Gray Television completed its $925 million purchase of Quincy Media and related divestiture to Allen Media, Gray said Monday. DOJ signed off last week (see 2107280060), and the FCC Media Bureau OK'd the transaction Friday. Similar to a Scripps purchase also approved with little fanfare earlier this year, Gray/Quincy didn’t draw petitions to deny. The deal gets Gray into eight new markets and adds 12 stations. If Gray's purchase of Meredith's 17 TV stations is approved later in 2021 (see 2107150003), Gray will become the No. 2 U.S. TV broadcaster behind Nexstar.

Comcast's NBCUniversal Local will buy four full-power TV stations, one Class A and three low-powers in the Albuquerque market from Ramar Communications, NBCU announced Friday. This takes Ramar out of the TV business: “It will continue to operate 8 radio stations and several digital media products,” the release said. “We are pleased to expand on Ramar Communications’ work with the Latino community in the market and look forward to serving Albuquerque’s Spanish-speaking audiences with the launch of our own Telemundo local news operation,” said Valari Staab, NBCU Local president. The deal requires FCC and other federal approvals, NBCU said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau got 20,000 pages from Auburn Network but hasn’t turned over any discovery, said the broadcaster's opposition to a motion to quash. It's the latest salvo in discovery (see 2107210041) that has made up the bulk so far of the proceedings on the fitness of Auburn principal Michael Hubbard to hold an FCC license. Hubbard is serving a four-year prison sentence in Alabama on ethics charges for his time as speaker of the Alabama House, and his earliest possible release is in 2023, said the Alabama Department of Corrections. Auburn argued EB violated ex parte rules by discussing the case with Media Bureau staff and planning FCC litigation strategy. “The Enforcement Bureau has set itself up as the more equal party, exempt from the FCC’s rules,” Auburn said. “The Presiding Judge should order the Enforcement Bureau to respond to Auburn’s interrogatories completely, fully and without further delay.”

A Florida broadcaster asked a federal court to prevent the FCC from auctioning his FM construction permit in the ongoing Auction 109, arguing it owed him extra time to complete his construction permit in 2014 after it reinstated a previous definition of an eligible entity in 2016. “The plaintiff’s construction permit will be wrongfully auctioned off to a third party bidder,” said the complaint (docket 1:21-CV-02050) filed in U.S. District Court In Washington Thursday by William Johnson, managing member of Florida-based Urban One Broadcasting Network. The company doesn’t appear to be connected to Maryland-based broadcaster Urban One, but neither company nor Johnson responded to requests for comment. Johnson’s filing lists him as representing himself. The complaint repeatedly warns the auction will start imminently and is dated July 24, but Pacer records it as having been filed Thursday. Auction 109 started Tuesday (see 2106030078). Johnson argued his company qualifies as an eligible entity under the revenue-based eligible entity definition, and he should have had additional time to complete construction on an FM station in 2013. Instead, the agency ruled the permit expired in 2014, the complaint said. Johnson filed petitions for stay in 2016 and a petition for declaratory ruling in June, after the Supreme Court’s Prometheus reinstated the eligible entity definition. Auctioning his permit will do “irreparable injury,” the filing said. Johnson wants the court to issue an injunction against the auction, order the FCC to withdraw the permit from the auction, and to act on Johnson’s pending filings. The agency didn't comment.

The FCC Media Bureau OK'd Gray Television’s request to allot Channel 26 to Eagle River, Wisconsin, as the community's second local service, said an order on docket 21-157 Wednesday. The bureau is also seeking comment in docket 21-124 on KVVU Broadcasting’s request to switch KVVU-TV Henderson, Nevada, to Channel 24 from 9. Comment dates will be determined after Federal Register publication.

