Monty Tayloe

The full FCC voted to impose a per station penalty of $512,228 against 14 broadcasters and a reduced $30,000 penalty against another over violations of good faith negotiation rules in retransmission consent negotiations with AT&T and subsidiary DirecTV, said a heavily redacted forfeiture order released Wednesday afternoon. The stations involved are affiliated with Sinclair through service agreements.

The FCC unanimously voted to seek comment on collecting equal employment opportunity data from broadcasters through Form 395-B, said a docket 98-204 Further NPRM Monday. The data collection was originally part of a proceeding in 2004 that stalled over concerns about confidentiality. “After so much time, this pause turned into a standstill,” said acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “We can do better than this.” The order stems from a draft circulated by Rosenworcel in February, and issues raised by Commissioner Geoffrey Starks in 2019 (see 2103260038). Failure to collect the EEO data “has hampered our ability to determine what regulatory actions are necessary to ensure equal employment opportunities,” said Starks. Rosenworcel commended Starks and Commissioner Brendan Carr for their collaboration here. The FNPRM seeks to “refresh the record regarding the collection of broadcaster workforce composition data and obtain further input on the legal, logistical, and technical issues surrounding FCC Form 395-B.” The item doesn’t appear to make specific proposals, and seeks comment on how confidentiality concerns should be handled, how the data collection interacts with court decisions on minority discrimination and recruitment, and whether the data should be “station-attributable.” Broadcasters had expressed concern that EEO data attributable to specific stations could be used against them in petitions to deny and similar filings. “An anonymous filing approach could impede” the FCC from contacting licensees if there are problems with the data, the FNPRM said. NAB said it is looking forward to reviewing the FNPRM and broadcasters "are committed to ensuring that they are able to recruit and retain a diverse workforce that represents the local communities they serve."

Aug. 11 nationwide tests of the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts are expected to proceed similarly to the last ones but more smoothly, said broadcasters and EAS officials in interviews. Volume problems and transmission issues that caused a drop-off in reception in the 2019 EAS exercise (see 2005120064) have been addressed. The 2021 WEA test requires users to have opted in to get the test message, unlike the 2018 version. The 2020 test was canceled due to COVID-19. “If something fails, we try to go back and see where it’s not working,” said Wyoming Association of Broadcasters President Laura Grott.

The bulk of FCC staff won’t return to the office until the FCC completes negotiations with its employee union, but talks haven’t been scheduled, per the National Treasury Employees Union and an Office of Personnel Management memo. Other agencies said they're trying to figure out their own return to their headquarters.

Some low-power TV broadcasters are rushing to prepare for the FCC sunset deadline for low-power analog broadcasts Tuesday. Even so, the DTV switchover isn’t considered likely to affect many viewers, station owners and industry officials told us. “There’s really a lot of stations out there,” said Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance CEO Lee Miller. “It is hard to imagine there are still people out there with analog televisions,” said attorney Michael Couzens, who represents the National Translator Association.

The $518,000 proposed fine against Gray Television for a top-four rule violation (see 2107070066) might be a message for the industry or a hint of what direction ownership rules under this FCC could take, said a broadcast attorney, media consolidation opponents and academics in interviews Thursday. “We are hopeful that once the FCC is up to full capacity, it will act to close all of these shell company loopholes that enable broadcast giants to control stations they aren't legally allowed to own,” said Free Press Research Director Derek Turner.

“We have patiently waited for the opportunity to fix our channels,” replied 51 low-power FMs, posted Wednesday in support of a REC Networks proposal to allow for increased LPFM power levels (see 2106220056). “We ask the FCC to entertain the creation of new regulation via RM-11909 to assist our plights,” said the group of stations, called LPFM Broadcasters for Sustainable Signals. Community support for the proposal is “overwhelming,” said REC. “Even stations that can’t upgrade acknowledge that for many rural and ... some urban LPFM stations, the upgrade to LP250 would enable their programming to reach their community with greater success.” NAB filed against the proposal. It “fails to see why LPFM operators should be allowed a short-cut that would not only allow them to broadcast with the same amount of radiated power as a Class A station, but to do so while avoiding” public interest and EAS requirements, it said. “LP250 service is unwarranted because an LPFM entity is always free to apply for a 250-watt Class A station, just like anyone else.” Common Frequency attacked NAB arguments LPFMs are prone to operate outside allowed power levels. “NAB could only amass three cases in the two-decade history of LPFM, among 2,114 stations, where LPFM licensees were cited for over-powered broadcasting,” CF said. “None of NAB’s concerns presented in their Objection are supported by fact.”

Allow industry flexibility and avoid prescriptive rules on accessibility, replied NAB, Zoom, ACA Connects and CTA on the 21st Century Video Accessibility Act posted Wednesday in FCC docket 21-140. “Accessibility is not something that must be mandated with a heavy hand,” said Zoom. “The regime is working overall,” said CTA, saying industry “is continuing to meet the needs of consumers free of unnecessary red-tape.” CTA said the FCC should relax some CVAA rules to increase flexibility, such as letting alternative technology fulfill captioning requirements. It would be “premature” for the agency to adopt audio description quality standards as rules, said ACA Connects. “Broadcasters have demonstrated their commitment to ensuring access,” NAB said. Industry accessibility initiatives are a “critical” part of the CVAA, but “accessibility barriers continue to require substantial ongoing vigilance and action from the Commission,” said groups including Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Communications Service for the Deaf, and National Association of the Deaf. Strengthen rules and reject “unwarranted calls to weaken accessibility mandates,” they asked.

A draft NPRM on updating some radio technical rules isn’t expected to draw controversy and could be voted before the FCC’s July 13 meeting, said industry and agency officials in interviews. “This really strikes me as housekeeping, but good housekeeping,” said broadcast attorney David O’Neil of Rini O’Neil. “They want to clean this stuff up a bit,” said broadcast engineer Tim Sawyer of TZ Sawyer Technical Consultants. He believes some provisions may have been motivated by the upcoming November window for noncommercial educational construction permits (see 2104210076).

The flood of full-power TV channel substitution requests into the FCC Media Bureau since November showed pent-up demand that's likely to continue, broadcasters and broadcast attorneys told us. As channel swap requests continue, more low-power stations could find themselves facing being bumped from their channels, said Smithwick & Belendiuk broadcast attorney Mark Denbo, who represents low-power broadcaster King Kong. “I think there’s going to be more and more,” Denbo said. “With ATSC 3.0, more full powers want to get on UHF.”