Salem Media Q1 sales decreased 3.7% to $58.3 million from the year-ago quarter, the radio broadcaster reported Monday evening. Salem estimated April revenue was down 24% and May down 23%, but numbers are edging up for June. In an investor call, CEO Edward Atsinger said revenue was “clearly impacted by financial fallout from COVID-19.” Salem has laid off 10% of employees, reduced base salary for every employee, suspended 401K matching, and asked for forbearance from lenders, Atsinger said. The stock closed down Tuesday 12%, below $1.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit should deny Chinese-language radio broadcaster Foundation for a Beautiful Life’s emergency request for a stay order to allow its Saratoga, California, low-power FM station to continue broadcasting, the FCC said in an opposition filing Tuesday. “Given the company’s clear and repeated flouting of FCC rules and procedures, the Bureau was fully justified in refusing to authorize FBL to operate the station.” FBL constructed its station in Saratoga several miles from the Cupertino location in which it was licensed, and continued broadcasting after having its license application dismissed and without waiting for the agency to rule on a special temporary authority request the FCC said was improperly submitted. FBL sought the STA to provide information on COVID-19 to Cupertino’s Mandarin-speaking population, the FCC filing said. “FBL has no right to operate a radio station in northern California because it has never obtained a license from the Federal Communications Commission to do so."

Cumulus Media established a “poison pill” plan to protect itself from acquisition while its value is depressed by COVID-19, it said May 21. “The move is a mechanism to make an acquisition of the company, without negotiations with its Board, prohibitively expensive,” Noble Capital Markets analyst Michael Kupinski emailed investors Tuesday. The plan is to expire April unless extended, Kupinski said. The FCC recently approved an unopposed request from Cumulus that would allow it to be up to 100 percent foreign owned (see 2005290046).

Low-power TV and translator stations operating on the guard band/duplex gap channels must cease operations by 11:59 p.m. local time July 13, said an FCC Media Bureau reminder public notice Monday. The deadline, which stems from the broadcast incentive auction, is “hard,” the PN said. “No extensions of time to continue operating in these bands will be considered." The bureau announced in a separate PN that new and modified LPTV stations with mutually exclusive displacement applications had until July 31 to resolve their issue with a settlement or amendment.

The FCC Media Bureau granted Cumulus’ petition to be up to 100 percent foreign owned (see 2002210054), said a declaratory ruling Friday. Cumulus sought permission to allow holders of warrants and nonvoting stock to “convert or exercise these instruments in exchange for voting stock,” leaving the company's foreign ownership at 34 percent. The radio broadcaster sought permission for up to 100 percent foreign ownership, contending that flexibility will increase the value of the company's shares. MB approved the request because it will put Cumulus in better financial condition post-bankruptcy and encourage foreign investment in the radio industry.

Music industry complaints about performance rights and MVPD objections to retransmission consent shouldn’t have any bearing on whether the FCC should revise broadcast ownership rules, NAB replied on the FCC report on communications industry competition filed in docket 20-60 Thursday. COVID-19’s “massive blow to the advertising market and the revenues of local radio and TV stations” makes ownership rule relaxation “more important and urgent than ever,” NAB said: Conclude radio stations face strong competition in advertising and “recognize the proliferation of audio and video content providers and digital advertising platforms.”

An AM radio broadcaster will pay an $8,000 penalty for buying a radio station and FM translator without FCC approval, said a consent decree and order released Wednesday. BAS Broadcasting will play the penalty for buying WTTF Tiffin, Ohio, and translator W227BJ from Tiffin Broadcasting in 2015. Before the sale, BAS and Tiffin were parties to a local marketing agreement for the stations, the consent decree said. The stations consummated the deal without informing the FCC, and the agency wasn’t told of the transfer until license renewal forms were filed in 2020. “The parties mistakenly believed that the ownership change would be implemented through the process of filing the renewal applications,” the consent decree said. Tiffin and BAS admitted the violation.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals repeatedly interfered with the FCC, said the International Center for Law & Economics in an amicus brief posted to Supreme Court docket 19-1241 Friday. ICLE filed in support of the petitions for certiorari from the NAB and FCC, seeking to have the 3rd Circuit’s Prometheus IV ruling overturned (see 2005220049). By vacating the FCC’s latest quadrennial review order, the 3rd Circuit panel substituted its judgment for that of Congress, which delegated authority to the agency to determine whether media ownership rules are needed, the brief said: “These outdated regulations have already contributed to an ‘extinction-level crisis’ in the newspaper industry, and the spread of that crisis to local broadcasters in smaller markets is imminent.” SCOTUS should hear the appeal because the 3rd Circuit’s ruling “will cause serious and immediate injury to the public’s First Amendment interest in preserving a strong local free press,” the brief said.

ATSC 3.0 broadcasts went live on four Las Vegas TV stations Tuesday, said BitPath, the new name for what had been the consortium SpectrumCo. The stations airing the NextGenTV feed are Sinclair's KSNV and KVCW, Nexstar’s KLAS-TV and E.W. Scripps’ KTNV-TV. This is the first multi-station full-power deployment of the new standard, said BitPath. The stations are working together to also air their 1.0 streams, it said. “We look forward to cooperating with other broadcasters to roll out this new technology across the country,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook. Using the same technology that powers NextGenTV, BitPath "will launch innovative new services and bring important new revenue streams to broadcasters," said BitPath CEO John Hane. Las Vegas stations had planned to go live with 3.0 during the 2020 NAB Show, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the event's cancellation (see 2005140066).

The U.S. Supreme Court should hear the FCC and NAB’s appeal of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Prometheus IV decision, said an amicus brief filed in docket 19-1241 Friday from the CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox affiliate associations. Gray Television filed an amicus brief Wednesday (see 2005200055). “Without healthy, economically viable television stations, there will be no opportunities for women or racial minorities to own, operate, or invest in local broadcast businesses at all,” said the brief, urging SCOTUS to prevent broadcasters from going the way of local newspapers. TV broadcasters face competition from entities that are largely unregulated, and the 3rd Circuit’s repeated decisions on ownership orders have prevented the FCC from modernizing rules to reflect the current marketplace, the brief said. “That judicial obstruction has already taken a substantial toll on local broadcasters, and without this court’s intervention at this stage that toll may well be fatal,” the brief said. COVID-19 highlighted the importance of local broadcasters, but TV stations “cannot fulfill that critical role” if their businesses are “unable to survive in today’s fast-paced, increasingly diverse, and exceedingly competitive media marketplace,” the affiliate groups said.