The FCC chose the Southern California Tribal Chairmen’s Association, a consortium of tribal chairmen of several Southern California Native American tribes, as the tentative selectee for a noncommercial educational FM construction permit for Warner Springs, California, using rules that prioritize tribal applications, said an order Tuesday. The agency granted SCTCA a waiver of requirements that at least 50% of the station’s contour be composed of the applicant’s tribal lands, the order said. SCTCA told the FCC none of the 30 tribal reservations in San Diego and Riverside counties could meet the agency’s tribal population requirements “owing to ‘small size and native population dilution within surrounding areas.’” It “would be extremely difficult for a Tribe or Tribal consortium to claim a Tribal Priority in this area without a waiver of the Tribal Coverage criterion,” the order said.

The full FCC rejected an appeal by broadcaster Positive Hope of a Media Bureau decision reinstating an FM translator application in El Cajon, California, by Family Stations, said an order Tuesday. The Family Stations translator application had been initially rejected over interference concerns but was reinstated after the application was amended to account for a change in the FCC’s interference rules. Positive Hope applied for a translator permit that would conflict with the Family Stations translator. Positive Hope argued the Family Stations translator application would violate FCC agreements with Mexico, was filed late, and shouldn’t be considered under the new rules. The Media Bureau erred in its initial rejection of the application, and the agency has a “liberal amendment policy” for auction long-form applications, the FCC said. “Processing staff should have issued a deficiency letter and afforded Family an opportunity to correct the Translator Application rather than dismiss the application.” To correct the improper dismissal, the agency treated the Family proposal as pending, allowing it to be affected by the translator interference rule changes, the order said.

NAB completed construction on a new media production facility at its Washington, D.C., headquarters, it said in a news release Monday. The studio was built with donations of “critical equipment and studio design services” from numerous companies, including Vitec, Magis Media and Planar, the release said. The association “has a critical need for advanced audio and video production capabilities,” said NAB Executive Vice President-Industry Affairs April Carty-Sipp. The studio includes a 15-foot, curved, interactive video wall to be a backdrop for recordings, robotic cameras and an edit suite capable of 8K post-production. “NAB will use the studio to create national spots and branded educational content for its members,” the release said. “External organizations may rent the studio and its staff for original productions as well.”

The FCC Media Bureau wants additional comments on the GeoBroadcast Solutions geotargeted radio proposal, after tests of the company’s FM booster technology, said a public notice posted Monday in docket 20-401. NAB, which opposes the proposal, asked the FCC to close the proceeding’s docket, in a recent ex parte filing. As part of the experimental test authority the FCC granted to allow the tests, GBS provided detailed technical reports on the technology, information that wasn’t available to the public during the first round of comments in 2021, the PN said. The second comment cycle is “in light of these recent developments and to provide a complete record on developments since the completion of the commenting cycle in this matter,” the PN said. Comments will be due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 45 days after.

The 40-year-old National Translator Association has rebranded as the National Television Association, said the group Monday. “The change, while difficult, was due,” said Jack Mills, NTA president. “Our service goals are largely the same but binding these just to the mountain-top repeaters, or 'translators,' began to feel constraining.” NTA's name change “helps the organization to expand its advocacy, welcoming [low-power] LPTV and even possibly new technologies such as ATSC 3.0 broadcast services,” it said, calling translator an “archaic” word. NTA’s goal of “assuring universal access to free over-the-air television remains the same,” it said. The NTA’s annual meeting is May 19-22 in Phoenix.

Comments are due May 16, replies May 31, in docket 22-146 on Gray Television’s channel substitution request for WMC-TV Memphis, said the Federal Register Thursday. Gray is seeking to change the station from Channel 5 to 30.

ATSC is taking its annual member meeting and NextGen Broadcast Conference “on the road” for a June 7-9 run at the Westin Book Cadillac in Detroit, said President Madeleine Noland Wednesday. The event customarily is held late May in Washington’s Reagan Building. This year’s conference will feature a private-access “strolling dinner” reception June 8 at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, she said. The in-person conference will also have a virtual component, as did last year's when it was rescheduled in late August, said organizers. Michigan has three markets on the air with ATSC 3.0 services, they said -- Detroit, East Lansing and Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo.

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on a pair of channel substitutions, said two NPRMs Wednesday. In docket 22-150, Maine Public Broadcasting is seeking to switch WCBB Augusta from Channel 10 to 20, and in docket 22-151 WVEC Television wants to switch WVEC Hampton, Virginia, from 11 to 35. Comments on both will be due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies 45.

The FCC should “deepen and broaden” its inquiry into how changes to the kidvid rules affect the accessibility of children’s programming, said Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and numerous other accessibility consumer groups in an ex parte meeting Friday with staff from the Media Bureau, Disability Rights Office and Governmental Affairs Bureau, per an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 18-202. The agency should act “not only to ensure that the children’s programming rules do not funnel programming to contexts where captioning and description are not required,” but also to “ensure more generally that all children’s programming is accessible.” With video programming converging, “drawing distinctions in the application of accessibility rules on the basis of antiquated technical distinctions” is “not a tenable long-term strategy,” said the groups, which included the National Association of the Deaf, the Hearing Loss Association of America and the Technology Access Program at Gallaudet University.

The FCC should let ATSC 3.0 “substantially similar” requirements sunset July 17, 2023, as is currently scheduled, said Pearl TV representatives, including Managing Director Anne Schelle, in a call Thursday with an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington, according to an ex parte filing in docket 16-142. Markets that are further along in 3.0 deployments than others, such as Phoenix and Detroit, “should not be artificially constrained from offering new, beneficial programming,” said Pearl. “Broadcasters have every public interest and economic incentive to continue to provide their programming in ATSC 1.0 to their audiences who still have ATSC 1.0 sets,” said Pearl. “The ‘substantially similar’ requirement is not driving that decision today, and the sunset of the requirement will not change those incentives.” Getting rid of the requirement would let broadcasters run a demonstration channel of 3.0 programming to be a “barker” to attract new viewers, Pearl said. “Pearl understands that the Commission will consider the issue of the sunset more fully later this year, and urges it to keep these points in mind at that time,” the filing said.