The FCC Enforcement Bureau wants Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin to compel broadcaster Arm & Rage, owned by former Tennessee state legislator Joseph Armstrong, to respond to questions about Armstrong’s criminal convictions (see 2203210047), said a motion posted in docket 22-122 Thursday. Armstrong was convicted in 2017 on charges he didn’t include a $330,000 profit on his 2008 tax filings, money that he generated by buying cigarette tax stamps and selling them after the state increased the tax rate in a bill he voted for. “The requested information is irrelevant and outside the scope of the Hearing Designation Order,” said Arm & Rage in a response to the bureau. The broadcaster “is not entitled to unilaterally restrict the scope of this proceeding,” the bureau said. “To develop the record on this critical question, the Bureau must be allowed to delve into the circumstances that led to Mr. Armstrong’s conviction.”

Broadcaster Snake River Radio was “premature” in requesting that Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin set aside allegations that Snake River’s license for KPCQ(AM) Chubbuck, Idaho, expired after it was silent for over a year, said an FCC order posted in docket 22-53 Thursday. Snake River maintained the station wasn’t silent for that long and the Enforcement Bureau’s perception that it was is due to “a misstatement by counsel.” Snake River gathered evidence to demonstrate the station was operating at the time, but Halprin ruled in Thursday’s order that such arguments should be made as part of the larger case. “Inherent in the notion of a full hearing is providing the Enforcement Bureau an opportunity to examine documentation, interview witnesses, and generally investigate Snake River’s claims,” Halprin said.

The FCC should reject requests by public interest groups for an extension and additional information (see 2205130072) on the Standard/Tegna deal, said Tegna and Standard General in a joint opposition filing posted in docket 22-162 Wednesday. With “absolutely no supporting precedent or facts, Movants now second-guess the Media Bureau’s expert review and assessment of the completeness of the applications,” said the filing. Public Knowledge and Common Cause have made similar requests for retransmission consent contract data during prior transactions and were rejected by the FCC, Standard and Tegna said. “The vehicle for them to raise their concerns is a petition to deny or comments,” said the broadcasters. Tegna and Standard didn’t respond to suggestions by the groups that the deal is structured to trigger after-acquired clauses in purchased stations or that it could lead to Apollo having an attributable level of control over the final entity. “Applicants are reserving their responses to Movants’ unsupported allegations regarding the proposed transactions unless and until such time as they are raised in a properly supported petition,” the broadcasters said.

NPR and NAB want the FCC to grant a two-week extension to the comments deadline on the geotargeted radio test data from GeoBroadcast Solutions because of misfiled documents, said a joint request filed Wednesday in docket 20-401. Comments are currently due June 6 and replies June 21; the extension would push them to June 20 and July 5. Both NPR and NAB have been critical of the GBS proposal to change the FCC rules for FM boosters to allow use of the geotargeting tech. The broadcasters said they need more time for comments in part because “certain critical information was either missing or misplaced in the Commission’s records for both applications for experimental authority to conduct the tests.” “We have found that GBS made numerous requests for technical facilities using inconsistent labeling and technical parameters that have complicated our engineers’ review,” NAB and NPR said. Both stations involved in the testing received multiple extensions of agency deadlines, the filing said. “Fairness dictates allowing stakeholders the requested additional time,” NPR and NAB said. The test reports that are the focus of the proceeding have been publicly available in ECFS since they were filed, an FCC spokesperson emailed us in response to a request for comment on the NAB and NPR filing. Requests for experimental authorization are difficult to find while the agency is transitioning from the consolidated database system to the license management system, and Media Bureau staff helped NAB staff locate those, the spokesperson said. GBS didn’t comment.

Comments are due July 11, replies July 26, on Spottswood Partners’ request for the allotment of FM Channel 265C3 at Big Coppitt Key, Florida, said a public notice Wednesday. The channel would be the community’s first local FM station, the PN said.

NAB President Curtis LeGeyt urged lawmakers to address “the monopolistic power” of “tech giants,” in a column in The Hill Monday supporting the proposed Journalism Competition and Protection Act. “The economic foundation of local journalism is under assault,” LeGeyt said. The bill would allow an exemption from antitrust rules to let news organizations collectively negotiate with tech platforms over rights to their content. “News outlets have almost no leverage when dealing with tech giants regarding the terms for how online content is compensated or displayed on these platforms,” LeGeyt said. Tech platforms “can place a fact-checked story from a reputable news outlet next to flashy clickbait” or “set a minimum content length that exceeds a typical news segment before a video receives compensation,” LeGeyt said. The bill would “create a fair deal” to “benefit news consumers,” LeGeyt said. Meta and Alphabet didn’t comment.

The full FCC rejected Chinese Voice of Golden City’s latest arguments about its low-power FM license, said an order on review Tuesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in December denied Golden City’s appeal over allegations it was broadcasting from an unauthorized location (see 2111300058). Golden City argued an Enforcement Bureau April 2021 letter of inquiry on whether it was still broadcasting after its license expired in 2018 was outside the agency’s authority while it’s D.C. Circuit case was ongoing. “We reject CVGC’s argument that its pending appeal of its license expiration stripped the Commission of its jurisdiction in this enforcement matter regarding post-expiration conduct.” the order said. “Merely filing an administrative or judicial appeal of a decision finding that a license expired” doesn’t “work automatically to extend or reinstate the license,” the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a request by Scripps Broadcasting to change KBZK Bozeman, Montana’s channel from 13 to 27, said an order in docket 22-114 Tuesday.

The American Militia Association seeks permission to intervene in the hearing proceeding for the license of Pennsylvania broadcaster Roger Wahl (see 2204290073), said a motion posted in docket Tuesday. “WQZS is not the only community radio station in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania and County of Somerset, contrary to statements made by the licensee in its representations to the public,” said AMA, which operates a station and has a construction permit in the same market. “Allowing Roger Wahl and his licensed station WQZS to violate such rules and standards would be unfair to the Petitioner and the impacted community,” AMA said. “This motion to intervene is the only remaining appropriate avenue now in order to offer its evidence against Wahl.”

Efforts to update broadcasting protections for the digital age made little progress at last week's meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), broadcasters told us. "There was no significant movement ... and certainly not a leap forward as broadcasters had hoped for," emailed Erica Redler, North American Broadcasters Association legal adviser. The World Broadcasting Unions' wish list was for the SCCR to commit to finalizing a draft treaty suitable to become a basic proposal for a diplomatic conference by year's end, and for it to ask WIPO to convene such a conference in 2023. Broadcasters "did not expect that there could be consensus on a new draft" at the May 9-13 hybrid meeting, so they asked for a second meeting this year, Redler said. "To help ensure clarity and common understanding" on its scope, the U.K. "proposed a further, focused technical discussion, enabling all member states the opportunity to feed into and develop the new draft text," emailed an Intellectual Property Office spokesperson. Signal theft costs millions in lost earnings every year, and protecting broadcasters and creators is an important issue for the U.K., he said. The committee "discussed whether to hold a special technical session dedicated to this agenda item before the end of 2022," but there was no consensus, said a summary by Chairman Aziz Dieng, of Senegal's Copyright Office. Governments were invited to send further comments, suggestions and questions by July 13, and the SCCR agreed to meet twice next year, it said. The last committee meeting, in July, had strong criticism from some member countries, observers and broadcasters over several issues (see 2107010001).