The FCC’s order allowing geotargeted radio broadcasts let broadcasters “go after new revenue streams” and is “the dawn of new possibility for radio,” said FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in remarks at the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Black Media Summit and Power of Urban Radio Forum. The order is “a game changer,” especially for “small and singleton owners that are working hard to stay on the air,” said Starks. Both the commissioner and NABOB were vocal supporters of the radio geotargeting order before it was approved unanimously in April. REC Networks and Press Communications targeted the order with petitions for reconsideration (see 2406210054). The FCC is working to wrap up the 2022 quadrennial review “as soon as we can,” said David Strickland, media adviser to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, in a panel discussion Thursday. Strickland declined to comment on the timing of the 2022 QR or say whether ongoing litigation over the 2018 QR could influence it.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Wednesday called for an investigation into 60 Minutes over the editing of the CBS program's interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In a Truth Social post, Trump said that the CBS “News Division” “must be licensed.” However, the FCC doesn't license news programs. Trump, who reportedly backed out of a similar interview with 60 Minutes, said editing of the interview was intended to make Harris appear more favorable and was “possibly illegal” and “may be a major Campaign Finance Violation.” Trump's post is the latest in a string of threats and calls for government action against broadcasters over their news content (see 2409230022). “This is an open and shut case, and must be investigated, starting today!” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has repeatedly condemned calls for agency action against broadcasters over their content (see 2410080056). CBS didn't comment.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel Tuesday condemned a letter from the Florida Department of Health threatening a TV station over an advertisement. Sent to Nexstar's WFLA-TV Tampa and other Gray Television stations, the letter claimed a political ad running on the station critical of Florida's abortion policies constituted an illegal “sanitary nuisance” and threatened the station with criminal prosecution. The station's First Amendment right “does not include free rein to disseminate false advertisements which, if believed, would likely have a detrimental effect on the lives and health of pregnant women in Florida,” the DOH letter said. Rosenworcel, in a release, responded, “The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment.” She continued, “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government's views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.” The ad, the DOH letter said, characterized a Florida law that strictly limits abortions as banning them and leading to the deaths of pregnant women. The ad is “not only false, it is dangerous.” Women faced with pregnancy complications posing a serious risk of death “may and should seek medical treatment in Florida,” the letter said. Nexstar, Gray and NAB didn't comment.

Panasonic will begin offering a range of ATSC 3.0 receivers and ADTH is offering a USB stick-sized receiver, said a news release Tuesday from Pearl TV ahead of the NAB New York trade show. Along with the new receivers, Pearl announced increased availability of features from ATSC 3.0 broadcasters such as high dynamic range and multichannel broadcast audio. HDR is available to 80 million households from ATSC 3.0 broadcasters, said Pearl Managing Director Anne Schelle in the release. Broadcasters will also kick off a holiday-themed ATSC 3.0 advertising campaign after the November election, the release said. “Anywhere that NEXTGEN TV is on the air, we’d like our member stations to run an informational campaign to let consumers know that they should be looking for the NEXTGEN TV certification mark as they shop for new receivers during the holidays,” Schelle said in the release.

Congress should remove the FCC's authority to impose content-based restrictions such as the broadcast indecency rules on broadcasters in the wake of Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump's repeated calls for action against ABC's license (see [Ref:2409120056), said American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling in a post Tuesday. “While many were quick to dismiss Trump's call, it is indeed possible for the federal government to revoke a broadcast license, even in response to what is essentially a political offense,” Westling said. He said Congress should do away with the news distortion rules and indecency rules, which remain on the books but are used infrequently. The news distortion rules bar broadcasters from deliberately distorting a factual news report, while the indecency rules bar egregious nudity or profanity. The FCC hypothetically could use the news distortion rules to block a license renewal for a station that aired a story the president disapproved of, Westling said. Elimination of the rules would give broadcasters more freedom and allow them to better compete with other media that aren't bound by such rules, he said. “The freedom to succeed would also entail the freedom to fail: If a station airs content that consumers do not want to see, it will simply go out of business,” he said.

