The FCC Enforcement Bureau should “enact a vigorous campaign of enforcement activities to disrupt and permanently terminate all pirate radio stations,” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a blog post Thursday. He said the bureau promised it would develop a "comprehensive policy and enforcement approach” toward pirate radio but hasn't done so. “Given the stakes, this issue shouldn’t wait any longer,” O’Rielly said. The blog post included a draft enforcement policy that he said is intended to “inspire those working on this issue” to suggest changes. O’Rielly’s suggested policy includes education efforts for building owners, advertisers, political candidates, concert promoters, equipment manufacturers and “those entities that may knowingly or unknowingly assist pirate radio operations in any capacity.” They “should be on notice that facilitating pirate radio broadcasting will not be tolerated, and may be subject to enforcement or legal actions, as permitted under law,” O’Rielly said. The bureau didn't respond to a request for comment. Broadcasters have expressed concern about the bureau's ability to enforce piracy rules in the wake of field office closures (see 1508130029).

Any steps the FCC takes to help AM radio without allowing an AM-only translator license application window would be “relatively small change,” said former Republican FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell and former Democratic FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in a joint blog on The Hill's website Wednesday. “On this point, all Democrats and Republicans” can agree, the editorial said. Copps left the FCC in December 2011 and is now a special advisor to Common Cause. McDowell left the commission in May 2013 and is now a partner at Wiley Rein. Being able to use a translator to broadcast on the FM band is key because the AM band suffers from increasing interference caused by the widespread adoption of fluorescent lighting, among other things, the blog post said. The application filing window was promised by the FCC two years ago, and that promise should be fulfilled, said the two men. The window “is especially important for women and minority owners of AM stations, who are more likely to run small standalone stations on shoe-string budgets,” they said. Despite their many differences while commissioners, the need for the FCC to help AM radio is an issue on which they are “fully united,” they said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake are apparently alone in thinking that eliminating the syndicated exclusivity rules is a necessary or even a good step for the agency to take, Rick Kaplan, NAB executive vice president-legal and regulatory affairs, said in a blog post Wednesday. It responded to a blog post Lake wrote the day before arguing for the end of the syndicated exclusivity and network non-duplication rules (see 1509220024). Kaplan said Lake's blog post was "an attempt to reverse the palpable lack of enthusiasm for the Chairman's plan, and took aim at Lake's arguments against rules Lake called "past their prime." Any argument that retransmission consent rules obviate any need for preserving local exclusivity is off base, as Congress was explicit in the 1992 Cable Act, when it set up retrans rules, that changing or deleting the rules in a way that would allow for carriage of distant stations in the place of local stations carrying the same programming isn't the intent, Kaplan said. "Contrary to Mr. Lake's central claim, Congress was well aware of the importance of the exclusivity rules when it granted retransmission consent rights to broadcasters," Kaplan said. And Congress' preservation of local exclusivity in the 2014 satellite reauthorization law is further evidence of "how hollow Mr. Lake's claim rings," Kaplan said. Neither Lake nor Wheeler is making a case for how eliminating exclusivity rules will benefit consumers or fix some regulatory problem, Kaplan wrote. "Their central premise is simply that the rules are 'old' and 'unnecessary,'" Kaplan said. "It's time to shelve this proposal and move on to more important matters that preserve localism, competition and diversity for the benefit of consumers."

NAB Labs partnered with Washington-based startup incubator 1776, said the association in a news release Tuesday. Under the terms of the partnership, NAB Labs will “engage with early-stage startup companies pursuing innovations in areas important to local communities and media companies,” it said. NAB will hold office hours at the 1776 Campus and host events, it said. NAB said other 1776 partners include AT&T, CEA, Comcast, Georgetown University, Microsoft and Wilkinson Barker.

