Prometheus Radio Project’s petition against the FCC’s recent action loosening siting rules for FM translators “rests upon a wholly erroneous foundation,” said Womble Carlyle radio attorney John Garziglia in an commentary in RadioInk Wednesday. Prometheus requested a stay of the new rule’s April 10 effective date because it could cause low-power FM stations that need to relocate to be without any options (see 1704040046). Existing radio stations have never been “given a buffer zone against a wholly conjectural possibility of a transmitter site loss,” Garziglia said. Though Prometheus cited concerns that hundreds of translator applications would be filed on the effective date, Garziglia said that’s overstated, since few stations will be in a position to take advantage of the rule change. “It is unlikely that there will be even several dozen AM stations on April 10th proposing to extend their FM translator’s 60 dBμ contour further than 40 miles from the AM transmitter site,” he said. “Creation of a new protection for LPFMs that might lose a transmitter site is wholly unwarranted.”

PMCM’s request for a writ of mandamus for its years-long effort to transmit a signal on virtual channel 3.10 was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday, in a court order. The FCC ruled PMCM can’t use virtual channel 3.10 for WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, because Channel 3 already is assigned to another station in the area (see 1607260059). PMCM “filed applications for review with the Commission seeking the same relief it requests in its mandamus petition and has failed to show” that the FCC process isn’t “an adequate remedy,” the D.C. Circuit said. “To the extent petitioner asserts the Commission has unreasonably delayed in acting on the applications for review, it has not demonstrated the agency’s delay is so egregious as to warrant mandamus.” The court didn't reject the petition on the merits, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Donald Evans, who represents PMCM. The order also says the D.C. Circuit would take the matter up again if there's "further significant delay," Evans noted.

NAB looks forward to working with new RIAA President Mitch Glazier on "finding common ground on issues of importance to our respective industries," said NAB CEO Gordon Smith in a news release Monday. Earlier that day, RIAA said Glazier will be promoted to chairman-CEO effective in January 2019; Chairman-CEO Cary Sherman retires, effective at the end of 2018 (see the personals section of the April 4 issue of this publication). NAB and RIAA have disagreed on music royalty issues. The groups declined further comment Tuesday.

The FCC should issue an immediate partial stay of its order loosening placement requirements for FM translators, said Prometheus Radio Project in an emergency petition posted Tuesday in docket 13-249. The order, unanimously approved at commissioners' Feb. 23 meeting (see 1702230060), takes effect April 10. “The premature grant of new translator applications will cause immediate and irreparable harm” to low-power FM licensees, Prometheus said. “Incumbent LPFM stations will thereafter be severely limited in seeking to relocate within their communities of service because these new FM translators will box in or short-space them," Prometheus said, and LPFM licensees that need to relocate “will be forced to shut down or to relocate to a distance that could preclude them from reaching their established community audience.” The group will seek reconsideration of the translator order, which it said is arbitrary and capricious because the order’s elimination of the 40-mile restriction on how far a translator can be located from a transmitter “was not a logical outgrowth” of the Further NPRM that preceded the order. The order doesn’t address possible impacts to LPFM, the advocate for such stations said. “It is apparent that the Office of Management and Budget shares this view, because it determined that the final version of the Order deviated so substantially from the proposal that its preapproval under the Paperwork Reduction Act was deemed insufficient,” the group said (see 1703080023).

If the FCC reinstates the UHF discount, it should adopt a similar discount for VHF stations, PMCM said in an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 13-236, though it also said the UHF discount shouldn't be restored. “Technological change has eliminated the justification for the discount,” the firm said. “UHF stations are now superior to VHF stations, with VHF facing disadvantages comparable to those UHF faced with analog,” the filing said. “Granting a discount to UHF stations but not granting one to VHF’s is plainly irrational under these circumstances; the very factors that would support a UHF discount support a VHF discount even more.” Restoring the discount without providing one for VHF would be “an insurmountable disadvantage” for VHF stations, the broadcaster said. Commissioners tentatively are set to vote April 20 on restoring the UHF discount.

Petitions to deny Entercom’s proposed buy of CBS Radio are due May 1, the Media Bureau said in a public notice posted in docket 17-85. Oppositions to petitions are due May 11, replies May 18. The all-stock deal would include divestitures in seven markets, and the companies requested a six-month waiver of the TV/radio cross-ownership rules to allow CBS CEO Les Moonves and CBS Chief Operating Officer Joseph Ianniello to sit on the Entercom board after the deal (see 1703210063).

The FCC should do away with ownership rules such as the eight voices test, joint sales agreement attribution, and the top four prohibition, said NAB in a meeting Wednesday with staff from Chairman Ajit Pai’s office, according to an ex parte filing in docket 14-50. “Retention of a ban on combinations involving top four-ranked stations is arbitrary and capricious.” The commission should grant NAB’s reconsideration petition against the 2014 quadrennial review, the group said. “The top one or two stations often earn notably higher revenues and ratings than other stations." The FCC is taking up the UHF discount at its April 20 meeting, and is expected to address other ownership rules later (see 1703070055).

Restoring the UHF discount could lead to a wave of deals, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Friday. The draft UHF discount order announced Thursday (see 1703300066) “will likely have an immediate impact on the market for the purchase and sale of television stations” if approved, Oxenford said. “There is much appetite for broadcast groups to grow larger to compete with other video providers that have nationwide reach.” Oxenford expects public interest groups to appeal any decision to restore the discount: “That position would be opposed by broadcasters who favor the discount and believe that it is necessary to let them compete.”

The FCC should inform low-power TV and translator stations about what phase of the repacking their local stations are in, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition and numerous LPTV station groups in meetings with FCC staff and Chairman Ajit Pai Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 12-268. “Knowing when the auction eligible entities in your local market 'have' to move by, can greatly assist you in planning for when you have to move yourself if displaced.” The LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition previously disclosed these meetings in a newsletter (see 1703290053). “It would be totally unfair to secondary license holders and non-­eligible auction entities to not be given some sort of heads up about when there local markets will be repacked,” the filing said.

There’s a “business upside” to ATSC 3.0 emergency-alerting capabilities, and the AWARN Alliance plans to explore that at an “executive breakfast presentation” April 26 during the NAB Show, the alliance said in a Wednesday announcement. Using ATSC 3.0, AWARN (Advanced Warning and Response Network) is “transforming the alerting landscape as man-made and natural disasters reveal the urgent need for new warning systems,” said the alliance. “AWARN is using the same features that will drive new revenue streams: geo-targeting, personalization, interactivity, deep indoor and mobile reception, and device wake up.”