The full FCC voted 3 to 1 to approve a $518,283 forfeiture against Gray Television for violating the prohibition against owning two top-four stations in a market, said an order Tuesday. FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington was the lone dissenter. If the FCC renders “growth, acquisitions, and swaps risky enough,” prudent media businesses “will have no choice but to be passive in small markets,” Simington wrote. The forfeiture concerns Gray’s purchase of the CBS affiliation of Denali Media's station KTVA Anchorage in 2020 in a sale of “non-license assets” and subsequent shifting of the programming to its KYES-TV Anchorage -- now KAUU -- while continuing to own NBC affiliate KTUU-TV Anchorage. Gray’s “strained reading” of a 2016 rule on using channel swaps to make deals that result in one group owning more than one top-four station in a single market “would reduce competition and intentionally circumvent Commission review of such transactions,” said the order. “Gray intends to challenge the FCC’s decision and expects a complete reversal by an impartial federal court,” said Gray in a statement Tuesday. Gray violated the rules because “the affiliation acquisition it engaged in was the functional equivalent of a station license transfer,” the FCC said. The forfeiture amount is based on the amount of time of the violation multiplied by the $8,000 forfeiture amount, capped at the statutory maximum the order said. “We found that Gray failed to fulfill a continuing or persistent legal duty from consummation of the CBS affiliation acquisition on July 31, 2020 to March 3, 2021 -- 215 straight days,” the order said. “Gray anticipates that its challenge of today’s Forfeiture Order will likewise end in another strong judicial vindication of its position and another strong judicial repudiation of a federal agency overstepping its authority and failing to adhere to the rule of law and protect the public interest,” Gray said.

The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters voted to discontinue NABOB’s support of the proposal to allow geotargeted radio, said an ex parte letter posted in docket 20-401 Monday. Some NABOB allies and members condemned the vote in a statement released GeoBroadcast Solutions, including Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts and Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet President Robert Branson. “Clearly this action is yet another in a string of savage actions NAB has taken in the interest of its largest members,” said the statement, which also included National Newspaper Publishers Association CEO Benjamin Chavis and JAM Media CEO Jonathan Mason. Roberts is a founding member of NABOB, according to GBS. “We believe the FCC will recognize the source behind today’s action. The FCC should reject this cynical effort and keep its eye on the prize of enabling innovative technology to small and medium-sized broadcasters,” said the release. "This statement is preposterous," said an NAB spokesperson. "As GBS continues to rapidly lose supporters, it’s clear it’s looking for a scapegoat instead of at its own failure to convince any critical mass in the industry that its product is viable and would do anything to help broadcasters." "We have overwhelming support from minority broadcasters and are confident that the FCC will recognize that geo-targeting for broadcast radio is in the public interest," said a GBS spokesperson. NABOB had been among the most vocal advocates for the geotargeted radio proposal, and met with FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to advocate for the change as recently as Sept. 16. “Given the potential benefits to small, minority owned broadcasters as well as small businesses, and the advancement of localism, and our view that the record in this proceeding is complete, I urged the Commission to adopt the proposal as soon as possible,” wrote NABOB President Jim Winston in a Sept. 20 ex parte letter. Winston didn’t comment Monday. NABOB’s website doesn’t list its board membership. "It is unfortunate that the record in this proceeding has become polluted with so many over-the-top ad hominem attacks," wrote Branson in an ex parte letter filed Monday. "The pleading climate matters. Surely investors in massive and innovative new technologies must be wondering, as they observe this docket, 'do we really want to spend money on businesses that must face such an ugly and time-consuming gauntlet of disparagement at the FCC?'"

CTC Media Group agreed to pay an $8,000 forfeiture for operating WECU(AM) Winterville, N.C., at reduced power without permission and originating programming on its translator, according to an order and consent decree in Monday’s Daily Digest. The FCC Media Bureau learned of the matter via an informal complaint that WECU “had been off the air for months.” CTC told the FCC WECU had been operating at reduced daytime power and it had been originating content on the translator, the consent decree said. CTC also didn’t provide station logs requested by the FCC. Along with the $8,000 payment, CTC agreed to implement a compliance plan and make regular compliance reports to the FCC for three years.

The FCC should amend its rules on in-band/on-channel (IBOC) digital audio broadcasting to allow for higher digital FM power levels, said a non-docketed petition for rulemaking from NAB and Xperi posted Wednesday. The agency should “adopt an updated formula to determine FM power levels for stations seeking to exceed the currently authorized FM digital ERP of -14 dBc,” which would allow “more stations to increase digital power above the existing -14 dBc level, without the need for separate FCC authorization,” the petition said. The change would improve digital FM coverage and digital FM signal penetration of buildings while “continuing to minimize the probability of harmful interference to adjacent channel stations,” the petition said. Wednesday’s petition “dovetails” with a 2019 request from NAB, Xperi and NPR to permanently authorize FM radio stations to utilize IBOC with asymmetric sideband power levels, and the two petitions should be combined into a single rulemaking, NAB and Xperi said.

