Low-power television station WWOO-LD in Boston applied for an experimental license from the FCC to broadcast in 5G, it said Monday. 5G broadcasting is a method of using broadcast spectrum to transmit data that can be received by existing 5G devices, Frank Copsidas, president of the LPTV Broadcasters Association, said in an interview Saturday. Qualcomm and XGen Networks are also involved in the undertaking. 5G broadcast is an alternate method of datacasting from ATSC 3.0, which requires devices to have 3.0-capable receivers to get the signal. “ATSC 3.0 is a huge step forward for full power stations, but challenges remain,” said WWOO’s website. 5G broadcasting is more suited to LPTV stations because of interference concerns, Copsidas said. Full-power broadcasters using the technology would interfere with a huge swath of other 5G signals, whereas LPTV stations have a more reduced reach, he said. “As a broadcaster, WWOO will air one programming stream and data stream,” said a WWOO news release. “Software and apps for smartphones, tablets, and commercial receivers have been or in the process of being developed.” The application still needs FCC approval, and the test facility hasn’t yet been built, Copsidas said.

The FCC Media Bureau blocked a Florida broadcaster from receiving an NCE license after finding it didn’t include correct ownership details in its application, said a letter in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Key West Radio’s application listed three members of the Stebbins family as officers, but didn’t list John and Peter Stebbins, two brothers whose company 305 Community Radio was the target of a 2019 FCC investigation over operating an LPFM at an unauthorized location. In connection with that investigation, the Media Bureau required any future applications from the Stebbins brothers for the next five years to include disclosures about that investigation. The KWR application didn’t include those disclosures and didn’t name the brothers as officers of the company, but John Stebbins was listed as an officer in filings with the state of Florida in 2021 and 2022. KWR argued the listings with Florida were a mistake and the brothers aren’t officers, but the Media Bureau was unpersuaded, the letter said. The Bureau "will not allow an applicant to ‘simply disavow its duly adopted corporate articles and Bylaws, claiming extra-legal considerations, in order to avoid adverse legal consequences,” the letter said. The bureau was informed of KWR’s leadership structure in a petition to deny from Frequency Zero, another, mutually exclusive applicant for the same NCE license as KWR. With KWR out of the running, Frequency Zero is now a tentative selectee to receive a license, the letter said. The disclosure requirement for 305 Community Radio was increased to ten years, and future applications from 305 now must include disclosure of this application incident along with the 2019 information, the letter said

State Emergency Communications Committees will now be able to file state emergency alert system plans year-round, said updated guidance released by the FCC Public Safety Bureau in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The changes will “streamline the Bureau’s review and approval process for updated plans,” the public notice said. The PN also provides guidance for SECCs on amending their EAS plans to seek approval for updated assignments on which sources stations monitor for alerts. “Previously, SECCs could file EAS Plans in [the Alert Reporting System] for review and approval only once annually,” the PN said. "Although the traditional monitoring waiver process will continue to be available, the Bureau encourages SECCs to use the newly automated EAS Plan amendment process incorporated into ARS whenever possible,” the PN said. SECCs should configure their monitoring by assigning as many EAS Participants as possible “to directly monitor (with no intermediate links) one or more sources that receive the National Emergency Message (EAN) signal directly from the Federal Emergency Management Agency,” the PN said.

The FCC identified tentative selectees in 10 groups of mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational FM construction permits from the November 2021 NCE window, said a unanimously approved order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The selectees include City of Hobbs’s application for Hobbs, New Mexico; Texas Public Radio’s application for Gonzales, Texas, and Central Baptist Church of Ocala’s application for West Lake, Florida. Petitions to deny the applications of the selectees are due 30 days after the order. After that filing period, the order directs bureau staff to do a final study of the applications and then grant them if there are no outstanding issues.

Allowing broadcasters to use software instead of physical emergency alert system equipment would reduce the down-time needed to repair malfunctions, enable the standby equipment to immediately take over if the software fails, and allow the use of equipment in redundant, geographically diverse locations in cases of large disasters, said NAB, New York Public Radio, iHeartMedia, Capitol Broadcasting and Graham Media in a meeting with an aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Wednesday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 15-94 Friday. NAB’s proposal is to make the switch to software voluntary and create systems that would still operate if Internet or cloud connectivity were interrupted, the filing said. “We are agnostic regarding the development of the desired software,” said the broadcasters. “We anticipate, and would likely prefer, that the existing trusted vendors of EAS equipment take the lead in such an effort.”

