It's “unlikely” that any industry affected by the FCC vacant channel NPRM proposals (see 1506160043) “will be happy with them,” said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Peter Tannenwald in a blog post Tuesday. Low-power TV “stations are already discontent[ed] with the prospect of being squeezed out of business (as [Commissioner Ajit] Pai suggests is almost certain to happen); they are likely to object,” he said. Wireless mic users and others have also said sharing spectrum with other uses will impair their devices, Tannenwald said. “In other words, get ready for yet another incentive auction/repack-spawned struggle.”

The FCC Wireless and Media bureaus received 87 complete short-form applications for a July 23 auction of 131 FM construction permits. The bureaus also received 24 incomplete applications and one application that has been rejected, they said in a public notice Wednesday. Applicants with complete applications will become qualified bidders in Auction 98 if the FCC receives their upfront payment by June 29. Applicants with incomplete applications will receive letters about the errors therein and will have until June 29 to submit corrected applications and their upfront fees, the PN said. One Ministries Inc. was rejected for a permit for a noncommercial educational station that is mutually exclusive with an application for a commercial broadcast station, the PN said. That means One Ministries can't participate in Auction 98, the PN said.

FCBA officials have been told the FCC is preparing a response to the bar association's letter on the commission's incentive auction anti-collusion rules, Wiley Rein broadcast attorney Kathleen Kirby said Tuesday at an FCBA lunch. The response is being prepared by the Office of General Counsel, she said. In the FCBA letter on the rules (see 1505180056), the association said the rules let broadcast attorneys represent multiple licensees in the auction. If attorneys can't represent multiple licensees, there likely are not enough attorneys to go around, FCBA said. Broadcast attorneys have told us a response to the FCBA letter wasn't expected unless the commission disagreed with the association's stance. The OGC didn't comment.

SoundHound and Westwood One created a mobile ad platform for radio stations, they said in a news release Monday. SoundHound for Radio lets radio stations “interact with listeners, brands, and advertisers” and became available Monday, the companies said. The platform enables broadcasts to work with the SoundHound app “in a new way that gives not only the song information, but also attribution,” they said. When listeners use the SoundHound music recognition app on a station that has implemented SoundHound for Radio, “the results resolve to a branded station page including content, a contest, or coupon engagement opportunities,” the companies said. Local stations will control the ad information displayed, and the platform includes real-time analytics, said SoundHound and Westwood One.

CEA hailed Friday's U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit opinion rejecting all arguments by NAB and Sinclair petitions against the FCC incentive auction report and order (see 1506120050). “We appreciate the D.C. Circuit's opinion that the NAB-Sinclair appeals were without merit, and look forward to working with the FCC and all stakeholders to continue apace on the auctions," Julie Kearney, CEA vice president-regulatory affairs, emailed us Monday.

The amount of local news produced by TV stations is “holding steady overall,” said the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) in a news release. An annual survey of newsrooms by RTDNA shows that medium market stations are adding the most newscasts and major markets are cutting the most, the release said. Weekday afternoons and weekend mornings saw the most expansion among stations adding newscasts, and midday newscasts were the most often cut, RTDNA said. “The average TV station offers 5.3 hours of local news every weekday, with some stations offering as much as 12.5 hours a day,” RTDNA said. In radio, local newscasts are showing a slight drop, the association said. “Country and adult contemporary stations are most likely to offer local news, slightly more so than stations branding themselves as news/talk,” said the survey. Radio stations offer on average 75.6 minutes of news every weekday, RTDNA said.

The FCC should postpone the “one-size-fits-all” consumer education requirements in the incentive auction order, said NAB in a conference call with Media Bureau staff Friday, according to an ex parte filing. The FCC should wait until after the auction to create the requirements, ”when more is known about how many stations, in which markets, will be moving to new channels,” NAB said.

The FCC modified channel sharing rules to allow broadcasters to sign channel sharing agreements (CSAs) after the TV incentive auction and determine the length of their own sharing agreements, as expected (see 1504290041), in a First Order on Reconsideration released Friday. Along with the order, the FCC released a companion NPRM tentatively concluding that channel sharing by full power and Class A stations should be allowed “outside the incentive auction context,” the order said. That would allow “second generation” agreements, in which parties to an auction-related channel sharing deal that has expired can make new deals. “By providing greater flexibility and certainty regarding CSAs, our objective is to encourage voluntary participation by broadcasters in the incentive auction,” the order said. “The new Rules will greatly increase the feasibility of broadcasters entering into sharing arrangements and increase the likelihood of a successful auction,” said Expanded Opportunities for Broadcasters Executive Director Preston Padden in an email.

The incentive auction order's provision of 4 MHz of spectrum in the duplex gap for wireless mic use would lessen newsgatherers' ability to cover breaking news, said representatives from NAB, the Radio Television Digital News Association, CBS, Time Warner, 21st Century Fox and Viacom in a meeting Monday with Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-268 Thursday. That spectrum provision is also endangered by plans to repack TV stations into the duplex gap, the TV and content representatives said. “As a result, the last vestige of dedicated UHF wireless microphone spectrum will disappear with no plan for a short- or long-term home.” The FCC needs to find new bands for wireless mics, and change any policies that would interfere with or impair wireless mic use in the duplex gap, the filing said.

No commenter on the FCC's proposed report on designated market areas has proposed a technologically or economically feasible alternative to DMAs, NAB said in a reply comment filing posted online in docket 15-43 Thursday. Though WTA-Advocates for Rural Broadband proposed changes to the DMA system, it also said it couldn't provide local service to markets not defined as DMAs, NAB said. WTA's proposals are “designed with the sole aim of enhancing the commercial interests of cable operators,” NAB said. “The Commission should once again decline to endorse alternatives to DMAs, as the DMA system remains the only 'technologically and economically feasible' method available for defining local markets,” NAB said.