Radio equipment from two Boston-area alleged pirate radio stations was seized in a federal forfeiture action Monday, said a release from DOJ Wednesday. “We are pursuing multiple legal routes to stop pirate broadcasters; the seizure action in Boston is just one of them,” said FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Rosemary Harold, in the release. The stations, which the government said were unlicensed, were identified by DOJ as “Big City” and “B87.7 FM,” both broadcast from Dorchester, Massachusetts, the release said. They had received multiple warnings from the FCC but continued to broadcast, the release said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly praised the seizure in a statement crediting Chairman Ajit Pai’s leadership on radio piracy: “This FCC will not sit idly by while pirates flaunt our rules.”
Video delivery products and services supplier Harmonic is joining Pearl TV and its team of “ecosystem partners” deploying ATSC 3.0 field trials in the Phoenix “model market” of 10 TV stations (see 1711140053), said Harmonic in a Tuesday announcement. Harmonic will supply the Phoenix stations with its Electra X 3.0 media processor, it said. The Phoenix testbed initiative is “the first time that a single market will test the ATSC 3.0 standard and provide a framework to the industry," said Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle in a statement. Partnering with companies like Harmonic can help Pearl TV “validate groundbreaking improvements for over-the-air broadcasting and experiment with innovative use cases that ATSC 3.0 enables,” she said.
Tower company Tower King II faces a nearly $13,000 proposed penalty over an incident that killed three of the company’s employees during an antenna installation in Miami in September (see 1709280066), said a release Tuesday from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The incident was caused by the failure of a device that attaches to communications towers to hoist loads, called a gin pole system, OSHA said. A Miami-Dade Fire and Rescue spokesman told us the workers fell hundreds of feet in the collapse. “Investigators determined that the employer failed to ensure the capacity of the rigging attachments were adequate to support the forces imposed from hoisting loads,” the OSHA release said. The $12,934 penalty is the maximum allowed under the law, OSHA said. “This tragedy underscores the importance of having a qualified individual conduct an analysis before performing construction work on communication towers,” said Condell Eastmond, Fort Lauderdale OSHA office director, in the release. Tower King II told Communications Daily before the accident that it was heading to Florida for work related to the post-incentive auction repacking. Tower King II has 15 business days from receipt of its citations and proposed penalties to pay the fine, request a meeting or contest the findings, the release said. Tower King II didn’t comment.
The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on a joint request from NAB, the American Council of the Blind and the American Foundation for the Blind for a five-year extension of a waiver on requirements for audio representations of visual, non-text emergency information (see 1803230067), said a public notice Monday in docket 12-107. Comments are due April 13, replies April 20, the PN said.
The FCC Media and Wireless bureaus released rules for the May 15 auction of FM translator construction permits, in a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The permits in the auction are those with interference conflicts that couldn’t be resolved after the June AM station filing window. The auction will be open only to certain entities involved in the original proceeding, the PN said.
The FCC released the final text of its NPRM seeking comment on streamlining reauthorization of satellite TV stations. Commissioners unanimously approved the item Thursday (see 1803220027).
The FCC Media Bureau and Beasley Media Group reached $15,000 settlement over unauthorized license transfers that occurred as part of an internal restructuring, said a consent decree in Friday’s Daily Digest. The transfers were between Beasley subsidiaries in December, but Beasley asked the bureau in January to authorize them retroactively. The bureau won’t retroactively approve the transfers, but they will be granted under the terms of the settlement, the consent decree said. The broadcaster didn't comment.
NAB, the American Foundation for the Blind and American Council of the Blind want five more years to develop the technology for audio representations of visual, non-text emergency information such as maps and graphics, said in a joint filing posted in FCC docket 12-107 Friday. “Petitioners have worked diligently with both internal and external potential developers of a solution, but unfortunately, no technical solution exists for aurally describing dynamic visual images in emergency crawls that can be integrated into the current broadcasting system." Though FCC rules require such information to be aurally represented for the blind and visually impaired, the Media Bureau has repeatedly granted waivers to allow more time. The last waiver, for 18 months, was granted in November 2016 (see 1611160038) and expires in May.
A March 15 FCC public notice announcing the opening of a filing window for long-form FM translator applications (see 1803160057) contained incorrect file numbers and incorrectly identified Beulah, North Dakota, as being located in the District of Columbia, said a PN Thursday.
FCC rules relaxing measurement requirements and certifications for AM broadcasters using directional arrays (see 1709150058) took effect Wednesday, the Media Bureau said in a public notice Thursday.