The FCC Media Bureau granted Pandora's application to purchase KXMZ(FM) Box Elder, South Dakota, from Connoisseur Media over the objections of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), an order issued Tuesday said. The decision in Pandora’s favor has been expected since the commission issued a declaratory ruling allowing the deal to go forward without requiring Pandora to establish that it doesn’t have majority foreign ownership, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford, who represents seller Connoisseur Media. Though ASCAP had filed a petition to deny the application, the Media Bureau said it didn’t have the standing to do so. ASCAP’s standing argument is “too attenuated and speculative to demonstrate that ASCAP has suffered or will suffer an actual or imminent injury-in-fact as a result of the KXMZ(FM) transaction,” the order said. The Media Bureau instead treated ASCAP’s arguments as an informal objection, which was also rejected. “We find that ASCAP fails to establish a substantial and material question of fact that grant of the Application would be inconsistent with the public interest,” the order said. ASCAP has the option of filing a petition for reconsideration of the bureau-level decision, but it’s not clear if it will do so, an attorney familiar with the matter said. ASCAP didn't respond to a request for comment. The purchase of KXMZ is intended to allow Pandora to qualify for music rights at the same rates enjoyed by broadcasters, Pandora has said. To fulfill that part of its plan, Pandora will have to argue the matter before the Radio Music License Committee, copyright attorneys have told us.

The FCC Media Bureau and Brooks Broadcasting agreed to a $2,500 settlement over Brooks' station KPSO-FM Falfurrias,Texas, operating less than the minimum required hours, according to a consent decree issued Thursday. KPSO was ceasing its daily programming at 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, the decree said.

The FCC needs to ensure that the incentive auction won't create “white areas” where there's no access to noncommercial educational broadcasting, said officials from the Association of Public Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS in a meeting Tuesday with aides to Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly. The FCC has “the authority to reserve a portion of the public airwaves for noncommercial educational service and the obligation to continue doing so,” the public TV entities said in a filing in docket 12-268. “The Commission has never made the continued existence of noncommercial educational reserved spectrum subject entirely to market forces and cannot reverse this well-settled policy now.”

NAB Show organizers hired an independent research firm, Exhibit Surveys, of Red Bank, New Jersey, to verify attendance at the 2015 event by asking showgoers to self-certify in a one-question “yes” or “no” email questionnaire whether they actually made the trip to Las Vegas. “Your response is extremely important for the accuracy of this project,” said the canvassing email. “Our records indicate that you registered for the 2015 NAB Show which was held April 11-16 in Las Vegas. Please click on the link below to confirm whether or not you attended and to verify your registration demographics. If any information is incorrect or missing, please select the appropriate response.” The “preliminary registered attendance” was 103,042 for the 2015 NAB Show, organizers said in an announcement April 14, the third day of the show. “All numbers are based on pre-show and onsite registration and subject to an ongoing audit,” organizers said then.

Graham Holdings sold TheRoot.com, an online magazine focused on news, opinions, culture and entertainment from the perspective of African-Americans, to La Fabrica, a division of Univision Interactive Media, said Graham and Univision in news releases Thursday. The Root launched in 2008. The website's publisher was hired by Univision (see separate report below in this issue).

The FCC let WJAR, Providence, Rhode Island, move from Channel 51 to 50 (see 1504220033), a Media Bureau order said Friday. The change will nix any interference with a wireless licensee in the lower 700 MHz A block adjacent to Channel 51 in the Boston and Providence TV markets, it noted the broadcaster had said. That licensee had been identified as T-Mobile (see 1504270028). As with another station's channel change that was recently approved (see 1505200022), the bureau said that because of a May 29 pre-auction licensing deadline for TV stations, WJAR can switch once the order appears in the Federal Register.

NAB supports the FCC plan for determining TV incentive auction opening bids, except for the plan to include dynamic reserve pricing, association representatives told aides to the agency's members in separate meetings and conference calls last week, an ex parte filing said Friday in docket 12-268. “If prices are raised to unreasonably high levels the Commission may believe it is further justified in artificially suppressing reverse auction bids that otherwise should have been accepted.” The FCC should also remain flexible about consumer education requirements after the auction, NAB said. Repacked stations have every incentive to make certain their viewers know about channel changes in advance, and are in the best position to make decisions about how to educate their viewers, it said. The commission should let wireless mics operate in the duplex gap, and not repack TV stations there, NAB said. “While it may be inconvenient for unlicensed advocates, if the Commission has any interest in newsgatherers’ ability to do their job, wireless microphones must have some small exclusive home.”

An FCC item on circulation about preserving a vacant channel in the UHF band for wireless mics and white space devices will be used by the agency to take away low-power TV spectrum, said LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino in a coalition email he described as a “rant.” The vacant channel strategy was explained to Gravino by “a senior member” of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's staff during a meeting at the FCC last week, Gravino said. The aide was Renee Gregory, said Gravino's filing posted Thursday in docket 12-268. It said that she "challenged the assertion of the Coalition that Congressional action was needed for the FCC to repurpose TV band spectrum for unlicensed use," and that since the item was on circulation, she couldn't discuss it.Wheeler has “gone rogue” and is ignoring congressional protections for LPTV and translators, Gravino said. He called out Wheeler for refusing to meet with him, calling the chairman “scared,” a bully and a failure. “The professional lobbyists and lawyers who conduct business with the FCC on behalf of clients all tell you to not make it personal, do not make personal attacks on officials, and stick to the facts,” Gravino said. “If no one stands up to the bully, then the bully gets his way, and continues to prey on the weak, and those too scared to speak up.” The FCC did not immediately comment. Earlier last week, Gravino said his meeting was canceled with NAB to discuss his plan to lobby Congress to hold an auction of low-power TV spectrum separate from the incentive auction (see 1505190060).

A mobile DTV consortium joined the North American Broadcasters Association, which said it expects Pearl TV to take an active role on NABA committees and groups, particularly on spectrum and transitioning to next-generation TV. Pearl became an associate member, said an NABA news release Wednesday, which said the consortium includes broadcasters with 170 network TV affiliates. NABA is a member of the World Broadcasting Unions, which earlier this week said its satellite group changed its name amid the move to IP video (see 1505200021).

The FCC OK of TDS moving KOHD Bend, Oregon, to Channel 18 from 51 took effect Wednesday, said an agency notice in that day's Federal Register. The station owner had said the move would nix any interference in the lower 700 MHz A block adjacent to Channel 51 in the Portland market, said a Media Bureau order earlier this month (see 1505140046). It said the "expedited effective date" was because of the May 29 pre-auction incentive licensing deadline by when stations must license newly built facilities for them to be protected in the post-auction repacking (see 1505140044).