The FCC Media Bureau rejected Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio’s appeal of the rejection of over $60,000 in expenses related to the post-incentive auction repacking, said an order Friday. NETO sought to be reimbursed for a pair of pre-repack field strength measurements for two of its stations, but per-transition measurements aren’t covered by the catalog of expenses and aren’t eligible for reimbursement, the bureau said. NETO argued the tests were needed for comparison to assess its post repack coverage, but the FCC determined each station’s pre-repack coverage using the TV Study software, the order said. “NETO does not and cannot explain how a pre-repack field strength test is required to confirm that the post-repack coverage is consistent” with the information in TV Study, the order said. “Neither the Spectrum Act nor the Incentive Auction R&O contemplated that pre-repack field strength measurements would be necessary or utilized in determining baseline coverage areas and population served.”

A hearing on allegations that radio licensee Entertainment Media Trust wasn’t truthful with the FCC about its ownership (see 1906050063) is set for July 13, 2020, said an order Thursday in docket 19-156 from Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin after a pretrial conference Tuesday. April 3 is the deadline for requesting a summary decision, and June 22 for replies to objections. The allegations against EMT concern whether its stations are under the control of felon Robert Romanik, who calls himself “The Grim Reaper of Radio.” The parties will file monthly status reports, with the first due Aug. 6.

An FCC Media Bureau letter of inquiry that revealed an ongoing investigation into Sinclair(see 1906270068) over allegations of lack of candor was inadvertently posted last month through “a clerical error,” said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai during a post-meeting news conference Wednesday. The LOI was taken down later the same day it was posted. Sinclair said the LOI was connected with efforts to resolve outstanding issues connected with the Sinclair/Tribune hearing designation order. Pai declined to comment on further details of the investigation.

NAB Senior Vice President-Technology Lynn Claudy doesn’t buy into the notion that 8K long term will be “impractical” for terrestrial broadcasting, he blogged Tuesday. “In the world of ATSC 3.0, 8K is not on the near-term roadmap,” said Claudy, ATSC’s board chairman. But an “efficient compression scheme,” such as the Versatile Video Coding system due to be standardized by the end of 2020 (see 1903210057), in “concert” with single-frequency-network transmission configurations that increase the average signal-to-noise ratio in the broadcast service area, “could potentially facilitate reliable delivery of the data rates that are in the ballpark needed for 8K service,” said Claudy: “Never say never?” His “main point” is for broadcasters to “take notice that 8K is likely to become a major part of the media landscape, although not immediately,” he said. “It will be a niche market initially due to all the technical and economic challenges but in the longer term we’re likely to have 8K sets in our homes, high value content is likely to be produced in 8K and one way or another that content will be made available to the mainstream consumer audience.” There will be 8K opportunities for broadcasters, as 3.0 and “its eventual successors take hold,” he said. He advised “keeping up to date on the progress of 8K technology, products and market penetration” as “time well spent.”

The FCC Media Bureau and Office of Managing Director ordered two radio licensees to pay overdue regulatory fees, per Tuesday’s Daily Digest. Durlyn Broadcasting, licensee of WPNC(FM) Plymouth, North Carolina, owes over $11,500 in regulatory fees going back to 2010, while Livingston Fulton, owner of WSRA(AM) Albany, Georgia, owes $13,800 in overdue fees starting the same year, the orders said. Both have 60 days to show that full payment has been made or they could face license revocation.

The FCC should consider new rules or a waiver process to allow creating new, smaller locally operated noncommercial educational FM stations on the reserved band channels in rural and suburban communities outside the top-50 media markets, said REC Networks in a petition for rulemaking posted Monday. More than 2,500 communities in the U.S have reserved band channels that would be available but for the protected contours of second and third adjacent channel stations, the petition said. Previous waivers granted to low-power FM stations and full-power stations demonstrate there's “no technical reason to maintain this prohibitive policy as it pertains to lower-powered primary facilities,” the petition said. “Many of these communities, that are distanced from urbanized areas and major media markets are being excluded from new non-profit noncommercial locally-based and locally accountable community radio services,” the petition said. REC Networks’ founder Michelle Bradley told us she submitted the petition because she believes that a new NCE application window is in the works and that small communities shouldn't be blocked from participating.

The full FCC voted in three separate orders released Monday ( here, here, here) to reject the latest attempts by Edward Stolz to appeal Entercom’s 2-year-old buy of CBS Radio (see 1906050036), even after having previously given the Media Bureau delegated authority to reject Stolz’s “repetitious” filings (see 1806260068). “Although we find that denial of the Petition by the Bureau, rather than the Commission, would have been appropriate under section 1.106(p) of the Rules, we have decided to act on the Petition in order to discourage any further requests for reconsideration or review,” said the orders. Stolz has the option to take his case to the U.S. Court of Appeals, the orders said. Stolz’s filings argued -- as they have previously -- that Entercom isn’t fit to be a licensee because of a death related to a radio contest run by one of its stations, that CBS Radio had character issues involving the allegations against former CEO Leslie Moonves, and that the FCC doesn’t have the authority to reject Stolz’s prior filings. Stolz doesn’t have standing to dispute the deal, filed untimely, and hasn’t submitted evidence to back his arguments, the FCC said. “The Rules do not authorize serial petitions for reconsideration and limit the circumstances under which a party may seek reconsideration of a Commission order denying reconsideration,” the agency said. Stolz didn't comment.

The DOJ should “finally recognize” that radio, broadcast TV, cable and digital advertising “now operate in the same market,” said Wichita State University Institute for the Study of Economic Growth Executive Director Theodore Bolema in an article Monday for the Free State Foundation. Bolema is also a member of FSF’s academic advisory board. DOJ’s workshop on broadcast advertising competition (see 1905030058) and stated willingness to examine the issue are welcome developments, Bolema said. Dividing the market by platform “no longer makes sense,” Bolema said. “DOJ needs to alter its past practice to account for the realities of competition and convergence in today's marketplace.”

FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin doesn’t yet have a long record, but her decisions so far indicate some trends, said Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Ari Meltzer in a blog post Monday. Halprin’s taking up of the stalled cases involving Sinclair Broadcast (see 1906270068) and Lake Broadcasting (see 1905310053) demonstrates she doesn’t allow matters to linger, Meltzer said. She also issued “strongly worded” decisions in those cases, indicating she takes issues involving candor seriously, Meltzer said: “As, perhaps, should be expected of someone who served 14 years as Ethics Counsel.” Halprin will preside over a prehearing conference Tuesday for a case on possible issues of candor and radio licensee Entertainment Media Trust (see 1906050063). Halprin’s reaction to the mid-hearing withdrawal of one of the principals in the Lake case also shows her to be “a stickler for process,” Meltzer said. “We may learn a lot more about Judge Halprin based on how she conducts her first hearing as an ALJ, and we will also be looking to see how she handles inter-party disputes, such as carriage complaints.”

The FCC should act now to allow low-power TV stations that broadcast on channel 6 analog signals that can be received by FM radios to broadcast a dual digital LPTV signal and a supplemental analog signal after the digital transition (see 1906100030), said the Preserve Community Programming Coalition, posted in docket 03-185 Friday. More than 2 million listeners use radios to receive such signals each week, PCPC said. The LPTV digital transition deadline is in two years, and without FCC action, transitioned LPTV stations would no longer be able to broadcast the channel 6 signal, the group said. To address concerns about LPTV interference with FM stations, clarify that LPTV is a secondary service to FM stations, the letter asked: Also clarify that the supplemental analog signals will be “subject to the rules applicable to FM radio multicast streams.”