The FCC Media Bureau Audio Division dismissed and denied objections to 994 FM translator applications said a letter listed in Friday’s Daily Digest. The objections were raised by Prometheus Radio Project, the Center for International Media Action and Common Frequency. The groups have filed “an undated Informal Objection to virtually every FM translator application pending” since May, the letter said. The objections are based on the argument that the Local Community Radio Act requires the FCC to ensure that equal numbers of licenses are available for low-power FM, FM translators and FM boosters in all markets, and said the FCC hasn’t acted to ensure the availability of LPFM licenses in its recent series of FM translator windows. The objections are “overbroad” and don’t include enough factual basis, the division said. “We reject Objectors’ conclusion that equality of status as secondary services necessarily implies that the Commission must ensure that all remaining available spectrum in all markets is equally apportioned,” staff said. “The consistent application of our codified FM translator and LPFM licensing rules does not constitute ‘bias’ against LPFM applications,” they said. “It merely reflects the fact that the applications in these two services are not similarly situated.” A Prometheus appeal of translator siting rules that it also saw as a threat to LPFM also was recently rejected (see 1805220073).

The FCC should grant Ion, Trinity Christian Center and Univision permanent grandfathering “in the event of a change to the UHF discount or national ownership cap,” the TV broadcasters said, posted in docket 17-318 Friday. They built their groups “in reliance on the UHF discount” and permanent grandfathering would allow them to operate “with certainty,” they said. The FCC is considered likely to change both rules (see 1806050040) and uncertainty about the cap makes financing the broadcast groups “very difficult,” the letter said. The permanent grandfathering also needs to include “full transferability,” allowing the groups’ UHF stations to be counted at 50 percent reach for future owners as well, the broadcasters said. “Find a path forward that preserves the competitive gains and programming diversity made possible by the UHF Discount, regardless of how it resolves the national cap and UHF Discount questions.”

FCC staff deemed 27 applicants qualified to bid on 33 new FM translator construction permits in Auction 83 that starts June 21, said a public notice from the Wireless and Media bureaus Thursday. They include Bible Broadcasting Network, Big Broadcasting, Black Media Works, Carolina Radio Group, Clear Channel Broadcasting, Educational Media Foundation, the Pacifica Foundation, University of Northwestern-St. Paul and Vermont Public Radio.

On TV ownership caps, "the Commission should, in effect, maintain the status quo," NAB lobbied Chief Michelle Carey and others in the Media Bureau, the association reported, as posted Thursday in FCC docket 17-318. "If the Commission continues to employ a 39 percent national TV cap, it should determine compliance with it by accounting for all TV stations at 50 percent of their theoretical audience reach." That's because "the premise underlying the national audience reach cap" that stations reach all TV households in their markets "is a fiction," NAB representatives including General Counsel Rick Kaplan said. "NAB’s proposal to account for both UHF and VHF stations at half their theoretical audience reach still overstates their actual marketplace reach and therefore would be a conservative method of attributing stations under a 39 percent national cap." Broadcasters are split on how to address ownership limits, with a court seen likely to end the UHF discount and Sinclair proposing to buy Tribune (see 1806050040).

The FCC order rejecting Prometheus Radio Project’s appeal of relaxation of translator siting rules takes effect Tuesday, with publication in the Federal Register. Prometheus challenged the rule change as violating the Administrative Procedure Act (see 1805220073).

A move by Nielsen to change the way it measures audience data in Los Angeles will “disproportionately exclude Hispanic-listener households” and is seemingly “discriminatory,” Spanish Broadcasting System said. Nielsen is removing some homes from its Los Angeles Portable People Meter panel to protect data integrity, a Nielsen spokesman emailed. “An internal review concluded that these homes did not meet our data quality and integrity standards.” The ratings sample for Los Angeles is still representative of the market, the spokesperson said. “The restated ratings and rankings reports are, in SBS’s view unreliable, and inaccurately suggest that Spanish-language stations have dropped from top 5 rankings to number 15 or lower,” SBS said. “This cannot stand.”

The FCC Media Bureau approved license transfer applications connected with Cumulus Media’s bankruptcy reorganization (see 1805020035), and rejected a petition to deny by creditor WGH, said an order issued Friday. The reorganization involves rejiggering Cumulus’ stock, and the transfer of control is between Cumulus’s current group of shareholders and its new, reorganized shareholders, the order said. WGH argued the reorg would lead to Cumulus being more than 25 percent foreign-owned, but the bureau said Cumulus created mechanisms that will prevent that from occurring, and such arguments will be properly addressed when Cumulus seeks a declaratory ruling to exceed the 25 percent threshold. The bureau said WGH doesn’t have standing to petition for denial of the transaction, so its argument was treated as an informal objection. To bring the transaction into compliance with local ownership rules, Cumulus will place into a divestiture trust radio stations in four markets where it exceeded the ownership limits -- the combinations previously were grandfathered, the order said. The transfer of control also means any Cumulus mutually exclusive FM translator application in recent translator auction 100 will be dismissed, the order said.

The FCC should use existing guidelines designed by PBS to help create the plan for dispersing repack reimbursement funds to low-power TV and translators, the public broadcast network said Tuesday in a meeting with Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo, Media Bureau Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman and Media Bureau staff, recounted a filing in docket 16-306. The PBS guidelines were created to administer a grant pledged by T-Mobile to cover the repacking costs of TV translators and LPTV stations that carry PBS content (see 1706290066). “The costs for any given translator relocation project can vary significantly, from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the network said. The FCC should accommodate those variations based on individual local circumstances, PBS said. The process should be “streamlined and simple as possible so that small stations with limited resources will be able to participate without undue difficulty,” PBS said.

Broadcaster arguments that calls for reformed EEO rules aren't relevant to the FCC proceeding on doing away with midterm EEO reports (see 1805160042) should be disregarded, said Common Cause, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, National Urban League, Public Knowledge, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Women in Cable Telecommunications and others. Though much of the NPRM is focused on midterm EEO reports, it requests comment on the FCC’s “track record” on enforcement, they said, posted Wednesday in docket 18-23. The groups’ request for action against “cronyism” has been “fully briefed since 2004 and is ripe,” they said. The groups also disagreed with broadcaster contentions that requests for stronger EEO enforcement (see 1805010075) are unconstitutional and that word-of-mouth recruitment is discriminatory: “Outreach that is not broad can be conducted in a discriminatory way.”

The FCC Media Bureau is recommending an $18,000 fine for a Michigan radio station for operating not at its authorized power. In an order Wednesday, it said WBNZ(FM) Frankfort "willfully and repeatedly" operated outside what it was licensed for and willfully failed to file for special temporary authorization. The bureau also dismissed an objection to the station's 2012 license renewal application raised by Far Eastern Telecasters as unsupported and vague and said it will grant the renewal on the conclusion of the enforcement proceeding. WBNZ outside counsel didn't comment.