The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned of possible forfeitures of up to $2 million each for owners of properties used for broadcasting pirate radio stations, said four enforcement bureau letters released Wednesday. The letters went to Kent and Deanna Coppinger in Summerville, Oregon; Edwin and Joyce Pitt in Baltimore; Maria Hernandez in Kissimmee, Florida; and Richard Manson in Philadelphia. The recipients have 10 days to respond to the letters with evidence that they are no longer permitting pirate radio on their property, the letters said. “In addition, we request that you identify the individual(s) engaged in pirate radio broadcasting on the property that you own or manage,” the letters said. "As operators may be hard to identify, the ability to seek penalties against landlords, who are readily identifiable from local land records, gives the FCC a much stronger tool with which to combat pirate radio operators," wrote Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Thursday.

Comments are due June 6, replies June 21, in docket 20-401 on proposed changes to FCC booster rules to allow for geo-targeted radio, said a public notice Thursday. The FCC released the proposal for additional comment after receiving testing results from proponents GeoBroadcast Solutions (see 2204180046).

The Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the U.S. Telecommunications Services Sector is reviewing Standard General’s $8.6 billion proposed buy of Tegna and the related foreign ownership request, said a DOJ letter posted in docket 22-166 Wednesday (see 2204220062). “The Commission will be notified when the Chair has determined that responses to the Committee’s initial request for information are complete and the 120-day initial review period can begin,” the letter said.

A Pennsylvania broadcaster convicted of attempting to have a woman raped hasn’t been responsive to Enforcement Bureau requests or orders from Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin in his station’s license hearing proceeding (see 2203100075), said an order posted Friday in docket 21-401. Wahl faces the possibility of license revocation but “when ordered by the Presiding Judge to do something as simple as forward an email that he had already sent, he did nothing,” said the order. “This proceeding will not continue on this trajectory.” Wahl hasn't replied to several communications from the Enforcement Bureau, uploaded the responses he did provide to the electronic comment filing system, or sufficiently responded to the agency’s questions, the order said. “Cognizant that the Commission’s procedures can be confusing for a non-attorney, the Presiding Judge has endeavored to be as clear as possible in informing Mr. Wahl of his obligations,” said the order, which contains detailed instructions from the judge on what sort of responses are required from Wahl. Wahl will get a final chance to upload and email the required documents by May 6, and provide more fulsome answers by May 25, the order said. “Any additional failure to satisfy a deadline or follow an order of the Presiding Judge could provide a basis for dismissal of this proceeding, which, in turn, will lead to revocation of his FCC license.” Wahl didn't comment.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America wants the FCC to designate the license of a Reston, Virginia, translator for hearing over the station’s broadcasting of content from Russian-sponsored news channel Radio Sputnik, said a petition filed Thursday. The Ukrainian American citizens’ group filed two previous petitions targeting stations owned by Arthur and Yvonne Liu (see 2204060070). The translator, owned by retired Womble Bond broadcast attorney John Garziglia, rebroadcasts the signal from the Lius’ station WZHF(AM) Columbia Heights, Maryland. “By broadcasting paid Russian propaganda, Garziglia is aiding and abetting Russia’s continuing war crimes in Ukraine,” said the petition. “It is unlikely that torture, mass murder or the rape of children troubles Garziglia’s sleep. No doubt, he falls asleep counting the money Russia pays him to broadcast its agitprop.” First Amendment and broadcast attorneys told us it's unlikely the FCC would revoke the license of a station over its content (see 2203230054). The petition also asks the FCC to investigate whether Garziglia is evading sanctions against Russia to continue collecting money for the broadcasts. “If Garziglia is working with the Russian government to evade the sanctions, it is not only against the law, but for the purposes of this petition, raises serious questions as to his character qualification as an FCC licensee,” the petition said. Garziglia didn’t comment on this petition, but after NAB urged broadcasters to cease airing Russian-sponsored content in March, he said blocking his broadcast would violate the First Amendment and the station had value because it communicates the Russian point of view.

Gray Television’s Tallahassee ATSC 3.0 station is using Pearl TV’s Run3TV app, not Sinclair’s open-source broadcast application (see 2204260057)

The NAB Show 2022 drew 52,468 registered attendees, according to a preliminary NAB estimate Wednesday, the Las Vegas event's final day. That figure is in line with NAB's pre-show estimated attendance of about 50,000. "All numbers are based on pre-show and onsite registration and subject to an ongoing audit," said NAB. It estimated nearly 11,600 attendees came from outside the U.S., from 155 countries. NAB 2023 will be in Las Vegas April 15-19, said the association. The last in-person NAB Show, in 2019, had 91,460 registered attendees.

Many of the remaining filing types left out of the FCC’s transition from the consolidated database system (CDBS) to the licensing and management system (LMS) earlier this year (see 2201110077) will be moved by mid-May, said FCC Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner on a panel at the 2022 NAB Show in Las Vegas Monday. A public notice announcing the transition is expected in the next few weeks, said Shuldiner, speaking via teleconference. Shuldiner also said similar work on the system used for reserving station call letters will be resolved toward the end of June or the start of July. The transition's final phase will involve forms for AM radio, he said. Communications attorneys should verify client contact information in the LMS, said Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman, also speaking via teleconference. Kreisman said the Media Bureau regularly sees LMS listings for licensees that have incorrect contact information for companies and their attorneys, which slows the license renewal process.

Multiple stations are using Sinclair's open-source broadcast app and it's being used to offer ATSC 3.0 viewers interactive content, said Rob Folliard, Gray Television senior vice president-government relations and distribution, on an NAB Show panel Tuesday. Folliard said Florida stations are using the app, and So Vang, One Media vice president-emerging technology, said it's running on every Sinclair 3.0 station. When the app is in use, “essentially a browser appears on your TV set,” Folliard said. U.S. broadcasters are looking to Europe for use cases and applications that can be adapted to 3.0 from Europe’s hybrid broadcast broadband TV (HbbTV) internet television standard, said Francesco Moretti, CEO international for Italy-based Fincons Group. HbbTV has close similarities to 3.0 and its IP backbone, so systems built for the European standard can be made to work with 3.0 in just a few days, said Kerry Oslund, E.W. Scripps vice president-strategy and business development. The app also enables broadcasters to collect data on viewers and to create “flash channels” offering specialized or geotargeted information for consumers that choose to use them, said Vang. Such channels could be used to convey weather warnings to a small segment of a broadcaster’s market, or offer a secondary camera view of live sports, said several broadcasters. Interoperability between the app and MVPDs is still being tested, Folliard said.

Pearl TV Managing Director Anne Schelle expects the NextGenTV logo for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs to become “widely adopted,” she said on a prerecorded NAB Show video preview that debuted Monday on ATSC’s YouTube channel. “Once we get past 80% household penetration” on 3.0-compliant sets, “you’ll see some of the big-box retailers really jumping in” to promote and support the logo, Schelle told ATSC President Madeleine Noland in an interview on the video. “More and more consumers, with our advertising, are going in the store and they’re asking for NextGen. The more that happens, the more you’ll see the logo out there.” Schelle sees the industry “doubling down” on 3.0 marketing in 2022 and into 2023” she said. “It’s incredibly important that we get that message out there, to let consumers know. We need that consumer pull. That consumer pull drives retailers, talks to the TV manufacturers.” The industry needs to “get to scale as fast as we possibly can, because that then brings in the opportunities” for broadcasters' return on investment, said Schelle. “From there, I think you’ll see a lot of the activity around datacasting, which is a longer-term play, but it’s definitely a viable play,” she said. “We need to have a really successful television play in order to get to that datacasting play.”