Petitions asking the FCC to reconsider authorizing radio geotargeting are “procedurally defective” and request changes that would affect all FM boosters, Geobroadcast Solutions (GBS) said in an opposition filing posted Friday (docket 20-401). REC Network’s recon petition asks the agency to prevent boosters from exceeding the signal strength of other nearby radio stations, while the Press Communications petition asks the agency to ban program-originating boosters in “embedded metros” -- radio markets located within the boundaries of a larger market. Neither petition “shows a material error or omission” in the original order and so the FCC should reject them, GBS said. REC’s request would create a technical standard that would apply to all FM boosters and is outside the bounds of the geotargeted radio proceeding, GBS said. “To the extent that REC wishes the Commission to adopt a new rule to protect [low-power] FM stations from all FM boosters, a petition for reconsideration is clearly not the proper vehicle,” GBS said. The FCC “carefully considered and addressed concerns pertaining to stations in embedded markets in the Order,” and the Press petition doesn’t introduce new facts, GBS said. “The Commission should continue pressing forward with program-originating boosters and dismiss the petitions,” GBS said.

Mission Broadcasting says WADL Mount Clemens, Michigan, owner Kevin Adell won't release the deposit Mission made in connection with its failed purchase of WADL (see 2405230052). “Adell’s failure to execute joint written instructions directing the Escrow Agent to release the Deposit made in connection with the Purchase Agreement to Mission” constitutes “an unjustifiable and bad faith breach of the Purchase Agreement,” a June 13 letter from Mission’s attorneys at Wiley to Adell said. Breaching the deal could open Kevin Adell and Adell Broadcasting CFO Ralph Lameti to litigation, the Mission letter said. “While we understand there may be disappointment over the deal not closing, that does not give you license to willfully prevent Mission from receiving the benefit of the bargain it struck with Adell,” Mission said. “Such actions are inconsistent with any legitimate business activities ... undertaken in good faith and appear to be motivated by malicious and bad faith purposes to injure Mission.” Adell didn’t comment, but a reply to Wiley June 14 briefly accuses Mission's letter of containing “inaccuracies.” In addition, it said Wiley also represents Adell Broadcasting. Communications Daily obtained the letters. Wiley “sent an invoice yesterday for law work it performed for Adell Broadcasting,” Adell’s letter said. “As such, Wiley has a conflict with respect to this matter.” Adell requested Wiley refrain from further involvement in the matter and that Mission seek new counsel. Mission and Nexstar, which was also involved in the WADL deal, declined comment. Wiley attorney Stephen Obermeier, who authored Mission's June 13 letter, also didn't comment.

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on a petition to create a more powerful Class-A FM station class known as A-10, a public notice said Thursday. The petition, from Commander Communication, asks the agency to allow existing Class A FM stations to upgrade to the higher power class where they wouldn’t interfere with other co-channel stations. Commander CEO Carl Haynes told us his proposal would follow the existing interference rules and allow many FM stations to be more economically viable and extend reach. “Implementing these proposals will enable stations to better serve the public with a more reliable signal for news and emergency weather notifications,” the petition said. A previous FM power increase proposal, creating a C4 class of FM station, has been stalled at the FCC since 2016. Comments on the A10 petition are due in docket 24-183 on July 22, replies Aug. 21.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a deal for Gray Television to sell two TV stations in Wyoming and Nebraska to Marquee Broadcasting in exchange for Marquee’s FCC-issued construction permit to build a station in Salt Lake City, an order in Thursday’s Daily Digest said. Because the swap includes transferring a Gray station that carries top-four affiliate channels -- KGWN-TV Cheyenne, Wyoming -- the deal falls under the agency’s new 2018 quadrennial order, which requires transactions involving multiple top-four programming streams to be considered on a case-by-case basis. The agency approved the deal because there doesn’t appear to be a commercially viable alternative home for KGWN’s CBS and NBC network affiliations, the order said. “Permitting Marquee to acquire KGWN with its two top-four network affiliations intact” is "in the public interest and would ensure the preservation of local news service and network-affiliated program distribution in the local market,” the order said.

