Fraunhofer and Sinclair will partner to bring the Digital Radio Mondiale “framework” to the ATSC 3.0 suite of TV standards, said the companies Tuesday. The collaboration aims to bring DRM listeners “a seamless and full-featured digital radio experience across all broadcast platforms” on fixed home receivers and mobile and automotive reception devices, they said. Fraunhofer owns the trademark to DRM’s xHE-AAC next-generation audio codec and is a licensor in the xHE-AAC patent pool that Dolby-affiliated Via Licensing created in 2016. Dolby AC-4 and MPEG-H are the designated 3.0 audio codecs for TV services in North America and South Korea, respectively. ATSC signed an agreement last month with the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India on deploying 3.0 broadcast services to mobile devices in India (see 2103290016). Sinclair has made no secret of its ambitions to bring 3.0 reception to mobile devices and is sourcing receiver chips from India's Saankhya Labs (see 1908070024)

The FCC should repurpose TV Channel 6 spectrum for FM services where it isn’t used for TV, said NPR in a call Monday with Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner, according to an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 03-185. The agency shouldn’t allow low-power TV stations to “squat” on the spectrum broadcasting analog audio, NPR said. “Analog operations on TV Channel 6 spectrum must cease as of the digital transition deadline, July 13, 2021,” NPR said. “Opening unused and underused TV Channel 6 spectrum for FM broadcast use would vastly increase the diversity of voices and programming available to the public.”

The FCC Media Bureau’s approval of KOMU-TV Columbia, Missouri, changing from channel 8 to 27 takes effect Monday, says that day's Federal Register. Comments are due May 12, replies May 27, in docket 21-54 on Four Seasons Peoria’s request to change the community of license for WAOE Peoria, Illinois, to Oswego, Illinois, the FR says.

Comments are due May 10, replies May 24, in docket 21-141 on iHeartMedia’s petition for a declaratory ruling on the company’s level of foreign ownership (see 2103290057), said a public notice Friday. The petition concerns a Bahamian company that bought enough iHeart stock to exceed a foreign-ownership threshold established in a previous bureau ruling.

Final close-out submission deadlines for entities that received reimbursement in post-incentive auction repacking are coming up in six months, said the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau in a reminder public notice Thursday. Since 953 repacked stations are on their final facilities, but only 28 repacked stations and 86 low-power TV or translator stations have begun the close-out process, “we are concerned that many entities may be unnecessarily delaying making final submissions to the program,” the PN said. Final invoices are due Oct. 8 for full-power and Class A TV stations that transitioned in phases 1-5; March 22 for those that transitioned in phases 6-10; and Sept. 5, 2022, for LPTV stations, translators, FM stations and MVPDs, the PN said. “Entities are strongly encouraged to submit all remaining invoices and initiate close-out procedures as early as possible and are not required to wait for their assigned final invoice filing deadline to initiate close-out procedures.” The PN said 957 repacked full-power and Class A TV stations, 873 LPTV/translator stations, 90 FM stations and 181 MVPDs participated in the reimbursement process. As of April 6, over 96% of the repacked full-power and Class A TV stations are operating on their final facilities, the PN said.

Metropolitan Management of Tennessee acknowledges it failed to put records in its online public inspection file in a timely manner for its WNPZ-FM Knoxville station, said an FCC Media Bureau consent decree Tuesday. Under the consent decree, the licensee will install a compliance plan for online public inspection file obligations and submit a compliance report to the bureau in a year. The bureau's investigation also ended under the decree.

Scripps can substitute channel 26 for 13 for its station KRIS-TV Corpus Christi, Texas, said the FCC Media Bureau in an order Monday in docket 21-59. The bureau also seeks comment on Sinclair Media’s request to switch WCYB-TV Bristol, Virginia, from channel 5 to 35 in docket 21-128, and on WRGB Licensee’s request to change WRGB Schenectady, New York, from channel 6 to 35 in docket 21-127. Commenting dates for those will be released after the filings appear in the Federal Register.

The FCC Media Bureau designated the renewal application of Vandalia Media’s AM station WJEH Gallipolis, Ohio, for hearing, said a hearing designation order in Friday’s Daily Digest. The designation is "based on WJEH’s record of extended silence and operation at significantly reduced power,” the HDO said. Vandalia bought the station from Sunny Broadcasting Dec. 31, 2019. WJEH was silent for 364 days in 2020 and operated at reduced power for the last two days of the year, the HDO said, and has continued at a reduced power level. “Because of the Station’s extended periods of silence and operation at significantly reduced power during the preceding term, we are unable to find that grant of the renewal application is in the public interest.” Vandalia Media CEO Tom Susman told us his company lost access to the transmission site shortly after buying the station. The site wasn’t included in the license deal, he said. COVID-19 complications also made it hard to address the situation, Susman said. “We’ll respect what the FCC decides.”

The FCC will freeze FM commercial and noncommercial educational minor change applications during the Auction 109 Form 175 application filing window, said the Media Bureau in a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The window is April 28-May 11. Auction 109 begins July 27 and involves 136 FM construction permits and four AM permits, said a second PN on auction procedures.

A California freelance journalist is suing the FCC over a Freedom of Information Act request for documents Sinclair submitted to the agency as part of last year's $48 million consent decree for its now-killed Tribune Media purchase (see 2005060063). In her complaint (docket 21-cv-00895, in Pacer) Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, Susan Wilson Cowan alleges the agency hasn't provided requested Sinclair documents that were cited in the consent decree but not entered into the public record, nor has it responded to the October FOIA request. The regulator didn't comment.