Meredith Corp. asked the FCC to direct PMCM TV to stop using Virtual Channel 3.10 for broadcast operations of WJLP-TV Middletown Township, New Jersey. WJLP’s unilateral arrogation of that channel openly defies the Media Bureau’s order assigning Virtual Channel 33 to WJLP, Meredith Corp. said in a letter posted in docket 14-150. Meredith’s complaint that its virtual channel is being modified or commandeered “is plainly erroneous,” PMCM said in reply comments. Its virtual channel remains exactly as it has always been, it said. It loses nothing by PMCM’s use of Virtual Channel 3.10, nor does Meredith have any claim to all minor channels associated with major Channel 3 “since the ATSC A/65 protocols explicitly envision coincident use of major channels by independent licensees,” it said. WJLP hasn’t received a single complaint from viewers about confusion, “and we must assume that CBS and Meredith have been similarly free from complaints or we would surely have heard about it,” it said.

Gray Television reached separate agreements with the CW Network and NBC to extend and renew all its network affiliations with both networks, Gray said in news releases Wednesday. Gray said it has 24 NBC network affiliates, and with the addition of a new CW affiliate in Toledo, Ohio, will have 16 CW and CW Plus affiliates.

Fox Television Stations’ opposition to applications for review by public interest groups against a waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO) rule is based on a misunderstanding of FCC rules, said the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and United Church of Christ in a reply filing posted in docket 07-260 Monday. The waiver was granted in August (see 1408110046) to allow Fox to continue to own WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and the New York Post. In an opposition filing posted last week, Fox said it has never violated the NBCO rule, and its FCC waiver is temporary, in alignment with agency rules, rather than a “de facto permanent waiver,” as the groups have claimed. Fox’s arguments are “based largely on Fox’s unsupported assumption that the FCC’s failure to act on a request for a waiver extension is equivalent to granting the request,” said the public interest groups. “Because Fox’s position is highly contested and the issue remains unresolved, the Commission should reverse the Order and decide this important question of law."

The speed at which the FCC seems to be acting is most surprising, but radio companies likely won't be looking at implementing online political file obligations until late next year, a broadcast attorney said, referring to a draft NPRM that extends TV station online public file obligations to pay-TV companies and radio stations (see 1410300052). After the FCC receives comments and makes a decision, "there will presumably be a phased in application of the rules," Wilkinson Barker attorney David Oxenford said Sunday in a blog post. The commission will need some time to prepare its own computer systems "to hold the files of the radio stations, cable systems and satellite TV companies which will also be covered by this proposal," he said. The FCC also appears ready to make a change to its contest rules, he said. The commission plans to consider an NPRM giving broadcasters more flexibility in disclosing contest terms at its Nov. 21 meeting, Oxenford said. "We would hope that the FCC moves as quickly on this proposal as they appear to be doing on the online public file revisions."

ABC exposed children to graphic sex in the opening scene of the show Scandal by airing it immediately after It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, said Parents Television Council in a news release Monday. “In less than 26 seconds we were taken from the Peanuts pumpkin patch to a steamy Scandal sex scene,” said PTC President Tim Winter. ABC should apologize for juxtaposing the two shows, PTC said. ABC did not comment.

The FCC Media Bureau granted requests for channel substitutions at three TV stations. WPXS Mount Vernon, Illinois, was granted a substitution of Channel 11, the bureau said in an order. Two Ion Media stations also were granted substitutions. WPXA-TV Rome, Georgia, can substitute Channel 31 for Channel 51, a bureau order said, and KPXE-TV Kansas City, Missouri, can substitute Channel 30 for Channel 51, the bureau said in another order.

The Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) sold WDTW (AM) Detroit to entrepreneur Pedro Zamora Wednesday, MMTC said in a news release Thursday. The sale makes Zamora the “first full market Hispanic broadcaster serving all of Detroit and its suburbs,” MMTC said. MMTC also sold KFXN(AM) Minneapolis to Asian American Broadcasting, to create the area’s first Hmong station, and KZZD(AM) Salem, Oregon, to create that area’s first Hispanic station, MMTC said. “Transactions such as these are made possible by donations of stations by media companies to MMTC.”

The FCC Media Bureau approved the sale of six TV stations from the estate of Milton Grant to Nexstar, in a letter issued by the bureau Friday. The stations involved are WFXR(DT) Roanoke and WWCW(DT) Lynchburg, Virginia; WZDX(DT) Huntsville, Alabama; KGCW(DT) Burlington, Iowa; and WLAX(DT) La Crosse and WEUX(DT) Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The bureau also approved a failing station waiver for KGCW, and satellite exemptions for WEUX and WWCW.

Broadcast engineers urged the FCC to focus AM revitalization efforts on making rule modifications that allow AM stations to have flexibility. Technical changes that are possible today shouldn’t be held up by consideration of replacement strategies “involving reallocation of other spectrum for relocation of AM stations or a Quixotic quest for FM translator frequencies for all AM stations,” engineers from du Treil Lundin and Hatfield and Dawson broadcast consulting firms said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-249. They asked the FCC to keep in mind that not all AM stations are viable as businesses. Stations that are viable can benefit from being able to increase their coverage areas “if the ones that aren’t were out of the way,” they said. The FCC could allow station owners to work that out by including changes in the contingent application rules as well as implementation of the form of tax incentive program “that was previously used to encourage minority ownership of broadcast stations,” they said. The rules that enforce stringent daytime and nighttime first-adjacent protection should be undone, they said. They also urged the FCC to publish rules allocating the expanded band stations “to overlay those that were assigned after the initial rulemaking was concluded,” they said.

The Department of Justice will require Media General to divest seven stations as part of a proposed settlement to allow it to proceed with its proposed $1.5 billion buy of LIN Media, DOJ said in a news release Thursday. “Without the required divestitures, prices for broadcast television spot advertising would likely increase to advertisers” in the designated market areas involved, which include Birmingham, Alabama; Providence, Rhode Island; Pensacola, Florida; and Green Bay, Wisconsin, DOJ said. “Media General’s stations and LIN’s stations compete head-to-head in the sale of broadcast television spot advertising in several markets around the country.” The divestitures were planned by Media General and LIN when the transaction was announced (see 1408210055), and the stations would go to Hearst, Meredith and Sinclair under the terms of the proposed settlement, the release said. The FCC is expected to approve the deal on the heels of the DOJ settlement, said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors.