The FCC erred Oct. 24 when it tentatively approved the application of Our Lady of the Snows Foundation (OLSF) for a new noncommercial educational (NCE) FM station in Ketchum, Idaho, and dismissed the “mutually exclusive” application of the Idaho State Board of Education, said the board Wednesday in a petition to deny. The commission wrongly concluded that OLSF was entitled to five points under the FCC’s NCE comparative standards to the board’s three, it said.
FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin denied a motion from broadcaster Arm & Rage asking the ALJ to compel responses to its interrogatories from the FCC Enforcement Bureau, said an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest, in docket 21-122. The questions involved were unlikely to lead to admissible evidence, Halprin ruled. Arm & Rage’s license for WJBE (AM) Powell, Tennessee was designated for hearing after principal Joseph Armstrong -- a former Tennessee state legislator -- was convicted of making a false statement on a 2008 tax form connected with profits from the sale of cigarette tax stamps after the legislature increased the state’s cigarette tax. Arm & Rage wanted the ALJ to compel responses to questions on whether WJBE’s violations of several FCC public file requirements were prejudicial, and on the bases for the EB’s contention that Armstrong isn’t fit to be an FCC licensee. “The basis for the character qualifications issue has been thoroughly explained in the order designating the case for hearing,” wrote Halprin. On the merits of the FCC public file rules, Halprin said “Arm & Rage appears to be trying to make the case that the proposed sanction is out of proportion to the violations.” That's an argument the broadcaster can make in its own case, but “the Enforcement Bureau’s opinion of its merits is not a useful or proper avenue of discovery,” Halprin said. Arm & Rage also urged the ALJ to excuse the broadcaster from answering any questions of the type the EB didn’t have to answer, to make the case “symmetrical.” Discovery in FCC hearing proceedings is “inherently” not symmetrical, Halprin said. “That is because in any FCC hearing proceeding concerning the actions of a Commission licensee, regardless of which party bears the burden of proof, the licensee is typically the repository of the relevant factual information at the center of the case.”
FCC jurisdiction over radio licenses doesn’t mean local courts don’t have jurisdiction over contracts involving those stations, said a U.S. Bankruptcy Court order in Kansas last week, in docket 22-20242. The order concerned a local marketing agreement between Rocking M Media, licensee of two radio stations, and Meridian Media, which supplied the stations’ programming under the LMA. The companies disagree over whether Rocking M agreed to the LMA and whether Rocking M’s attempt to terminate it was a breach of contract. In the order, Judge Dale Somers rejected Rocking’s argument that only the FCC could determine the validity of the LMA, and said the court will decide in the future if factual issues in the case will be referred to the FCC. “RMM's argument that the FCC has exclusive jurisdiction over the LMA disregards established FCC deference to decisions of local courts in contract disputes between private parties,” the opinion said. “Absent unforeseen events, the Court believes that deciding whether to refer issues in this controversy to the FCC should be reserved until after trial on the merits.”
The New Jersey Tax Court has denied motions for summary judgment in a case concerning whether a radio mast used for emergency communications by the North Jersey Police Radio Association but sublet to for-profit companies should be exempt from property taxes, according to an opinion last week in NJPRA v. Borough of Pompton Lakes. The subletting doesn’t allow the NPRA to qualify for tax exemptions meant for public uses of government property, but there are questions of fact about the use of the radio mast and the beneficiaries of the surplus income, said the court. Neither the NJPRA nor the Borough presented sufficient evidence on those matters, the court said. That leaves the bulk of the case “not ripe for summary judgment,” said the order.
Snake River Radio’s late discovery filing in its FCC administrative law judge proceeding was stricken from the record (see 2211020081) and filing deadlines in the case extended by a week, said an order posted Tuesday in docket 22-53 from ALJ Jane Halprin. Snake River’s affirmative case is now due Wednesday, the Enforcement Bureau response Dec. 9, and the deadline to request an oral hearing is Jan. 24. Snake River’s license was designated for hearing after its station KPCQ Chubbuck, Idaho, was found to have been silent for much of its license term.
FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin has temporarily suspended filing deadlines for the hearing proceeding on Snake River Radio’s broadcast license after the company submitted a large amount of discovery Tuesday, almost a month after the Oct. 8 deadline to do so, said an order posted Wednesday in docket 22-53 (see 2209140063). Snake River’s license was designated for hearing after its station KPCQ Chubbuck, Idaho, was found to have been silent for 80% of its license term. The Enforcement Bureau responded to the late filing with a motion to strike the submission, arguing that the late filing didn’t give the EB sufficient time to use or respond to the material -- Snake River’s affirmative case in the proceeding was due Wednesday. “As a result of this suspension of filing deadlines, Snake River Radio’s Affirmative Case in this proceeding is not due today as originally scheduled,” said the order. “The Presiding Judge will issue a revised written hearing schedule upon disposition of the Emergency Motion to Strike.” Snake River’s response to the motion is due Monday, the order said.
SmartSky Networks is appealing the denial by the U.S. District Court in Delaware of a preliminary injunction against Gogo’s 5G network to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (see 2209280020), said a notice of appeal in docket 22-266 Friday. Smartsky has argued that Gogo’s air to ground network infringes on SmartSky’s patent. “Multiple material legal and factual errors in last month’s opinion from the Delaware District Court merit further review,” said SmartSky in a news release. “The Court came to conclusions on highly technical information without holding a hearing.” A ruling on the appeal is expected “sometime during the late spring or summer of 2023” and the underlying infringement case will likely proceed in the meantime, the release said.