Seven TV stations in Kansas' Wichita-Hutchinson market began broadcasting with NextGen TV this week, they said Wednesday. KAKE Wichita (ABC), KWCH-DT Hutchinson (CBS), KSAS-TV Wichita (Fox), KSNW Wichita (NBC), KPTS Hutchinson (PBS), KSCW-DT Wichita (CW) and KMTW Hutchinson (DABL) launched following a decade of development and months of planning by the local stations, they said. KSCW-DT, owned by Gray Television, and KMTW, owned by Mercury Broadcasting, have converted to ATSC 3.0 transmissions and are broadcasting their own programming, plus that of the other participating stations.

The FCC identified tentative selectees in 32 groups of mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational FM construction permits from the November 2021 NCE window, said an order Wednesday. The selectees include Christian Broadcasting’s application for Soldotna, Alaska; Priority Radio’s application for Cabot, Arkansas; and Ethree Group’s application for Key Colony Beach, Florida. The bureau made the choices using an analysis based on which applicant would cover the largest area and population, and favors applicants with fewer other radio authorizations, the PN said. Petitions to deny the applications of the selectees are due 30 days after the order.

“There’s no point in relitigating this matter,” said a spokesperson for GeoBroadcast Solutions of a 2009 settled lawsuit against GBS founder Chris Devine over one of his previous broadcast businesses (see 2209230070). The legal dispute, which is listed as having been dismissed, but the plaintiff and NAB say was settled out of court, has been repeatedly raised by NAB in the geotargeted radio proceeding (see 2210210050). The matter was “long ago resolved” and the “conclusion of the litigation speaks for itself,” the spokesperson said.

Low-power TV broadcasters asked the FCC to relax rules for LPTV relocation, change the name of LPTV to “Local-power” and abandon plans to require translators to meet station identification requirements, said comments posted in docket 03-185 Tuesday. The LPTV Broadcasters Association said the term “low-power” is “a modern day social injustice” that stifles the service’s growth. “As we are living in the time where the term 'master bedroom' is deemed obsolete, so should the term ‘Low Power Television,’” said the filing. The Advanced Television Broadcasting Association said the agency should provide additional flexibility for stations to relocate and certainty they won’t be displaced. “The time is ripe to begin a conversation about how to provide greater certainty for LPTV operators and encourage fresh investment in the LPTV service,” said ATBA. The National Television Association opposes proposals to require translators to meet the station ID requirements that other services do. “18 years ago the Commission decided that digital translators would not be subject to a station identification requirement,” the filing said. That led to translators being constructed without that capability, NTA said. “With the proposed new requirement, translators must retrofit their transmitters, at the cost of many thousands of dollars.”

A GeoBroadcast Solutions letter in September dismissing allegations against GBS founder-CEO Chris Devine was “blatantly inaccurate," said an ex parte letter posted Friday by Luke Allen, who sued Devine in 2009 over $70 million transferred by Allen’s father, Robert Allen, to a company run by Devine. Luke Allen’s letter was being circulated in a press email Friday from NAB, a vocal opponent of the geotargeted radio proposal supported by GBS (see 2209230070). Though the September letter from GBS in docket 20-401 (see 2209270064) argued the case was “baseless” and was withdrawn by the plaintiff, Luke Allen said the case was resolved through a settlement agreement. Allen’s father was “in declining health and suffering from diminished mental capacity” when Devine convinced him to make a series of loans to Superior Broadcasting, of which Devine was president, so Superior could buy radio stations. “Contrary to what Devine told my father, Superior never purchased or owned a single radio station,” Friday’s letter said. The money was instead diverted to Devine’s own radio and marathon-running businesses, Allen said. “In reality, Superior was nothing more than a shell company. It owned no assets and had no collections or operating revenue,” the letter said. “I would urge the FCC to fully research and independently verify any assertions or representations made by Devine or his company before approving any proposal in this proceeding,” Allen said. GBS didn’t comment.

As the broadcast industry moves toward widespread ATSC 3.0 deployment, broadcasters need to ensure consumers unable to afford new TV sets aren't left behind, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Wednesday at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition, per prepared remarks. "Are there low-cost converters or dongles that the consumer electronics industry can develop? Can they be distributed at community events that broadcasters frequently host or participate in?" he asked. The transition has gone on without the widespread government involvement that characterized the digital transition, "which is to be applauded," Starks said, but there might be a role for the FCC as it had in developing a congressionally mandated digital transition equipment subsidy program "or using our role as the regulator of television equipment." He said the collection of data about individual viewers that ATSC 3.0 would enable, while it's promising in the way it would better help broadcasters compete for advertising dollars, also raises privacy concerns. He said more clarity is needed about what data broadcasters plan to collect and how they will use it. Broadcasters just want "a level playing field" and privacy rules no different from other industries, said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle during a panel at the NAB Show in New York. ATSC 3.0 broadcasters will use tracking data to provide public services such as enhanced emergency information, said E.W. Scripps Vice President-Strategy and Business Development Kerry Oslund. "Some people who talk about that same data may also think about it from an advertising perspective," Oslund said. Scripps is built on "140 years of trust, and we're not going to throw it away by abusing that trust by reaching too far into the data quagmire," Oslund said.