FCC staff deemed 27 applicants qualified to bid on 33 new FM translator construction permits in Auction 83 that starts June 21, said a public notice from the Wireless and Media bureaus Thursday. They include Bible Broadcasting Network, Big Broadcasting, Black Media Works, Carolina Radio Group, Clear Channel Broadcasting, Educational Media Foundation, the Pacifica Foundation, University of Northwestern-St. Paul and Vermont Public Radio.

On TV ownership caps, "the Commission should, in effect, maintain the status quo," NAB lobbied Chief Michelle Carey and others in the Media Bureau, the association reported, as posted Thursday in FCC docket 17-318. "If the Commission continues to employ a 39 percent national TV cap, it should determine compliance with it by accounting for all TV stations at 50 percent of their theoretical audience reach." That's because "the premise underlying the national audience reach cap" that stations reach all TV households in their markets "is a fiction," NAB representatives including General Counsel Rick Kaplan said. "NAB’s proposal to account for both UHF and VHF stations at half their theoretical audience reach still overstates their actual marketplace reach and therefore would be a conservative method of attributing stations under a 39 percent national cap." Broadcasters are split on how to address ownership limits, with a court seen likely to end the UHF discount and Sinclair proposing to buy Tribune (see 1806050040).

The FCC order rejecting Prometheus Radio Project’s appeal of relaxation of translator siting rules takes effect Tuesday, with publication in the Federal Register. Prometheus challenged the rule change as violating the Administrative Procedure Act (see 1805220073).

A move by Nielsen to change the way it measures audience data in Los Angeles will “disproportionately exclude Hispanic-listener households” and is seemingly “discriminatory,” Spanish Broadcasting System said. Nielsen is removing some homes from its Los Angeles Portable People Meter panel to protect data integrity, a Nielsen spokesman emailed. “An internal review concluded that these homes did not meet our data quality and integrity standards.” The ratings sample for Los Angeles is still representative of the market, the spokesperson said. “The restated ratings and rankings reports are, in SBS’s view unreliable, and inaccurately suggest that Spanish-language stations have dropped from top 5 rankings to number 15 or lower,” SBS said. “This cannot stand.”

The FCC Media Bureau approved license transfer applications connected with Cumulus Media’s bankruptcy reorganization (see 1805020035), and rejected a petition to deny by creditor WGH, said an order issued Friday. The reorganization involves rejiggering Cumulus’ stock, and the transfer of control is between Cumulus’s current group of shareholders and its new, reorganized shareholders, the order said. WGH argued the reorg would lead to Cumulus being more than 25 percent foreign-owned, but the bureau said Cumulus created mechanisms that will prevent that from occurring, and such arguments will be properly addressed when Cumulus seeks a declaratory ruling to exceed the 25 percent threshold. The bureau said WGH doesn’t have standing to petition for denial of the transaction, so its argument was treated as an informal objection. To bring the transaction into compliance with local ownership rules, Cumulus will place into a divestiture trust radio stations in four markets where it exceeded the ownership limits -- the combinations previously were grandfathered, the order said. The transfer of control also means any Cumulus mutually exclusive FM translator application in recent translator auction 100 will be dismissed, the order said.

The FCC should use existing guidelines designed by PBS to help create the plan for dispersing repack reimbursement funds to low-power TV and translators, the public broadcast network said Tuesday in a meeting with Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo, Media Bureau Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman and Media Bureau staff, recounted a filing in docket 16-306. The PBS guidelines were created to administer a grant pledged by T-Mobile to cover the repacking costs of TV translators and LPTV stations that carry PBS content (see 1706290066). “The costs for any given translator relocation project can vary significantly, from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars,” the network said. The FCC should accommodate those variations based on individual local circumstances, PBS said. The process should be “streamlined and simple as possible so that small stations with limited resources will be able to participate without undue difficulty,” PBS said.

Broadcaster arguments that calls for reformed EEO rules aren't relevant to the FCC proceeding on doing away with midterm EEO reports (see 1805160042) should be disregarded, said Common Cause, the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, National Urban League, Public Knowledge, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Women in Cable Telecommunications and others. Though much of the NPRM is focused on midterm EEO reports, it requests comment on the FCC’s “track record” on enforcement, they said, posted Wednesday in docket 18-23. The groups’ request for action against “cronyism” has been “fully briefed since 2004 and is ripe,” they said. The groups also disagreed with broadcaster contentions that requests for stronger EEO enforcement (see 1805010075) are unconstitutional and that word-of-mouth recruitment is discriminatory: “Outreach that is not broad can be conducted in a discriminatory way.”

The FCC Media Bureau is recommending an $18,000 fine for a Michigan radio station for operating not at its authorized power. In an order Wednesday, it said WBNZ(FM) Frankfort "willfully and repeatedly" operated outside what it was licensed for and willfully failed to file for special temporary authorization. The bureau also dismissed an objection to the station's 2012 license renewal application raised by Far Eastern Telecasters as unsupported and vague and said it will grant the renewal on the conclusion of the enforcement proceeding. WBNZ outside counsel didn't comment.

BBC will offer two live “cutting-edge” trials of next month's World Cup from Russia, one in Ultra HD with hybrid log-gamma HDR, the other in virtual reality, said the broadcaster Wednesday. The Ultra HD trial will stream all 29 of BBC One’s World Cup matches over the BBC iPlayer, it said. The trial will be available "to watch on a first-come, first-served basis,” it said. The trial will help the BBC “and wider industry prepare for a time when delivering such large-scale events in such high quality, for larger audiences, over the open Internet is normal,” it said. It recommends a connection of at least 40 Mbps to view the matches in 4K resolution. BBC "can only confirm that each game can support tens of thousands of people," emailed spokesman David Turnbull. "The combination of the BBC and the World Cup can drive massive audiences, and right now there is limited bandwidth available to deliver live Ultra HD content to such large audiences over the open Internet," he said. "We’re making our Ultra HD trial available to as many people as possible within those limitations, while testing our systems on the largest scale yet. The experience and data we gather from performing these trials will help us to optimise and scale up UHD delivery in the future." The VR trial will be viewable through a dedicated BBC app available for free soon on Apple, Android, Gear VR, Oculus Go and PlayStation VR devices, it said. The monthlong World Cup opens June 14.

President Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter Wednesday against Disney CEO Bob Iger for not calling him to “apologize” for what the president termed “HORRIBLE statements” against him on the Disney-owned ABC network’s shows, suggesting a double standard since Iger apologized to Valerie Jarrett, ex-aide to former President Barack Obama, after a racist tweet from comedian Roseanne Barr. ABC abruptly canceled Barr’s Roseanne sitcom Tuesday after Barr's tweet. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also noted ABC’s “double standard” during a Wednesday news conference. Trump did not state which ABC statements he was referring to. Trump tweeted earlier this year in support of Sinclair’s proposed purchase of Tribune and drew criticism last year for threatening the "license" of NBC and other broadcast networks (see 1710160011, 1710170022, 1804020056 and 1804030054).