An FCC proposal to allow digital replacement translators (DRTs) associated with full power stations to have priority in the repacking over LPTV stations is “probably the worst case scenario for LPTV," said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition President Mike Gravino in an email. The proposal is part of the LPTV NPRM issued by the FCC last week (see 1410140176). “The reality is that the primaries can use this to literally wipe out LPTV stations,” Gravino said. Since DRTs would be used to fill coverage gaps that might be created by the repacking, Gravino expressed support for the NAB’s court challenge of the incentive auction. “Go get them,” Gravino said.

The FCC proposed fining Midessa Television $86,400 for allegedly operating three broadcast auxiliary services (BAS) stations without authorizations. Midessa allegedly operated an additional six BAS stations, “all in conjunction with its full power and low power television stations,” the commission said in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1EYD5cV). Midessa’s apparent violations continued for years, “including for a substantial time after it became aware of its unauthorized operations, thus warranting a significantly increased penalty,” it said. The FCC declined to downwardly adjust the proposed fine “in light of Midessa’s delayed disclosure of the violations and its lengthy unauthorized operation,” the commission said. Midessa had no immediate comment.

Journal Broadcast Group agreed to sell KFTI(FM) Wichita, Kansas, to Envision Broadcast Network, Journal said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1ng8S37). Journal Broadcast has to divest an FM station in Wichita in connection with its proposed sale of TV and radio stations to E.W. Scripps “to comply with the FCC’s ownership limits,” the release said. The deal also involves spinning off and merging both companies’ newspaper operations to form Journal Media Group, the release said. The FTC terminated the federally required waiting period for that deal in September, according to Thursday’s Federal Register (http://1.usa.gov/1s0tHyH). That means the deal is only awaiting FCC approval to be completed. The transaction is expected to close in 2015, the release said.

"Futurecast,” the technology that LG, Zenith Labs and GatesAir submitted to the Advanced TV Systems Committee as their proposal for the “guts” of the next-gen ATSC 3.0 broadcast system (CD April 9 p15), will be showcased in a demonstration in the wee hours of Oct. 22 in Madison, Wisconsin, at Quincy Broadcasting’s WKOW, Futurecast’s backers said Friday. WKOW will transmit Futurecast-modulated advanced TV signals to specially designed receivers, but Futurecast transmissions can’t be received by current DTV products, and the station will be able to transmit Futurecast only from 1 to 4 a.m. that day, they said. As one of the proposed ATSC 3.0 physical layer technologies, Futurecast’s “flexible parameters allow broadcasters to mix diverse services within a single RF channel with maximum efficiency,” the backers said. Next-gen broadcasting services enabled by Futurecast “range from deep indoor handheld reception to high-speed mobile reception to Ultra HDTV for the ultimate home entertainment experience, all within a single 6 MHz TV channel,” they said.

National Religious Broadcasters urged the FCC to reject a petition that challenges the license of WWXX-FM Washington. The petition, filed by George Washington University Law School professor John Banzhaf, asks the FCC to determine that use of the Washington, D.C., football team name is prohibited over the air. While most public attention has focused on whether the team name Redskins is inherently derogatory and can be categorized as “obscene” or “profane” for broadcasting, “I am alarmed that Professor Banzhaf’s petition went further by declaring the use of this term name to be ‘hate speech,'” NRB President Jerry Johnson said in a letter last week to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler (http://bit.ly/ZytSaD). This term has been used recklessly “by some in our nation and other democracies in an attempt to expunge opposing viewpoints from the marketplace of ideas,” he said. The petition would have no impact on religions or religious leaders “who may wish to express strong feelings about homosexuality, homosexual acts, the homosexual lifestyle ... even if some would regard such views as ‘hateful’ views,” provided they didn’t deliberately and repeatedly and unnecessarily use words on the air that most people would regard as hateful toward gays, Banzhaf said. One can express and debate religious or other ideas without repeatedly using words “which are most derogatory if not hateful regarding those one wishes to condemn, no matter how strongly,” he said. The station, which has a sports talk and play-by-play format, is licensed to Red Zebra Broadcasting, controlled by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

