The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a notice of violation to Pentecostal Temple Development for WGBN(AM) McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The station was warned for failing to abide by rules requiring procedures and schedules for monitoring power levels, tower lighting and other systems. WGBN didn’t have calibration procedures for equipment and didn’t submit a required form, the notice said.

Public interest groups’ claim the FCC ignored the directives of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal on media ownership are “baseless,” the agency said in its response to the emergency stay request of the commission’s newly relaxed broadcast ownership rules (see 1801290036). The FCC “carefully analyzed whether each of its rule changes would have a ‘material impact on minority and female ownership,’” as the 3rd Circuit ordered, the response said. Even if the FCC had failed to meet the court’s requirements, it wouldn’t justify the “sweeping relief” of a stay or the appointment of a special master, as Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project requested. The public interest groups attempted “to shoehorn their stay request into a mandamus petition” to get around rules requiring that they seek a stay from the FCC before seeking judicial intervention, the FCC’s filing said. “Petitioners’ failure to seek a stay through the normal channels is perhaps unsurprising, as they could not satisfy the traditional stay criteria.” The public interest groups “rely on speculative harm to the public that they claim might result from media consolidation at some undefined future time,” the filing said. The court’s prior rulings don’t require the agency to collect more data on the effects of ownership rules on minorities, the agency said. “To the contrary, this Court merely stated: ‘If [the Commission] needs more data to do so, it must get it,’” the FCC said. The agency concluded it didn’t need further data to readopt a revenue-based definition of eligible entity instead of one based on race or gender, the filing said. “Because the Commission complied with this Court’s mandates in all respects, Petitioners cannot meet the high bar of showing a clear and indisputable right to mandamus relief,” said the FCC filing. NAB and Sinclair Broadcast filed to intervene in the case on the FCC's side, but the court hasn't ruled on their motions. In a joint filing Friday, they responded to the stay request anyway, along with an attached pleading asking the court to allow their response. The FCC supports letting the broadcast entities respond, but Prometheus and the Media Mobilizing Project haven't consented, NAB and Sinclair said. The broadcaster joint filing argues the public interest groups' request for a stay and writ of mandamus is a thinly veiled attempt to prevent other parties from opposing a request or a stay" and is procedurally improper. "Petitioners could easily have sought a stay and know how to do so; they should not be allowed to sidestep that process or box directly affected parties out of the discussion," the joint filing said.

Comcast NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group completed the takeover from ZGS Communications of TV stations in several markets, the buyer announced Thursday. Most of the acquired outlets are Class A's, and one full power, KTDO Las Cruces, New Mexico, it noted: "Applications to acquire the stations in Providence and Raleigh will be filed when the channel sharing arrangements in those markets have been finalized." Other ZGS stations Comcast bought include WTMO-CD Orlando and four others in Florida; WZTD-LD Richmond, Virginia; and WDMR-LD Springfield, Massachusetts.

The FCC order authorizing ATSC 3.0 voluntary deployment is to take effect March 5, as it's being published in Friday's Federal Register. Commissioners approved the order Nov. 16 in a 3-2 party-line vote (see 1711160060).

The Cesar Chavez Foundation will pay $115,000, have a one-year moratorium on underwriting from for-profit entities and set up a compliance plan, under a consent decree the FCC announced Thursday. The agency said the settlement is the largest penalty for violations of its underwriting rules. An Enforcement Bureau order said the foundation FM's KNAI Phoenix and KUFW Woodlake, California, broadcast announcements between August 2016 and March 2017 promoting goods or services of its financial contributors despite being noncommercial educational stations. NCEs can name underwriters but can't promote those underwriters' businesses, products or services. In a statement, the foundation said it “fully cooperated with the FCC and accepts its findings. This has been a learning experience for the organization and as we move forward in polarizing times we will continue being a voice for our community of one million daily listeners across 11 stations in four states.”

Approving Sinclair's buy of Tribune could undermine DOJ’s position on AT&T/Time Warner (see 1801310074) and lead to “huge liberal broadcasters that dwarf the size and power of the merged Sinclair-Tribune company,” wrote former House Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay for Politico Wednesday. Broadcast ownership limits allowed Republicans to make large gains in the 1980s and '90s because they ensured a broad spectrum of licensees owned most of the country’s TV stations, “bypassing the liberal bias of New York City network executives at NBC, CBS and ABC,” DeLay said. Though Sinclair is conservative-leaning, approving the deal would set a precedent that would allow the much larger networks to grow, DeLay said. “At that point, nothing can stop liberal Northeast corporate executives from telling homes in the heartland what to think.” Allowing Sinclair/Tribune would weaken the case against AT&T/TW, DeLay said. “Trump’s DOJ would be gifting AT&T’s lawyers with a powerful argument that DOJ’s selective enforcement is not only arbitrary but also illogical.” It would give “an easy talking point to liberal Democratic senators” who argue Justice’s opposition to that deal is “political payback for CNN’s drumbeat of anti-Trump news,” Delay said. Sinclair didn't comment.

More broadcasters filed motions to intervene on the FCC’s side in public interest groups’ challenge of the broadcast ownership order on reconsideration. Nexstar (in Pacer) cited the order’s changes to rules governing joint sales agreements as giving it the right to intervene in the case, while News Corp (in Pacer), Bonneville International (in Pacer) and 21st Century Fox (in Pacer) pointed to their common ownership of TV stations and newspapers and the order’s elimination of the newspaper cross-ownership rule. Radio broadcaster Connoisseur Media (in Pacer) said the order’s changes to rules governing embedded markets were its reason for intervening. NAB, Sinclair and the News Media Alliance also filed motions to intervene (see 1801290036). An FCC response in the case is due Friday.

Comments on FCC rules for June 21 auction of mutually exclusive FM translator permits from 2003 (see 1801170031) are due Feb. 6, replies Feb. 13, said Wednesday's Federal Register.

The FCC must respond by 3 p.m. Friday to an emergency stay request filed by public interest groups against an order on reconsideration relaxing broadcast ownership rules (see 1801260046), the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in an order (in Pacer) released late last week. Sinclair (in Pacer) and News Media Alliance (in Pacer) filed motions to intervene in the case on the side of the FCC, joining NAB.

The value of E.W. Scripps’ radio business, which it plans to sell as part of restructuring, is “understated,” Noble Capital Markets analyst Michael Kupinski emailed investors Friday. “Street estimates” for the radio business' value appear “too low and we estimate the value in the range of $55 million to $77 million,” Kupinski said. The company announced plans to sell its 34 radio stations in a release on the restructuring Thursday. Savings from the restructuring are likely to begin in Q4, Kupinski said. The broadcaster has said the savings will be $30 million in the next 12 to 18 months.