The FCC Public Safety Bureau posted state emergency alert system plans for each state, announced Chief Lisa Fowlkes in a blog post Tuesday. “We are also taking this opportunity to strongly encourage State Emergency Communications Committees to review their plans at least annually and submit any updates to us." To prepare for emergencies, local emergency managers should coordinate with their state emergency communications committees, the blog said. “These actions can help you keep your communities safe.” SECC reports on multilingual EAS alerting show it to be adopted in only a few localities (see 1904240021).
FCC auction 100 of FM translator construction permits concluded Monday and raised $436,500 from 11 bidders for 11 permits, said a public notice posted Wednesday on docket 17-329 (see 1905160053). Red Wolf Broadcasting was the biggest bidder, with a $162,000 for a translator in Connecticut. Other winning bids came from Salem Communications for a Louisville, Kentucky, translator, and Townsquare Media for a Washington translator. Down payments are due July 18, final payments Aug. 1, the PN said.
The FCC’s equal employment opportunity NPRM (see 1906240028) “raises few specific issues,” blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. The only specific “potential problem area” is “the concern that the outreach for recruits to fill job openings may be done in some instances after the jobs that are being advertising have already been filled,” Oxenford said Monday. Outside of that, the NPRM is “asks a series of general questions,” he said.
The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau updated price ranges in the FCC catalog of eligible repacking reimbursement expenses for full-power and Class A stations and MVPDs to reflect the annual update of the producer price index by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, said a public notice Monday in docket 16-306. The PPI increased 2.8 percent over the previous figure. The new numbers were integrated into the licensing and management system, the PN said. The expense catalog was similarly updated last year (see 1806260039).
The Supreme Court's Manhattan Community Access decision last month (see 1906170014) means more independence in programming decisions for public access stations, but its anti-big-government expansion of the "state action" doctrine will make corporations happy, broadcast lawyer Kevin Goldberg of Fletcher Heald blogged Thursday. Social media platforms likely will cite the decision from a First Amendment stance as backing the argument they should be the sole arbiters of what's allowed on their sites, he said. One issue to be watched is whether other traditional government functions outsourced to private actors can operate more free of government intervention when restricting individual liberties, he said.
The draft kidvid order set for the FCC's July 10 meeting “largely dismisses” privacy concerns about YouTube and other online media platforms, said a letter posted Thursday in docket 18-202 from Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, Common Sense Media, the Georgetown University Institute for Public Representation and the Center for Digital Democracy. An ongoing FTC investigation of YouTube for violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (see 1906190045) demonstrates that depending on online platforms for children's content raises privacy and safety concerns, the letter said. Other online sources of kidvid programming cited in the draft order -- such as Amazon -- recently announced they won't create more original children's programming, the letter said: "These developments demonstrate that the Commission should not relax the Children’s Television Rules, given the lack of suitable educational programming alternatives for children."
FCC Media Bureau approval of Nexstar's WNLO and WUTV Licensee's channel swap in Buffalo (see 1906120044) is effective Thursday, says that day's Federal Register.
Cox Enterprises, already selling TV stations, agreed to do the same for radio and also to Apollo Global Management affiliates. It will sell Cox Media Group’s radio portfolio of some 60 stations in 11 markets and CoxReps and Gamut national advertising businesses to a "new broadcasting company that is substantially owned by private equity funds managed by affiliates of Apollo," the media company said Wednesday evening. "The transaction will expand the new company, which announced in February its purchase of Cox Media Group’s broadcast television group and the company’s Radio, Newspaper and Television properties in Ohio." Cox Enterprises will keep a minority stake in the new company that will still go by Cox Media Group. To comply with FCC ownership limits, the buyer plans to divest an FM in Orlando and in Tampa. An expected closing date and terms weren't disclosed, and the buyer and seller didn't comment further right away.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau scheduled a webinar on the emergency alert system and the EAS test reporting system for low-power broadcasters at 1 p.m. EDT July 11, said a public notice Tuesday. A nationwide EAS test is planned for Aug. 7 (see 1906030050).
The FCC corrected when some new FM translator interference rules take effect (see 1906140057) to Aug. 13, says Tuesday's Federal Register.