NAB objections to the LPFM Coalition’s request for a stay of the FCC’s new FM translator interference rules should be rejected, the coalition said in a response filing Monday in docket 18-119 (see 1907160066). “This is not a re-litigation of settled policy debates, as NAB claims, but a genuinely justiciable complaint about serious statutory and Constitutional issues,” the LPFM Coalition said. NAB argued that the coalition’s petition for reconsideration is unlikely to be granted on the merits and that the public interest would be served by denying the stay. “If NAB had serious grounds to oppose the stay based on public interest criteria, it would have done so. Instead, it simply argues that the Rulemaking is fine policy that should not be subject to a stay,” the coalition said. The FCC “should grant a stay quickly -- and do so before the Rulemaking’s rapidly approaching mid-August effective-date arrives,” said the LPFM Coalition.

The FCC Media Bureau and the Incentive Auction Task Force canceled Auction 104, the FCC’s planned auction of mutually exclusive low-power TV and translator construction permits from the post-incentive auction displacement window, said a public notice Monday. “MB’s Video Division has accepted and approved dismissal requests or settlement proposals resolving the mutual exclusivity for all of the available permits,” the PN said. “Consequently, there is no need to conduct bidding in this auction.”

With iHeartMedia aggregate foreign voting potentially hitting 70.5 percent and its foreign equity potentially reaching 63.9 percent, it petitioned for FCC declaratory ruling allowing up to 100 percent aggregate foreign investment. A filing posted Friday also asked for authorization for partial ownership by foreign entities Pimco and Invesco. The broadcaster said approval would give it more flexibility to accept foreign investment, which would level the playing field between it and competitors not subject to such Communications Act restrictions.

An FCC order on emergency alert system testing and false alerts adopted a year ago (see 1807120059) is in effect, with OMB OK, the commission said in Tuesday's Federal Register. It requires communications providers report false alerts and changes to EAS equipment to reject alerts that don’t have necessary digital signatures or are incorrectly timed.

A nationwide test of the emergency alert system will be held Aug. 7, as expected (see 1907170066), beginning at 2:20 p.m. EDT, the FCC and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Wednesday. The test will be sent to television and radio stations.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau imposed a $25,000 fine on Pentecostal Temple for alleged failure to properly light two antenna structures, notify the FAA of lighting extinguishments and keep the antennas clean and repainted to promote visibility. The Lincoln, Pennsylvania, church owns WGBN(AM) and associated antenna, the bureau said Tuesday. The church didn’t comment Tuesday. "When not properly maintained, antenna structures -- particularly tall towers used by radio and television broadcast stations -- present a significant public safety risk, especially to passing aircraft." the bureau said.

Entertainment Media Trust (EMT) has a July 31 deadline for responding to an FCC Enforcement Bureau request for admission of facts, Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin ordered Tuesday in docket 19-156. EMT in its deadline extension request said the bureau was seeking 248 admissions over 13 years. The agency designated the radio licensee for hearing over allegations it wasn’t truthful on whether its St. Louis-area AM stations are under control of a convicted felon (see 1906050063).

The FCC Media Bureau lifted the April 2013 freeze on filing and processing minor modification applications that expand the contour of full-power and Class A TV stations, it said Monday. The action applies to stations that were repacked as part of the incentive auction and replacing process and haven't yet moved to their post-auction channels, the bureau said. It said the move will grease the post-auction transition by relieving repacked stations of the need for a waiver of the 2013 freeze.

Expand the exemption from equal employment opportunity obligations for small stations to include those with 50 full-time employees or fewer, asked an early joint filing from 82 broadcasters posted in FCC docket 19-197 Friday. The exemption now is stations with five or fewer FTEs. EEO rules are intended for larger broadcasters with human resource departments, the outlets said. Setting the threshold at 50 is more in line with human resources practices in other industries, they said. “This is a plaintive plea by smaller broadcasters for relief from these ongoing, pervasive, time-consuming, and resource-gobbling paper-work and documentation requirement.” They want the FCC to cease calculating broadcaster employment units by market and instead count each station group as one entity. This will reduce paperwork burdens, the joint filing said: “Since the FCC eliminated its main studio rule, using local market based employment units for EEO metrics is an anachronism.” Every licensed radio station should be required to post full time jobs on employment websites, the filing said. Signatories included Heartland Communications, Cromwell Group, Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting and East Arkansas Broadcasters.

“Don’t screw this up,” Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said of FCC relaxation of kidvid requirements in a speech Friday to the Arkansas Broadcasters Association. “We absolutely expect stations to take advantage of the flexibility in the rules,” O’Rielly said. But “if bad actors blow through the restraints that are still in place or exploit the increased flexibility by broadcasting an infinite amount of infomercials,” critics will “be aggressive in swinging the pendulum back the other direction,” O’Rielly said. The new rules don’t “slash” children’s programming but provide added flexibility, he said. O’Rielly will meet with local officials in “problematic” markets to discuss pirate radio, he said. He met earlier this month with New York Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz about collaborating on ways to alert advertisers about pirate stations, he said. “You can expect to hear of future meetings and activities in the coming months.” The FCC will use new technology to “better pinpoint violations,” he said. O’Rielly also said he expects Congress to reach a “modest outcome” on Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act renewal, called the DOJ’s workshop on broadcast competition “underwhelming,” and described the U.K.’s communications regulations as “paternalistic.” Relaxation of kidvid rules was approved 3-2 at the July 10 commissioners' meeting (see 1907100067).