The FCC Media Bureau designated the license of a Tennessee AM station for hearing due to the owner’s conviction for tax fraud, said a hearing designation order (HDO) Monday. Joseph Amstrong, principal of Arm & Rage, which owns WJBE Powell, is a former Tennessee state legislator. He was convicted in 2017 on charges he didn’t include a $330,000 profit on his 2008 tax filings, money that he generated by buying cigarette tax stamps and selling them after the state increased the tax rate in a bill he voted for, according to the HDO and the Knoxville News Sentinel. “In light of Armstrong’s past willingness to conceal information from another federal agency in violation of the law, we are unable to conclude on the record before us that Armstrong’s criminal convictions are not disqualifying,” said the HDO. The Media Bureau said WJBE also late-filed ownership reports and issues/program lists, and was late reporting Armstrong’s conviction to the FCC. The late filings “heighten our concern as to whether we can rely upon A&R to provide complete and accurate information to the Commission.” Armstrong in the past touted WJBE as the area’s only black-owned station. WJBE’s call sign stands for “James Brown Enterprises” and the singer was a former owner of the station. Armstrong didn’t comment.

Streaming services should be defined as MVPDs, and TV broadcasters should be able to negotiate directly with them instead of relying on networks to do so, representatives for the affiliates group of each of the top four networks said in videoconference meetings with FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, and Commissioner Brendan Carr Monday, according to ex parte filings in docket 14-261. Marketplace shifts over the past seven years have threatened advertising and retransmission consent, which the filing called TV broadcasting’s “key revenue streams.” Because the FCC doesn’t consider internet-based video services such as YouTube MVPDs and thus bound by transmission consent rules, “the Big Four networks control negotiations with virtual MVPDs. The Affiliated stations are at the mercy of agreements that they have no say in negotiating,” the filing said. The affiliate groups also targeted network-owned direct-to-consumer platforms such as Peacock, which “feature very desirable, unique content, and also frequently carry the same Network programming that, historically, had appeared exclusively on broadcast stations.” Local affiliates’ “loss of valuable exclusivity hinders their ability to negotiate fair compensation for retransmission of their signals,” the filing said. The affiliate groups said tech platforms should have to compensate local stations for news content, which they’re advocating on Capitol Hill. “Shifts in the video programming ecosystem have challenged local broadcasters in ways that could not have been anticipated in 2014,” when the FCC opened the docket on classifying online video distributors as MVPDs, the filing said.

Geotargeted radio delivered by originating content on FM boosters “could improve the economics for any size radio station as well as promote localism and other public interest benefits,” GeoBroadcast Solutions told FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in a meeting Monday, said an ex parte filing in docket 20-401. Radio stations that deploy the tech could get increased rates and revenue, the filing said. Analyst firm BIA Advisory Services estimated overall revenue for radio would increase if every radio station adopted the tech, the filing said. A group of larger broadcasters including iHeartMedia and the NAB argued the targeted ads would lower rates for the entire radio industry (see 2202090047).

The FCC should examine whether smaller broadcasters should face the same regulatory “burdens” as bigger companies, FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington told the National Religious Broadcasters "Gathering of Christian Communicators" last week, said a news release from Simington’s office Tuesday. “Many broadcast rules apply identical burdens to organizations of 5 full-time staff, and of 500 full-time staff,” said the release. “I would support a fresh look at some of the Commission rules considered most burdensome to small, family-owned broadcast stations to see if public interest is served by their equal application to every broadcast organization.”

