Existing equal employment opportunity rules “already push the outer limits of constitutionality” and the FCC should “tread carefully” on EEO enforcement, said NAB in comments posted Monday in docket 19-177 (see 1906240028). “The existing regulatory approach is likely as effective as possible,” NAB said. The Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council and 36 other diversity groups disagreed, offering in a joint filing a host of proposed revisions to FCC EEO enforcement. The FCC should gather EEO data from licensees, especially from those found to have failed to engage in broad recruitment; require certification that job postings occurred before hiring decisions were made; audit licensees that flagged by the EEO Commission; and open an inquiry into the lack of minorities in radio news, the diversity groups said. “EEO enforcement is a matter of the highest priority,” the joint filing said. “There is simply no evidence that increasing EEO requirements and/or reporting will meaningfully improve diversity,” NAB said. “Rather than writing new rules,” the FCC should increase outreach about job openings and "reduce unnecessary burdens on broadcasters, especially small stations,” NAB said. America's Communication Association said the agency shouldn't expand EEO enforcement, and should ensure “protections for smaller MVPDs in Commission audits and investigations are preserved.” If the FCC relaxes the employment unit threshold for EEO reporting for broadcasters, it should do the same for MVPDs, ACA said.

Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin should grant Entertainment Media Trust's request for a stay (see 1909170047) so it can liquidate its broadcast stations and sell off its licenses, said EMT trustee Dennis Watkins in a response filing in docket 19-156. EMT “is asking the FCC to stay its proceeding to allow a court in a collateral proceeding to allow EMT to lose its licenses (with the FCC’s approval) even faster than it would were the FCC hearing proceeding to reach the conclusion sought be the Enforcement Bureau,” the Trustee said. EMT is pursuing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- with assets liquidated by a trustee -- rather than a Chapter 11 where they would remain under EMT's control, the filing said. EMT “will suffer irreparable harm if a stay is not granted,” the filing said. The proceeding has cost EMT “nearly $150,000 in attorney’s fees” and the hearing has “not even completed the first round of written discovery.”

Broadcast licensee Hubbard’s Advertising Agency faces a proposed fine of $15,000 and a shortened license renewal period over repeated violations of the FCC’s public file rules, said a Media Bureau order and notice of apparent liability in Friday’s Daily Digest. Hubbard’s is the licensee of AM station WLLL Lynchburg, Virginia, and in the renewal application, Hubbard’s said station operator Fletcher Hubbard “is 92 years old and is not computer literate." He didn't understand how to access WLLL’s online public file "let alone how to upload documents to the file.” Hubbard’s adult children haven’t been able to locate the issues and programs lists that are missing from the station’s file, the NAL and order said. The children said they will make certain going forward that WLLL will be in compliance, the NAL and order said. “Neither the negligent acts or omissions of station employees or agents, nor the subsequent remedial actions undertaken by the licensee, excuse or nullify a licensee’s rule violation,” the bureau said. WLLL’s renewal application is being granted for two years instead of the usual eight, to allow the agency to monitor the station’s compliance.

Nexstar’s completed deal with Tribune leaves the combined company (see 1909190080) “just a hair under” the broadcast ownership cap, limiting options for TV mergers and acquisitions, said CEO Perry Sook Friday on an investor call. Though Nexstar has a year and a half option to buy back WPIX New York -- divested to Scripps as part of the transaction -- doing so would require some sort of “triggering event” such as a rule change, Sook said. Being so close to the cap likely means Nexstar would need to sell or swap stations to get deals done in the TV industry without deregulation, Sook said.

Local commercial broadcast TV and radio industries create more than 318,000 jobs, said a study commissioned by NAB and authored by Woods & Poole Economics and BIA Advisory Services. Local broadcasting's largest impact on the American economy stems from its role as a forum for advertising of goods and services that stimulates economic activity, the study said, estimating over $988 billion in annual gross domestic product.

The Advanced Warning and Response Network Alliance met with FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Sept. 12, said a filing posted in FCC docket 16-142 Thursday. The meeting was an update on advanced emergency alerts and ATSC 3.0. AWARN met with the offices of Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Mike O’Rielly last month (see 1908230039).

The full FCC rejected the latest appeal of a Kentucky-based former low-power TV licensee who broadcast without a valid license for 18 years, said an order Thursday. Vearl Pennington failed to renew his licenses in 1998, and didn't file a renewal petition until 2004, failing then to pay the required fee, the order said. After the licenses were canceled and deleted, Pennington continued to broadcast until 2017. Enforcement action in 2019 culminated with commissioners voting to approve a $144,000 fine for Pennington and fellow licensee Michael Williamson (see 1901290041). Pennington failed to show canceling his licenses was in error, the order said. “The only thing extraordinary in this case is the extent to which the licensee neglected his duty to abide by the Commission’s rules,” the agency said. “Pennington appears to have taken no steps in the twelve-year period between submitting the 2004 Renewal Applications and filing the Petition in 2017 to ascertain whether the Stations were operating with a valid authorization.”

Nexstar competed the $7.2 billion buy of Tribune, it announced Thursday. The combined broadcaster is “the nation’s largest pure-play local broadcast television and digital media company,” it said. It reaches 39 percent of U.S. TV households under current FCC rules, the maximum under the national ownership cap. With the deal’s close, an associated $1.33 billion in divestitures of 21 TV stations to Tegna, Scripps and Circle City Broadcast was completed. Scripps’ buy of eight stations, including in New York, Phoenix and Miami, makes it the fourth-largest broadcaster, it said. The FCC OK'd the Nexstar deal in a 3-2 party-line vote announced Monday (see 1909160065).Tegna bought 11 TV stations for $740 million, it said. The markets include Hartford, Memphis and Des Moines. “These acquisitions enhance and diversify our portfolio of Big Four stations in key markets, including election battleground states,” said CEO Dave Lougee.

Stations should be able to satisfy FCC notice requirements (see 1909030057) with a tab on their homepage that says “Pending FCC Applications (or something similar)” rather than the full notice text, said NAB in a call with Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner Friday, said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-264. “It might be more appropriate and consistent with consumer expectations."

Entertainment Media Trust's bankruptcy filing and stay request is a “calculated attempt” to keep FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin and other parties in the case from receiving documents, said a filing in docket 19-156 from Mark Kern, who filed the petition to deny that precipitated EMT’s hearing designation order (see 1909120069). “There is no evidence” bankruptcy relief is needed, he said. EMT’s bankruptcy petition shows assets of just over $2 million exceed debt of $121,000, Kern wrote. EMT hasn’t produced documents requested by the FCC and Kern and shouldn’t be considered eligible for a stay, he said. The Enforcement Bureau motioned Tuesday to compel EMT to respond in full to its document requests.