Gray Television will sell Charlottesville, Virginia's WCAV and WVAW-LD to Lockwood Broadcasting and buy NBC affiliate WVIR-TV Charlottesville from Waterman Broadcasting, Gray said. Gray would own nine of the top 10 ranked U.S. NBC affiliates, it said. Gray said it won’t have any continuing relationship or oversight of the sold stations. The transactions are supposed to close in Q2 or Q3, Gray said.

T-Mobile is “concerned” language in the FCC draft reimbursement order appears to question the carrier’s motives for advocating low-power TV stations that received repacking funds from third parties be eligible for federal reimbursement, T-Mobile said in meetings and calls with aides to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Jessica Rosenworcel, and Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo, recounted a filing in docket 18-214. Jenner & Block attorney Howard Symons, former IATF vice chair, represented T-Mobile. The draft order declines to pay out reimbursement funds to such LPTV stations (see 1902220062), and says the proposal would amount to reimbursing T-Mobile. The carrier “stepped forward” to reimburse the LPTV stations, and has been recognized by the agency for doing so, the company said. The stations should be reimbursed as long as they certify they aren’t receiving double payments, said T-Mobile. The carrier asked the agency to make clear LPTV stations that received third-party funds are eligible to receive reimbursement dollars for expenses not covered by that pay-out.

Comments on Ion’s request to change the community of license for Alabama's WPXH-TV Gadsden to Hoover (see 1812050043) are due March 15, replies March 25, said Thursday’s Federal Register.

The FCC added versions of its TV rescanning guide webpage in some new languages, the agency tweeted Wednesday. The information is now available in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese. The agency’s previous rescanning guide was also available in those languages, and the FCC is now providing those translations again for the recently updated page (see 1812040059), a spokesperson said Thursday.

Plaintiffs in consolidated advertising collusion lawsuits against some large broadcasters aren’t entitled to see documents stemming from DOJ’s investigation, said a Tuesday opposition motion (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Chicago from defendants, which include Nexstar, Sinclair and Tribune (see 1810050041). Those companies reached consent decrees with Justice for sharing ad pricing information but didn’t admit wrongdoing, defendants said. The request is premature, mischaracterizes the investigation as involving price fixing, and would require a substantial and expensive effort to prevent release of confidential contract information, the broadcasters said. “Plaintiffs’ existing complaints make no effort to describe the conduct any Defendant allegedly engaged in or to allege any facts to show that such conduct was unlawful,” the opposition motion said. Most documents were provided to DOJ as part of Sinclair's failed buy of Tribune, and “the great bulk of the documents produced to DOJ in the merger investigation (approximately 5.5 million in total) are irrelevant to the issues in this case,” the broadcasters said.

Sinclair was involved in recent broadcast TV mergers and acquisitions “processes,” but the properties went to other buyers at prices higher than it wanted to pay, said CEO Chris Ripley on a Q4 call Wednesday. Sinclair didn’t comment on which deals he was referencing. Recent M&A includes Cox’s proposed sale of stations to investment fund Apollo and Nexstar’s proposed buy of former Sinclair dance partner Tribune. Since issues from the outstanding hearing designation order stemming from the failed Sinclair/Tribune remain unresolved (see 1901040047), it’s widely believed Sinclair buying TV stations could trigger unwanted FCC action on its licenses. That’s been seen as something Sinclair would seek to avoid, and the broadcaster has opposed efforts to bring that matter before the FCC before the 2020 license renewal period (see 1812110062). Ripley has said the HDO won't keep Sinclair out of M&A (see 1810180024). Q4 revenue rose 25 percent, compared with Q4 2017, Sinclair reported, reaching $893.3 million. Executives are bullish about the company’s outlook, touting activity with regional sports networks, expected political advertising sales gains and progress on ATSC 3.0. Sinclair and SpectrumCo hope to begin broadcasting 3.0 in 20-30 markets this year, Ripley said. That's delayed waiting for the FCC to create an application form (see 1902260046). Sinclair is open to doing more sports deals similar to its recent one with the Chicago Cubs (see 1902130019), Ripley said. Sports content is the highest rated and the “scarcest” content, Ripley said. “You can't create more sports, you can create more of almost any other genre.” The rapidly increasing field of 2020 presidential candidates “really bodes well for local broadcasters” on political ad dollars, said Chief Operating Officer Steven Marks. In the lead-up to the election, broadcasters “aren’t gonna be able to get out of the way of all the money” pouring in for political ads, he said.

IHeartMedia’s RCS acquired Greece-based Radiojar. The cloud-based audio playout platform will let broadcasters extend listening experiences to other audio platforms such as music streaming and podcasts, said iHeartMedia Tuesday. The technology will enable streaming media services to combine or parse individual audio elements such as DJ voice tracks, music and broadcast spots to “create, manage, distribute and monetize streams, podcasts and other audio content in real-time from anywhere,” it said. Radiojar tools allow independent podcasters, radio stations and individuals to create their own radio stations and broadcast “from anywhere,” it said.

A Paterson, New Jersey, pirate radio operator will pay $1,500 and face an additional penalty of $23,000 if he operates another such station in the next 20 years, said an order and consent decree. The FCC Enforcement Bureau had issued a $25,000 forfeiture against Winston Tulloch but settled after it was found he had attempted to respond to the notice of apparent liability, but his response was sent to another federal agency. Tulloch argued he's unable to pay the original fine, and the additional funds will also be due if it's found he misled the bureau about his finances. An unauthorized radio station was found operating out of properties connected with Tulloch several times going back to 2015 (see 1804250059).

Under a Democratic majority, “you can be sure the House will continue investing in public TV,” Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told the America's Public Television Stations Summit Tuesday. Hoyer committed to working with colleagues to secure a $50 million funding increase for CPB in the next budget. The annual funding has been level at $445 million for a decade, APTS CEO Patrick Butler said Monday (see 1902250063). Hoyer and fellow public TV supporters will “see how close we can get,” he said. “Hopefully, we can get to $495 million.”

The FCC and NAB lack sufficient data showing the FCC broadcast incubator program will increase media ownership among women and minorities, said petitioner for reconsideration Red Brennan Group in a reply posted Monday in docket 17-289 to NAB's opposition filing (see 1902110048). The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found previous FCC ownership changes to be arbitrary and capricious because of lack of data, Red Brennan said. A study provided by NAB isn't sufficient to satisfy that requirement and appears to conflict with data gathered by the FCC Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment, the filing said. The revenue-based standard the FCC is using for the incubator program is arbitrary and an obvious attempt to avoid a court loss, Red Brennan said. “Small businesses are not the same as minority-owned and female-owned businesses, and the huge disparities in data suggest that both NAB and the FCC have yet to figure out how likely the groups are to overlap.”