Five broadcasters filed for 21 new FM boosters to use for geotargeted radio, said GeoBroadcast Solutions in reply comments filed Monday (docket 20-401). GBS didn’t name the broadcasters but said the boosters are in geographically diverse markets, including Seattle; Jackson, Mississippi; and Fort Duchesne, Utah. “Our understanding is that more broadcasters will file soon,” GBS said. It told the FCC that interference safeguards for content-originating boosters that NAB and REC Networks proposed are “unnecessary or attempt to reopen technical issues already resolved in the Report and Order.” GBS also said the FCC doesn’t need to require geotargeted radio broadcasters to provide special notifications to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or other emergency alert participants. FCC rules requiring reporting to the emergency test reporting and state emergency alert systems already make that information available to FEMA and other EAS participants, GBS said. REC Networks said it remained skeptical about geotargeted radio technology and warned that it will hurt the radio industry. Content-originating FM boosters are “merely a way for GBS to take advantage of small minority broadcasters through their ‘zero up front’ method of financing the project” taking “minority station revenues off the top,” REC said. “Our bigger concern is to address the fact that FM Boosters provide absolutely no co-channel protection to incumbent facilities.” Minority-owned Roberts Radio told the FCC that the technology will create revenue for similar companies, but said the agency should eliminate EAS equipment requirements for FM boosters and allow more geotargeted content per hour. Increasing the three-minute-limit per hour to six would “double the effect of this opportunity, and still represent less than half the advertising time available on most commercial FM stations,” Roberts said. FM boosters used in geotargeted radio don’t need their own EAS equipment because they can repeat the signal from their main station, Roberts said. “Requiring program originating booster operators to install EAS equipment will impose significant and wholly unnecessary financial and technical burdens on the broadcasters that employ them.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau denied a petition for reconsideration of a $25,000 forfeiture against Jupiter Community Radio, operator of WJUP-LP Jupiter, Florida, an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest said. The original forfeiture order was issued for violations including failure to make the station available for FCC inspection and to maintain emergency alert system equipment. Jupiter appealed that order in 2022 seeking a reduction in the fine, saying that it was unable to pay and that it had addressed the issues with its EAS equipment. In April 2024, Enforcement Bureau agents tried to inspect the station but found it off the air, the order said. “An agent contacted Jupiter’s president to arrange an inspection of the Station’s facilities, but the president was uncooperative at the time and did not return the agent’s follow-up calls seeking access to the Station’s facilities to conduct an inspection,” Tuesday’s order said. Jupiter didn’t submit sufficient documentation to demonstrate an inability to pay, the EB said. “Coupled with Jupiter’s continued unwillingness to permit Bureau agents to inspect the Station, we find that the public interest does not favor granting the relief that Jupiter seeks.”

The FCC Media Bureau reaffirmed its dismissal of a petition from Alabama's Athens State University for a construction permit for a new low-power FM station. In a letter Thursday, the bureau said its staff correctly dismissed the application for not meeting co-channel and first-adjacent channel spacing requirements. It also rejected ASU's request for a waiver based on typographical errors in the application. "We agree that providing new locally-originated service is a laudable goal, however, the loss of LPFM service to Athens, unfortunately, was caused by Petitioner’s mistake, not by an erroneous or harsh Bureau approach to its Application," the bureau said.

The FCC Media Bureau admonished Legacy Broadcasting's KMLU Columbia, Louisiana, for failing to include nondiscriminatory language in its advertising sales agreements. In a letter to Legacy dated Wednesday, the bureau said there's no evidence the station or the Greenwood, Mississippi, licensee engaged in discriminatory behavior in ad sales, so the lack of nondiscrimination clauses doesn't warrant a fine. However, failure to include such language in future ad agreements could result in fines, it added.

The FCC must recognize that public TV stations are separate and distinct from commercial stations, and the proposed definitions of locally originated content in the agency's local content application processing prioritization proceeding should reflect that, America's Public TV Stations said in a docket 24-14 filing Tuesday. Recapping a meeting with Commissioner Brendan Carr's office, APTS warned that the definitions in the NPRM don't align with the local programming of public TV stations. It said those definitions could have implications in future rulemakings for what's considered local broadcast programming.

The FCC commissioners split along party lines on the foreign-sponsored content order, with Commissioner Nathan Simington dissenting and Commissioner Brendan Carr dissenting in part. Approved last month, the order (docket 20-299) was released Monday. It's in response to a July 2022 U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruling against the agency regarding its foreign-sponsored content rules (see 2207120069). The order replaces a requirement that broadcasters check federal databases for each entity leasing time on their stations to see if they are registered foreign agents. Instead, broadcasters have two options for showing that they tried to determine if the programming is foreign-government sponsored. The order also clarifies that the FCC's foreign-sponsorship rules don't apply generally to ad sales for commercial goods and services. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement said the rules clarification makes clear that if a foreign government pays to broadcast programming or campaign advertising, a disclosure would clarify that the government paid for it. The clarification "is about supporting transparency and democratic values," she said. "As listeners, viewers, and citizens, this is something we are entitled to know." Carr and Simington objected to new definitions in the order. "While this Order fixes one legal infirmity highlighted at the D.C. Circuit, it creates new problems that may require us to revisit our foreign sponsorship rules in a future proceeding following another appeal," Carr said. Simington said the order's new definitions of "lease of airtime" and "short-form advertising" go against past definitions and violate the Administrative Procedure Act. He said the FCC rule also covers the same ground as Federal Elections Commission rules prohibiting foreign sponsorship.