An FCC proposal on equal employment opportunity reporting for broadcasters would collect data that the agency wouldn’t be able to use and increase paperwork burdens for broadcasters by reinstating Form 395-B, said NAB last week in a call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, according to an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 98-204. Starks has been a vocal proponent of the proposed rule (see Ref:2107260059]). U.S. Supreme Court decisions made it unlawful for the agency to use EEO data as a tool to increase diversity, NAB said. Since the FCC can't use the data to compel hiring practices, it isn't clear what purpose the data would serve, NAB said. A “hypothetical report (or reports) is not likely to add any more diversity to the industry,” NAB said. The trade group also questioned the proposed use of EEO data to create reports to Congress. The EEO further NPRM “does not address with any specificity” the purpose of the reports “and thus it is hard to envision how reinstating Form 395-B would be a fruitful exercise,” NAB said.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau are making a final allocation from the $2.75 billion broadcast incentive auction reimbursement fund and beginning site visits to verify reimbursement claims, said a public notice in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The move increases the allocation for each reimbursed entity from 92.5% of estimated repacking expenses to 100%. As of Feb.15, the reimbursement requests from broadcasters totaled $2.15 billion while the amount allocated up to then was $2.07 billion. “Thus, the final allocation we will now make amounts to approximately $85 million,” the PN said. 973 out of 987 full-power and Class A TV stations have transitioned to their permanent repacked facilities, with the remaining 14 operating on temporary facilities through special temporary authority, the PN said. The final allocation should allow the agency to streamline the close-out process for the reimbursement fund, the agency said. 753 broadcasters have begun the interim close-out process, and stations repacked in the latter phases of the transition must submit all invoices by March 22, the PN said. Doing site visits to “validate the existence and operational status of post-transition broadcast equipment” supports the FCC’s “responsibility as a prudent steward of taxpayer money,” the PN said. A randomly selected, “statistically valid sample” of reimbursed entities in the contiguous U.S will be visited, though others can be selected “based on specific facts or circumstances.” The visits will be conducted by a third-party contractor, last one or two days, and stations will be notified ahead of time, the PN said. “Site visits are expected to begin in March 2022 and continue throughout 2022.”

GeoBroadcast Solutions doubled down on arguments that iHeartMedia software that lets advertisers choose the iHeart markets in which their ads will air is functionally similar to GBS’ booster technology that allows radio broadcasts targeting a portion of a station’s market (see 2202090047). “A prominent feature of the two technologies is the same: to enable advertisers to reach their intended audience both contextually and geographically,” said a GBS filing posted Wednesday in docket 20-401. “Stakeholders representing minority-owned broadcasters and civil rights advocates” support a rule change to allow the GBS tech “to lower the barrier to entry for small businesses,” GBS said. IHeart’s software demonstrates that “geo-targeting is an attractive solution for advertisers,” GBS said. “The pending rule change should be adopted because it gives all radio broadcasters the opportunity to offer that capability.”

The FCC Media Bureau granted Dominion Broadcasting’s request to change the channel of WLMB Toledo from 5 to 35, said an order posted Tuesday in docket 21-73.

The FCC unanimously approved an order on updating radio technical rules that was on the agenda for the agency’s meeting Friday, according to the order’s text released in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The item was considered uncontroversial (see 2202160056) and the final version appears largely unchanged from the draft document. The order eliminates a restriction on AM transmitter power levels, harmonizes rules for radio stations on U.S. borders with treaty obligations, and gets rid of outdated interference rules that applied only to stations in Alaska. The order also clarifies the agency rules on determining community of license for new noncommercial educational stations, defines AM fill-in areas, and brings the interference rules for NCE Class D stations into line with the agency’s rules for other FM stations. A deletion notice for the item was released Thursday.

