Data from NPR Labs shows GeoBroadcast Solutions’ ZoneCasting geotargeted radio tech “will cause so much disruption to radio reception that approximately 90% of listeners would almost immediately change the channel or turn off the radio,” said NAB in an ex parte filing posted in docket 20-401 Wednesday. GBS omitted that data in its submissions to the FCC, NAB said. “GBS’s omission in a proceeding designed in part to assess ZoneCasting’s efficacy is glaring," NAB said. "Fortunately for the FCC and the American public, NPR retained the data itself, and produced it for Commission review.” GBS’ testing of the technology has been inadequate, NAB said: “Given the importance of objective, reliable testing across a range of FCC proceedings, the FCC would be setting an alarming new precedent if it deems such insubstantial testing acceptable.” GBS sent a letter to NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt earlier this week to demonstrate industry support for the technology (see 2207200056). "We have been completely transparent with the FCC staff and Commissioners by addressing each and every concern that has been raised, through respected, highly credible and reputable industry experts in the fields of engineering and broadcasting, including the current chair of the FCC’s Technical Advisory Council," said a GBS spokesperson.

NAB’s opposition to geotargeted radio is “a retreat” from the trade group’s “ironclad commitment to broadcast deregulation,” said more than 50 broadcasters supporting the GeoBroadcast Solutions-backed proposal, in a letter this week to NAB CEO Curtis LeGeyt. “This will leave legislators and regulators confused and uncertain as to broadcasters’ commitment to deregulation. Worse, it gives broadcasters’ competitors and critics an opportunity to exploit the inconsistency to the detriment of our shared agenda of deregulation.” The letter's signatories, which include Roberts Radio, Evans Broadcasting and Wennes Communications, also took issue with NAB statements that geotargeted radio doesn’t have industry support. NAB “has mentioned on several occasions that the radio industry is unified in its opposition to geotargeting,” the letter said. “That’s not true, and this letter is intended to correct that misperception.” “NAB, state broadcaster associations from across the country and an overwhelming number of large and small radio broadcasters in a diverse range of markets have serious concerns with ZoneCasting technology,” an NAB spokesperson emailed. Geotargeted radio "would have devastating consequences for the long-term viability of local radio," the spokesperson said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued several notices of illegal pirate radio broadcasting to addresses in New York last week, according to letters in Monday’s Daily Digest. Letters were sent to Jean Yvon Francois and Elcie Francois-Lapomarede in Brooklyn, Michelle Hepburn in Mount Vernon, the Rachel Bridge Corp. in New York City, Paul Wilfrid in Cambria Heights, and 2062 Holding Corp. in the Bronx, warning of possible forfeitures of over $2 million for “entities found to willfully and knowingly suffer (i.e., permit) a third party” to make unauthorized broadcasts on their property. The subjects of the letters have 10 days to respond to the agency, the letters said.

The FCC Media Bureau rejected Centro Familiar de Restauracion y Vida’s application for a noncommercial educational constriction permit in Chaparral, New Mexico, and request for a waiver, said an order in Monday’s Daily Digest. Centro sought a waiver of the agency’s policy of granting only one application per group of mutually exclusive applications in CP auctions. “Centro fails to explain how the public interest would be served by granting the Waiver Request,” said the order.

FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin denied a request from broadcaster Arm & Rage to enlarge the issues in its license proceeding (see 2206170063) to include questions on whether the revocation for character reasons of the license for WJBE (AM) Powell, Tennessee, would violate the First Amendment, said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. The character requirement, “has been upheld by the District of Columbia Circuit as a rational means to evaluate whether someone possesses the requisite character to hold an FCC license,” said the order. Arm & Rage hasn’t been treated in a discriminatory manner, and “it is the Commission’s usual practice to initiate a hearing proceeding when a licensee has been convicted of a felony,” the order said. Arm & Rage's Joseph Armstrong was convicted of making a false statement on a 2008 tax form.

