Spanish Broadcasting System withdrew its 2017 petition for a declaratory ruling allowing it to be more than 25 percent foreign owned, said a letter to the FCC posted Friday. The petition has been held in abeyance since 2018 (see 1805290041). It was being used as evidence SBS raised overlapping issues in a case involving a stock transaction in Delaware State Court and at the FCC, the letter said. “In light of its ongoing misuse,” SBS is withdrawing the petition, the letter said.

Petitions are due June 4 to deny approval of the sale of a majority of Univision to investment firms Searchlight and ForgeLight, said a public notice in Wednesday’s FCC Daily Digest. The transaction isn’t expected to face regulatory difficulties (see 2003030059). Companies involved in the deal also requested a declaratory ruling that would allow Univision to be up to 100 percent foreign owned, because Searchlight and ForgeLight are partially owned by affiliated companies based in the Cayman Islands and partially controlled by Canadian and German citizens. U.K.-based Liberty Global would own 11.6 percent of the new company, and Mexico-based Multimedia Telecom would have a 40 percent voting interest in the new company, the petition for declaratory ruling said. Oppositions to petitions to deny are due June 19, replies June 26.

The FCC Media Bureau denied an auxiliary facility application and power level waiver request from Blackbelt Broadcasting that the radio broadcaster sought in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, said an order Tuesday. Blackbelt argued the facility and increased power levels would allow lower-power radio stations to offer better reception in houses, where the majority of people are spending time during the pandemic instead of in their cars. Blackbelt said the listening pattern shift is a “special and unique circumstance” warranting waiver of the contour limitations for auxiliary facilities.” The company's pandemic circumstances aren’t unique and the station didn’t identify a separate auxiliary facility, said the order. “Blackbelt essentially concedes, and we agree, that the proposed higher power operation pursuant to a purportedly ‘auxiliary’ authorization is simply a means of circumventing the power restrictions that all FM stations are subject to.”

The Supreme Court extended the briefing deadline to July 21 (see May 6 entry) for opposition filings to FCC and NAB petitions for certiorari in their appeal of Prometheus IV (see 2004170065). That came after the new counsel for respondents Prometheus Radio Project, Free Press, the United Church of Christ and other public interest groups sought that Tuesday. The opposition brief for the FCC filing was currently due May 20, and the NAB opposition May 22. “This extension is needed to allow time for newly-engaged Supreme Court counsel to familiarize ourselves with the record and coordinate with co-counsel and the many parties in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic-related difficulties,” wrote Deutsch Hunt attorney Ruthanne Deutsch, who will represent the groups before the high court. The respondents anticipate filing a single brief responding to both cert petitions, and the petitioners don't oppose the extension request, the letter said.

Allow FM translators to originate programming, along with enacting GeoBroadcast Solutions’ zoned broadcast coverage proposal, 27 broadcasters urged the FCC, in a filing posted in RM-11854 Tuesday. The Broadcasters for Limited Program Origination include Miller Communications, Cromwell Group and Fingerlakes Radio Group. An NPRM on the zoned broadcast coverage request (see 2005040044) should also concern allowing content origination for AM broadcasters that use FM translators, the filing said. The NPRM should examine how FM translator interference coverage contours are applied and create a new call-sign convention for translators that originate content, the broadcasters said. “If GeoBroadcast Solutions origination of limited separate programming on same-channel booster stations is acceptable as a regulatory matter, then so should be the origination of limited separate programming on FM translator stations.”

The FCC should allow currently operating channel 6 low-power TV stations to continue offering analog audio programming along with digital video after the July 2021 LPTV digital transition deadline, said the Preserve Community Programming Coalition in calls with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O’Rielly last week, per a filing Monday in docket 03-185. The group said analog channel 6 TV stations can be picked up by FM radios, and many such stations currently operate similar to a radio station, with primarily audio content. “By supplementing their digital video programming with an on-channel analog audio carrier,” the channel 6 stations post-transition “would enhance their public service by providing established and valuable niche aural programming,” said the filing.

The FCC should let radio stations use zoned broadcast coverage (see 2004220039), said 22 groups focused on diversity and civil rights in a letter posted Monday in RM-11854. Signers included the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and National Urban League. Zoned broadcasts and the targeted advertising it would allow could help minority-owned stations and “positively enhance” their value, they said. “Most minority-owned stations are located in large and medium-sized diverse metropolitan areas. These are areas large enough to support multiple zones." The tech is “critical for radio to compete in the current advertising market,” said broadcasting broker Kalil & Co.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed applications from two FM stations seeking to convert from noncommercial educational to commercial status, revoked their operating authority and deleted their call signs, said a letter Friday. California's KAAX (FM) Avenal and KYAF Firebaugh were part of a December commission vote affirming a 2017 administrative law judge decision revoking the construction permits and licenses for several stations connected with William Zawila for lack of candor (see 1912260041). The stations were licensed to two corporations -- Avenal Educational Services and Central Valley Educational Services -- that weren’t incorporated before filing for station authorizations, the bureau said. The CPs were improperly granted, staff said. The stations must cease broadcast operations immediately, the letter said.

The FCC should “suspend any consideration of raising Regulatory Fees for radio and television” during the COVID-19 pandemic and postpone the regulatory fees order, the New Jersey Broadcasters Association asked Chairman Ajit Pai. A May 13 vote is planned (see 2004220048). “Broadcasters have been hard hit,” said NJBA President Paul Rotella in the letter posted in docket 19-105 Wednesday. Pai might consider ways to mitigate the fees' impact on stations (see 2004230046).

In C-band clearing, the FCC should clarify broadcast network operators can seek relocation cost reimbursement directly from the Relocation Payment Clearinghouse, NPR representatives told Wireless and International Bureau and Office of Economics and Analysis staffers, per a docket 18-122 filing posted Wednesday. It urged a public notice seeking comment on a cost catalog, with reimbursable equipment and services and range of costs, before such a catalog is issued. The public radio programmer said the accelerated relocation form should ensure affected earth stations have repacked without interruption of service and will still get substantially the same or better satellite service in the reduced C-band spectrum allocation. SES said the accelerated relocation election adequately spells out satellite operators' responsibilities and thus frees the FCC from having to address future disputes by making clear satellite operators cover pro rata shares of clearinghouse costs.