The Protect Football on Free TV campaign submitted 4,800 additional letters from football fans to the FCC urging it to maintain the sports blackout rule. The total number of fans submitting these letters amounts to more than 16,400, the campaign said Monday in a news release. The campaign is led by former NFL player Lynn Swann, who said he asks that the FCC consider the fans’ petitions as it decides what’s in the public interest. Fans don’t want the agency “to needlessly make a rule change -- based on theory and speculation -- that jeopardizes their ability to follow football on free TV,” he said.

Gray Television signed long-term agreements with CBS and Fox that renew all 26 of Gray’s existing TV station agreements. The CBS agreements were renewed in 22 markets, CBS and Gray said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1mJxbBd). The agreements with Fox include 10 stations serving eight markets, Gray said in another release (http://bit.ly/1wt8lyN).

The Rainbow PUSH Coalition wants the FCC to review and reverse the Media Bureau’s approval of Sinclair’s buying Allbritton Communications’ TV stations, said an application for review filed Monday. The request for review hinges on Rainbow PUSH’s 11-year-old contention that Sinclair has improper control over Cunningham Broadcasting, with which it is involved in several shared service arrangements, the application said. In 2002 and 2003, Rainbow successfully challenged Sinclair over its relationship with Glencairn, and the coalition maintains that Cunningham is a successor to Glencairn. Sinclair controls Cunningham’s financing, staffing and programming as it had for Glencairn, Rainbow PUSH said. “All of these protocols worked to the disadvantage of Glencairn and to the advantage of Sinclair for no apparent legitimate business reason.” In approving the Allbritton deal, the bureau didn’t correctly address Rainbow PUSH’s concerns about Sinclair’s conduct, the application said. By approving the Allbritton deal despite previously finding that Sinclair acted improperly with Glencairn, the commission has set a precedent that could encourage recidivism, Rainbow PUSH said. The Allbritton deal should be reversed and the full commission should hear arguments on whether Sinclair and Cunningham should be broadcast licensees and on the nature of Sinclair’s sharing arrangements, Rainbow PUSH said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau admonished Jeannine Mason, licensee of KTZZ(FM) Conrad, Montana, for operating a studio-transmitter link station without a license. Due to Mason’s inability to pay and history of compliance, the bureau didn’t impose a forfeiture, it said in an order released Friday (http://bit.ly/1ttmHL8). The bureau initially proposed a $10,000 fine, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau let WCUZ (FM) Bear Lake, Michigan, upgrade its facilities from Channel 261A to Channel 264C3. To allow that, the bureau substituted Channel 260A for Channel 263A at Custer, it said in an order released Friday (http://bit.ly/1q2IjgU). The channel substitution at Custer would serve the public interest because it will accommodate WCUZ owner Roy Henderson’s proposed channel upgrade for the station, it said. Canada has concurred in the allotment of Channel 260A at Custer, which is within 199 miles of the U.S.-Canada border, the bureau said. The proceeding is terminated, it said.

Grant County Broadcasters opposed a proposal by SSR Communications to create a C4 class for FM stations. Creating a C4 class would result in a reduction in Zone II of FM translator and low-power FM opportunities “due to the additional protected coverage created for stations in the new class,” Grant County Broadcasters said in a filing posted Friday in docket RM-11727 (http://bit.ly/1lmcIY0). The stations to suffer the most from additional translator interference are the Class A stations that the original proposal was supposedly designed to “help,” it said. Such stations are the most likely to have significant audiences beyond their primary contours, like Grant’s Class A station WNKR Williamstown, Kentucky, it said. These are audiences that they can protect today, but would be lost and unrecoverable under the modified proposal, Grant County Broadcasters said. Adoption of the modified proposal also would cause major problems within the emergency alert system “as stations become cut off from their monitoring assignments due to the installation of new translators,” it said. Initial comments in the proceeding are due Sept. 18 (CD Aug 15 p10).

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler assured some members of Congress that their support for an effort to allow Black Television News Channel to carry ads on direct broadcast satellite noncommercial set-aside channels will be considered. FCC rules require 4 percent of a DBS carrier’s channel capacity to be reserved exclusively for noncommercial programming of an educational or informational nature, he said in letters released Friday (http://bit.ly/VI9f9Q). Wheeler wrote separate letters to Reps. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., Corrine Brown, D-Fla., Bobby Rush, D-Ill., Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and other members of Congress. BTNC would like the FCC to waive the ad ban as part of its effort to partner with Florida A&M University (CD July 3 p12).

Sinclair began a content development division, the company said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1p0GfB1). It said Sinclair Original Programming will create “entertainment content and business-to-consumer content such as infomercials and direct response commercials.” The shows SOP creates will initially air in prime time and afternoons on weekends on Sinclair’s MyNetworkTV and CW stations, the broadcaster said. “Controlling our content and its development not only reduces our dependency on others, providing a hedge against network disruptions, but allows us greater economic upside potential,” Sinclair CEO David Smith said. Arthur Hasson, general manager of Sinclair’s CBS, CW and MyNet affiliates in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, will become chief operating officer of SOP, Sinclair said. “There is potential to distribute shows beyond our platforms both domestically and internationally,” Hasson said.

The National Radio Systems Committee will mark its 35th anniversary with a breakfast reception Sept. 11 during the 2014 Radio Show in Indianapolis, said CEA and NAB, which co-own the NRSC, Thursday in a joint news release (http://bit.ly/1tunqux). Since its creation in 1979, the NRSC “has become a focal point for the U.S. radio industry’s development of technical standards and the advancement of broadcast radio technology,” they said. NRSC standards have been adopted as FCC rules “and have guided the manufacture of radio receivers and broadcast transmission equipment,” they said.

The iBiquity Digital complaint to declare invalid three patents used as the basis of dozens of infringement lawsuits against HD Radio-licensed broadcasters and carmakers (CD July 7 p9) should be dismissed, said the two companies that hold those patents, in a motion filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware. IBiquity sued the two companies, Delaware Radio Technologies and Wyncomm, to remove the threat of litigation, claiming it has “a contractual obligation to indemnify” licensees “against any losses incurred as a result of being sued over their use of HD Radio technology.” But the iBiquity complaint needs to be dismissed for “lack of subject matter jurisdiction and lack of standing, as there is no actual controversy between the parties,” Delaware Radio and Wyncomm argued in their motion. All the complaints against the carmakers have been settled, and Delaware Radio and Wyncomm have never threatened iBiquity itself with a patent suit, they said. Moreover, iBiquity “has not alleged that it has stopped selling or licensing its software, or has lost customers as a result of the remaining Delaware Radio and Wyncomm infringement complaints against the broadcasters “or the alleged indemnity demands,” they said. “Thus, there is no actual or even remote chance of injury here that could support jurisdiction.” IBiquity also has failed to show “any evidence of the existence of a contractual agreement to indemnify the Delaware broadcaster defendants other than a bare one sentence allegation,” they said. Not only does iBiquity “fail to allege that it has evidence of its alleged indemnity obligations, but publicly available documents found on its website directly belie that assertion,” they said. “It is therefore clear that iBiquity’s bare allegation regarding a proposed indemnification agreement does not create jurisdiction or standing."