Former NAB President Gordon Smith, the ex-Republican senator from Oregon, was among eight self-described “political conservatives” signing their names to a report Thursday on the results of their investigation that they say debunks “every claim of fraud and miscount put forward” by former President Donald Trump and his advocates about the 2020 election. “Our conclusion is unequivocal: Joe Biden was the choice of a majority of the Electors, who themselves were the choice of the majority of voters in their states,” said the 72-page report, titled "Lost, Not Stolen: The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election." Trump and his supporters have failed to present evidence of fraud “on the magnitude necessary to shift the result in any state, let alone the nation as a whole,” it said. “In fact, there was no fraud that changed the outcome in even a single precinct. It is wrong, and bad for our country, for people to propagate baseless claims that President Biden’s election was not legitimate.” The eight, including three retired appeals court judges, urged “our fellow conservatives to cease obsessing over the results of the 2020 election.” Trump’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Forty-nine state broadcast associations and the NAB targeted proposals to allow geotargeted radio. In a letter to all four FCC commissioners posted in docket 20-401 Wednesday, the state groups said they represent “nearly the entire universe of radio stations in every state and territory in the United States,” and repeated concerns the tech would create difficulties for emergency alerting and reduce ad rates for all radio stations: “We urge the Commission to heed the expertise of the radio industry, which has expressed deep concern over the pending proposal.” In a meeting Friday with Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer, NAB was critical of the tests performed by geotargeting proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions, which developed booster technology to enable the targeted broadcasts. The tests were “woefully inadequate” and the data obtained was insufficient, NAB said. “ Given the extremely limited, unique nature of this sample, the data that GBS produced is simply not applicable to the vast majority of the zone regions created by the ZoneCasting boosters,” NAB said. “It is simply unreasonable for GBS to claim that its testing of ZoneCasting in a few tiny areas offers any worthwhile information about ZoneCasting’s impact on signal quality over the much larger area that a zone encompasses.” "The NAB got its affiliated State groups to sign a letter that perpetuates the same falsehoods that NAB keeps peddling to allow small broadcasters to compete against the largest group owners which dominate the NAB," said GBS spokesperson. "We are content with letting the market decide if geo-targeting is good for radio; NAB thinks it and the largest station owners should make that decision and dictate it to the rest of the industry."

The FCC Media Bureau extended to Aug. 1 the deadline for reply filings in the Standard/Tegna merger proceeding over the companies’ objections (see 2207120054), said an order in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Replies were due July 18. The extension was requested by the NewsGuild and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors of the Communications Workers of America and other transaction opponents due to the short time frame for replies, the complex proceeding, and a medical issue involving the unions’ attorney. The broadcasters said none of those reasons merited an extension, and the opposition parties had already been granted an extension in the proceeding (see 2205130072). “Applicants’ interest in expediting this proceeding does not outweigh the public interest considerations supporting a two-week extension,” said the Media Bureau. “The public interest is served by having as complete a record as possible before final consideration of the applications.” The extension applies to all entities that have petitions and comments on file, and parties are allowed to raise new issues in the reply cycle, the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau rescinded its tentative selection of New Beginnings Movement to receive a construction permit for a new noncommercial educational (NCE) FM station in Indiana after determining that the population data submitted by New Beginnings was erroneous, said a letter in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. In its place, the Media Bureau chose the World Federation of Pastors and Ministers of the Full Gospel to receive the tentative selection, the letter said. World Federation also initially submitted incorrect population data but later amended it, the letter said.

The FCC shouldn’t grant an extension request for reply filings in the Standard/Tegna proceeding, said Standard General, Tegna and Cox Media Group in a joint filing posted Tuesday. The request, from the NewsGuild and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians sectors of the Communications Workers of America, plus Common Cause and the United Church of Christ Media Justice Ministry, is for a two-week extension. A 30-day extension was granted earlier in the proceeding. “The Movants’ serial extension requests make clear that they merely seek to delay this proceeding,” said the broadcasters. Granting the motion would bring the length of time between the application filing and the reply deadline to “nearly double the historical average,” said the broadcasters. The anti-consolidation groups seek the extension due to the complexity of the matter, the difficulty of accessing protected information, the short number of business days in the filing period, and “unavoidable medical treatments” required by Andrew Schwartzman, counsel for the two unions. Schwartzman is also senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. None of those reasons is acceptable grounds for further delay, the broadcasters said. “The Motion itself is indicative that Petitioners are pooling resources in this proceeding,” said Tegna, Standard General, and CMG. “The requested extension is therefore not justified by a single lawyer’s need for an out-patient medical procedure.”