The full FCC rejected two applications for review appealing Media Bureau decisions to deny applications for FM translator construction permits, said orders in Thursday's Daily Digest. Alaska Educational Radio System's applications were rejected because it didn't show it's financially able to construct the translators it was applying for, said one order. “Given AERS’s repeated failure to provide this information, we affirm dismissal of the Applications,” it said. Emmanuel Communications' application for a Worcester, Massachusetts, translator permit was rejected because it would have interfered with a full-power radio station, a second order said. Though the FCC acknowledged that criteria for translator interference changed (see 1908270061) since Emmanuel's application was dismissed, that order applies only to applications that hadn't been acted upon when it was approved.

Entertainment Media Trust asked a bankruptcy court to stay the FCC's administrative law judge proceeding on the radio broadcaster's licenses, said status reports posted Wednesday in docket 19-156 (see 1909270049). EMT previously asked ALJ Jane Halprin to stay the FCC proceeding to allow the bankruptcy to proceed but also filed an emergency motion in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Bankruptcy law that requires an automatic stay of proceedings involving property involved in a bankruptcy action “clearly prevents” the FCC from taking action on EMT's licenses “without relief from this Court to take such action,” EMT told the court. “This case appears to have been filed for the sole purpose of interfering with the ongoing administrative proceeding so that the defendants in that proceeding can sell the Licenses before the ALJ determines whether they are qualified licensees,” responded the Illinois U.S. Attorney's Office, representing the FCC. The commission has “the exclusive right to grant a license to use the airwaves and to approve any transfer of a license by a licensee,” the U.S. Attorney argued. EMT said in a status report submitted to the ALJ that it had sought to settle with the Enforcement Bureau but the bureau took a “hostile posture, refusing the notion of settlement at all.” EMT and its trustees “fundamentally misunderstand that the Commission, and not the Bankruptcy Court, has exclusive authority to determine whether the licenses at issue can be considered assets of the bankruptcy,” the EB said.

A bill that would restore the minority tax certificate and require the FCC collect data on broadcast ownership diversity could be the industry's answer to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chronic issue with FCC ownership rules (see 1909250064), said National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston at the group's conference Wednesday. “The tax certificate can develop the record the court says it wants.” Along with creating a tax credit for broadcasters that sell stations to minorities and women, the Expanding Broadcast Ownership Opportunities Act (see 1704120027) would require the FCC report to Congress on ways to increase viewpoint diversity, said Timothy Graham, legislative counsel to Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina. Butterfield and Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-New York, are sponsors. The bill is HR-3957and the Senate version is S-2433. NAB President Gordon Smith and both Democratic FCC commissioners endorsed the bill, said Graham. Broadcast industry officials said a renewed tax credit is likely to be struck down on constitutional grounds as the previous one was, but Graham said the certificate proposed in the bill will be able to survive legal challenge. “We believe it's narrowly tailored,” he said. Fear the bill will face a court challenge shouldn't stop Congress from pursuing it, he said. Graham said there has been FCC “pushback” on the issue. The agency previously rejected proposals from its own Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment that the agency support the minority tax credit as part of an incubator program.

Verance landed adoption of its ATSC 3.0-specified Aspect watermarking for HbbTV’s “application discovery over broadband” platform, said the technology supplier Tuesday. The move will “facilitate” interoperability and give manufacturers and programmers “global scale and cost efficiencies,” said Verance.

Comments on FCC-proposed technical changes to low-power FM rules are due Oct. 21, replies Nov. 4, said a public notice Friday on docket 19-193 (see 1907310044).