Since broadcasters pay hefty regulatory fees and are required to provide their services free to the public, allowing AM radio licensees to obtain FM frequencies through translators is not a spectrum giveaway, NAB said Friday in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing. “Unless the Commission is interested in a communications industry that supports only those services for which consumers must pay hefty fees, it should make it a priority to care about the health and well-being of free over-the-air radio and television,” NAB said. An AM-only window for FM translator applications is the best way to help AM stations and would be “a huge victory for diversity,” NAB said. The proposal has the support of “a large number of minority broadcasters and the Congressional Black Caucus,” NAB said. A proposal for a waiver allowing AM stations to purchase and move distant translators from up to 250 miles away would be effective only as a complement to the window, not a replacement for it, NAB said. The 250-mile proposal “threatens to favor large station groups over small ones and big markets over small,” NAB said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied David Schum’s appeal of an FCC order approving the transfer of a radio license from his company to another company, Bernard Dallas. The transfer was part of a judgment against Schum in Texas state court and subsequent bankruptcy proceedings, said the opinion. Schum failed to show how the court's overturning the FCC decision would prevent injuries to him and his business, and so doesn’t satisfy standing requirements, said the unanimous decision. All of the harms caused by the sale of the station stem from Schum’s bankruptcy and the state court decision against him, and wouldn’t be altered by overturning the FCC decision, the D.C. circuit ruled.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $15,000 fine for an alleged Paterson, New Jersey, pirate radio operator who continued operating his unlicensed station KalienteMix on 90.5 MHz despite repeated warnings from the bureau, said a notice of apparent liability released Friday. Alejandro Ramirez “has a history of operating unlicensed FM stations in New Jersey,” the NAL said. The bureau sent Ramirez two Notices of Unlicensed Operation in 2013 and 2014, and in May and August this year tracked radio signals to two different properties in Paterson, one owned by Ramirez’s wife. Two more notices were sent to Ramirez, with no responses received. The bureau proposed a $10,000 fine for the unlicensed operation, and adjusted it upward for Ramirez’s disregard of repeated warnings, the NAL said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s statement Thursday that providing an AM-only FM translator window amounts to a giveaway of spectrum “simply does not withstand review,” Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford said in a blog post Friday. Wheeler made the statement in a post-meeting news conference in response to a question from Communications Daily. “This cannot be the full reason for his opposition,” he said. “An AM-only window for FM translators is no more a give-away of free spectrum than is any other translator filing window.” Wheeler may have other reasons for opposing the window, Oxenford said. “In the rapid give and take of a press conference, the Chairman’s comments may not have reflected all of the concerns that he has about an AM-only window for FM translators.”

Nexstar Broadcasting reached a $44 million deal with Reiten Television to buy four CBS-affiliated TV stations serving the same western North Dakota designated market area, Nexstar said in a news release Thursday. Nexstar will also provide sales and other services to two ABC-affiliated stations owned by Forum Communications in the same DMA, taking over a shared services agreement with Reiten. The deal will increase Nexstar’s portfolio of stations that it “owns, operates, programs or to which it provides sales and other services” to 114 television stations in 59 markets, reaching 18 percent of all U.S. TV households, the release said. “The Western North Dakota market is a natural complement to our existing operations in the Upper Midwest region of the United States,” Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said in the release. The deal is expected to close in late 2015 or early 2016, the release said. Nexstar also announced in a separate release that it opened a new $3 million, 15,000 square-foot broadcasting and news facility in Roanoke, Virginia, to support its stations WFXR Roanoke and WWCW Lynchburg and its website VirginiaFirst.com. The building includes “a dynamic news studio outfitted with the latest HD news production resources and technologies,” and enhanced meteorological equipment, Nexstar said. Along with the facility, Nexstar expanded its local news operation and added new newscasts and 30 news and production jobs, the release said.

The full FCC unanimously rejected two petitions for reconsideration filed by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) against Media Bureau decisions that led to the approval of online radio service Pandora’s buy of KXMZ(FM) Box Elder, South Dakota (see 1506020035), said a recon order approved Thursday as part of the commission’s consent agenda. “None of ASCAP’s arguments on the merits warrants reconsideration or review of the Bureau’s order,” the FCC said. ASCAP appealed both a declaratory ruling that allowed Pandora to buy the station without establishing that it was less than 25 percent foreign owned, and the FCC approval of the transfer of license. The buy of KXMZ was intended to allow Pandora to qualify for music rights at the same rates enjoyed by broadcasters, and that is why ASCAP objected to the rulings. The FCC upheld the bureau’s decision that ASCAP doesn’t have the standing to object to Pandora’s purchase of the station, and rejected ASCAP's argument that the declaratory ruling on foreign ownership hadn’t considered the public interest ramifications of allowing Pandora to buy the station. “The future of the collective music licensing system is not a relevant public interest factor” to the FCC’s analysis of Pandora as a prospective licensee, the order said, and, “in any case, is a question that is more appropriately resolved by Congress, the courts, and government agencies with expertise in this area."