Cable groups and broadcasters are at odds over how FCC proposals loosening multicast rules for the ATSC 3.0 transition should restrict the number of multicast channels broadcasters can offer, according to reply comments filed in docket 16-142 by Monday’s deadline. The FCC “should rely on its predictive judgment about how reasonable actors motivated by financial gain could act in this undeveloped space,” said the American TV Alliance. ATVA wants the agency to limit broadcasters hosting each other in the transition to the number of multicast streams they have in ATSC 1.0. NAB said broadcasters should be limited to “carry only programming that they could carry on their own facilities as constrained by state-of-the-art technology.” Broadcast consortium BitPath suggested the “cable interests’ concerns can be fully addressed by plainly stating that no station may, through the hosting rules, end up with more capacity than it started with.” Broadcasters wishing to launch new multicast streams above their capacity by hosting them on other stations should be required to simulcast them in ATSC 3.0, said NCTA. The proceeding just codifies and streamlines procedures the FCC has been allowing for two years through grants of special temporary authority, said One Media. “The cable lobby has voiced phantom concerns that are aimed at slowing down or upending ATSC 3.0 deployments they view as a potential competitor to the pay-TV industry,” said NAB. “The routine grant of waivers by the FCC over the past several years to accomplish what the Second FNPRM proposes to codify has not strained cable capacity in any way,” said America’s Public Television Stations and PBS in a joint filing.

The full FCC rejected an appeal by Deerfield Media and other broadcasters of a $512,228 per station forfeiture order over violation of the good faith negotiation rules, said an order on reconsideration Monday (see 2107280068). The stations involved are affiliated with Sinclair Broadcast through service agreements, but Sinclair isn't a party in the proceeding. The broadcasters argued the forfeiture order violated their right to due process because they lacked fair notice that they were violating the rules and of the magnitude of the penalty. “Dismissal of the Petition is warranted under section 1.106 of the Commission’s rules because Defendants failed to raise their constitutional due process arguments earlier in this proceeding though they could have done so,” the order said. The broadcasters also didn’t make any public interest arguments for why their forfeiture should be reconsidered, the order said. “We are not persuaded that Defendants lacked notice of the potential magnitude of sanctions for violation of the good faith standard and rule.” The order also rejected arguments by individual broadcasters that their forfeiture amount should be reduced for inability to pay.

Compliance with the FCC’s foreign-sponsored content rules is required beginning Tuesday according to a notice for that day’s Federal Register. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied a stay of the rules requested by broadcast groups (see 2202250061), but oral argument in the broader challenge to the rule change will be April 12. The effective date of the requirements was delayed while waiting for OMB Paperwork Reduction Act approval. The rules require broadcasters to check if entities seeking to lease broadcast time are registered as foreign agents in FCC or Foreign Agents Registration Act databases and then air disclosures if the content is sponsored by a foreign government.

Geotargeted radio ads won’t have negative economic consequences for radio stations because the tech would be voluntary under the proposed change to the FCC’s booster rules, said GeoBroadcast Solutions in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 20-401. “No broadcaster will do so if it would not be economically advantageous,” said GBS, which owns the geotargeted radio technology. Under the proposal, “some radio broadcasters may continue to offer market-wide ad buys,” said GBS. “Other broadcasters may realize that they can increase revenue, in a race to the top, by segmenting the market.” Opponents of the rule change, which include large radio industry groups such as iHeart, have said geotargeted ads would bring down ad rates for the whole industry. “It is not the FCC’s job to legislate business approaches,” GBS said.

An initial status conference on the license proceeding for Snake River Radio (see 2202080071) will be held virtually March 31, said an order Monday from FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin. Snake River Radio’s KPCQ Chubbuck, Idaho, has been silent for 1,077 days since 2018, which the agency said is 80% of its license term.

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on channel substitution requests for E.W. Scripps stations in Montana, said multiple NPRMs in Friday’s Daily Digest. Scripps is seeking to change KRTV Great Falls from Channel 7 to 22 in docket 22-117, KBZK Bozeman from 13 to 27 in docket 22-114, KXLF-TV Butte from 5 to 15 in docket 22-115, KPAX-TV Missoula from 7 to 25 in docket 22-116, and KTVH-DT Helena from 12 to 31 in docket 22-118. Comments on the NPRMs will be due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 45 days after.