The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology requested copies of One Media reports on single frequency network tests in Washington and Baltimore using ATSC 3.0, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Monday from One Media Executive Vice President-Legal Affairs Jerald Fritz. The tests are intended to “establish signal strength in an environment where content is transmitted over the same channel in the same geographical area,” the filing said. Initial testing showed clean signals were received without interference, One Media said. The tests are the first phase of “multiple planned measurement tests,” said the joint venture of Coherent Logix and Sinclair.

Responses from E.W. Scripps and WCPO-TV Cincinnati to complaints by transparency groups (see 1609300059) about the station's online political file affirm WCPO's “flagrant non-compliance” with the Communications Act and FCC rules, said the Benton Foundation, Campaign Legal Center, Common Cause and Sunlight Foundation, in a reply Thursday. The FCC should act before the Nov. 8 election to require WCPO to correct its online political advertising files, the groups said. They asked the agency to "promptly take other measures, including assessing forfeitures and issuing a Public Notice reminding broadcast stations of their obligations, to ensure that all Commission licensees get the message that the Commission will no longer tolerate pervasive non-compliance during this important election season, or ever.” Scripps' argument that the groups should have approached the station about the problem before the FCC is incorrect, the groups said. “It is WCPO’s responsibility to comply with the rules without prompting and, in any event, it is not the job of the public to identify violations and enforce noncompliance,” the groups said. “This is the Commission’s job.” Scripps didn't comment Friday.

Presidential campaign advertising spending could be “a nice lift” for broadcasters and streaming service Pandora, Macquarie analysts Amy Yong, Rachel Arrowood and Alessandra Gonzalez emailed investors. Pandora has political ad sales teams in New York and Washington, D.C., in addition to local sales teams, the analysts said Thursday. Those offices are expected to lead to more political spending on Pandora, they said. “Management expects to benefit significantly from local house and senate races on top of the Presidential election.” Cumulus is also well-positioned for incremental revenue in a presidential year, with 76 stations in swing states, the analysts said. Earlier this week, another analyst said late spending by the campaign of Donald Trump may help some TV station owners (see 1610190022), after some of their shares fell on concerns about Trump's relatively low spending (see 1609210075).

Public TV station KVIE Sacramento kicked off a month-long experiment in datacasting Thursday by using it to deliver simulated emergency earthquake warnings during the Great California Shakeout earthquake preparedness drill, said a news release from America’s Public Television Stations. Datacasting is “the process of delivering internet protocol (IP) data over a traditional digital public broadcast television signal, including instantaneous alerts, combined with evacuation maps and even live video,” APTS said. The test is being monitored by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the FCC and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the release said. The next phase of the datacasting test “will measure the speed and coverage of alerts digitally encoded into KVIE’s high power television transmission,” said KVIE Director of Technology Mike Cappi. “Warnings used to be a matter of seconds or minutes, but when there are natural disasters like earthquakes, saving a fraction of a second in delivering a warning can make a huge difference,” Cappi said. “This work is part of public broadcasting’s larger public service mission, including the APTS strategic partnership with DHS, to promote the use of public safety datacasting as an effective component to alert and protect the American people,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler.

CBS, Disney, E.W. Scripps, Nexstar and Tegna are “best positioned” to take advantage of the last burst of candidate political advertising spending 20 days before Election Day, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors Wednesday. The positioning is based on where each company has stations, she said. Indiana, Minnesota and Texas have become “hot” swing states, Ryvicker said, while Michigan and Wisconsin have “cooled” by more strongly leaning toward Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Last month, shares of some TV station owners fell on concern that GOP presidential contender Donald Trump wasn't spending much money on ads (see 1609210075).

Entercom will buy four radio stations from Beasley Broadcast Group for $24 million, the acquirer said in a news release Tuesday. The deal is connected with Beasley/Greater Media, and will allow that transaction to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, the release said. Entercom said it will buy WFNZ(AM), WLNK(FM), WBT/AM-FM, all in Charlotte, North Carolina. Though the deal isn't expected to close until the end of the year or in early 2017, Entercom will begin operating the stations early through time brokerage agreements, it said. It gives Entercom a total of 128 stations in 28 markets, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. The transaction is "a nice tuck-in with synergy potential,” Ryvicker said. Entercom stock rose 10 percent in Tuesday trading to $14.30.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s focus on political spending disclosures could have implications for broadcasters if Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is elected, Cowen and Co. analyst Paul Gallant emailed investors. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has supported making FCC sponsorship identification rules more rigorous, and Friday attacked the SEC over not pursuing companies on political spending, Gallant said. “If Hillary Clinton becomes president, we would expect Warren to insist that the next FCC chair require local TV stations to disclose the true identity of political ad purchasers." That's “potentially a long-term concern for broadcasters,” he said. Warren indicated she wants to change policy by influencing presidential appointments to executive agencies, Gallant said. “We suspect Sen. Warren will press the next FCC chair to commit to disclosure of funders of political ads,” Gallant said. “She could threaten to block an FCC chair nominee who fails to commit to requiring greater disclosure.” That could have a “potential dampening effect” on campaign spending on political ads, Gallant said. Warren's office didn't comment.

Repacking broadcasters into a smaller portion of the UHF band “will present unprecedented logistical challenges and require careful coordination,” NAB said in a meeting with Incentive Auction Task Force Chairman Gary Epstein, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and FCC staff, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-268 Thursday. The NAB officials discussed the IATF's proposed repacking plan (see 1610040076), and “asked questions concerning the assumptions the staff used to perform the analysis described in the Public Notice, the outputs of the analysis, and the operation of the Phase Assignment Tool and the Phase Scheduling Tool,” it said. NAB also noted the limit on temporary interference, the IATF's tentative conclusion that temporary channels won't be used, and coordination across the borders.

It is “essential” for TV licensees to have correct contact information on file with the FCC, said the Media Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force in a public notice Thursday. “We anticipate communicating directly with stations about channel reassignments (repacking) resulting from the ongoing broadcast television spectrum incentive auction.” The need for contact information applies to stations that participated in the incentive auction and those that didn’t, the PN said. “If a station was selected by a licensee on a Form 177 application for the incentive auction, the Commission will use the contact information currently contained in the Form 177 to communicate with the licensee about that station and any channel reassignment for it, regardless of subsequent events affecting that station’s participation in the auction.” Otherwise, the FCC will use the contact information in the licensing and management system, the PN said. Also Thursday, the FCC said the incentive auction stage 2 forward auction will soon start (see 1610130038).

Emmis will sell the assets of magazine Texas Monthly to an affiliate of equity firm Genesis Park for $25 million, said the seller in a Thursday news release. Emmis has owned the magazine since 1998. “This transaction allows us not only to de-lever our balance sheet, but puts TM in the capable hands of one of Texas’ great families, the Hobbys,” said CEO Jeff Smulyan. Paul Hobby is a founding partner of Genesis Park, the release said. Wednesday, Emmis said it's selling Terre Haute, Indiana, area stations WTHI(FM), WWVR(FM), WFNB(FM) and WFNF/AM-FM to Midwest Communications and to DLC Media for a total of $5.2 million, according to a news release. Emmis will sell the assets of WTHI and the intellectual property of WWVR to Midwest for $4.3 million, and the assets of WFNF, WFNB and WWVR to DLC for $900,000, the release said. Midwest will divest one of its stations, WDKE(FM), to DLC to stay within FCC ownership rules in the Terre Haute market, where there would otherwise be an overlap, said Emmis.