Comments on the FCC rulemaking notice on relaxing channel sharing rules are due Aug. 13, replies Aug. 28, said a public notice on docket 15-137 released in Wednesday's Daily Digest.
The FCC rescheduled a webinar on channel sharing originally slated for Wednesday to Aug. 13, a public notice said Tuesday.
Tegna, formerly Gannett, will sell its McLean, Virginia, headquarters for $270 million to private investment group Tamares, Tegna said in a news release Tuesday. The deal is expected to close in late Q3 or early Q4, the broadcaster said. Tegna said it will continue to occupy part of the building for 18 months. The deal allows Tegna to “optimize” its real estate portfolio, it said. “TEGNA remains committed to staying in the Washington, D.C. area and a process is underway to find the most appropriate space to meet our company needs.”
Entercom completed its $105 million purchase of Lincoln Financial Media, with those formerly Lincoln radio stations being operated by Entercom as of Friday, Entercom said in a news release Thursday. Also as of Friday, Entercom began operating KSWD(FM) Los Angeles as part of a radio station swap with Bonneville International, which in turn is taking over four Denver-area radio stations that had been part of Entercom or Lincoln -- KOSI(FM) Denver, KYGO(FM) Denver, KKFN(FM) Longmont and KEPN(AM) Lakewood. That swap is being done to satisfy Justice Department antitrust concerns regarding Entercom's presence in the Denver market (see 1507150011). Entercom said it expects the station exchange to close by Q4, subject to FCC approval.
The FCC was right when it rejected the petition by ADX Communications regarding assignment of radio licenses to an ADX competitor, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said Friday. ADX, which has two radio stations in Pensacola, Florida, in 2012 sought to block competitor Cumulus Licensing when it filed applications for licenses at stations in the Pensacola area and nearby Mobile, Alabama, as well a change in community of license, arguing the FCC should treat the region as one market instead of the normal Arbitron market definitions and that a two-year waiting period should apply. The Media Bureau denied ADX, and the full commission affirmed the bureau's move in 2014. ADX then appealed. In its ruling, the court said the FCC's decision to stick with its traditional market definition methodology was reasonable and that its interpretation of waiting period language was consistent with past policy.
All AM stations should have access to any FM translator, iHeartMedia said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 13-249. In a meeting with Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, CEO Bob Pittman and other executives pushed for a variety of steps aimed at revitalizing AM radio, including authorizing all-digital AM operations on an experimental basis and the FM translator access, which "would allow AM stations to expand audience by reaching listeners who do not tune into the AM band due to signal quality or other issues," iHeartMedia said. The company also urged against reducing interference protections for Class A stations, saying that could harm the AM band.
The unpredictability of breaking news means there is no safe way to have TV stations and wireless mics coexist in the same slice of spectrum, broadcast TV networks and affiliates said in a filing posted Thursday in FCC docket 14-252. While the FCC plans to limit the number of markets in which this repacking occurs, keeping reserved spectrum for wireless mics "is critical," said the Big Four network owners, their affiliate associations and Univision. "Our stations' news gathering teams need the ability to operate nimbly in response to unpredictable local events and weather. We ourselves cannot predict which television stations in which markets will need to operationalize at a moment's notice." The broadcasters asked the agency to reject the repacking of stations or investigate more the effect of such a move on newsgathering.
The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters filed in support of an Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition proposal to offer broadcasters higher prices for their spectrum in the TV incentive auction (see 1505060035). Giving greater weight to a station’s “preclusive impact” can “lead to greater broadcaster participation in the Reverse Auction,” NABOB said in a filing in docket 12-268 reporting on a series of meetings at the FCC.
The Media Bureau has reassigned the TV broadcast licenses of three Hawaii stations from Hearst Stations to KITV, Honolulu, and given it the authority to operate KHVO, Hilo, and KMAU, Wailuku, as satellites. The two had operated as satellites as KITV long before the sale by Hearst, the Media Bureau said Wednesday.
Entercom is trading four Denver-area radio stations to Bonneville International in exchange for one in Los Angeles and $5 million, to satisfy Department of Justice conditions on Entercom's purchase of Lincoln Financial Media. Being traded to Bonneville are Entercom's KOSI(FM) Denver and Lincoln Financial's KYGO(FM) Denver, KKFN(FM) Longmont and KEPN(AM) Lakewood. Entercom will pick up KSWD(FM) Los Angeles from Bonneville. The stations will change hands once the Lincoln Financial acquisition closes, Entercom said in a Tuesday news release. That swap will end DOJ Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review of the acquisition -- a review that had focused on how the deal would affect the Denver radio market. The stations currently owned there by Entercom and Lincoln have among the highest ratings in the market, and the Lincoln sale would have meant higher radio advertising prices and lower quality service there, DOJ said. Its Antitrust Division sued Entercom Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Washington to block the Lincoln sale, while simultaneously filing a proposed settlement. The $105 million Lincoln acquisition and the Entercom/Bonneville trades are expected to take place within days, Entercom said.