The FCC should include requirements for simulcasting and signal quality in rules for the ATSC 3.0 transition and require that negotiations to carry the transmissions using the new standard be held separately from retransmission consent negotiations, said representatives of the American TV Alliance in meetings Monday and Tuesday with aides to Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. The ATVA contingent included representatives from AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network, Verizon and the American Cable Association, the filing said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued three notices of violation against two Florida unlicensed radio broadcasters and against the licensee of an Atlanta translator for broadcasting on a frequency reserved for aviation. The unlicensed notices were issued to Frances Chapman, the owner of a Lake Worth, Florida, residential property that the bureau found to be the source of an unlicensed broadcast, and to American College Express, owner of a commercial property in Hollywood, Florida, that also was found to be hosting an unlicensed broadcaster. Youngers Colorado Broadcasting’s translator was found to be operating for a week on 123.05 MHz when it’s licensed for 101.1 MHz, a notice of violation said. The broadcasts “caused harmful interference to the aviation band,” it said. The FCC issued a warning Tuesday about interfering with the aviation band (see 1708080069).

LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino shared with FCC officials “a potential solution to end the vacant channel war.” The ideas were presented to Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo and staff from the IATF, Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, said an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. The version of the presentation posted to the Electronic Comment Filing System was partially redacted, coming after the group proposed “truce” for ending the disagreement over reserving vacant TV bands for unlicensed use (see 1708020041), which appeared to be based on using low-power TV spectrum to help deliver rural broadband. The FCC also should do an economic analysis of the impact of the repacking on LPTV and translators, the filing said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency placed “non-functional sound-alike” emergency alert system audio files on its website to be used in educational public service announcements, FEMA said in a filing posted Wednesday in FCC docket 15-94. The filing was an update to a Nov. 9 conference call with the Public Safety Bureau where making the files available online was discussed.

Sinclair and Tribune received “second requests” from DOJ last week for additional information about the first buying the second broadcaster, the buyer announced in a Q2 earnings release. Tribune consolidated operating revenue fell 2 percent to $469.5 million. Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker called results “mixed” in an email to investors, and she and CEO Peter Kern blamed costs associated with a programming shift at WGN America. “Those changes are now behind us, and we expect a much more profitable 2018 with more original hours than the network has ever carried,” Kern said. The deal with Sinclair is “on track,” Kern said. Tribune didn't hold a Q2 earnings call. Some think the move to ATSC 3.0 (see 1706070063) could be helped by the deal and others fear the reshuffling of TV stations' frequencies now that the incentive auction is over could be delayed (see 1708080067).

Nexstar will buy the “non spectrum assets” of WLWC-TV Providence from OTA Broadcasting for $4.1 million, Nexstar said in a news release Monday. WLWC’s spectrum was sold in the incentive auction, so the deal over the non-spectrum assets isn’t subject to FCC approval, the buyer said. “The addition of the assets from WLWC-TV will allow Nexstar to generate incremental advertising and net retransmission consent revenue growth without increasing our total U.S. television household reach.”

Allowing broadcasters temporarily to deploy ATSC 3.0 on vacant channels would ease the transition to the new standard, said Pearl TV, One Media, Sinclair and NAB in a meeting with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and bureau staff Thursday, according to an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 16-142. “Allowing broadcasters to use available channels where available during Next Gen deployments will help both broadcasters and consumers.” Full-power broadcasters won’t “seek to displace” low-power stations that were given new channels through FCC displacement windows in favor of 3.0 facilities, the broadcasters said, though “full-power licensees' use of unoccupied channels to help assure continued service should be entitled to a higher priority than low power television stations and TV translators as a matter of policy.” The FCC also should adopt only ATSC's A/321 document on system discovery and signaling architecture into its rules, the broadcasters said. “Adopting additional components of the ATSC standard into the FCC’s rules could risk stifling innovation and forcing broadcasters to return to the Commission repeatedly for permission to make changes,” the filing said. LG and others support proposals for the commission to also incorporate the A/322 document on ohysical layer protocol into the 3.0 rules (see 1707040001).

The FCC should allow radio boosters to originate programming so radio stations will be better able to target advertisers, said numerous companies in replies in the media deregulation docket 17-105 Friday (see 1707060060). Allowing radio broadcasters to compete with other industries that can geo-target ads cheaply “could significantly increase radio revenue, said Monroe Capital. Similar comments were filed by CSREM, Geo Broadcast Solutions, Spanish Broadcasting System, Edgewater Broadcasting and others. The Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy opposed requests in the docket to loosen children’s TV rules and advertising restrictions. “The proposals by industry commenters to relax the advertising limits and children’s program requirements would harm children by exposing them to excessive and unfair marketing and depriving them of quality programming,” the groups said. Reynolds Technical Associates, like many broadcasters, backed loosening the rural radio rule, and said the FCC’s use of reference coordinates led to “extortion.” Rules allow some owners to demand fees in exchange for consenting to a change in reference numbers, RTA said. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council supported proposed changes to rules governing equal employment opportunity forms and public filing requirements, but said the FCC should leave in place rule that motivates broadcasters to seek employees at “entitlement sources.” In broadcasting, “most hiring is done face-to-face and is based on relationships,” MMTC said. “Entitlement sources should be embraced as a window into these relationships -- an opportunity to facilitate diverse hiring in the digital age.”

The FCC Media Bureau and Mountain Broadcasting Corp. reached a $17,500 settlement over violations of public file rules, kids’ TV rules and the requirement that stations display the E/I (educational-information) symbol on core programming, said a consent decree released Thursday. The violations happened between 2009 and 2015 at WMBC-TV Newton, New Jersey, which also didn’t disclose the violations on its license renewal application, the consent decree said. Mountain Broadcasting said Christian Global Network provides most of the station’s core programming, and as “a worldwide network,” CGN supplies programming to countries “that may not follow the FCC’s model for identifying children’s programming,” and that may have contributed to the issue, according to the consent decree. Mountain Broadcasting will educate its employees about FCC requirements and “implement a consumer education program on the meaning of the ‘E/I’ symbol for their foreign language viewers and report to the Bureau regarding its efforts,” the pact said.

More than 1,000 AM stations took advantage of the FCC’s application window for new FM translators, which closed Wednesday, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a news release Thursday. “These translators will enable many of these AM stations to broadcast local programming to their communities at night for the first time.” The most recent window was only for class C and D AM stations that hadn’t taken advantage of earlier windows (see 1707280059). The FCC said a second window for all AM stations that hadn’t applied in previous translator windows will open later this year. With this window closed, the agency will now determine which applications are mutually exclusive, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. After the FCC releases a list of mutually exclusive applications, applicants resolve their conflicts, but such discussion is prohibited under auction rules until then, he said. Mutually exclusive applications that can’t be resolved will go through an auction process, Oxenford said. “One would think that this will happen principally in spectrum-congested markets where there are multiple AM stations eligible for the auction, but few available channels for translators.”