Public TV station KVIE Sacramento kicked off a month-long experiment in datacasting Thursday by using it to deliver simulated emergency earthquake warnings during the Great California Shakeout earthquake preparedness drill, said a news release from America’s Public Television Stations. Datacasting is “the process of delivering internet protocol (IP) data over a traditional digital public broadcast television signal, including instantaneous alerts, combined with evacuation maps and even live video,” APTS said. The test is being monitored by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the FCC and the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, the release said. The next phase of the datacasting test “will measure the speed and coverage of alerts digitally encoded into KVIE’s high power television transmission,” said KVIE Director of Technology Mike Cappi. “Warnings used to be a matter of seconds or minutes, but when there are natural disasters like earthquakes, saving a fraction of a second in delivering a warning can make a huge difference,” Cappi said. “This work is part of public broadcasting’s larger public service mission, including the APTS strategic partnership with DHS, to promote the use of public safety datacasting as an effective component to alert and protect the American people,” said APTS CEO Patrick Butler.

CBS, Disney, E.W. Scripps, Nexstar and Tegna are “best positioned” to take advantage of the last burst of candidate political advertising spending 20 days before Election Day, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors Wednesday. The positioning is based on where each company has stations, she said. Indiana, Minnesota and Texas have become “hot” swing states, Ryvicker said, while Michigan and Wisconsin have “cooled” by more strongly leaning toward Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Last month, shares of some TV station owners fell on concern that GOP presidential contender Donald Trump wasn't spending much money on ads (see 1609210075).

Entercom will buy four radio stations from Beasley Broadcast Group for $24 million, the acquirer said in a news release Tuesday. The deal is connected with Beasley/Greater Media, and will allow that transaction to comply with FCC ownership restrictions, the release said. Entercom said it will buy WFNZ(AM), WLNK(FM), WBT/AM-FM, all in Charlotte, North Carolina. Though the deal isn't expected to close until the end of the year or in early 2017, Entercom will begin operating the stations early through time brokerage agreements, it said. It gives Entercom a total of 128 stations in 28 markets, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. The transaction is "a nice tuck-in with synergy potential,” Ryvicker said. Entercom stock rose 10 percent in Tuesday trading to $14.30.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s focus on political spending disclosures could have implications for broadcasters if Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is elected, Cowen and Co. analyst Paul Gallant emailed investors. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has supported making FCC sponsorship identification rules more rigorous, and Friday attacked the SEC over not pursuing companies on political spending, Gallant said. “If Hillary Clinton becomes president, we would expect Warren to insist that the next FCC chair require local TV stations to disclose the true identity of political ad purchasers." That's “potentially a long-term concern for broadcasters,” he said. Warren indicated she wants to change policy by influencing presidential appointments to executive agencies, Gallant said. “We suspect Sen. Warren will press the next FCC chair to commit to disclosure of funders of political ads,” Gallant said. “She could threaten to block an FCC chair nominee who fails to commit to requiring greater disclosure.” That could have a “potential dampening effect” on campaign spending on political ads, Gallant said. Warren's office didn't comment.

Repacking broadcasters into a smaller portion of the UHF band “will present unprecedented logistical challenges and require careful coordination,” NAB said in a meeting with Incentive Auction Task Force Chairman Gary Epstein, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and FCC staff, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 12-268 Thursday. The NAB officials discussed the IATF's proposed repacking plan (see 1610040076), and “asked questions concerning the assumptions the staff used to perform the analysis described in the Public Notice, the outputs of the analysis, and the operation of the Phase Assignment Tool and the Phase Scheduling Tool,” it said. NAB also noted the limit on temporary interference, the IATF's tentative conclusion that temporary channels won't be used, and coordination across the borders.

It is “essential” for TV licensees to have correct contact information on file with the FCC, said the Media Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force in a public notice Thursday. “We anticipate communicating directly with stations about channel reassignments (repacking) resulting from the ongoing broadcast television spectrum incentive auction.” The need for contact information applies to stations that participated in the incentive auction and those that didn’t, the PN said. “If a station was selected by a licensee on a Form 177 application for the incentive auction, the Commission will use the contact information currently contained in the Form 177 to communicate with the licensee about that station and any channel reassignment for it, regardless of subsequent events affecting that station’s participation in the auction.” Otherwise, the FCC will use the contact information in the licensing and management system, the PN said. Also Thursday, the FCC said the incentive auction stage 2 forward auction will soon start (see 1610130038).

Emmis will sell the assets of magazine Texas Monthly to an affiliate of equity firm Genesis Park for $25 million, said the seller in a Thursday news release. Emmis has owned the magazine since 1998. “This transaction allows us not only to de-lever our balance sheet, but puts TM in the capable hands of one of Texas’ great families, the Hobbys,” said CEO Jeff Smulyan. Paul Hobby is a founding partner of Genesis Park, the release said. Wednesday, Emmis said it's selling Terre Haute, Indiana, area stations WTHI(FM), WWVR(FM), WFNB(FM) and WFNF/AM-FM to Midwest Communications and to DLC Media for a total of $5.2 million, according to a news release. Emmis will sell the assets of WTHI and the intellectual property of WWVR to Midwest for $4.3 million, and the assets of WFNF, WFNB and WWVR to DLC for $900,000, the release said. Midwest will divest one of its stations, WDKE(FM), to DLC to stay within FCC ownership rules in the Terre Haute market, where there would otherwise be an overlap, said Emmis.

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on updates to the catalog of reimbursable expenses that broadcasters and pay-TV carriers will use to apply for repayment of costs from the post-incentive auction repacking, it said in a public notice Thursday. The proposed changes include increases in baseline for some expenses, the addition of new categories of expenses, and removal of some categories, the PN said. The bureau is also seeking comment on the methodology to update the catalog’s costs as prices in the market shift. “To ensure that the baseline costs remain current throughout the reimbursement period, it will be necessary to periodically adjust them to reflect the natural changes in the economy that affect pricing due to technological advancements,” the PN said. The bureau is tentatively proposing to update the costs once a year based on the Producer Price Indexes calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Comments are due Nov. 14, replies Nov. 29. The incentive auction is heading into stage 2 for the forward portion (see 1610130038).

The Democratic National Committee placed an order for political ads supporting Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign on 40 National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters radio stations during October, NABOB said in a news release. The order was placed for the DNC by Burrell Communications, "the African American Advertising Agency for the Hillary Clinton Campaign," NABOB said. "Spotset Network is placing the NABOB Network for the DNC," the release said. NABOB has said its member stations should receive a larger share of federal broadcast advertising (see 1603230048).

With South Korea having adopted the ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV standard earlier this year, the U.S. needs "to get moving, too," FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Convention Monday, hoping for an ATSC 3.0 NPRM to be issued before year's end. In remarks posted, Pai said the FCC's goal should be adoption of rules authorizing ATSC 3.0 use in the first half of 2017. "This shouldn't be controversial; all we are talking about is giving broadcasters the option of using ATSC 3.0," Pai said. "No one would be required to do so." On radio issues, the Media Bureau has received 957 FM translator applications from AM radio stations, and granted 854, Pai said. He said he plans to press for two other application windows for AM broadcasters applying to the FCC for new FM translators to open "as soon as possible in 2017." Some have raised concerns about possible interference (see 1609230067). Pai said the agency "should take action" early next year on some AM revitalization issues that enjoy broad consensus, such as relaxing the main studio rule. Pai also said he hopes the FCC will lift the public file requirement on broadcasters by year's end. And he criticized the agency's retention of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule: "It was all about politics. And I fear that at the rate we are going, the ... cross-ownership rule will outlive newspapers themselves, absent judicial intervention."