CEO David Santrella. The price wasn’t disclosed.

The FCC granted a request from the Media and Democracy (MAD) Project to change the license renewal proceeding (see 2308220083) for Fox’s WTXF-TV Philadelphia from restricted to permit-but-disclose, said a public notice Wednesday. In restricted proceedings, ex parte presentations are generally prohibited, but they're allowed in permit-but-disclose if they're filed in the record. Fox opposed MAD’s request (see 2307180071. “We have concluded that classifying this proceeding as permit-but-disclose would, in this case, permit broader public participation and thereby serve the public interest,” said the PN. The WTXF- TV proceeding was assigned docket 23-293. “This wonderful decision will allow the broad bipartisan group of petitioners to meet with commissioners and staff,” said Preston Padden, a former Fox executive who supports the MAD petition. Emailed a Fox Television Stations spokesperson: “The Media and Democracy Project petition to deny the license renewal of WTXF-TV is frivolous, completely without merit and asks the FCC to upend the First Amendment and long-standing FCC precedent."

The FCC Media Bureau rejected an emergency petition from the Albuquerque Board of Education seeking the reinstatement of a canceled AM station and FM translator in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as procedurally defective, said a letter in Friday’s Daily Digest. The licenses for the stations were voluntarily surrendered to the FCC by owner Gillian Sutton and canceled in May, but that left the region with no local AM service. The ABE asked the agency to reinstate the licenses and assign them to the ABE on a temporary basis. The petition was filed two months later than the deadline for reconsideration of the license cancellation and, because ABE wasn’t a party to that proceeding, it doesn’t have standing to make such a request, the agency said. The FCC previously ruled third parties with no attributable interest in a surrendered station have no standing to seek reinstatement of the license, the letter said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $9,000 forfeiture for B&C Communications’ WPAN Fort Walton Beach, Florida, over a failure to file timely 10 quarterly issues/programs lists, said a notice of apparent liability in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The bureau also proposed a $6,000 forfeiture for Guymon TV Translator over late license renewal applications for several translator stations in Guymon, Oklahoma. The applications were due Feb. 1, 2022, but weren’t filed until March 7, 2022, the Media Bureau said.