The FCC’s $518,000 enforcement action against Gray Television over the broadcasters’ buy of a top-four network affiliation (see 2305240068) could have implications for future FCC proceedings and other federal agencies, said NAB and the Free State Foundation (FSF) in amicus briefs filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday in docket 22-14274. “Unless the Court vacates the FCC’s forfeiture order, this case could serve as a roadmap for agencies to flout due process and to abridge free speech through the arbitrary use of authority,” said FSF. The agency’s forfeiture order argued Gray violated a rule designed to prevent stations from swapping network affiliations in the same market to create new top-four combinations, but that rule had never before been interpreted in that way, and the FCC gave no prior notice its interpretation had changed, said the FSF brief. “The responsibility does not fall on private parties to guess what the agency might deem to pass muster under yet-to-be determined extensions of existing regulatory policy.” The FCC doesn’t prevent stations from creating new top-four combinations by reaching network affiliation deals with the networks, NAB said. “It makes no sense to distinguish between executing an affiliation agreement with the network, and being assigned a network affiliation agreement by another station (especially when network affiliation contracts routinely require that networks consent to assignments),” NAB said. Both NAB and FSF connected the FCC’s forfeiture order to the agency’s delayed quadrennial review of broadcast regulations. The FCC “erred in broadly applying its ownership rules,” when “the agency steadfastly refuses to complete on a timely basis the periodic reviews that Congress has mandated,” FSF said. The FCC’s interpretation of its authority over content could have implications in the that quadrennial review because MVPDs have called on the agency to limit broadcasters using multicast channels and low-power TV stations to create top-four combinations. “Given the potential consequences in other regulatory contexts, it is important that this Court in this case enforce the statutory and constitutional limits on the Commission’s power to regulate broadcast programming,” NAB said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed an $11,000 penalty for Gendreau Broadcasting’s station KCLN(AM) Clinton, Iowa, over online public file violations, an incorrect certification in a renewal application, and operating its station at incorrect power levels without agency permission, said an order and notice of apparent liability in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Gendreau didn’t upload required issues/programs lists and other materials, and certified it had uploaded them on its renewal application, the filing said. The agency also found similar public file violations occurred at Gendreau’s KMCN(FM) in Clinton, and issued a separate $8,000 NAL on that matter. Both NALs stemmed from informal objections filed against the stations’ renewals by the same person, apparently an employee at another radio station in Clinton.

The FCC Media Bureau extended broadcasters’ waiver of the audible crawl requirements, but by 18 months rather than the two years requested by NAB and with a new quarterly progress report requirement, said an order Friday, the same day the current waiver expired. Consumer groups urged the FCC not to extend the waiver. “The record demonstrates that a viable technical solution for automated descriptions of emergency information presented in graphic form does not currently exist,” the Media Bureau said. “The critical details of an emergency provided in graphic form are in most instances duplicative of information conveyed in textual crawls, which are already aurally described.” Compliance with the requirement for a secondary audio stream describing emergency information conveyed on the main stream through graphics was originally required in 2015 but has been repeatedly waived, most recently by a five-year waiver granted in 2018. The Media Bureau said Friday it granted the waiver for 18 months instead of two years because of the repeated extensions. This extension also comes with a requirement for NAB to submit quarterly status reports to the Media and Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. The reports, which were requested by consumer groups (see 2305150032), should assess the continuing need for the waiver, describe NAB’s outreach to the disabled community about the audible crawl, and NAB’s efforts to develop an automated solution “such as solutions afforded by AI-based systems or the ongoing adoption of ATSC 3.0 in more television markets,” the order said. The reports also need to describe training and best practices for broadcasters on conveying non-textual emergency information, and alternative solutions broadcasters and the disability community pursue, the order said. "Today’s waiver extension is critical for broadcasters to continue to provide vital emergency information to the public," said an NAB spokesperson. "NAB very much appreciates both the Commission’s and consumer groups’ willingness to engage with us to find meaningful ways for broadcasters to serve all of our viewers."

Standard General “misrepresented” the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s position in a news release on the then-pending Standard/Tegna deal, the EB said in a “clarification of the record” filing posted in docket 22-162 Tuesday. Tegna announced Monday the deal had been terminated (see 2305220068). The bureau took issue with a May 17 release from Standard titled “Standard General Provides a Response to FCC’s Invitation to Negotiation with New Disclosures and Commitments,” which suggested the EB had suggested a path to a settlement. In the meetings with FCC commissioners mentioned in the release, the bureau said settlement discussions were allowed but put conditions on any such settlement and clarified that only the questions from the hearing designation order could be settled, not the ultimate fate of the Standard/Tegna deal. “The record here is plain -- the Bureau did not ‘invite negotiation’ or suggest that Applicants ‘quickly attempt to resolve remaining concerns to allow the transaction to move forward,’” the clarification said. Standard didn’t comment.

An association of Black broadcasters urged the Congressional Black Caucus to tell auto manufacturers about the importance of AM radio to the Black community. “It is a crucial resource to maintain cultural and community ties as well as an important source of local news, weather, entertainment, religious and spiritual content every day,” said the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters in a letter Monday to CBC members. Removing AM from cars would be “a huge setback for AM radio stations” and “reinforce the dominance of mainstream media outlets,” NABOB said.