ATSC 3.0 continued to “gain momentum” in 2021, with dozens of U.S. cities launching NextGenTV services, blogged ATSC President Madeleine Noland Monday. She estimated nearly 200 3.0 channels are available in more than 40 cities, supported by 70 compliant TV models from LG, Samsung and Sony: “Broadcasters are taking full advantage of this momentum, offering services with better video quality, enhanced dialog control with Voice+, interactive applications and more, while promoting new services.”

Comments on FCC-proposed changes to ATSC 3.0 multicast rules (see 2111050049) are due Feb. 11 in docket 16-142, replies March 14, said a public notice Monday. Broadcast industry officials said the changes to the multicast hosting rules would make it easier for the transition, but MVPD groups said the changes could have implications for ownership and attribution rules (see 2105280035).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $20,000 forfeiture against Beasley Media over a radio show transmitting unauthorized emergency alert system tones, said a notice of apparent liability Friday. The tones aired in September 2020 during a programming block paid for by the Doug Basham Radio Show on KDWN(AM) Las Vegas, and were broadcast by Basham as a “stunt,” the NAL said. A subchannel of Beasley’s, KKLZ(FM) Las Vegas, and Beasley FM translator K268CS Las Vegas, retransmitted the signal, airing the tones as well. A Beasley employee confronted Basham “immediately” after the tones aired and notified KWDN’s program director, the NAL said. The bureau adjusted the proposed violation upward because of the rebroadcasts and the large market involved. Beasley didn’t comment.

A status conference is Jan. 13 on the license of a Pennsylvania broadcaster convicted of attempting to have a woman raped, said an order Friday. The license revocation hearing proceeding on Roger Wahl, licensee of WQZS(FM) Meyersdale, Pennsylvania, had been terminated due to a lack of response from Wahl (see 2112020025). That termination was rescinded after FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin learned Wahl had attempted to respond by the deadline. Halprin also ruled that Wahl’s daughter, Wendy Sipple, can’t file as an intervenor. Wahl originally sought to transfer the station to Sipple, which the bureau initially granted and then rescinded in July 2020. Licenses can’t be transferred until questions about the existing licensee’s qualifications are resolved, Halprin wrote. “It does not follow that being a party to the assignment application, by itself, makes Ms. Sipple a party in interest to this revocation proceeding.” Wahl and WQZS didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau withdrew a notice of apparent liability for Seaview Communications’ WPEX(FM) Kenbridge, Virginia, because the station’s license was canceled, said an order Friday. WPEX faced a possible $15,000 forfeiture over public file violations, but the bureau also received information that WPEX had been silent or operating on unauthorized facilities for over 12 months. WPEX didn’t respond to a bureau letter on the matter, and its license was subsequently canceled.

The FCC Media Bureau denied a request to stay the foreign-sponsored content rules from NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multimedia, Telecom and Internet Council, said an order posted Wednesday. The groups jointly filed their initial brief in a legal challenge of the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday (see 2112080047). Claims that the rules are overbroad and focus on the wrong entities “do not withstand scrutiny, and largely simply repeat issues raised, considered, and rejected, during the rulemaking proceeding,” the bureau said. Broadcaster arguments that the FCC didn’t establish that foreign agents leasing broadcast content is an existing problem are illogical, staff said: “There is no requirement that the American public suffer some requisite amount of harm before regulatory intervention is justified.” The broadcasters overstated the possible harms of the rules, the bureau said: “Requirements adopted in the Order are a reasonable extension of licensees’ existing obligations and should not require an overhaul in how licensees operate nor impose undue costs.”

The FCC Media Bureau granted CXR Radio Station Trust a divestiture deadline extension of 60 days rather than the year it requested, said a letter to CXR posted in docket 19-98 Wednesday. CXR’s deadline to divest two FM stations connected with the Terrier/Cox deal is now Feb. 15 (see 2112060044). “We do not find persuasive the justification that market conditions made it appropriate for CXR to wait until early 2022 to begin a meaningful marketing process for the sale of the Stations,” said the order. CXR’s decision to delay "any meaningful efforts to market the Stations to prospective purchasers is contrary to its express commitment," the bureau said. CXR “was granted two years to come into compliance with the Local Radio Ownership Rule,” but “no marketing efforts to sell the Stations have been initiated, until recently,” the order said. CXR didn’t comment Thursday.

Requiring broadcaster disclosures for foreign-sponsored content “attacks a problem that does not exist, and does so with a bludgeon,” said NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in a brief filed in docket 21-1171 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday. The broadcast groups want the court to reject the FCC requirement for being too broad, and violating the Communications Act and the First Amendment. The order, approved in April, requires broadcasters to check entities against the Foreign Agents Registration Act and FCC databases on foreign agents before signing sponsored content leasing agreements with them. If the party is in the databases, the broadcasters must air disclosures that the content comes from a foreign agent. The vast majority of broadcast content lease agreements are with local and domestic entities, and the databases are vast and complicated to search, the broadcasters told the D.C. Circuit. The “enormous waste of resources” spent investigating domestic entities “that pose an infinitesimal risk” of being undisclosed foreign agents “burdens far more speech than warranted to serve the putative government interest.” It's unlikely a foreign entity seeking to hide its affiliation would register with FARA, the broadcasters said. “This non-existent problem cannot justify imposing onerous investigative burdens on every single lease, for any amount of airtime, entered into by thousands of local radio and television stations.” The FCC could have required stations to investigate only when there’s reason to believe a lessor is affiliated with a foreign government or when the programming addresses “matters of public controversy,” the filing said.

Liberman Media Group is a potential buyer for CXR Radio Station Trust’s stations and the FCC should grant CXR’s requested extension (see 2112060044), LMG said in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 19-98. “Any effort to cut short this process will deny us a chance to fully evaluate the opportunity, conduct our due diligence, and review and negotiate an offer.” Denying additional time is “both unfair and inconsistent with Commission policy,” LMG said.

CXR Radio Station Trust anticipates being able to sell the two stations it holds in the first half of 2022, it told FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey in a call last week, per a filing posted in docket 19-98 Monday. The stations were to be divested by Dec. 17 as part of the Terrier/Cox deal; CXR recently sought delay (see 2111230057). “Given the uncertainty of the current times, CXR initially requested the year’s extension,” the filing said. CXR wants the extra time to establish an online “dataroom” for prospective bidders, allow them to review the information and radio market, and conduct a bidding process, the filing said. “A rushed process with a very short deadline will undermine the ability of interested parties to meaningfully participate in the process,” and disproportionately discourage smaller buyers, it said.