Connecticut Public Broadcasting wants the FCC to amend the DTV table of allotments to delete channel 49 at Bridgeport for its WEDW and substitute channel 49 at Stamford, said a petition for rulemaking posted Thursday. That would give Stamford “its first local television service, while leaving Bridgeport adequately served,” it said.

The FCC Media Bureau reached an $8,800 settlement with Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, low-power FM operator Lighthouse Christian Center based on violations noted by Saga Communications' petition to revoke license, rejecting nearly all Saga allegations, said an order and consent decree Thursday. "Nothing in the record before us creates a substantial or material question of fact whether Lighthouse possesses the basic qualifications to be a Commission licensee," the order said. Lighthouse was broadcasting from a location different from where it was licensed, and violated rules on underwriting announcements, the order said. Saga raised those violations after it told the bureau Lighthouse was interfering illegally with Saga’s broadcasts. Saga said Lighthouse’s violations showed it didn’t meet character requirements to be a licensee, but Lighthouse said it hadn't been aware of violations, the order said. The bureau rejected Saga’s assertions about Lighthouse’s character, declined to revoke its license, and granted authorization to correct the problem.

The FCC should respond “quickly” to Ion’s petition for reconsideration and adjust its repack timeline and reimbursement policies, Gray Television commented, in docket 12-268 Thursday. Gray joins Meredith, Entravision and Trinity Broadcasting (see 1708180061) in supporting Ion’s petition. Broadcasters need more time than 39 months to manage multiple buildouts in a tight time frame, Gray said. It seconded Ion’s calls for looser reimbursement rules for top-mount antennas and solid-state transmitters and relaxed rules on transmitter headroom. The FCC needs to reassign stations that were assigned Channel 14, Gray said, echoing another focus of Ion’s petition. Stations on that channel are having difficulties with interference, the broadcasters said. “While reassigning stations to Channel 14 may have seemed innocuous and reasonable upon implementation, new facts and real-world experience demonstrate the opposite,” Gray said.

Campaign watch groups filed six complaints with the FCC over transparency in political ad funding against two Atlanta TV stations, Campaign Legal Center and Issue One said in a news release. The complaints concern the special election in Georgia’s 6th congressional district, regarded as the most expensive election for the U.S. House in history, Campaign Legal Center said. Meredith’s WPCH-TV Atlanta and Cox Media’s WSB-TV Atlanta allowed political ad buyers Patriot Majority USA, House Majority PAC and the National Republican Congressional Committee to claim on advertising forms that the ads were not about “a political matter of national importance,” the release said. That allowed the funders to avoid disclosing information about the ads, the release said.

FCC ownership rules are inhibiting the ability of local radio stations to serve local listeners and advertisers, Galaxy Communications CEO Ed Levine said in a meeting with an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai Tuesday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 09-182. “The share of advertising revenue garnered by inline and digital media companies, which are not restricted by ownership limitations, is growing exponentially,” the filing said. The FCC should allow more stations to be commonly owned, the filing said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued warning letters to unlicensed operators in Mishawaka, Indiana, and Sherwood, Arkansas, according to notices of unlicensed operation released Monday and Tuesday. Enforcement Bureau officials tracked unlicensed signals to a “raised antenna structure” in Sherwood in June, said the letter sent to Jamie and Gilberto Cerrato. Unauthorized signals were found to be coming from the Mishawaka residence of Kevin and Allison Blume in May, their letter said.

FCC broadcast ownership rules limit competition and end up stymieing diversity, broadcast consultant and former network executive Preston Padden said in a blog post Friday. “Why can’t the FCC see that these TV station ownership restrictions are preventing the creation of meaningful entities of scale that could bring to viewers the benefits of greater competition and diversity?” Padden said. He said repealing the ownership rules would benefit Sinclair Broadcast now, but it could benefit others on the opposite side of the political spectrum later. Many who object to Sinclair/Tribune over Sinclair’s perceived right-wing views also would insist that FCC decisions shouldn’t be based on politics, he said. A commenter on Padden’s blog post who posted as David Amy praised Padden for “not promoting the hysteria around a Sinclair Tribune merger,” and for recognizing that “there are many others including minorities and our viewers that will be the benefactors of deregulation of this fantastic business.” Sinclair lists Amy as a vice chairman.

The FCC should reaffirm its approach of assessing lower satellite TV station regulatory fees on both stations receiving Note 5 waivers and on those recognized as satellites in standard industry sources like BIA Kelsey or the TV and Cable Factbook, Ramar Communications said in a meeting with a Commissioner Mignon Clyburn aide recapped in a docket 17-134 filing posted Friday. Barring that, Ramar said, the agency should make clear that non-Note 5 waver stations will have the opportunity to show if they're satellite and not "standalone" stations. Communications Daily's parent publishes the Factbook.

Reducing or eliminating collection of ownership data in FCC media deregulation efforts would be “inconsistent” with Chairman Ajit Pai’s commitment “to make policy based on sound data and objective analysis,” said the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in a letter to him Thursday in docket 17-105. Broadcasters asked the FCC to relax ownership reporting requirements (see 1707060060). Doing so would undermine efforts to increase ownership diversity and could run afoul of 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals directives that such data be used as the basis for FCC policy, the council said. “Any Commission decision to reduce, rather than augment, media ownership data collection would violate the mandate of the federal court.”

Entravision joined the calls from Ion and others for the FCC to revamp its repacking plans, in comments filed in docket 16-306 (see 1708170047). On-the-ground realities of the repack “outpaced” the FCC’s “overly optimistic” repacking plan, Entravision said. It declared support for Ion’s criticisms of repacking stations to channel 14, which faces increased interference from land mobile (LM) operations, putting Entravision in a “lose-lose” situation. The FCC should either reassign broadcasters from channel 14 or subsidize the technical solutions to LM interference, Entravision said.