Not putting a cap on the amount of population served that a broadcaster can lose as a result of the incentive auction repacking “would be a plain violation of the Spectrum Act,” said NAB in a meeting with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn Oct. 7, according to an ex parte filing posted online Friday in docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1yWXSgi). FCC predictions that TV stations after the auction will receive no more than 2 percent interference are “underestimates” NAB said. “For some reason, the staff elected not to take into account that more than half of all stations will move, and thus arrived at a smaller per station percentage,” said NAB. If the commission stands by that figure, it should institute a 2 percent cap, NAB said, though NAB has previously asked for a 1 percent cap, the ex parte filing said. The FCC should “foster confidence” among broadcasters by “providing them the certainty they need through capping the amount of new losses in population served they can receive,” NAB said.

Android Wear smartphone owners will soon be able to control music from the iHeartRadio streaming app from their wrists, iHeartMedia said Thursday. Users who sync an Android Wear smartphone -- including the Samsung Gear Live, Moto 360 and LG G Watch -- with a compatible Android phone will be able to access the iHeartRadio app via voice activation, iHeartMedia said. Features that will be available through Android Wear integration, effective Oct. 15, include voice search, access to favorites, customized recommendations and a thumbs up/thumbs down feature, the company said. IHeartRadio also has announced integrations with Amazon’s Fire Phone, Amazon’s Fire TV, Android Auto, Apple’s CarPlay, Chromecast, Qualcomm’s AllPlay, Samsung’s Gear 2 Smartwatch and auto partnerships with AT&T Drive, General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Subaru and Volvo, iHeartMedia said.

A waiver of newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO) rules was granted to Fox Television Stations by the FCC Media Bureau without considerations of the many objections filed against it and will last long after the commission completes its 2014 quadrennial review, said the United Church of Christ (UCC) and Rainbow PUSH Coalition (RPC), represented by the Institute for Public Representation and Free Press in an application for review filed Wednesday. The temporary waiver (http://bit.ly/1uwy44J) was granted in August (CD Aug 11 p14) to allow Fox to continue to own WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, and the New York Post, in spite of an extant petition to deny from UCC and RPC and petition for reconsideration from Free Press, said Wednesday’s application for review. By denying the petitions against the waiver without any analysis or discussion, the bureau failed to follow its own policies, the application said. Granting the waiver also violates “longstanding Commission policy of not granting waivers of the NBCO rule because of the pendency of a rulemaking proceeding,” it said. “Because the Bureau has effectively overruled a key Commission ownership rule even though it lacks the authority to do so, the Commission should reverse the Bureau’s decision to grant Fox a contingent waiver.” Fox declined to comment.

Fox Television Stations (FTS) acquired Bay Area stations KTVU Oakland and KICU-TV San Jose as part of a swap agreement with Cox Media Group (CMG), FTS said in a release. “With the addition of the San Francisco-Bay area stations, FTS now includes duopolies in seven of the top 10 U.S. markets,” FTS said. In exchange for the newly acquired stations, FTS transferred to CMG two owned-and-operated stations, WHBQ-TV Memphis and WFXT Boston, the release said. Both stations will remain Fox affiliates.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed in part and denied in part an application for review by Beach TV, formerly The Atlanta Channel, concerning its Class A station WTHC Atlanta. The Atlanta Channel filed the review application after the bureau dismissed the station’s statement of eligibility for Class A TV status, the bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1ndgy6e). The petition repeats arguments the FCC already has considered and relies on new arguments “that either could have been raised earlier or fail to establish any material error or omission in the order on review,” the bureau said. The channel’s statement included no certifications on whether WTHC met any of the Class A programming and operational qualification requirements, and “no explanation as to how it was eligible for Class A status under the alternative public interest standard,” it said. The bureau rejected the channel’s claims, including that failure to grant Class A eligibility would result in an “impermissible taking” and that the FCC improperly relied on the finding that the station wasn’t continuously in compliance with the rules applicable to full-power stations.