The Media and Democracy Project has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the FCC for any records of Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington communicating with Fox and the Heritage Foundation or that mention Project 2025 or the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, among other things. MAD has opposed the license renewal of Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia (see 2407250056), and filed the FOIA in the docket on that proceeding Monday, docket 23-292. A number of prominent officials, including former FCC Commissioner Ervin Duggan, former FCC Chairman Alfred Sikes and former Weekly Standard Editor William Kristol, co-signed the MAD FOIA request. The request should be granted because the policy positions of a future Trump administration are “matters of extreme interest for members of the public who wish to ensure that the Commission impartially applies its policies” to MAD’s petition and the matter of station licensing, it said. “It is obvious that candidate and former President Trump would oppose the MAD Petition, even though he has suggested that content- and viewpoint-based station licensing decisions are appropriate,” MAD said, noting Trump’s recent statements about ABC (see 2409230022). Simington dealt a blow to the FCC’s credibility when he “prejudged” the MAD petition in a recent letter to lawmakers (see 2409130062), MAD said. In addition, MAD said, Carr's and Simington’s involvement in Project 2025 (see 2407050015) also calls the agency’s objectivity into question. “It is essential that the FCC’s ethical integrity be confirmed through full disclosure of Commissioners’ official and personal communications related to the MAD petition and standards for station licensing, so there is no suspicion that any Commissioner has been influenced with respect to these important issues by partisan political interests or by partisan efforts to staff an upcoming administration,” the FOIA filing said. Fox, Carr and Simington didn’t comment.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should reject broadcaster arguments that collection and disclosure of demographic data violates the U.S. Constitution, said the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and a host of other civil rights groups in an amicus brief filed Monday supporting the FCC’s equal employment opportunity data collection order. “Petitioners seek to shield the collected information from public scrutiny despite the importance of accurate demographic data to the federal government, investors, the general public, and the industry’s various stakeholders,” said the joint amicus filing, in which the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Office of Communications for the National Church of Christ, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and other groups joined the NAACP. “By promoting, rather than restricting, the flow of information, Form 395-B promotes the First Amendment goal of the discovery of truth and contributes to the efficiency of the ‘marketplace of ideas.’” Disclosing a broadcaster’s workforce diversity data is comparable to other legal disclosures such as cigarette warning labels and stock buyback rationales, the filing added. “Data about workforce composition is uncontroversial and factual." The National Religious Broadcasters, Texas Association of Broadcasters and American Family Association filed a petition for review against the EEO order.

The FCC narrowed the scope of outage reporting for Hurricane Helene Thursday, deactivating the Disaster Information Reporting System for Florida and Virginia, as well as 16 counties in Georgia and one in Tennessee. However, the system remains active for numerous counties in Georgia, Tennessee and both Carolinas. Thursday’s DIRS update showed 598,411 cable and wireline customers without service in the affected area, and 8.4% of cell sites down. Those numbers are improved from the previous day, when 11.3% of cell sites were down and 654,220 subscribers were reported as without service. The update showed 5 TV stations down, compared to 6 Wednesday, and 22 radio stations down, compared to 38. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr visited the North Carolina Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, to meet officials and telecom providers who are coordinating disaster response efforts, a release from Carr's office said Friday. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel also visited North Carolina Friday (see 2410030051). Carr discussed coordinating communications restoration efforts with representatives of federal, state and local government agencies during the visit, including FCC actions to promote roaming across networks, the release said. "Ensuring the quick restoration of communications services remains a top priority for government agencies," Carr said. "I am grateful for the work that these government officials and service providers alike are doing to help restore communications services in the wake of Hurricane Helene."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau’s Miami office sent a warning to two North Miami, Florida, landowners over pirate radio broadcasts from their property, said an agency notice of violation issued to Toussaint Orius and Marie Orius in Thursday’s Daily Digest. EB agents found unauthorized radio broadcasts coming from the Orius’ property in March. The notice said the landowners could face a fine of up to nearly $2.4 million for hosting an unauthorized radio broadcast.

The FCC has congressional authorization to collect Form 395-B data and didn’t violate broadcasters' constitutional rights in issuing its equal employment opportunity order, the agency said in a brief filed Friday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief responds to challenges against the EEO order brought by the National Religious Broadcasters, the American Family Association and the Texas Association of Broadcasters. “The mere fact that a regulation takes account of race or sex does not make it suspect,” said the FCC. Adding a nonbinary option to gender choices on the form is a “minor change in terminology” for “a category of information that the Form 395-B already collected in 1992,” and thus is well within the agency’s authority, the FCC said. “Nothing about the collection or disclosure of Form 395-B data interferes with a broadcaster’s ability to communicate its own message or suggests the broadcaster agrees with the FCC’s views.” The agency said it “has a legitimate public interest” in collecting workforce diversity data “to facilitate analysis and reporting on broadcast industry workforce trends.”