NAB blasted arguments against relaxing local radio ownership rules Wednesday in a lengthy ex parte filing targeting iHeartMedia, the Future of Music Coalition, the musicFIRST Coalition and others. Filings in quadrennial review docket 18-349 from the coalitions are “riddled with legal, economic, and factual errors,” and arguments from NAB members iHeart, Salem and others are “inaccurate” and “invalid,” said the NAB ex parte. The coalition filings inflate the importance of prior ownership rulings by the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and misinterpret the U.S. Supreme Court’s Prometheus decision as affirming the FCC’s authority to review broadcast ownership rules, NAB said. “Prometheus was decided solely under” the Administrative Procedure Act and didn’t reach the question of how the FCC should weigh diversity and competition in doing the quadrennial review, NAB said. It also attacked arguments from NAB member iHeartMedia against expanding FM ownership caps and on the definition of the radio advertising market. “Nor can the Coalitions,’ iHeart’s, and other commenters’ wish to treat terrestrial radio stations as sealed in their own separate market find support in the record,” NAB said. It also called arguments by iHeart that changes to the subcaps would threaten public safety “highly suspect.” The FCC should reject “unmeritorious claims” that relaxing local radio ownership caps isn’t beneficial to radio, NAB said. The FCC “has no valid legal, competitive, or factual basis for continuing to retain the existing analog-era radio ownership limits.” A Future of Music Coalition spokesperson said the group stands by its arguments against radio consolidation. "NAB is looking increasingly desperate with the latest round of attacks. It’s easy to see why: they’ve failed to establish anything close to consensus even among commercial broadcasters for their radical proposal to weaken local ownership caps." The musicFIRST Coalition, iHeartMedia and Salem didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau’s designation of numerous FM allotment channels in the commercial band as unreserved takes effect Thursday, said a notice for that day’s Federal Register. The channels had been reserved for noncommercial educational stations. The FM allotments are vacant due to the dismissal of an application or cancellation of a license, said the Media Bureau.

The FCC’s foreign-sponsored content disclosure rules impose “an open-ended duty of investigation” on broadcasters that would be “an exercise in futility,” said NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multimedia, Telecom and Internet Council in a brief filed Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in docket 21-1171. “It remains unclear how a broadcaster could ever determine the programming’s true source even if it identifies the lessee as a registered foreign agent,” the broadcast groups said. “Investigating government databases will not yield the information necessary to make that declaration.” The rules don’t include any provisions to counteract the harm the FCC is attempting to address -- foreign propaganda, the filing said. “The only possible harm that the Order’s investigation mandates could address is misrepresentation by foreign registrants of their status as sponsors of broadcast programming,” the broadcast groups said. “But that problem has never been known to occur.” Congress has expressly limited diligence that can be required of broadcasters to obtaining information from their own employees and those they directly deal with “and nothing more,” the filing said.

An email from a person claiming ownership interest in WQZS(FM) Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, to FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin could be a basis for additional allegations against licensee Roger Wahl (see 2112100056), Halprin said in an order in docket 21-401 Monday. The hearing proceeding over Wahl’s license could be “enlarged” if “further investigation indicates that Mr. Wahl has misrepresented the ownership status of WQZS to the Commission,” the order said. Halprin treated the email, from Julie Barth, as a petition to intervene in the case, which she denied. “Ms. Barth’s primary aim is to inform the Presiding Judge of her alleged ownership interest, with the ultimate goal of receiving proportional compensation if the station is sold,” the order said. Barth’s information doesn’t bear on whether Wahl’s criminal convictions render him unfit to be a licensee and “it is not within the authority of the Presiding Judge to address the validity of her financial claims against Mr. Wahl,” the order said.

Comments are due March 14, replies March 29, on Spanish Broadcasting System’s petition for declaratory ruling seeking FCC permission to be up 49.99 % foreign owned due to a litigation settlement, said a public notice Friday. The comments are to be filed in docket 22-61. Under the settlement, some investors -- including some foreign entities -- would receive a combination of cash and SBS stock, and could cause the company's aggregate foreign ownership to exceed the FCC’s 25% benchmark, the PN said.