DOJ will require Gray Television to divest stations to Byron Allen’s Allen Media as a condition of approving Gray’s proposed $925 million buy of Quincy Media, an arrangement that mirrors the divestiture plan Gray announced in April (see 2104290067). DOJ’s announcement Wednesday is likely a sign that the Quincy acquisition will close in the coming days, said an informed broadcast lawyer. “Without the required divestitures, Gray’s acquisition of Quincy threatens significant competitive harm to cable and satellite TV subscribers and small businesses that advertise on broadcast television,” said Antitrust Division acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Powers. DOJ filed a civil antitrust suit alongside its proposed settlement in U.S. District Court in Washington. Without the divestiture plan, the transaction “would enable Gray to blackout more Big Four stations simultaneously” in the overlapping markets “than either Gray or Quincy could blackout independently today,” DOJ said. Powers said the divestitures are “a complete resolution” of DOJ’s concerns and praised the broadcasters involved as acting in “good faith.” The 10 divestitures involve seven markets: KVOA Tucson; WKOW Madison, Wisconsin; WSIL-TV Harrisburg, Illinois, and its satellite station KPOB-TV Poplar Bluff, Missouri; KWWL Waterloo, Iowa; Wisconsin's WXOW La Crosse and satellite WQOW Eau Claire; Wisconsin's WAOW Wasau and satellite WMOW Crandon; and WREX Rockford, Illinois. Neither Gray nor Allen Media commented Wednesday. Gray said in April the arrangement was intended to facilitate regulatory approval of the Quincy deal, which will send 11 stations to Gray. The divestitures don’t include the CW and MeTV programming streams broadcast on the digital subchannels of the stations, the DOJ proposed final judgment said. “Defendants’ retention of those CW and MeTV programming streams will not prevent the divestiture buyer from operating the Divestiture Stations as viable, independent competitors.”

FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin granted a one-week filing deadline extension -- until Aug. 5 -- in Auburn Network’s license hearing proceeding, said an order Tuesday in docket 21-20 (see 2107210041). Auburn requested the extension due to the unavailability of an attorney, the order said. The Aug. 16 deadline for close of discovery will be adjusted in a subsequent ruling, the order said.

The FCC should deny an E.W. Scripps channel substitution request in Las Vegas that would displace low-power television station KGNG-LP Las Vegas, said letters to all four commissioners from minority-focused programmers hosted on KGNG and posted Tuesday in docket 21-221. Scripps seeks to move KTNV-TV from Channel 13 to 26. KGNG's owner King Kong Broadcasting said Scripps is targeting the station out of personal animus (see 2106300062) and that displacing KGNG will reduce content for underserved groups. “Please deny this request as it would mean that minority broadcasters will be dropped from the airwaves in our city,” said the letters from Latino Channel TV CEO Carl Magno and Asian Culture TV CEO Edgardo Rendon. Asian Culture TV “has been a great source of pride to the large Asian-American community in Las Vegas,” said Rendon’s letters. King Kong CEO Larry Hunt “has been a stalwart ally of minority broadcasters.” Scripps didn’t comment.

The FCC unanimously voted to seek comment on collecting equal employment opportunity data from broadcasters through Form 395-B, said a docket 98-204 Further NPRM Monday. The data collection was originally part of a proceeding in 2004 that stalled over concerns about confidentiality. “After so much time, this pause turned into a standstill,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We can do better than this.” The order stems from a draft circulated by Rosenworcel in February, and issues raised by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in 2019 (see 2103260038). Failure to collect the EEO data “has hampered our ability to determine what regulatory actions are necessary to ensure equal employment opportunities,” said Starks. Rosenworcel commended Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr for their collaboration here. The FNPRM seeks to “refresh the record regarding the collection of broadcaster workforce composition data and obtain further input on the legal, logistical, and technical issues surrounding FCC Form 395-B.” The item doesn’t appear to make specific proposals, and seeks comment on how confidentiality concerns should be handled, how the data collection interacts with court decisions on minority discrimination and recruitment, and whether the data should be “station-attributable.” Broadcasters had expressed concern that EEO data attributable to specific stations could be used against them in petitions to deny and similar filings. “An anonymous filing approach could impede” the FCC from contacting licensees if there are problems with the data, the FNPRM said. NAB said it is looking forward to reviewing the FNPRM and broadcasters "are committed to ensuring that they are able to recruit and retain a diverse workforce that represents the local communities they serve."

The FCC Media Bureau canceled a proposed forfeiture, instead issuing an admonishment, said an order Friday. The bureau had issued a $1,500 notice of apparent liability against Amazing Grace Church over a late renewal application for KILB-LP Paron, Arkansas. Staff canceled this after the church demonstrated the fine would be a financial hardship, the order said. “Licensee indicates that it is a small community church with an average attendance of roughly 12."