FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin won’t broaden the scope of a hearing involving Antonio Cesar Guel's apparently fake sale of broadcast stations to include other questionable transactions because she doesn’t want to interfere with possible FCC Media Bureau investigations, said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest (see2402060049). Granting the Enforcement Bureau’s request to enlarge the hearing proceeding against Guel would also not be “efficient,” she said. The initial proceeding concerned Guel's sale of low-power radio and TV stations to his niece Jennifer Juarez, and false statements Guel made to the FCC, including hiding his lack of U.S. citizenship. The EB wanted the proceeding to include other companies -- Mekaddesh Group, Hispanic Family Christian Network and JPX Global -- whose ownership was the focus of contradictory filings at the FCC and SEC from Guel, his daughter and their associates. “It seems that with each filing in this proceeding, the control and operation of the Guel family’s broadcast licenses becomes less clear,” Halprin wrote. She said that keeping the case narrow is consistent with the Media Bureau’s approach when it originally designated the Guel matter for hearing, though it was aware of other possible violations. “These ambiguities, when considered with the numerous FCC violations to which Mr. Guel has already admitted . . . suggest a pattern of obfuscation and noncompliance” that “warrants further exploration,” the order said.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals adopted the briefing schedule that the parties proposed in the four consolidated petitions for review challenging the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2404030004), said the court’s tentative schedule Friday. The opening briefs of the four petitioners and their intervenor supporters are due July 15, it said. Sept. 13 is the deadline for the FCC’s response brief and that of NCTA, which is intervening on the FCC’s behalf to defend the order against the petitioners’ Section 202(h) challenges, said the schedule. Reply briefs are due Oct. 15 and final briefs Nov. 18, it said. The parties said they framed the schedule to allow for the briefing to be complete and the cases ready for submission on the merits before the end of calendar 2024. The dates “may be advanced or extended by court order or a party's early or late filing of a brief,” said the schedule. All briefs and appendices should be filed with the 8th Circuit’s St. Louis office, it said. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).

The full FCC unanimously upheld the Enforcement Bureau’s revocation of Pennsylvania radio broadcaster Roger Wahl’s FCC license for WQZS(FM) Meyersdale (see 2304120067) in an order on review in Thursday’s Daily Digest. Wahl’s license was designated for hearing after he pleaded guilty to a felony and several misdemeanors involving attempting to arrange a woman’s sexual assault. Wahl took nude pictures of the victim using a camera he concealed in her bathroom, impersonated her on a dating website, and later tried to destroy evidence of his crimes. Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin terminated Wahl’s hearing after he missed numerous filing deadlines, and Wahl also later missed the deadline to appeal the ALJ’s decision, Thursday’s order said. In his appeal, Wahl argued that the crimes didn’t intersect with his radio station, didn’t involve fraud and bodily injury, and represented a single “crime of passion” rather than a pattern of behavior. The FCC disagreed. “We find that an extended course of premeditated conduct cannot fairly be characterized as ‘an isolated crime of passion,'” the FCC said. Wahl’s “lack of candor in tampering with evidence is a form of fraudulent representation,” Thursday’s order said. “While his victim did not suffer bodily injury, his criminal conduct foreseeably placed his victim at risk of sexual assault," the FCC said. “We find Mr. Wahl’s offenses to be egregious and render him unqualified to be a Commission licensee."

Opening briefs of the four petitioners and their intervenor supporters challenging the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2403220041) would be due July 15 under a proposed briefing schedule that has the backing of all parties, NAB told the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing Tuesday. Sept. 13 is the proposed deadline for the FCC’s response brief and that of NCTA, which is intervening to defend the order against the petitioners’ Section 202(h) challenges, said the filing. Reply briefs would be due Oct. 15 and final briefs on Nov. 18, it said. The proposed schedule “would allow for the briefing to be complete and the cases ready for submission on the merits” before the end of calendar 2024, it said. The petitioners currently anticipate filing joint opening and reply briefs, it said. The intervenors supporting the Section 202(h) challenge anticipate filing two sets of opening and reply briefs, one from the four network affiliates associations, the other from six radio ownership groups, it said. “The number of briefs, the issues the parties intend to raise, and the number of words needed for full and efficient presentation of the issues could change if additional petitions for review or intervention motions are filed,” it said. April 15 is the deadline to file additional petitions for review of the quadrennial order; further intervention motions would be due 30 days later, said the filing. The parties request leave to file a supplemental joint proposed briefing schedule by April 22, seven days after the deadline to file a petition for review, it said. They further request leave to file a second supplemental joint proposal by May 22, if necessary, seven days after the deadline to intervene, “to ensure all parties are accounted for,” it said. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).

The 8th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court granted the unopposed motions of four network affiliates associations (see 2403220041) and six radio group owners (see 2403260001) to intervene in support of the four consolidated petitions for review that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act, said a clerk’s order Tuesday. The 8th Circuit also granted NCTA’s motion to intervene to defend the FCC’s order against those Section 202(h) challenges (see 2403250064). The court denied without prejudice the network affiliates associations’ request to be deemed intervenors in any petitions that may be consolidated with the existing four in the future. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516).

