Enthusiasm was high for the NextRadio FM reception smartphone app among 801 smartphone owners ages 18-49 canvassed online after watching a 90-second promotional video extolling NextRadio’s virtues, said NAB, which helped fund the study, and Emmis Communications, which developed and is promoting NextRadio to broadcasters and wireless carriers. NextRadio’s “growth of listening with users is quite good,” Emmis Chief Technology Officer Paul Brenner emailed us Monday. Until recently, only about two dozen models of Sprint smartphones supported the Next Radio app, a limitation still on display at the NextRadio website Monday. “We are working to update our website this week to more accurately reflect the multiple carriers with a NextRadio phone,” Brenner told us. “Our new matrix will make it easier for you and consumers to reference available phones.” For example, the HTC One M8 smartphone supports NextRadio on Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, in addition to Sprint, plus “regionals” like Cellcom, he said. Other phones supported on other major carriers are the HTC Remix on Verizon and the HTC Desire on AT&T, he said. FM reception chips already are embedded in many of today’s smartphones and need only be unlocked by the major carriers to support the NextRadio app. Only last Friday, for example, Sony landed FCC equipment authorizations on two models of smartphones, the PM-0382-BV and PM-0381-BV, and 20 model derivatives, all with GSM, Wi-Fi and near-field communication support, plus FM reception capability built into its Bluetooth chipset, FCC documents show. Sony has requested 180 days of confidentiality through Jan. 27 on the smartphones, which Sony Mobile Communications, of Lund, Sweden, is sourcing from Arima Communications, a Taiwanese original equipment manufacturer supplier, the documents show. As for the NextRadio survey results, 88 percent of those canvassed had a positive reaction, including 56 percent who described their initial reactions as “very positive,” and 45 percent who said they “definitely” would use NextRadio if it were available on their smartphones, the survey takers said. They found that 92 percent of those asked agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, “The NextRadio app is really cool,” they said. The study was done by Coleman Insights, which released the results Thursday (http://bit.ly/1mfIeBl).

The FCC dismissed an application for review by Access on the Media Bureau’s dismissal of its low-power FM station application in San Diego. Access acknowledged that the dismissal was valid under existing law and policy, but argued “that the international third-channel spacing requirements have proven to be unnecessary,” the FCC said in a memorandum opinion and order (http://bit.ly/1xM5j4h). Access asked the agency to refrain from dismissing the application, to let the FCC encourage Mexico to change its spacing requirements, the commission said. Access never presented to the bureau its argument that the application should be held pending a possible revision of the spacing requirement rule, the FCC said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed fines for TV stations in Texas for allegedly failing to publicize the existence and location of the stations’ children’s TV programming reports, it said in notices of apparent liability. The bureau proposed a $3,000 fine for NBC Telemundo’s KVDA-TV San Antonio (http://bit.ly/1kp7Qkq), and $1,000 for Centex’s KXXV-TV Waco, Texas, (http://bit.ly/1o9XuE6), it said. The bureau also proposed a $6,000 fine to Midessa Television for failing to timely file the children’s TV programming reports for Texas stations KWAB-TV Big Spring, and KWES-TV Odessa, it said (http://bit.ly/1qtQr7W).

"The time is right” for the FCC to end the newspaper/radio cross-ownership ban, said Delmarva Broadcasting, Lancaster Newspapers (LNP) and Steinman Stations, in a comment posted Wednesday in docket 14-50 responding to the FCC 2014 quadrennial review (http://bit.ly/1tusZMK). Comments are due Aug. 6, after an extension, said an FCC public notice (http://bit.ly/1qLzjPC). Delmarva, a subsidiary of Steinman, operates radio stations in Delaware and northern Maryland but not in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where affiliated company LNP publishes a newspaper, the comment said. The prohibition on cross-ownership “does nothing to provide access to a diversity of viewpoints in this digital age,” said the filing. “Instead, the prohibition inhibits the ability of trained communications professionals from deploying their skills and expertise across multiple distribution channels to the detriment of the public.” The Steinman companies working in concert “create a productive synergy between broadcast and print reporting that provides robust content and useful audience-focused interaction,” the filing said: That “creates considerably more community benefit for a newspaper-radio collaboration, not less."

More than 6,700 letters to the FCC were filed in support of maintaining the sports blackout rule. The letters are part of the “Protect Football on Free TV” campaign led by former NFL player Lynn Swann, the campaign said in a news release. It said the letters were sent through the website www.protectfootballonfreetv.com. The letters make clear that professional football fans “believe that the current rules work and should not be upended,” it said. Many of the letters were posted Tuesday in docket 12-3.

Post-Newsweek Stations is now Graham Media Group. The new name “better reflects the diversity of our creative and innovative company,” Graham Media said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1rw6JxT). Graham Media said it also invested in Storm Pins, a crowdsourced, social weather and breaking news app.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on an Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance (ATBA) petition for an extension of the expiration date of all outstanding construction permits for new digital low-power TV and TV translator stations to Sept. 1, 2015 -- the deadline for the digital transition, said the bureau in a public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1kWqI4u). Comments are due Aug. 14, replies, Aug. 29, in docket 03-185.

Sinclair Broadcast will close its deal to buy Allbritton’s TV stations on Aug. 1, Sinclair said in a news release Friday (http://bit.ly/1rEwIVN). A Media Bureau order approving the $962 million deal was released Thursday (CD July 25 p1). Sinclair will acquire KATV Little Rock, Arkansas, KTUL Tulsa, WJLA Washington, WSET-TV Lynchburg, Virginia, and WJLA’s D.C. area cable news channel Newschannel 8.

The FCC Media Bureau denied a reconsideration petition filed by OCC Acquisitions that opposed a channel substitution of Channel 237B for Channel 271B at Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands. The bureau substituted alternate Channel 237B for Channel 271B at Charlotte Amalie as suggested by Las Mas Z Radio Corp., the bureau said in a memorandum opinion and order released Friday (http://bit.ly/1onEEK0). OCC argued that the FCC should disregard Las Mas’s expression of interest for Channel 237B “because it is a sham,” the bureau said. The bureau rejects as unsupported speculation OCC’s attack on the bona fides of Las Mas’ expression of interest, it said. Las Mas’ motive in its expression of interest is irrelevant because “the staff has the flexibility to use alternate channels to resolve conflicts and could have proposed it as a solution,” it said.

A “saving grace” of the Sinclair/Allbritton deal is the elimination of the sharing arrangements between the stations involved, said United Church of Christ Policy Adviser Cheryl Leanza in an email Thursday. “Sidecar agreements that transfer the vast majority of the value of a station to the larger company do little to further the goals of media diversity and competition,” Leanza said. It would have been better for Sinclair to transfer the licenses of the stations involved rather than shutter them, Leanza said. However, “at least the sidecar deals which replicate consolidation through loopholes to the FCC’s rules were eliminated,” said the email. The commission should “go further” and address all sharing deals “as rapidly as possible,” she said.