Many cities with large populations of Latino, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese speakers have few broadcasters transmitting in those languages, said Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, NAACP and 23 other groups in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler posted Thursday in docket 06-119. Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which took New Orleans’ only Spanish-language station off air for eight days, the groups said. “During those eight days, over 100,000 Latinos had no landline service, no cellular telephony, no television, no radio, and no print media in their language,” the groups said. Civil rights organizations in 2005 proposed the “Katrina Petition,” under which stations in localities would be designated to broadcast emergency alert system (EAS) warnings in multiple languages, but the FCC hasn’t acted on it, the groups said. The FCC should require stations to certify they will help other stations transmit life-saving information in emergencies as a condition of license renewal, they said. “Stations that declare that they ‘will not transmit, or even help other stations transmit, life-saving information in an emergency’ should have their fitness to hold an FCC license formally reviewed,” the letter said. “State EAS plans can easily be amended to incorporate reasonable methods of ensuring that lifesaving information finds its way to the public in an emergency.”

NAB, the Radio Television Digital News Association, Society of Professional Journalists and other groups, plus legislators and regulators, expressed sadness Wednesday (see here, here and here) over the on-air shooting of two employees of TV station WDBJ Roanoke, Virginia. FCC Commissioners Mike O’Rielly, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel also expressed sorrow over the event via Twitter.

The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition will support the vacant channel order if the FCC prioritizes low-power TV stations owned by government entities over unlicensed users, Coalition Director Mike Gravino told Incentive Auction Task Force, Media Bureau and Office of Engineering Technology staff in a meeting last week, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-268. Since the FCC hasn’t studied the issue of displaced civic LPTV stations, it doesn’t have a basis for using its discretionary authority, Gravino said.

The FCC Media Bureau released an agenda for its Sept. 9 workshop on using Form 323 data covering commercial broadcast ownership, in a public notice Wednesday. Since the event has certain technical requirements, attendees are encouraged to preregister for the event and download necessary data before the workshop. Due to an IT upgrade (see 1508200049), FCC computer systems will be unavailable for six days, starting Sept. 2, the PN said. “Workshop attendees are encouraged to preregister and download the required materials by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, September 2.”

Class A TV stations must terminate analog transmissions by Sept. 1, the FCC Media Bureau said in a reminder public notice Tuesday. The deadline stems from the FCC low-power TV DTV order, the PN said. “Class A television stations may no longer operate any facility in analog mode associated with their Class A license after 11:59 pm, local time, on September 1, 2015.” Class A stations that haven’t completed constructing digital facilities must go silent while they do so, it said. Class A's silent for more than 30 days must request permission from the FCC, and stations silent for 12 consecutive months risk losing their authorization, it said. Stations that require additional time can submit a request for tolling, it said, and stations that haven’t completed the transition are obligated to notify their viewers on-air “of their forthcoming digital transition.”

More than 1,500 low-power TV stations and translators owned by more than 200 government entities are likely to be displaced by the incentive auction, said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino in a newsletter Friday. Displacement costs for the auction could cost those stations close to $225 million, Gravino said. The FCC should have studied the impacts of the auction on the “civic sector,” Gravino said. “The civic sector broadcasting stations make up over 30% of current licensed stations, and new construction permits,” he said. “Why should unlicensed users get a free vacant channel in priority over civic broadcasters?”

Though people generally have called ATSC 3.0 the next-generation broadcast TV standard, it actually will be a suite of about 20 standards, said Rich Chernock, chairman of ATSC Technology Group 3, the committee that's supervising ATSC 3.0 standards development, in a blog post. “When considering what the architecture for the ATSC 3.0 documents will be, think of standards like toolboxes,” said Chernock, chief science officer at Triveni Digital. “When you’re faced with a plumbing task, your ability to reach into a box containing plumber’s tools only is quite helpful, as opposed to a box containing a jumble of electrical, woodworking and plumbing tools.” ATSC 3.0 specs will cover “an entire next-generation broadcasting system, from the RF transmission through presentation to the viewer or listener and all the necessary items in between,” Chernock said. “All told, the documentation for ATSC 3.0 will easily be in excess of 1,000 pages. As you might imagine, a single monolithic document of this size would be very difficult to create, to manage and especially to read. This is one of the reasons it makes sense to have a suite of standards, covering different aspects of the overall ATSC 3.0 system.”

The FCC Media Bureau will host an information session on filing Form 323 biennial ownership reports Sept. 22, the bureau said in a public notice Thursday. “Bureau Staff will present an overview of Form 323, conduct a filing demonstration, and address common filing mistakes,” the PN said. The 2015 biennial Form 323 filing window opens Oct. 1, and all reports must be filed by Dec. 2, the PN said. The info session will be at FCC headquarters at noon, and those wishing to attend in person are asked to register by emailing form323@fcc.gov before Sept. 18. The session will also be streamed live on fcc.gov.

Tower Broadcasting bought four radio stations in the Elmira, New York, area from Pembrook Pines Elmira for an undisclosed price in a deal that closed Monday, Tower said. The stations are AMs WEHH Elmira Heights and WELM Elmira, and FMs WOKN Southport and WLVY Elmira, Tower said. Four translators serving the Elmira market were also part of the deal, Tower said.

The FCC has taken a “curious” approach to regulating broadcasting, said Matthew Berry, chief of staff to Commissioner Ajit Pai, in a speech to the Michigan Broadcaster Association Tuesday. “Where broadcasters support loosening regulatory requirements, the Commission opposes doing so,” Berry said in prepared remarks: “But in areas where broadcasters oppose relaxing regulation, the Commission supports it.” Instead, the FCC should be consistent and “promote regulatory parity” for broadcasting with competing industries. The draft order on AM revitalization is a step in the right direction, Berry said, though progress on the item “has been slower than many would have liked.” Broadcasters should weigh in at the FCC to ensure that proposals such as FM translators for AM and eliminating the ratchet rule are enacted, he said. “Translators aren’t a panacea. But they can serve as a bridge to the future as we work on long-term fixes for the AM band,” Berry said. Though he didn’t comment on the prospects for the AM revitalization, Berry said he was optimistic about prospects for a draft order that would allow broadcasters to disclose contest rules online instead of on air. “At the Commission, we face many difficult and complicated issues. The contest rule isn’t one of them.” Berry said. He expects the FCC will act “to bring broadcasters some common-sense regulatory relief,” on contests “within the next month,” he said. The commission has “made a mess of things” with its recent rules on TV incentive auction procedures and the post-auction band plan, Berry said. The FCC 2010 National Broadband Plan originally called for the incentive auction to generate 120 MHz of spectrum, but Berry said expectations are now reduced because of FCC actions. Berry also criticized plans to repack broadcasters into the duplex gap and reserve a vacant band for unlicensed use. “Broadcasters should have priority” in the broadcast band, he said. “Unfortunately, the Commission’s majority no longer believes that.” Repacking broadcasters into wireless spectrum is “a short-sighted, irresponsible attempt to put a bandage on flawed auction rules,” said Berry. The agency should also take up its required review of its ownership regulations and do away with outdated ownership rules, he said. Berry also said he was “optimistic” about efforts in Congress to change rules to allow the grandfathering of existing joint sales agreements. The commission had no immediate response.