The National Urban League urged the FCC to maintain its sports blackout rule, saying it has worked as intended. As a result, all Americans, especially the 22 percent of black households, 23 percent of Asian households, and 25 percent of Latino households depending on broadcast-only TV, have access to valuable sports content, said NUL CEO Marc Morial in a filing posted Monday in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1tnnvQh). Eliminating the rule may cost jobs and depress economic activity when too many Americans “continue to face high unemployment rates and economic inequality,” he said. But the Sports Fans Coalition filed a commentary by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., saying the rationale of the rule is no longer supported by the facts. Despite a completed comment period, “we are still waiting on the commission to cast a final vote,” they said on CNN.com (http://cnn.it/YqYV8q). Federal regulations shouldn’t favor multi-billion dollar sports leagues over consumers, they said. Some FCC members back nixing the rule, as an NPRM proposes (CD Aug 4 p6).

The FCC tentatively selected applicants in 111 groups of mutually exclusive applications for new low-power FM construction permits. The commission also initiated the 30-day period for filing petitions to deny the tentatively selected applicants, and a 90-day filing period for voluntary time-share proposals and major change amendments, it said Friday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1rIq40Z). Manchester Community College in Connecticut, Public Media Institute in Chicago, and Sabbath Inc. in Indianapolis are among the tentatively selected applicants, the FCC said (http://fcc.us/1pyjkgP). It also provided a list of second adjacent waiver requests (http://bit.ly/1wbR0GZ).

Common Cause said the FCC should review the Media Bureau’s decision to dismiss complaints against stations owned by Allbritton and Sander Media for allegedly identifying front groups incorrectly as the “true sponsors” of political advertisements. The commission is “shirking its responsibility to enforce the longstanding federal law requiring broadcasters to disclose the ’true identity’ of the sponsors of political advertising,” Common Cause said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1unNRU5). It’s one thing that the “congressional gridlock precludes passage of laws to right the many wrongs our special interest political culture faces,” former FCC commissioner and Common Cause special adviser Michael Copps said in the release. It’s infinitely worse “to ignore laws already on the books that enable us to tackle these problems,” he said. This year, Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center and the Sunlight Foundation filed the complaints against Allbritton-owned ABC affiliate WJLA-TV Washington, D.C., (http://bit.ly/1oIOaDq) and Sander’s KGW-TV Portland, Oregon (http://bit.ly/1mlDLw8). The stations allegedly attributed political ads to political action committees (PACs) instead of identifying the true sponsors, the groups said (http://bit.ly/Z8JiCv). The complaints don’t provide a sufficient showing “that the stations had credible evidence casting into doubt that the identified sponsors of the advertisement were the true sponsors,” the bureau said in a letter to Andrew Schwartzman, the attorney for the groups (http://bit.ly/1waY6eM). The complainants’ theory is understandable, but “whether it is legally correct is another story,” a broadcast attorney said. While Section 317 of the Communications Act refers to “persons,” that term isn’t limited to individuals, but must also include legal entities, Fletcher Heald attorney Harry Cole said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1Abbtfm). As long as the PACs were properly identified, that arguably satisfied Section 317, he said. In tossing the complaints, the bureau didn’t address other concerns, like who is a “true sponsor” if it isn’t the entity signing the check, he said. It also isn’t clear in what cases the donors should be identified as the true sponsors “and when the PAC itself is properly identified as the sponsor,” Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1qAk2OC). The decision will likely be used as a tool to make broadcasters think twice about taking third-party political advertising money, he said.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment in three proceedings on channel substitution. ION Media requested substitution of Channel 31 for Channel 51 in Rome, Georgia, for WPXA-TV Rome, and it requested substitution of Channel 30 for Channel 51 in Kansas City, Missouri, for its station KPXE-TV Kansas City, the bureau said in NPRMs released Thursday (http://bit.ly/Z8QTB5) and (http://bit.ly/1r9lgO8). WPXS-TV Mount Vernon, Illinois, seeks to substitute Channel 11 for Channel 21 in Mount Vernon, the bureau said in another NPRM (http://bit.ly/1o2AWC5). WPXS-TV also wants a waiver of the FCC’s freeze on the filing of petitions for rulemaking by TV stations seeking a channel substitution, it said. Initial comments in both proceedings will be due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, the bureau said.

Waiting for a low-power TV rulemaking proceeding to extend the deadline for construction permits for new LPTV stations would be “counterproductive to the point of being nonsensical,” said the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance in reply comments (http://bit.ly/1qp4DBH) posted Tuesday in docket 03-185. The proceeding stems from an ATBA petition for a deadline extension on the permits (CD Aug 18 p6) until after the incentive auction. Though most of the initial commenters supported extending the deadline, the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition had argued that any such extension should be part of the larger LPTV rulemaking and LPTV licensee CTB Spectrum Services had said it should be part of a larger effort to address LPTV issues. “Everyone recognizes that no reasonable person would construct an expensive facility that the government might render useless in a year or two,” said ATBA. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association was the only entity to file initial comments opposing the proposed extension, which CTB called “impractical as well as harsh” (http://bit.ly/1tucbpx). Requiring a separate extension application for each construction permit “will explode the amount of paper work for both permittees, which, remember, are small businesses, and the Commission, whose resources are far from infinite” said CTB. LPTV licensee Miriam Media supported the extension (http://bit.ly/1rN0BFX), arguing that the NAB’s court challenge of the incentive auction report and order have increased the likelihood of a delayed incentive auction. “It is unfair to require construction decisions and large expenditures by LPTV permittees in advance of any ability to make an informed decision,” said Miriam Media.

Sports Fans Coalition submitted more than 4,000 letters from sports fans opposing retaining the sports blackout rule. The fans wrote to the FCC saying local blackouts don’t encourage attendance “but rather deprive them of seeing the games at all because they are physically unable to go to the stadium,” the coalition said Tuesday in an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/W7mPUH). “These blackout rules serve no purpose other than to punish fans for not attending the game,” the letters said. The letters were obtained through the fan advocacy organization, FanFreedom.org.

The FCC Media Bureau admonished two Illinois TV stations for failing to comply with the limits on commercial matter in children’s programming. The commercial matter may have been inserted into the programs by the stations’ TV network, but this doesn’t relieve the stations of responsibility for the violations, the bureau said in letters to WGEM-TV Quincy and WREX-TV Rockford (http://bit.ly/1sR16uk) (http://bit.ly/1pd10cV).

Gray Television’s transfer of six stations formerly involved in shared services agreements to minority and female owners (CD Aug 28 p16) shows that opposing media consolidation can aid media diversity, said the National Hispanic Media Coalition in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1lyFTXV). “If the FCC makes serious efforts to stem the tide of media consolidation, more ownership opportunities will be created for women and people of color,” said Jessica González, NHMC general counsel. The divestitures “appear to be the direct result” of the FCC’s new policies toward “sidecar deals that indicate control or influence,” said NHMC. González said she hoped the next such transfers would include Latino owners.

Revisions to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act will be effective June 4. The FCC is replacing the current recommended practice that was incorporated in 2011 with one that applies “an improved loudness measurement algorithm” to conform to an ITU algorithm, it said Wednesday in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1mTrErJ).

The FCC Media Bureau admonished KTTC-TV Rochester, Minnesota, for failing to comply with the limits on commercial matter in children’s programming. The commercial matter may have been inserted into the program by the station’s TV network, the bureau said Wednesday in a letter (http://bit.ly/1tL8WHK). It said even if so, this doesn’t relieve the station of responsibility for the violations.