The FCC shouldn’t have altered its political broadcasting rules without seeking public comment, said NAB, Hearst, Graham Media, Nexstar, Fox, E.W. Scripps and Tegna in a Friday-filed petition for reconsideration and clarification of two FCC orders on political advertising rules issued in October (see 1910170037). The orders concerned numerous political file complaints against stations owned by the petitioners. The FCC “erred in creating new disclosure and recordkeeping requirements without the benefit of input from the vast majority of the industry required to maintain political advertising files,” the broadcasters said. The political ad policies created by the orders are “in some cases unlawful” or “overbroad” and “counterproductive,” the petition said. Requirements to disclose federal candidates and issues are burdensome and could reduce speech, and stations' good-faith efforts to disclose the focus of political ads should be sufficient, the filing said. The petition also seeks a clarification that the rules apply only to noncandidate political ads, and for reconsideration of a rule barring broadcasters from identifying sponsoring entities using acronyms. The FCC should adopt a “more rational” approach that “requires broadcasters to make reasonable good faith efforts to disclose the topics that are the focus or the ‘gist’” of political ads, the petition said.

Broadcasters won’t be able to file new or modify existing quarterly children’s television reports after Dec. 17, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice on docket 17-105 Friday. The July kidvid order eliminated quarterly reports (see 1907100067) and replaced them with an annual requirement, and changes to the licensing management system to accommodate the new report mean the older sort can longer be filed or amended, the PN said. The bureau expects to be ready to accept revised children’s television reports starting Jan.1 “subject to OMB approval.”

New Jersey is in "urgent need" of an upgrade or replacement to its emergency alert system software, said a New Jersey Broadcasters Association newsletter Thursday. The current system needs replacement because of "advanced age and functional obsolescence," said NJBA, which raised the issue in August (see 1908220048). "An immediate threat to emergency communications remains a very distinct possibility after January 1st and the State needs to address this problem ASAP!" NJBA is "fervently requesting" a new system funded through grants authorized after Hurricane Sandy through New Jersey state agencies, the governor's office, the state emergency communications committee, and the FCC.

Los Angeles County supports a request from Channel 51 to remain silent until the ongoing proceeding (see 1905310045) over the low-power TV station's displacement application -- which the county opposes -- is resolved, said comments posted Wednesday. Requiring the station go on air while the agency decides if its signals will interfere with public safety communications -- as the county maintains -- “would unnecessarily endanger public safety,” LA said.

The FCC received two submissions from U.S.-based foreign media outlets for April 13-Oct. 11, said the third report on such outlets to Congress, released Tuesday. The 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requires the reports. The two outlets are the same that submitted previously: Anadolu Agency and MHz News. Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansi owns Anadolu, while MHz is “100 percent owned by U.S. Citizens” and distributes content from France Medias Monde, Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera. The services receive funding “through a government mechanism,” so MHz News filed “in the interest of transparency and out of an abundance of caution,” the report said. MHz missed the deadline but filed after being contacted.

Wi-Fi uses being considered for the 6 GHz band are “fundamentally incompatible with mobile broadcast operations used for electronic newsgathering,” NAB told FCC Office of Engineering and Technology staff, per a filing posted Friday in docket 18-295. Proposed solutions for protecting electronic newsgathering and other mobile uses of the spectrum “will be entirely ineffective,” the group said. Restricting unlicensed operations to indoor use won’t provide protection because electronic newsgathering itself frequently takes place indoors, and “there is no reason to believe that WiFi signals from indoor access points and devices will in fact remain indoors,” the association said. The FCC shouldn’t allow unlicensed operation in portions of the 6 GHz band allocated for mobile, NAB said. Others are expressing concern about opening up the band (see 1911080033).

The FCC should eliminate loopholes in rules that permit broadcasters to create local “duopolies, triopolies, and even quadropolies” using low-power stations, said the American Television Alliance in a meeting Monday with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey, Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman and bureau staff, per a filing posted Thursday in docket 18-349. “It would not serve the public interest to allow Apollo to acquire a top-four quadropoly in Greenville, Mississippi.” That combination has allowed current owner Northwest to “command among the highest retransmission consent fees in the nation,” ATVA said (see 1910310072). The ATVA meeting included representatives from AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network and America's Communications Association.

Comments on the FCC’s NPRM on broadcast antenna siting are due Dec. 6, replies Dec. 23, said Wednesday's Federal Register. The NPRM on docket 19-282 seeks comment on relaxing or eliminating seldom-used rules on unique antenna locations (see 1910230064).

Entertainment Media Trust’s administrative law judge proceeding is on hold while the broadcaster battles its own bankruptcy trustee in U.S. Bankruptcy court over how the case should proceed, according to filings (here and here) in docket 19-156 (see 1910020037). EMT filed for Chapter 7 and now seeks to have the bankruptcy proceeding voluntarily dismissed, a request that the FCC Enforcement Bureau -- EMT’s opponent in the ALJ proceeding -- seconded. Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee Donald Samson, who's now the effective licensee of EMT’s stations as part of the bankruptcy process, opposed both requests. Samson and EMT are represented by the same attorneys, which EB said in a footnote could be an ethical violation. “This dual representation appears to raise a conflict that should be addressed,” the bureau said. It's “common practice” for bankruptcy trustees to hire specialty counsel who have background with the matters connected with a bankruptcy, Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Davina Sashkin, one of the attorneys representing EMT and Samson, emailed. “Because Mr. Samson has control over EMT, he has essentially stepped into the shoes of EMT before the FCC,” she said. EB “has engaged in a relentless scorched earth campaign against EMT and then Mr. Samson, and are now calling my integrity into question,” Sashkin said. “It is wholly unprofessional.” The bureau didn't comment.The ALJ proceeding is on hold while awaiting a decision from the bankruptcy court on whether the bankruptcy will proceed, and on whether the ALJ case should be stayed if it does, the filings said. Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin scheduled a pre-hearing teleconference for Nov. 14 on the timeline for the ALJ case, over Samson’s objections, said an order Wednesday.

The FCC should issue a Further NPRM on increasing the power levels and reach of low-power FM stations, said REC Networks in reply comments posted Monday in docket 19-193. The FNPRM would contain the “LP-250” proposed rule changes on increasing the allowable power of LPFM stations that weren't in the FCC's current rulemaking on relaxing LPFM technical rules. “The use of a Further Notice is in the public interest as it will not delay the upcoming NCE [noncommercial educational] and LPFM filing windows as well as the analog TV sunset and the preparatory activities related to that,” REC said. NAB opposition to the LP-250 proposals isn’t based on interference concerns, REC said. “It’s because they want their members like Beasley, Saga, and Hubbard to be monopolistic voices in their markets and they are afraid that LPFM stations carrying programming like Democracy Now! will give their Rush [Limbaugh] and [Sean] Hannity listeners another viewpoint to consider," the REC filing said. NAB’s concerns should be focused on non-radio competitors rather than LPFMs, REC said. “Our younger generations are simply not discovering what is on the radio and many older folk that tuned out are not coming back.” NAB didn’t comment.