The FCC should let iHeartMedia be up to 49.99% foreign-owned, said iHeart investor Global Media & Entertainment Investments in an Oct. 8 call with Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 21-141. IHeart asked to be approved as only 14.99% foreign-owned (see 2105250041), and told the FCC GMEI has no standing to seek additional permission. The FCC “can best uphold its foreign ownership rules and policies by exercising its clear authority to grant the level of advance approval proposed by GMEI,” said the filing.

Relax ownership caps on AMs, narrowly define radio’s market as local radio, and don't authorize geotargeted radio broadcasts, asked iHeartMedia in virtual meetings earlier this week with an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and an aide to Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, per filings posted Thursday in docket 18-349. “Relaxation of the FM ownership limits would exacerbate an already perilous competitive disadvantage that AM stations have in relation to FM.” A broader definition of the radio market as “encompassing virtually all audio services and digital media” is “wholly inconsistent with the views expressed by” DOJ and FTC antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook, iHeart said. “Zonecasting” would “completely overturn the radio industry’s core business model, offering illusory promised benefits and disproportionately harming smaller and minority-owned stations,” said the company. Zonecasting proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions spoke with Rosenworcel’s aide to tout the technology’s benefits to minorities Tuesday, said a filing posted Thursday in docket 20-401

The Radio Show will be integrated into the larger NAB Show in Las Vegas, NAB announced Thursday. This begins with the next NAB Show in April. “This change provides more opportunities in one location for radio professionals and elevates radio in the larger media ecosystem represented at NAB Show,” said NAB. “The integrated event in Las Vegas will feature signature awards, networking events and a comprehensive conference program, including popular sales and marketing sessions presented by the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB).” Previously, the Radio Show was a separate event, held in different cities each year. The 2021 Radio Show was planned to be in Las Vegas concurrent with the 2021 NAB Show before both were canceled last month (see 2109150062). Radio broadcaster and former NAB Radio Board member Ed Henson said he’ll miss the separate show, but he believes NAB will be sensitive about ensuring radio is highlighted at the larger event. Alpha Media CEO Bob Proffitt, also a former NAB board member, said the combination is a “wise move” that will increase attendance and take advantage of technology convergence: “The bigger the better.” The "decision was primarily based on giving radio broadcasters the very best value and experience,” said an NAB spokesperson. “We know budgets are tight when it comes to business travel, and integrating Radio Show into NAB Show provides more opportunities in one place.” NAB didn’t comment on whether the change was motivated by financial concerns at the trade group after the cancellation of the 2020 and 2021 conventions. Broadcasters told us the Radio Show wasn’t considered a high-cost event. The in-person show, last held in 2019, generally saw 1,500-2,000 attendees, NAB said (see 1909200034). In announcing the change, the group also said NAB CEO Gordon Smith will give his final “State of the Industry” speech online Nov. 10.

An NAB petition on clarifying FCC ATSC 3.0 multicast rules was circulated to the eighth floor last week, according to the FCC website and a broadcast industry official. The petition involves the “substantially similar” programming requirement for stations switching to the new standard and would make shifting markets easier, broadcasters said (see 2109300003). NAB wants certainty on which station the FCC will hold responsible for violations of rules when broadcasters are hosting each other’s channels on multicast streams during the 3.0 changeover.

Minority-owned small businesses that don’t advertise on radio would benefit from targeting specific zones of a station’s coverage area, said Roberts Radio CEO Steve Roberts, GeoBroadcast Solutions CEO Chris Devine and Kizart Media owner Sherman Kizart, in a call Wednesday with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, per a new filing in docket 20-401. GBS will demo its technology on Roberts Radio’s WRBJ(FM) Brandon, Mississippi (see 2110050063).

The 2019 changes to kidvid rules “have had little to no impact on the availability of children’s programming that is accessible to children with disabilities,” said NAB in comments posted Friday in docket 18-202. As of Friday afternoon, NAB was the sole commenter responding to the Media Bureau’s call for feedback (see 2109070035). The rule changes allowed broadcasters to satisfy part of their kidvid obligations with multicast streams and short-form content. As part of that proceeding the Media Bureau was directed to seek comment after two years on possible effects on accessible programming. “Most, if not all, children’s programming aired on multicast streams also is closed captioned,” the filing said. “The programming aired on primary streams is closed captioned and audio described to the same extent it was before the 2019 revisions,” NAB said. “Accordingly, there is no need for further Commission action at this time,” NAB said.

The FCC Media and Consumer and Governmental Affairs bureaus dismissed a petition for reconsideration by KSQA as moot, said an order Wednesday on docket 20-158. The company sought reconsideration of the termination of a carriage proceeding it was involved in against DirecTV that the agency declared dormant. The underlying complaint “pertained to the 2015-17 election cycle for satellite carriage of television stations,” the order said. “This is no longer a live controversy.” KSQA argued it didn’t receive proper notice, but the order said that issue wasn’t relevant: “Even if that argument were meritorious, it would have no bearing on our independent determination that the underlying complaint was no longer a live controversy when the docket was terminated.”

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector is doing an initial review of Univision’s request for a foreign-ownership declaratory ruling, said a DOJ letter posted in FCC docket 21-321 Monday. Univision wants FCC permission to be more than 25% foreign-owned, to allow investors SoftBank and Liberty Global to have voting interests above 5% (see 2107210046). The review is to assess whether granting the request “will pose a risk to the national security or law enforcement interests of the United States,” the letter said: The review period is 120 days, but that could be extended with a notification to the FCC.

The window for new noncommercial educational FM construction permits is Nov. 2-9, said an FCC Media Bureau reminder public notice Monday. The deadline will be “strictly enforced,” said the PN. Applications submitted too early or too late “will be dismissed by public notice without further consideration,” the PN said. Due to the filing window, the FCC won’t accept FM reserved band minor change applications and FM nonreserved band adjacent channels (channels 221-223) and intermediate frequency (IF) (channels 254-274) minor change applications after Monday, the PN said.

U.S. stations dropped by 87 in a year since September 2020, said an FCC broadcast count listed in Monday’s Daily Digest. As of last month, there were 33,402 stations, down from 33,489 that month last year. The biggest shifts appear to have come in radio, with full-power stations declining from 15,460 to 15,412 and low-power FMs from 2,143 to 2,081. The total number of full-power TV stations dipped two, to 1,756. LPTV rose from 1,860 to 1,891.