CBS and Nexstar inked a multiyear renewal of network affiliation agreements covering Nexstar stations in 15 markets, they said Tuesday. Nexstar owns and/or operates CBS affiliates in 39 markets, they said.

Beasley Broadcast Group doesn’t expect an order on the FCC’s quadrennial review of ownership rules until early 2020, said CEO Caroline Beasley on the company’s Q2 earnings call Monday. “Litigation” -- likely the pending case before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 1906130052) -- is the reason for the expected delay, Beasley said. The radio broadcaster is concentrating on digital media and its acquisition of stations in Detroit (see 1906100033), Beasley said. Beasley’s Q2 results show $65.7 million net revenue, up from $61 million in Q2 2018.

Cunningham Broadcasting and Deerfield Media, companies associated with Sinclair Broadcast, both also filed in opposition to an informal petition from viewer Ihor Gawdiak (see 1908020035) that sought to force stations owned by the broadcasters into an early license renewal. Like Sinclair’s filing, both Deerfield and Cunningham challenged Gawdiak’s standing to bring the petition.

The FCC should relax interference rules to allow more low-power FM stations to operate in communities that don’t have radio stations licensed in their areas, said the National Federation of Community Broadcasters in a letter posted Monday in docket RM-11846. “NFCB strongly believes it is in the public interest to provide more opportunities for rural communities to be served by radio, an essential medium in the nation,” the filing said. NFCB supports proposals from REC Networks (see 1907080053) that would allow LPFM stations in “more than 2,000 areas.” New non-commercial educational radio stations “would provide important access to emergency, educational and municipal information,” NFCB said.

A petition to terminate the FCC Media Bureau’s investigation of Sinclair Broadcast and to require early Sinclair station renewal filings should be rejected for a lack of standing, said Sinclair in an undocketed opposition filing posted Friday. The petition, apparently from a viewer of Sinclair’s station WBFF Baltimore named Ihor Gawdiak, doesn’t appear to be available on the FCC’s electronic comment filing system, and Gawdiak didn’t respond to a request for comment. A Media Bureau letter requesting information from Sinclair for the investigation was only made public inadvertently, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai (see 1907100068). “Mr. Gawdiak has no authority to dictate to the Media Bureau how it may conduct its investigations,” Sinclair said. Gawdiak’s petition doesn’t demonstrate why he should have the standing to make such a request, Sinclair said, so the petition should "be promptly dismissed or denied.”

Without more relaxed ownership rules, the smartphone could devastate radio the way the internet has devastated newspapers, said Zimmer Radio President John Zimmer in a letter to the FCC posted Friday in docket 18-349. If FCC rules allowed radio groups to buy more stations locally, Zimmer could “try to create a model like that of satellite radio” on a local scale, Zimmer said. “I know in my heart and head that this would allow radio operators to bring more local news and more program diversity to their communities.”

The FCC should reduce proposed regulatory fees for radio and move forward with a C-band plan that reallocates 200 MHz of spectrum, said NAB in a call with two aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 18-122. “NAB recognizes the Commission is under time pressure to complete the rulemaking, but asks the Commission to reduce the proposed fees for radio to more accurately reflect the Commission’s budget and the rather modest staffing required,” said the filing. “Continued pressure” to increase the amount of spectrum being reallocated “risks breaking” the existing video content distribution system, NAB said. Reallocating 200 MHz “can both free up a large swath of spectrum while protecting existing users.”

The FCC Media Bureau granted an unopposed market modification petition for WRNN-TV New Rochelle, New York, said an order posted Thursday in docket 19-95. WRNN License Company requested modification of the station’s market to include communities served by Spectrum’s Bergen County, New Jersey, cable system, the order said.

DOJ will require Nexstar divest TV stations in 13 markets to approve the $6.4 billion deal to buy Tribune, said a department news release and complaint Wednesday evening. Nexstar had initially proposed to divest stations in 15 markets to bring the deal in line with FCC ownership regulations. Many of the divestiture markets requested by Justice overlap with Nexstar’s original divestiture proposal (see 1903200058). “Without the required divestitures, Nexstar’s merger with Tribune threatens significant competitive harm to cable and satellite TV subscribers and small businesses,” said Antitrust Division Chief Makan Delrahim. The department and state attorneys general from Virginia, Pennsylvania and Illinois filed a civil antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the deal, along with a settlement proposal. Delrahim's ”pleased” to have reached a solution through “good faith settlement talks.” Without the divestitures, the deal could have resulted in higher retransmission consent fees in the 13 markets, including Grand Rapids, Michigan; Richmond, Virginia; and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Nexstar didn't comment.

The FCC’s revamped FM translator rules will take effect Aug. 13, says a notice set for Wednesday’s Federal Register (see 1905090053). Several entities filed petitions for reconsideration of those rules, says another notice for Wednesday’s FR, and the LPFM Coalition is seeking a stay (see 1907290064). Oppositions to the petitions for reconsideration are due Aug. 15, the FR said.