Ending the freeze on station license modification applications that was started in anticipation of the broadcast incentive auction and instituting new failing station criteria were among media modernization ideas floated by FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly in a blog post Friday. Expected to depart the agency in coming months, he urged allowing waivers of low-power TV processing rules for some in-market station moves, easing the regulatory approvals for VHF stations seeking to upgrade to UHF channels and streamlining the process for TV stations changing their community of license. Pointing to what he called "the double-whammy" of the pandemic and the challenge of competing with unregulated internet-based providers, "these reforms are more critical than ever," the commissioner said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved an America’s Public Television Stations/PBS petition giving noncommercial educational TV translator stations a waiver from the carriage election notice requirement that they email a “baseline” carriage notice by Oct. 1 to MVPDs they expect carriage on in the 2021-2023 carriage cycle, in an order in Thursday's Daily Digest.

TV stations, like radio in recent months, could get a slew of political file consent decrees as a signal of FCC interest in those files being up to date and accurate, Media Bureau Policy Division lawyer Gary Schonman said during an FCBA event Tuesday. Most of those, minus consent decrees brought against the big six station chains (see 2007220070), were the result of radio license renewals and stations certifying their public file obligations, he said. TV renewals are starting and will run through 2023, so it's too early to say whether video will have similar consent decree activity, he said. NAB told us it plans to send compliance manual templates by week's end to small and midsize radio stations that they then can personalize. The FCC has sent out 106 consent decrees to broadcasters due to widespread noncompliance and expect that close to 300 will go out as it goes through the current two-year license renewal cycle, said Policy Division Assistant Chief Robert Baker. He said the radio industry and TV broadcasters “are getting their acts together." Baker said a major issue has been getting broadcasters mindful that there's a digital date stamp when they upload materials into their online political files. Some stations in smaller radio markets weren't aware they were required to post into a digital file, "which is a little bit surprising," he said. Schonman said the clock for broadcasters to upload in their political files starts ticking when they receive a firm request to buy airtime for an issue or candidate ad. Asked when a local issue or candidate ad triggers a national importance issue, Schonman said it depends, and if a station decides in a particular situation that an ad was purely local, the FCC will generally defer to that good-faith judgment. Fox Corp. Vice President-FCC Legal and Business Affairs Ann Bobeck said the political ad space is changing rapidly. She mentioned big spending in Florida, presidential campaigns buying at local as well as national levels since the start of the year, and digital ad platforms trending upwards.

Big Horn Media (BHM) agreed to pay an $8,000 fine for an unauthorized 2017 transfer of control of it and its Nevada radio stations KUEZ Fallon and KUEZ-FM1 Reno from John and Mercedes Burkavage to Harry and Bonnie Dixon, the FCC Media Bureau said in a consent decree Friday. That transfer was reported in February, it said. The bureau anticipated granting the transfer applications. BHM not filing its required 2019 biennial ownership report means it didn't adequately discharge its legal obligations, so the bureau won't grant the applications backdated. Harry Dixon didn't comment.

An item on circulation listed by the FCC as involving rules on FM translator interference would deny all petitions for reconsideration on revamped interference dispute procedures (see 1908160056), an official told us Tuesday. Low-power FM entities, including the LPFM Coalition, pushed for rollback of the rule changes, specifically the limits on interference complaints and the 45 dBu contour. The recon petitions weren’t expected to get much traction (see 1908270061).

Broadcasters' economic challenges from the pandemic are likely to worsen in 2021 because the current influx of political advertising will have dried up, said Graham Media CEO Emily Barr in a Wednesday meeting with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, per a Friday-posted filing in docket 20-60. With broadcasters losing revenue from other areas, retransmission consent money is increasingly important, including from vMVPDs, it said. VMVPDs are usually unwilling to discuss carriage of local, non-network affiliated stations, the TV station owner said.

The FCC Media Bureau will grant waivers to AM broadcasters with FM translator construction permits from auctions 99 or 100 that are set to expire by June but aren’t able to meet that because of COVID-19, said a public notice in Thursday's Daily Digest. “Shutdowns associated with the pandemic have forced stations to halt construction, have disrupted equipment availability and deliveries, and have interrupted travel for tower and equipment installers.” Applications are due at least 15 days before the permit’s expiration, and those seeking relief must demonstrate that COVID-19 affected construction. These waivers pertain only to permits from the auctions set to expire by next summer “as we reasonably anticipate that the effects of the pandemic will extend into the first half of 2021,” the PN said.

The Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment when it meets virtually Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. EDT will open with remarks from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, said a public notice in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The meeting will include presentations from each working group: Access to Capital, Digital Empowerment and Inclusion, and Diversity in the Tech Sector.

A petition for reconsideration of the FCC’s order relaxing rules for low-power FM stations “contains nothing new in terms of facts, legal arguments or intervening circumstances,” said NAB in an opposition filing posted Tuesday in docket 19-193. Filed by Common Frequency, Prometheus Radio Project and others, the petition asks the FCC to consider LP250, a set of changes that would allow LPFM stations to increase their power. By doing so, the FCC would conflict with statute, NAB said. “There is no reason for the FCC to create another class of service that would be governed by a different, less burdensome set of rules,” said NAB. “If an LPFM applicant or station wants to operate a 250-watt radio station, it can apply for a Class A license just like any other entity.”

Semiannual reports from U.S.-based foreign media outlets are due Oct. 11, said the FCC Media Bureau in a reminder public notice Friday. The agency will transmit a report to Congress that summarizes the submissions by Nov. 6, the PN said.