Nexstar CEO Perry Sook, Gray Television co-CEO Pat LaPlatney, E. W. Scripps President Local Media Brian Lawlor, and Gray Television Senior Vice President Sandy Breland met separately with all five FCC Commissioners and their aides over two days last week about video competition, said a brief ex parte filing posted Friday in docket 18-122. The executives were acting as representatives of the Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS network affiliate groups, and were accompanied by former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell -- now a partner at Cooley -- who was on the FCC with both FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. “The affiliates outlined the competitive overview of the current video marketplace, the role of the FCC and DOJ in fostering more competitive and less regulation,” the filing said. The broadcasters also “raised the issue” of protecting broadcast use of the C band and suggested “several areas of possible improvement” in repacking reimbursement. MVPDs and the programming distribution market were also discussed.

Arguments from Entertainment Media Trust and its trustee Dennis Watkins that the broadcaster’s license hearing should be stayed to allow licenses to be sold as part of a bankruptcy proceeding “fundamentally misunderstand” the FCC has “exclusive authority” over what happens to EMT’s stations, the Enforcement Bureau said in a docket 19-156 reply posted Friday (see 1909240040). The hearing “is an exercise of the Commission’s fundamental and exclusive regulatory authority to determine EMT’ s fitness to hold a Commission license,” the bureau said. “It is not, as he characterizes it, a ‘forfeiture’ proceeding in which the Commission’s goal is to seize something to which EMT rightfully holds title.” Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin should deny the stay request, the EB said.

The FCC Media Bureau granted waiver to Emmis Communications allowing it to sell its majority interest in a grandfathered group of six radio stations in Austin to minority partner STI Telecable, said an order Friday. The transfer of the group would normally end the grandfathering that allowed Emmis to own the group under current radio local ownership rules, but the bureau is allowing the grandfathering to transfer because the sale is “more akin to a corporate restructuring.” It's in the public interest because it allows the stations to continue essentially under the same ownership and because Austin has a highly competitive and diverse radio market, the order said. “Based on the structure of the market, we do not believe that continuation of the grandfathered combination as part of the proposed transaction will be anticompetitive, nor will it inhibit viewpoint diversity.” The FCC issued another ownership rule waiver last week, to Gray Television (see 1909250064).

Existing equal employment opportunity rules “already push the outer limits of constitutionality” and the FCC should “tread carefully” on EEO enforcement, said NAB in comments posted Monday in docket 19-177 (see 1906240028). “The existing regulatory approach is likely as effective as possible,” NAB said. The Multicultural Media Telecom and Internet Council and 36 other diversity groups disagreed, offering in a joint filing a host of proposed revisions to FCC EEO enforcement. The FCC should gather EEO data from licensees, especially from those found to have failed to engage in broad recruitment; require certification that job postings occurred before hiring decisions were made; audit licensees that flagged by the EEO Commission; and open an inquiry into the lack of minorities in radio news, the diversity groups said. “EEO enforcement is a matter of the highest priority,” the joint filing said. “There is simply no evidence that increasing EEO requirements and/or reporting will meaningfully improve diversity,” NAB said. “Rather than writing new rules,” the FCC should increase outreach about job openings and "reduce unnecessary burdens on broadcasters, especially small stations,” NAB said. America's Communication Association said the agency shouldn't expand EEO enforcement, and should ensure “protections for smaller MVPDs in Commission audits and investigations are preserved.” If the FCC relaxes the employment unit threshold for EEO reporting for broadcasters, it should do the same for MVPDs, ACA said.

Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin should grant Entertainment Media Trust's request for a stay (see 1909170047) so it can liquidate its broadcast stations and sell off its licenses, said EMT trustee Dennis Watkins in a response filing in docket 19-156. EMT “is asking the FCC to stay its proceeding to allow a court in a collateral proceeding to allow EMT to lose its licenses (with the FCC’s approval) even faster than it would were the FCC hearing proceeding to reach the conclusion sought be the Enforcement Bureau,” the Trustee said. EMT is pursuing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy -- with assets liquidated by a trustee -- rather than a Chapter 11 where they would remain under EMT's control, the filing said. EMT “will suffer irreparable harm if a stay is not granted,” the filing said. The proceeding has cost EMT “nearly $150,000 in attorney’s fees” and the hearing has “not even completed the first round of written discovery.”