The FCC unanimously approved an order allowing broadcasters to use FM boosters to originate geotargeted radio content (see 2402090044). The order lets broadcasters apply for an experimental license to carry geotargeted content for a maximum of three minutes per broadcast hour. Such content is expected to be mostly advertisements, and the push for geotargeted radio has faced heavy opposition from NAB and larger broadcasters over concerns about ad rates and interference (see 2210210050). The item includes a further NPRM that seeks comment on establishing a more permanent process to replace the experimental license. In comments included with the order, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said the order would help minority and small- market broadcasters. “No fewer than 21 civil rights organizations also urged us to make this change,” he said. “They believe geotargeting has the power to diversify media ownership, while giving small businesses and community organizations more of an opportunity to get their message on the air.” The FCC has for years “ensured that various technologies from cable to 5G to next-gen broadcast TV have the freedom to target their content to specific geographies,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr in his statement with the order. “Except the FCC has never allowed radio broadcasters that same opportunity. It has artificially limited broadcasters’ business models,” he said. The order said: “Weighing the competing interests in this proceeding, we find that program origination over boosters will advance the public interest with benefits that outweigh the concerns.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned New York property owners in Mount Vernon and Poughkeepsie of possible forfeitures for allegedly hosting pirate radio stations, said letters in Monday’s Daily Digest. Property owners Keiwan Morrison and Shadae Bailey in Poughkeepsie and Jeromio Edwards in Mount Vernon could face a forfeiture of up to $2.3 million each, the letters said. The letters demand proof that the unauthorized transmissions EB field agents found have ceased and that the unauthorized broadcasters be identified. Property owners have 10 business days to respond, the letters said.

Comments on an FCC proposal that extends a mandatory disaster information reporting system filing requirement to broadcasters and satellite providers are due April 29, replies May 28, according to a notice in Friday's Federal Register. The proposal stems from a further NPRM the FCC unanimously approved in January (see 2401250064).

Six radio broadcasters seek leave to intervene in support of the four petitions for review consolidated in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that challenge the FCC’s Dec. 26 quadrennial review order for allegedly violating Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act (see 2403050075), said their unopposed joint motion Monday. The consolidated petitions pending in the 8th Circuit are from Zimmer Radio (docket 24-1380), Beasley Media Group (docket 24-1480), NAB (docket 24-1493) and Nexstar Media Group (docket 24-1516). The radio broadcasters seeking to intervene in support of those petitions are Connoisseur Media, Mid-West Management, Midwest Communications, Sun Valley Radio, Eagle Communications and Legend Communications of Wyoming. The radio broadcasters, owners and licensees collectively of nearly 200 stations across the U.S., would see their interests “adversely affected” by the implementation of the FCC’s order, said their motion to intervene. It would harm them “by arbitrarily restricting their ability to compete in their markets against larger, less regulated digital content providers and advertising platforms,” they said. The platforms, including those owned by some of the largest U.S. companies, have been “siphoning away” listeners and advertising revenue from traditional radio, it said. The ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates associations sought leave Friday to intervene in support of the four petitions, arguing that the FCC’s order “refused to loosen” the commission’s “decades-old regulation of local television ownership to reflect today’s increasingly competitive media landscape (see 2403220041). NCTA on Monday came to the defense of the order, arguing that it rightfully retained the commission's local television ownership rule, which generally limits the number of full-power television stations an entity may own within the same local market (see 2403250064).

The full FCC -- with Commissioner Brendan Carr concurring in part -- proposed a $612,395 forfeiture against Nexstar for violating the 39% national ownership cap and taking de facto control of Mission Broadcast’s WPIX New York station without agency permission, said a notice of apparent liability issued late Thursday. The NAL also proposes requiring Mission within 12 months to either divest WPIX to a third party or apply to the FCC to sell it to Nexstar, which in turn would have to divest stations to come in under the national cap. The FCC “is prohibited from allowing a company to own or control broadcast stations that in total reach more than 39 percent of the national television audience,” said Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a brief statement released with the NAL. “The record here reflects a situation where a company exceeds this threshold. Unless and until Congress changes this law, it is the responsibility of this agency to enforce it.” Nexstar is a client of Wiley, Commissioner Anna Gomez's former law firm. Late last month, she received an ethics waiver that allows her to vote on enforcement items involving Wiley clients (see 2403150055). Nexstar’s relationship with Mission and WPIX was the focus of multiple court and FCC proceedings (see 2402130023), one of which was recently decided in Nexstar’s favor (see 2403210027). “NALs are not final decisions on the merits,” said Carr’s concurrence, in which he objected to the NAL citing aspects of Nexstar's relationship with Mission, which past FCCs approved, as part of the company's violations. “And I will keep an open mind as the FCC reviews the record in response to this document. Part of that will require the FCC to ensure that any remedies the agency finds necessary are ones that are appropriate given the procedural posture of this enforcement action.” Nexstar is “extremely disappointed in today’s action by the Federal Communication Commission regarding our relationship with WPIX-TV and we intend to dispute it vigorously,” said CEO Perry Sook in a release. “We believe the FCC has been misled by the often distracting noise in the media ecosphere and that it has completely misjudged the facts.”