Black Television News Channel and Florida A&M University urged the FCC to grant BTNC a waiver of the ban on ads carried on direct broadcast satellite noncommercial set-aside channels. Doing so would have a positive impact on the partnership between BTNC and FAMU, BTNC said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 14-77 (http://bit.ly/1oipshd). The partnership would result in 40 internships and mentoring programs in news and media, significant capital improvements to the existing broadcast training facility, and “a steady outlet for news serving an underserved audience,” BTNC said. The entities also reiterated the FCC’s obligations under the Communications Act “to promote a diversity of media voices,” it said. The filing pertains to meetings with Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Mike O'Rielly and staff from the offices of Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai.

The FCC Media Bureau denied a petition for reconsideration by Texas radio stations that wanted a “daisy chain” of FM allotments involving 11 Texas communities. Rawhide Radio, Clear Channel and Clear Channel Texas requested a counterproposal that was denied due to the FCC’s minimum distance separation rule, the bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1rektNu) released Thursday. The parties suggested an engineering solution by modifying the reference coordinates for their Channel 297A substitution at Llano, Texas, but the bureau didn’t accept the modification because it was late, the bureau said.

Gray Television will buy two ABC affiliates from SJL Holdings for $128 million, Gray said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1x85syy). WJRT-TV Flint, Michigan, and WTVG-TV Toledo “could contribute nicely to political revenue this year as WJRT-TV is the highest ranked TV station in its market, while WTVG-TV is a close second in its market,” said Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker in an email to investors. “These stations are positioned to capture hot Senatorial, Gubernatorial, and House races in Michigan and hot Gubernatorial and House races in Ohio,” Ryvicker said. Though Gray said the deal is subject to regulatory approval, Ryvicker said it’s unlikely Gray will need a waiver to close the deal. The purchase is expected to close in either Q3 or Q4 of 2014, Ryvicker said.

The FCC Media and Public Safety bureaus seek comment on an application and waiver request from WLNY Riverhead, New York, to “flashcut” its low-power TV station WLIG Plainview, also in New York, from analog Channel 17 to digital Channel 17. WLNY would like a waiver for land mobile station protection insofar as the FCC rule on land mobile assignments applies to the Channel 16 land mobile services in New York City, the bureaus said in a public notice posted Wednesday (http://bit.ly/1ocdw0y). The rule says an LPTV station or translator application won’t be accepted if it specifies a channel that is one channel above or below one of the land mobile assignments “and its field strength at the land mobile protected contour exceeds 76 dBu,” they said. WLIG is located within the land mobile protected contour, they said. The bureaus seek comment on the impact of the request on the land mobile service on adjacent Channel 16 in the New York metropolitan area, the bureaus said, with comments due Aug. 15, replies Aug. 29.

The FCC should release the algorithms and software used in its analysis of how much aggregate interference stations are likely to receive after the post-incentive auction repacking, said consulting engineering firm Cohen Dippell in reply comments posted online Wednesday in docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1nVkoL0). Cohen Dippel said the amount of time allotted for comments was not sufficient given the amount of data involved. “For this firm, this has been a major factor in not being able to advise many of its clients,” said the filing.

An FCC $15,000 fine to Glendive Broadcasting Group for failing to file its Children’s Television reports on time seems to violate part of the Communications Act, a broadcast attorney said. The FCC ordered Glendive to pay the fine concerning its TV station KXGN Glendive, Mont. (CD July 21 p15). The law requires the commission to issue a notice of apparent liability (NAL) citing the precise rules supposedly violated before it can impose a forfeiture, said Fletcher Heald attorney Peter Tannenwald Wednesday in a blog post (http://bit.ly/WDrTAO). In the forfeiture order, the FCC added another claimed violation that wasn’t mentioned in the NAL, he said. That violation involves Glendive’s failure to provide all information called for in FCC applications, he said. The statute doesn’t appear to authorize the commission to toss in extra supposed violations that weren’t mentioned in the NAL, he said. The FCC uses that violation to sidestep the five-year statute of limitations, which says lawsuits to enforce penalties must be started within five years of the date the claim first accrued, Tannenwald said. Glendive asked for a reduction due to many of the supposed violations having occurred more than five years ago, he said. The FCC stated that the statute of limitations doesn’t apply (http://bit.ly/1rC0EmT). Tannenwald doesn’t represent Glendive. The Media Bureau had no further comment.

WPXS Mount Vernon, Illinois, petitioned the FCC for a rulemaking on substituting VHF Channel 11 for Channel 21. The TV station wants to operate on Channel 11 to improve its service to the public, “without causing any interference to other stations or adversely affecting the plans for an incentive auction,” it said in its petition posted Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1mAjovp). It also requested a waiver of the freeze on the filing of petitions for digital channel substitutions, it said. The waiver will serve the public interest because WPXS will continue to provide service to the public and “the proposed channel change will free spectrum which can be used in a spectrum auction,” it said.

Allowing TV stations to innovate and compete in the multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) and wireless broadband market segments can be achieved through comprehensive, market-based regulatory reform, said a Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology report. The report was led by Fred Campbell, CBIT director and former FCC Wireless Bureau chief. Old regulations, like the free-television mandate, the prohibition on broadcasters offering cable channels and broadcast spectrum limitations, should be eliminated to allow TV networks and local affiliate stations to work together, it said (http://bit.ly/1paf7TF). Repealing only the regulations enabling TV stations to meet their public interest obligations would result in the forced abandonment or sale of TV stations at “fire-sale prices, thus destroying the legitimate, investment-backed expectations of TV stations through government action,” the report said. TV stations rightly fear they wouldn’t survive if policymakers adopted the MVPD proposal for video reform, it said. “Broadcasters thus argue that policymakers should maintain the status quo.” The ownership limits and localism policies applicable to TV stations “are antithetical to the criteria for success of ad-supported services in a free market,” it said. Deregulated TV stations would be well positioned to compete in the MVPD market segment, “either alone or in combination with other service providers,” it said. The wireless broadband capabilities of the broadcast TV band may be complementary to the video services offered by satellite TV operators, “who currently lack their own terrestrial broadband facilities,” it said.

Public television leaders repeated their support for a 0.5 percent per station interference standard for stations that are reassigned in the broadcast incentive auction repacking process as long as the aggregate additional interference received from all stations is capped at 1 percent. A 1 percent aggregate cap is necessary because findings by the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force conclude that some stations could experience new aggregate interference well over 1 percent, said the Association of Public Television Stations, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS in comments posted Tuesday in docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1kaK6jQ). The analysis doesn’t account for the potential interference with service to cable or satellite receive facilities, “to which stations must deliver a good quality signal, and which service may be impinged by the repacking and does not appear to be considered at all in these studies,” they said. Any amount of new interference frustrates the public TV mission to provide universal service, but applying a 1 percent interference cap would prevent the significant service loss that otherwise would occur without such a cap, they said.

Public interest groups and broadcasters have been granted permission to intervene in the NAB and Prometheus Radio Project court challenges to the FCC’s policies on sharing arrangements and the quadrennial review (CD June 16 p16), said an order issued Monday in the U.S Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The Benton Foundation, Common Cause, Media Alliance, Media Council Hawaii, the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council, Mission Broadcasting, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-Communications Workers of America, the National Organization for Women Foundation, Nexstar Broadcasting and the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ had motions to intervene granted, the order said.