The FCC proposal to restrict interference complaints about translators from full-power FM stations to a 54 dBu contour will vastly reduce full-power stations’ listenership and cause losses of service, said most replies in docket 18-119 Thursday. “There are a substantial number of documented listeners who would be jettisoned from protection against FM translator interference,” said Beasley Media, Cox, Entercom, Gradick Communications, iHeartCommunications, Neuhoff Communications, Withers Broadcasting and Radio One. They offered a compromise of extending the cutoff to 42 dBu, and that wouldn’t be a hard barrier but instead require interference complaints based on a higher threshold of evidence. The contour proposal was the primary focus of most commenters, though not all radio licensees opposed it. Aztec Capital Partners, the company behind one of the petitions that inspired the proceeding, compared opponents of the proposal to “cattle barons” claiming dominion over the entire open range. Opponents ask for “governmental protection to service areas they are not entitled to, with FCC regulatory processes preserving their grazing rights against newcomers and other users of spectrum,” Aztec said. Bloomberg Communications said the FCC plan would create certainty for investments in translators. Numerous commenters -- such as the New Jersey Broadcasters Association -- argued that the proposal threatens the primary status of full-power FM stations, and would clutter the band. “The situation is a classic example of trying to fit 2 pounds of product in a one pound bag,” said Press Communications. NAB didn’t weigh in on the contours but took issue with FCC proposals that would limit listener participation in the complaint process: “Allowing a translator licensee to try to correct interference problems is often a cost-effective way to eliminate complaints quickly and efficiently.” Low-power FM groups opposed the FCC’s proposal to set a six complaint minimum for interference complaints. Such a high number favors larger broadcasters, said REC Networks.

The FCC shouldn’t restrict broadcasters incubating new entrants from receiving ownership waivers in “comparable markets,” said an NAB letter posted Tuesday in docket 17-289 responding to a push by members of the Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment. ACDDE members including former Commissioner Henry Rivera and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President James Winston have been arguing that the incubator order’s definition of comparable markets is too broad and would undermine the incubator program. The order was approved in August, and challenged in court Tuesday (see 1809040065). “Limiting the exercise of a reward waiver to markets within five market sizes of the incubation market is unduly restrictive and would inhibit participation,” NAB said. “The incubator program already sets a very high bar for incubating broadcasters to receive waivers.” The ACDDE members’ argument that broadcasters would exploit the program only to secure waivers in large markets is an “unproven, somewhat cynical assumption,” NAB said.

An 11-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected PMCM’s en banc appeal of the court’s June decision (see 1806210073) upholding FCC rulings that prevent the company's WJLP Middletown Township, New Jersey, from being broadcast on virtual channel 3, said an order (in Pacer) issued Wednesday. It noted "the absence of a request by any member of the court for a vote.” Judge Brett Kavanaugh, currently under consideration for appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court (see 1809050061), didn’t participate. PMCM didn't comment.

Another law firm filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against Sinclair and former-merger partner Tribune accusing them of colluding over advertising rates, in a complaint filed Friday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Maryland. A similar suit was filed last month by an Arkansas law firm (see 1807310054). As in the other case, MyPhillyLawyer bought ads from the companies sued on behalf of itself and other advertisers. Like the previous suit, this one refers to reports of DOJ investigating advertising collusion by the companies. Sinclair, Tribune and MyPhillyLawyer didn’t comment.

The Public Safety Bureau will do a voluntary test of the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for broadcasters Sept. 13 and 14, said in a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. “The purpose of this exercise is to help users become familiar with the system and ready to file DIRS reports when a real disaster strikes.” The exercise will simulate a disaster by asking broadcasters to file reports on both days. The bureau “encourages broadcasters that have not already registered in DIRS to do so now.” The simulation had been set for last month but was moved in response to the threat of then-Hurricane Lane, which eventually required DIRS activation (see 1808230044).

Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project filed a petition for review of the FCC’s incubator order in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to court documents (in Pacer). The order and incubator program uses a definition of eligible entities that won’t increase ownership diversity and “fails to compile a record sufficient to consider its impact” on minority ownership, the petition said. The incubator order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, Communications Act and previous media ownership rulings of the 3rd Circuit, petitioners said. The anti-consolidation groups also filed a motion (in Pacer) seeking to have the appeal consolidated with their appeal of the FCC reconsideration order on media ownership rules. The 3rd Circuit requested -- and received -- information on the incubator program as part of that case, which is on hold. The agency didn’t comment.

Live college and professional football games are “the most frequently targeted” for blackouts during retransmission consent battles, said the American Television Alliance. “Blackouts in 2017 reached a record high of 213, breaking the previous calendar year record set in 2015 of 193.” There have been 83 blackouts this year, said the group of MVPDs and others seeking retransmission-consent rule changes." The irony of ATVA lamenting infrequent loss of broadcast sports programming is especially rich in light of Big Pay TV’s never-ending blackout of Los Angeles Dodger baseball games that’s lasted nearly five years," an NAB spokesperson said Friday. "Broadcasters have every incentive to keep our programming on pay TV platforms, as evidenced by the fact that 99 percent of all retransmission consent deals end without a disruption.”

Broadcasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that haven’t been able to resume broadcasting have six additional months to rebuild, from Sept. 6 until March 6, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Thursday. The one-year anniversary of the storms is approaching, and a year of silence can ordinarily cause a station to lose its license. The “catastrophic nature” of the 2017 storms and power loss in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “warrants consideration of equity and fairness,” the PN said. Stations currently silent because of storm damage that won’t be able to resume broadcasting by the 12-month mark should file requests for special temporary authority and provide a projected date before March 6 by which the station will be operating, it said. “Delineate the specific factors preventing the station’s resumption of broadcast operations prior to the one-year mark.” Staff said they won't “entertain requests to extend or reinstate an expired license from licensees that have not filed a Silent STA Request prior to the end of their twelve full months of silence.”

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $6,000 fine for Malibu low-power licensee Zuma Beach FM Emergency and Community Broadcasters but rejected a petition of reconsideration filed against its grant of a permit to modify Zuma’s facilities, said an order and notice of apparent liability in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The proposed forfeiture is based on Zuma’s broadcasting on an incorrect frequency while it was building new facilities. “Zuma operated for about a month with power levels and on a channel that were specified in its construction permit but not in its existing license,” the NAL said. Zuma operated at incorrect power levels during a wildfire emergency, and not at the request of public safety officials, the NAL said. Nearby radio licensee Future Roots argued the bureau incorrectly granted Zuma’s construction permit, but the bureau disagreed. Zuma didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau granted a request from Border Media Licenses for a declaratory ruling, letting it buy WRGR(FM) Tupper Lake, New York, said an order in docket 18-66 listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. BML is 100 percent owned by residents of the U.K. and Poland and its petition and license transfer application were unopposed, the order added. “It will serve the public interest to grant the Petition.”