Broadcasters should carry spots to educate Americans about the availability of FM radio on mobile devices, Gordon Smith, NAB president, said in a letter emailed to radio stations Thursday. On Monday, NextRadio, an app that provides a "hybrid FM experience" on smartphones, will launch a national marketing campaign promoting FM radio on mobile devices, he said. Thursday, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai supported activating FM chips in cellphones (see 1502190057). NextRadio uses "over-the-air radio receivers in conjunction with online connectivity in smartphones to enhance the listener experience," Smith said. "With more than 1.8 million downloads of NextRadio thus far, listeners are learning that they don't have to stream or incur data charges to get the local music, sports and talk stations they love." Emmis Communications, which has been the prime mover behind promoting adoption of NextRadio, has encountered a diversity of resistance among wireless carriers in getting them to adopt the NextRadio FM reception app in smartphones, Paul Brenner, chief technology officer at Emmis, told us last summer (see 1408060043). “It seems that the varying carrier strategies have an equally varying effect on acceptance,” Brenner said.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will speak at the 2015 NAB Show in Las Vegas on April 15 at 9 a.m., NAB said in a news release Thursday. Wheeler will discuss the commission's policies on broadcasting, technology and communications law, NAB said. The NAB Show is April 11-16.

The FCC’s proposed pricing structure for broadcasters in the incentive auction reflects “a belief that the Commission, rather than the market, is the best determinant of auction outcomes,” said the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition in comments filed Thursday. A pricing formula that prioritizes any factor other than interference “will lead to distorted auction results and an inefficient reallocation of spectrum,” said EOBC. The FCC shouldn't delay the auction, EOBC said. “Given the many years that it will take to complete the auction, the repacking of broadcast television stations, and the reallocation of spectrum, the Commission cannot afford to delay the auction any further, nor should it,” the filing said. The FCC also should abandon its plan to use dynamic reserve pricing because it will impair spectrum, EOBC said. “Using DRP to impair spectrum before putting it up for auction is like beating your car with a sledge hammer before taking the photo to sell it on Craigslist,” EOBC said. The commission should share information with broadcasters to encourage auction participation, said the filing: “It must also adopt small, predictable price decrements and intra-round bidding so that bidding activity most closely resembles the actual value that stations place on their spectrum.” The coalition Wednesday released a study it commissioned Kagan Media Appraisals to do which said the auction could raise as much as $80 billion (see 1502180061).

The ATSC formed a new “implementation team” for advanced emergency alerting as a "key element" of the next-gen ATSC 3.0 DTV standard, the group said Thursday. “Advanced emergency alerting promises to create new significant value for viewers, consumer electronics manufacturers, broadcasters and the public safety community," ATSC President Mark Richer said. "The addition of advanced emergency alerting capability and the accompanying rich-media warning information represents a compelling ATSC 3.0 application.” The implementation team, chaired by Jay Adrick, a technology adviser to Gates Air, won't develop standards or recommended practices, but may make recommendations to ATSC and other standards development organizations "as appropriate," the group said.

NAB made available an online compilation of market-by-market data released by the FCC on opening bids and payouts to broadcasters participating in the incentive auction. The compilation also looks at the number of volunteer stations the FCC may need to participate in each market to repurpose targeted amounts of spectrum. The Association of Public Television Stations, meanwhile, is making available to APTS members an updated model channel sharing agreement (see 1502170062).

NBCUniversal launched a TV Everywhere initiative, which lets consumers in markets with NBC-owned TV stations access NBC's live programming and VOD content in and out of their homes on multiple devices, including computers, smartphones or tablets, NBC Owned Television Stations said in a news release Wednesday. To access a full live stream of a local NBC-owned station, customers for example can go to nbcnewyork.com or download a station's app and select "Watch Live TV Now," it said. Customers can download the NBC app or go to nbc.com. Live NBC programming is available through 10 NBC-owned stations, including KNBC Los Angeles, KNSD San Diego, WCAU Philadelphia, WMAQ-TV Chicago, WNBC New York and WRC-TV Washington. NBC affiliates will launch throughout the year, it said.

The FCC Media Bureau's LPTV Learn webinar was rescheduled for Feb. 24 at 2 p.m., the commission said in a public notice Wednesday. The webinar was canceled due to inclement weather Tuesday. The bureau will cover the impact of the incentive auction and repacking on LPTV and TV translator stations, it said.

Consumer groups Cerebral Palsy and Deaf Organization, Deaf Seniors of America, National Association of the Deaf, and Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI) repeatedly asked the FCC to require religious programming to comply with closed captioning requirements. The consumer groups filed several oppositions and one comment at the FCC in docket 06-181 Feb. 13. The groups said the commission should grant only limited, and not open-ended, exemptions because of “the evolution of technology, potential drops in the cost of captioning over time and the possibility that the financial status of a petitioner may change." The commission should deny the petitions by Faith at Work Ministry, Father Cedric Ministries (FCM), Lima Baptist Temple, Van Buren First Assembly of God and Victory Assembly Church of Beaumont because they failed to show that captioning their programming would be “economically burdensome,” TDI said. Programmers’ captioning costs can be covered by their excess net income, TDI said. FCM, petitioning to exempt its show Live With Passion! from closed captioning, didn’t provide the commission with a full record of its financial resources, TDI said. “The limited financial records FCM has provided show that captioning its broadcasts would not be economically burdensome,” it said. TDI called FCM’s solution of not captioning old episodes it rebroadcasts inadequate. Victory Assembly Church of Beaumont failed to provide the commission with financial documents, TDI said. The commission should dismiss Van Buren’s petition because it received a three-year waiver, TDI said. The groups don’t oppose Kellogg Street Production’s request for a temporary waiver through the end of 2015 because it demonstrated that captioning would be economically burdensome and it’s stopping production in 2015, TDI said. But if KSP resumes programming, it needs to comply with captioning rules, TDI said. Comments and oppositions on exemptions from closed captioning requirements are due March 16 see 1502120025).

The FCC Media Bureau Video Division approved WLAJ-TV Lansing, Michigan's request to substitute Channel 25 for Channel 51, the bureau said in an order Friday in docket 15-2. The substitution will eliminate potential interference with wireless operations in the adjacent lower 700 MHz A-block, which includes the Detroit-Ann Arbor-Flint and Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland markets, WLAJ's self-named licensee said. WLAJ must electronically submit a minor change application for a construction permit with Form 2100, Schedule A within 30 days, the bureau said.

The FCC Media Bureau fined NPG of Idaho, licensee of KIFI-TV Idaho Falls, $6,000 for failing to file children’s TV programming reports in a timely manner for five quarters, the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability Thursday. KIFI failed to report late filings in its renewal application, the bureau said. A commercial TV licensee is required to file reports “reflecting the efforts that it made during that quarter to serve the educational and informational needs of children” in public inspection files for each calendar quarter, the bureau said. Payment is due within 30 days, the bureau said. NPG didn’t comment.