Pandora wants to sell its sole broadcast radio station KXMZ(FM) Box Elder, South Dakota, to Rapid City-based Haugo Broadcasting for $300,000, said an application in the FCC Consolidated Database System (CDBS) Monday. Pandora went through an extended process to secure approval of the original deal to buy the station and inspired changes to foreign broadcast rules (see 1510220052). The streaming service announced the possibility of selling the station in filings last year (see 1603300056).
The FCC Media Bureau rejected a petition to deny a transaction involving two Arkansas stations filed by a broadcaster disputing the stations’ ownership, said an order. Petitioner Marshall Media argued that seller I Square Media already had sold KMYA-DT Camden and KMYA-LP Sheridan in a previous deal, but I Square said the older deal was never consummated. Marshall’s petition was late filed and considered only as an informal complaint, and the bureau doesn’t weigh in on contract disputes, the order said. The bureau said I Square’s sale of the stations to LR Telecasting served the public interest.
Ion Media will buy WRBU-TV St. Louis; WZRB-TV Columbia, South Carolina; and KTRV-TV Boise, said a news release Tuesday. The deal will expand the group to 63 stations and make Ion “the only network to operate TV stations in each of the 20 largest U.S. markets and 24 of the top 25,” it said. All three stations are full-power UHF, it said.
IHeartMedia and Fox Networks Group will jointly offer digital advertising products for audio and video, the companies said in a news release Monday. Smart A/V Audiences will use FNG and iHeartMedia data sets to bring the features of digital ads to broadcast radio and TV, the release said. “Brands will be able to deliver more compelling creative across platforms by tapping into local data and dynamic creative capabilities based on triggers like weather, sports scores, stock market performance.” By combining technology developed by iHeart with the “data and video assets of Fox,” advertisers will be able to “leverage audio and visual as one integrated platform,” said iHeart CEO Bob Pittman. Smart A/V Audiences will launch “in beta” this fall, the release said.
The FCC Media Bureau mailed the second of its equal employment opportunity audit letters for 2017 on June 12, said a public notice. “Each year, approximately five percent of all radio and television stations are selected for EEO audits.” Stations with five or more employees and a website must post the EEO report on their website by the public file deadline, the PN said. A list of the stations affected is online.
Tegna will sell CareerBuilder to “an investor group led by investments funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management” and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, the broadcaster said in a news release Monday. The deal would reduce its 53 percent controlling interest in CareerBuilder to 12.5 percent, dropping Career Builder out of Tegna’s reporting operating results. Tegna is expected to receive $250 million from the deal. Tribune, which has a 32 percent interest in CareerBuilder, will receive $157 million and its stake will drop to 8 percent, Tribune said. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q3 2017, the broadcasters said.
The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters commended the upcoming FM translator window (see 1706070068), said President Jim Winston in a news release. “Members own a disproportionate number of AM stations, and I am sure many NABOB members will benefit from these FM translator filing windows.”
A pirate radio station in Paterson, New Jersey, was warned by the FCC Enforcement Bureau May 2, said a notice of unlicensed operation released Wednesday. Winston Tulloch was operating an unlicensed station on 90.9 MHz, the notice said. It ordered Tulloch to cease operating and gave him ten days to respond with evidence he has a license.
The broadcaster spectrum consortium working on ATSC 3.0, virtual MVPD, automotive and wireless applications and other issues added its first affiliate member: Northwest Broadcasting. Nexstar, Sinclair and most recently Univision (see 1706010079) are part of the group promoting spectrum aggregation for TV stations to compete in wireless data transmission; the consortium now reaches about 90 percent of the U.S. "We invite other broadcasters to join us as we continue to advance the Next Generation Broadcast Standard," said Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley Wednesday. Northwest CEO Brian Brady said the consortium gives "broadcasters the ability to control their future rather than having it dictated by others."
The current retransmission consent regime gives broadcasters too much power over MVPDs for the FCC to take a hands-off stance in approving ATSC 3.0, Mediacom’s Joseph Young said in a long filing in docket 16-422, with extensive footnotes and references to the novel Catch 22. Broadcasters will exploit their position and “use retransmission consent as a club” to compel MVPDs and consumers to transition to ATSC 3.0 without FCC safeguards, Mediacom said. “It would be a mistake to give broadcasters conditionless permission to innovate around the ATSC standard unless subscribers were also given permission to pay only for the stations they want to buy,” the filing said. “Permission to implement ATSC 3.0 should be granted, but subject to carefully thought-out safeguards against the potential negative consequences for millions of Americans who have no practical choice but to buy whatever broadcasters put on the menu.”