A significant uptick in false emergency system alerts in the past five years has resulted in a growing number of FCC EAS penalties in amounts that previously appeared only in indecency cases, said broadcast lawyer Scott Flick in a post Tuesday on Pillsbury Winthrop's blog. That day’s $1 million settlement by iHeartCommunications (see 1505190039) means the FCC has “taken five enforcement actions totaling nearly $2.5 million for misuse of EAS tones by broadcasters and cable networks” in the past six months, Flick said. While the financial penalty is noteworthy, the FCC also is attempting to eradicate copies of EAS tones before they can be used by future production staffs, he said. "Given the easy access to numerous recordings of EAS tones on the Internet, the FCC might be a bit optimistic that deleting the tone from a station’s production library will prevent a recurrence," Flick said. "It is perhaps an acknowledgement that most false EAS tone violations are the result of employees unaware of the FCC’s prohibition rather than a producer bent on violating the rule."

IHeartCommunications agreed to pay $1 million after admitting to misusing emergency alert system tones, and will follow a compliance and reporting plan, said an FCC news release Tuesday. IHeartCommunications must remove or delete all simulated or actual EAS tones from the company’s audio production libraries, the FCC said. Oct. 24, iHeart’s WSIX(FM) Nashville aired a false emergency alert during the broadcast of the nationally syndicated The Bobby Bones Show, the agency said. While commenting on an EAS test that aired during the 2014 World Series, Bobby Bones, the show’s host, broadcast an EAS tone from a recording of an earlier nationwide EAS test, the commission said. This false tone was sent to more than 70 affiliated stations airing the show and resulted in some of these stations retransmitting the tones, setting off a cascade of false EAS alerts on radio and TV stations in multiple states, it said. IHeartMedia did not immediately return a request for comment.

FCC suspension of the non-Class A low-power DTV transition deadline took effect Friday, said an agency notice in that day's Federal Register. The deadline was Sept. 1 (see 1504270043), the Media Bureau noted. "Until a decision is reached in the rulemaking and the Commission can determine the effect of the future incentive auction and repacking, LPTV and TV translator stations may delay completing construction of their digital facilities." Class A's must transition by Sept. 1, the bureau said.

CBS said consumers can now show content from CBS.com and the CBS app on TVs using Google’s Chromecast. A news release said the service will cost $5.99 a month and give consumers access to more than 7,000 on-demand episodes from the current season, previous seasons and classic shows, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in more than 20 markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, with more to be added each month, said the broadcaster.

Full-power and Class A licensees have until May 29 to file a license application with the FCC Media Bureau in order to be eligible for protection in the post-incentive auction repacking, the bureau said in a public notice Wednesday. “This is the last opportunity for all full power and Class A licensees to modify their licenses to fix any errors they may have made in providing us their operating parameters and to have those modifications protected in the repacking process,” the PN said. After the May 29 deadline, the bureau will put out an Eligibility PN “listing the facilities eligible for protection in the repacking process and relinquishment in the reverse auction based on the database technical information on file with the Commission. ” Licensees will then have 30 days to file Pre-Auction Technical Certification Forms certifying that the information in the eligibility PN is correct. A copy of the form was released with the deadline reminder PN. “We encourage all full power and Class A licensees to review the Form and begin the process of gathering the information necessary to complete it,” the bureau said. The eligibility PN and the Pre-Auction Technical Certification Form are expected to be released and available for filing by “mid-June 2015,” the bureau said.

The FCC OK'd TDS moving KOHD Bend, Oregon, to Channel 18 from 51. The station owner had said the move would eliminate potential interference in the lower 700 MHz A block adjacent to Channel 51 in the Portland market, said a Media Bureau order Thursday. An NPRM on the proceeding had identified the carrier as T-Mobile (see 1504100038). The new order said the change will be effective once the decision appears in the Federal Register, "an expedited effective date" that's needed 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. That deadline was the subject of bureau public notice included along with the KOHD order in Thursday's FCC Daily Digest (see 1505140044).

A proposal for the FCC to no longer require radio broadcasters to disclose on-air some details of sponsorship identification was opposed by groups favoring such disclosure, show filings posted to docket 15-52 Tuesday and Wednesday. The Radio Broadcasters Coalition petitioned Nov. 26 for a class waiver of the sponsorship ID requirements, to provide information about sponsored material through less frequent on-air announcements with enhanced online disclosures (see 1503130051). Those opposed to the request raised issues of payola if such ID goes online. "Preventing structural payola is essential for promoting broadcast localism," said Common Cause, the Future of Music Coalition, Media Alliance, National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Prometheus Radio Project, United Church of Christ and a few other groups. "If this waiver were granted, large corporations could purchase airtime for songs advocating for their preferred social or political viewpoints" and "the vast majority of listeners would never know," they said. Common Cause and the Future of Music Coalition also made individual filings, as did musicians including David Lowery. It's "incorrect" that the waiver would promote payola, said the radio coalition that includes Beasley Broadcast, Cox Enterprises, Emmis, Entercom and iHeartMedia. "Rather than eviscerate protections against payola, the requested waiver would result in easier and more useful public access to information about sponsored music and sports programming," it said. "Restrictions on payola would remain in full force if the waiver request were granted and more information, not less, would be available to the consumer."

The FCC Media Bureau rejected two petitions for reconsideration asking it to reverse its rejection of two applications for review challenging two forfeiture orders against low-power TV stations. The petitions by KM LPTV of Milwaukee and KM LPTV of Chicago were dismissed as being “repetitious,” the bureau said in orders on reconsideration issued Tuesday. The forfeitures were related to violations of children’s TV rules. The licensees raised “verbatim” the same issues in the petitions for recon that they did in their prior applications for review, the bureau said. The arguments “plainly do not warrant Commission consideration" because they rely "on arguments that have been fully considered and rejected by the Commission within the same proceeding,” the bureau said.

A group of broadcast attorneys met Wednesday with members of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force, Media Bureau, Wireless Bureau and the Office of General Counsel to discuss how anti-collusion rules will apply to attorneys representing TV stations in the reverse auction, according to an ex parte filing posted by the FCC Monday. The anti-collusion rules are expected to limit severely communications among attorneys representing TV stations, Communications Daily has reported. Wiley Rein's Kathleen Kirby, Fletcher Heald's Stephen Lovelady and Jack Goodman were the broadcast attorneys in the meeting.

Pandora told the FCC it will take several steps to comply with last week's foreign ownership declaratory ruling (see 1505040065 and 1505050049) requiring the streaming music company to say what it will do to monitor investments so foreign ownership doesn't exceed 49.9 percent. Pandora said it will seek to qualify its shares in a Depository Trust Co. program so foreign-owned stock goes into a segregated account, monitor stock held by current and former directors and officers, monitor SEC filings and ask some shareholders to fill out a citizenship questionnaire. The board "will promptly amend Pandora’s bylaws to give Pandora the authority" to monitor ownership, the company said Friday. It filed an amendment to its application to buy KXMZ(FM), Box Elder, South Dakota, a deal related to which Pandora sought the declaratory ruling. Many of the steps Pandora said it will take were suggested in the declaratory ruling.