Objections to Apollo Global Management's proposed buy of stations from Northwest Broadcasting and Cox lack standing and haven't shown the deal violates any commission policies (see 1905130058), said opposition from Cox, Northwest and Apollo subsidiary Terrier Media Buyer posted in docket 19-98 Wednesday. “These ill-informed, speculative fears cannot provide a basis for delaying or denying.” Anticonsolidation groups claiming Terrier Media will gut local news programs because it's owned by private equity investors are ”simply wrong,” the joint filing said. “If Terrier Media ruins the local services the Stations provide, then it will have significantly undermined the value of its substantial investment in this business.” Arguments from the American Television Alliance that the acquisition would affect retransmission consent negotiations are “transparent regulatory rent-seeking” that the FCC has repeatedly rejected, the joint filing said. “No MVPD is ever required to sign any retransmission consent agreement. Ever.” ATVA, Common Cause and the United Church of Christ Office of Communications also failed to show that the transaction would affect any of their members, calling their standing into question, the joint filing said. The broadcasters also responded to an accusation from Darryl Beauford -- a viewer of Cox's WSB-TV Atlanta -- who said the deal should be rejected because he was denied access to the station’s physical public file when he tried to view it in 2015. Beauford didn't clearly explain what he was seeking, and station staff did let him view the physical file once it became clear which document he wanted to view, the joint filing said.

The 2019 national test of the emergency alert system is scheduled for Aug. 7, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency in a letter to the FCC posted Thursday in docket 15-94. Aug. 21 is the backup. Though the letter gives the initial test date as taking place in 2016, FEMA officials told us that’s a typo. “This year FEMA proposes to originate the test via the National Public Warning System composed of the FEMA designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) facilities,” the letter said. “The intent of conducting the test in this fashion is to determine the capability of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to deliver messages to the public in event that dissemination via internet is not available.” Due to the use of this method, the test won’t include the richer message text and multilingual options available when messages are delivered using the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System. “As in past years the national EAS test message will look and sound very much like the regular Required Monthly Test (RMT) messages broadcast every month by all EAS Participants,” the letter said.

Multimedios is seeking an FCC foreign-ownership declaratory ruling to allow its subsidiary Leading Media Group to buy five radio stations in Texas, said a petition posted Wednesday. Since Multimedios is entirely based in Mexico, the company needs FCC permission for the purchasing subsidiary to be 100 percent foreign owned for the deal to go through, the petition said. “Multimedios’s ownership will permit LMG to serve the public interest in South Texas by bringing to the Stations its extensive broadcast experience and expertise and an influx of resources.” The stations involved in the prospective deal are KBDR(FM) Mirando City, its booster KBDR-FM1 Laredo, KNEX(FM) Laredo, KLNT Laredo and KURV Edinburg.

Free Press, Common Cause, and other anticonsolidation groups challenging the FCC 2014 quadrennial broadcast ownership review will have slightly more time to argue before the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals than their broadcaster and diversity group fellow petitioners, said a division of time form filed (in Pacer) with the court Wednesday by United Church of Christ attorney Cheryl Leanza. A court order Wednesday gave the FCC 30 minutes for oral argument and 30 minutes for the petitioners to divide up (see 1905210037). According to the form, the Independent Television Group -- a collection of small and mid-size broadcasters represented by broadcast attorney Jack Goodman -- will lead off the petitioner’s arguments for nine minutes. Goodman will be followed by nine minutes of Stinson attorney Dennis Lane, representing the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. Finally, Leanza will have 12 minutes to argue on behalf of UCC, and groups including Common Cause, Free Press and Prometheus Radio Project. Oral argument is set for June 11.

Kidvid recordkeeping and reporting rules should be relaxed to reduce the burden on Ion Media’s 70 TV stations, an Ion executive and former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell told his former colleague Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel Thursday, said a filing posted Tuesday in docket 18-122. McDowell, now at Cooley, represents Ion. The FCC should ensure companies like Ion “maintain undiminished access to interference-free satellite transport of video programming,” in any plan to repurpose C-band spectrum, the broadcaster said.

Oral argument is set for June 11 in what will be called Prometheus IV, said an order (in Pacer) Tuesday from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The challenge of the FCC 2014 broadcast ownership quadrennial review (see 1905030048) takes place before the same three-judge panel as the previous Prometheus cases: Thomas Ambro, Julio Fuentes and Anthony Scirica. That panel has ruled against the FCC in each of the case’s three previous iterations. The agency gets 30 minutes to argue, said a letter (in Pacer) from the clerk of the court, while petitioners’ 30 minutes will have to be divided up by the three sets of challenging entities. They are anticonsolidation groups that include Prometheus Radio Project, a group of small and midmarket broadcasters that includes Quincy Media and Morgan Murphy Media, and a third set of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters. Oral argument is in U.S. District Courthouse in Philadelphia.

Comments on a Cumulus petition for a declaratory ruling that would allow it to be up to 100 percent foreign owned are due June 20, replies July 8, said a public notice in Tuesday’s FCC Daily Digest. Cumulus wants to allow holders of warrants and nonvoting stock to “convert or exercise these instruments in exchange for voting stock” and after that exchange, the company's foreign ownership would be at 34 percent, the PN said. Though that’s less than what Cumulus is requesting, the broadcaster “believes that elimination of the overall limitation on foreign ownership of its shares will, inter alia, enhance the market liquidity of its stock,” the PN said.

There’s no specific timeframe for an NPRM on C4 FM, an aide to Chairman Ajit Pai and a Media Bureau staffer told SSR Communications CEO and C4 advocate Matthew Wesolowski in a meeting Friday, said an FCC filing posted Monday in docket 18-84. “Comments from the 2018 Notice of Inquiry window were still under evaluation,” staff told Wesolowski. The FCC might consider a request for a waiver that would allow a broadcaster to improve its station in a similar manner to the C4 proposal if the pool of potential future eligible applicants could be narrowed, the broadcaster said.

Eliminating FCC radio ownership subcaps would have “a serious detrimental effect” on AM stations and cause existing AM programming to move to FM, replied Crawford Broadcasting on the 2018 quadrennial review, before the May 29 deadline in docket 18-349. Broadcast radio is a separate entity from other media services and “the broadcast radio market is the proper market for determining the need for any changes in broadcast ownership limits,” Crawford said. Eliminating only the AM subcap, as iHeartMedia proposes (see 1905170019), would still hurt AM, Crawford said. Removal of AM subcaps would let entities acquire AM stations to keep them from playing certain formats or serving certain demographics, potentially creating monopolies “that would cripple other AM stations in the same market,” Crawford said.

The NPRM on 2019 regulatory fees “does not meet the barest of standards to which the FCC holds itself and to which Congress holds the Commission” and doesn’t include sufficient information for broadcasters to comment, NAB said in a call with Office of Managing Director staff, the group filed, posted Monday in FCC docket 19-105. The notice proposes a 20 percent increase for radio stations without justifying the jump, NAB said. “The Notice makes no attempt to explain or justify this increase in the Notice, even though the fee hikes will be an unexpected and substantial burden for many broadcasters." The FCC’s 2019 budget increase of 5.2 percent doesn’t explain the 20 percent shift, NAB said. “An overall budget hike simply does not explain the newly proposed fee hike for the radio industry.” The NPRM doesn’t explain why it says that radio stations have decreased in number, the trade group said. Media Bureau’s statistics AM and commercial FMs total increased by one in 2019, NAB said. “Until this is clarified, there is simply no way broadcasters can meaningfully comment.” The commission should issue another notice, NAB said.