The FCC shouldn’t grant Fox’s request for a temporary waiver of the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule, said Free Press, the United Church of Christ Office of Communication, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Voices for New Jersey in a letter to acting Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey posted in docket 07-260 Thursday. Fox requested a waiver to allow it to own both the New York Post newspaper and two TV stations until the reconsideration proceeding on the 2014 quadrennial review is completed (see 1703010059). The groups also said the FCC should put Fox’s waiver request on public notice. The bureau issued a PN later that day. Comments on the waiver request are due April 10, oppositions April 25, replies May 2.

Notice of the FCC order relaxing rules for siting FM translators will be published in Thursday's Federal Register, though the change won't be effective for an indefinite period of time pending Office of Management and Budget OK "of a non-substantive change to the rule as originally proposed," it said. The order removes a requirement that such translators be located within 40 miles of the transmitter (see 1702230060).

The FCC Media Bureau had sought comment in 2002 on a request from a Puerto Rico TV licensee to operate a “multi-site transmission facility” under a “unitary license” as a “collective primary station,” said a public notice included Wednesday in a new filing in docket 13-249. The FCC in 1986 allowed Siete Grande Television’s station WSTE-TV Ponce to construct an experimental system of “multiple cochannel transmitters” that simultaneously broadcast as an attempt to provide better service in “Puerto Rico’s mountainous terrain,” the PN said. The proposed unitary license would allow Siete Grande to operate the auxiliary and booster stations under one collective license instead of separate ones. The license would “eliminate the need for the licensee to maintain a separate main transmitter facility in Ponce, which currently must remain turned off to avoid interference with the array,” and make the secondary booster stations in the array primary status, the PN said.

The AWARN Alliance and One Media demonstrated how ATSC 3.0 will enhance emergency alerting, for FCC Media Bureau acting Chief Michelle Carey and staff, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 16-142 Tuesday. Officials from NAB, Monroe Electronics and Sinclair attended, the filing said. “These demonstrations showed how the Next Gen standard moves far beyond simple text messages on receive devices to display photos of missing children, kidnapping suspects, vehicle identity and location maps.” The “limited technical proceeding” on ATSC 3.0 “should not be the vehicle to expand programming obligations or other rules not directly tied to the optional, voluntary use of the new standard,” said the alliance, which along with CTA, NAB and others petitioned the FCC to OK 3.0. In its own ex parte filing on the Monday meeting, One Media said the simulcasting proposed in the ATSC 3.0 NPRM is "adaptable on a market-specific basis without government involvement and protects both viewers and MVPDs by continuing to offer the existing programming without change."

Broadcasters shouldn't "jump the gun on FM translator applications," under the new looser site restrictions until the effective date of the recent order, said Fletcher Heald in a blog post Thursday. A restriction that translators must be located within 40 miles of the transmitter was removed (see 1702230060). “In fairness to all stations that may wish to take advantage of the relaxed siting rule, any application or notification that does not comply with the current siting rule, including those that seek a waiver of the order’s effective date, will be dismissed,” said a Media Bureau Tuesday public notice. “This processing policy will ensure that all AM stations have the same opportunity to propose potentially conflicting facilities in spectrum-congested areas and to prevent filers from gaining cut-off protection for proposed facilities that at the time of filing are patently defective.” The bureau will issue a notice announcing the effective date of the new rules, said Fletcher Heald, which has broadcaster clients.

NPR, happy for a reversal of an FCC Media Bureau rejection of a petition for reconsideration against Form 323 restricted use FCC registration numbers requiring board members of noncommercial educational stations to submit personal information (see 1702100015), sought to discourage other leeway. Rules restricting third-party fundraising by NCEs shouldn’t be relaxed, NPR told aides to Chairman Ajit Pai, said an ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 07-294. Such a rule change could encourage “the use of NCE broadcast stations as fundraising vehicles for independent third parties or other non-station interests rather than as sources of public interest programming,” the public radio programmer said.

Entravision Q4 sales of $70.3 million missed expectations but the broadcaster’s announced incentive auction haul of $264 million was much better than the $85 million expected, said analyst Michael Kupinski of Noble Capital Markets in an email to investors. “With the Spectrum proceeds and roughly $70 million in current cash, the company will be net debt free and have significant financial capability to fuel growth through acquisitions and support higher future dividends,” Kupinski said. Entravision shares closed up 9.9 percent Friday at $6.10.

The FCC Media Bureau agreed to $13,500 settlement from KM Television over multiple public file violations by its KWKB Iowa City, said a consent decree released Thursday. KM agreed to a compliance plan to avoid future public file violations, and the bureau agreed to grant KWKB’s pending license application.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai “would be acting in direct defiance of the FCC’s ownership rules” if he allowed a transaction between Sinclair and Tribune, said Free Press Senior Counsel Jessica Gonzalez in a statement Wednesday evening. A merged company would reach 69.4 percent of U.S. households, and top the current 39 percent cap by a “wide margin” even if the UHF discount were restored, Free Press said. “Sinclair executives have already told investors that they’re confident Pai will bend existing ownership limits to usher in a new era of media consolidation,” Free Press said. “The reported Sinclair-Tribune Media negotiation indicates that the industry is already moving in that direction.” Sinclair didn’t comment. A report said Sinclair might buy Tribune (see 1703010074).

The FCC should eliminate limits on radio station ownership, in its reconsideration of media ownership rules, said a letter from radio broadcasters posted Thursday in docket 14-50 and including Connoisseur Media, Alpha Media and Roberts Communications. They want the FCC to eliminate AM and FM subcaps, because “any technical and marketplace dynamics that may once have differentiated AM and FM stations no longer exist,” they said. “On reconsideration, the Commission should find that the subcaps do not protect competition in local radio markets in light of today’s marketplace dynamics and eliminate the subcaps.” The FCC can do this because it already has an extensive record on eliminating the caps, the broadcasters said. “An agency is free to modify its decision based on the evidence amassed throughout the entire rulemaking.”