Broadcasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that haven’t been able to resume broadcasting have six additional months to rebuild, from Sept. 6 until March 6, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Thursday. The one-year anniversary of the storms is approaching, and a year of silence can ordinarily cause a station to lose its license. The “catastrophic nature” of the 2017 storms and power loss in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “warrants consideration of equity and fairness,” the PN said. Stations currently silent because of storm damage that won’t be able to resume broadcasting by the 12-month mark should file requests for special temporary authority and provide a projected date before March 6 by which the station will be operating, it said. “Delineate the specific factors preventing the station’s resumption of broadcast operations prior to the one-year mark.” Staff said they won't “entertain requests to extend or reinstate an expired license from licensees that have not filed a Silent STA Request prior to the end of their twelve full months of silence.”

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $6,000 fine for Malibu low-power licensee Zuma Beach FM Emergency and Community Broadcasters but rejected a petition of reconsideration filed against its grant of a permit to modify Zuma’s facilities, said an order and notice of apparent liability in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The proposed forfeiture is based on Zuma’s broadcasting on an incorrect frequency while it was building new facilities. “Zuma operated for about a month with power levels and on a channel that were specified in its construction permit but not in its existing license,” the NAL said. Zuma operated at incorrect power levels during a wildfire emergency, and not at the request of public safety officials, the NAL said. Nearby radio licensee Future Roots argued the bureau incorrectly granted Zuma’s construction permit, but the bureau disagreed. Zuma didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau granted a request from Border Media Licenses for a declaratory ruling, letting it buy WRGR(FM) Tupper Lake, New York, said an order in docket 18-66 listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. BML is 100 percent owned by residents of the U.K. and Poland and its petition and license transfer application were unopposed, the order added. “It will serve the public interest to grant the Petition.”

Beasley Media doesn’t support an FCC proposal to limit interference complaints by full-power FM stations against FM translator stations outside the full-power’s 54 dBu contour, said CEO Caroline Beasley in an Aug. 21 meeting with Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner, recounted a filing posted Monday in docket 18-119. Significant listening occurs outside an average FM station's 54 dBu contour, the broadcaster said. Beasley supports the other proposals in the FM translator interference NPRM.

Phase one of the post-incentive auction repack starts Sept. 14, the Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau reminded broadcasters in a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. The phase one testing period stretches until Nov. 30, with phase two starting Dec. 1. During their testing period, repacked broadcasters can begin broadcasting on their new frequencies for testing purposes, and commence operation on the new channel while ceasing broadcasting on their former channel, the PN said. “The purpose of the testing period is not for stations to simulcast signals to viewers on two channels.” Stations must file an application for a license within 10 days of “commencement of program test authority,” the PN said. Stations that need more time will need to file for special temporary authority, and can get a single 180-day extension of their construction permit, the PN said. Construction permit extensions must be filed 90 days before the end of a station’s phase, the PN said. Thirty days before ceasing operation on pre-auction channels, broadcasters must air “at least 60-seconds per day of on-air consumer education public service announcements (PSAs) or crawls” about the transition, the PN said. MVPDs must be notified 90 days ahead of time, the PN said.

Comments on the FCC’s proposals for directing reimbursement funds to low-power TV stations, translators and radio stations are due Sept. 26, according to a Federal Register notice for Monday. Replies are due Oct. 26. An accompanying order directing the Media Bureau to determine costs and engage a contractor to administer the reimbursement fund was also scheduled in the FR and to be effective Monday.

Comments on the state of competition in the audio programming market are due Sept. 24, and replies are due Oct. 9, the FCC said in a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest.

The FCC International Bureau granted a one-week extension request from GLR Southern California to allow more time for the company to respond to petitions to deny its application for a permit to deliver programs to foreign broadcast stations, said an order in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The deadline was originally Wednesday but was extended to Aug. 29, the order said. The petition to deny was filed by Chinese Sound of Oriental and West Heritage.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned alleged unlicensed radio operators in Miami and Miami Gardens, Florida, said Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Notices of violation went to Emerald Terrace, Kingsbridge Development, Ramash Realty, and Minnie Wilkerson and Louise Kimbrough and claim recipients own property from which pirate signals are transmitted.

Settlement agreements and technical amendments for mutually exclusive FM translator proposals filed in the FCC auction of translator construction permits from 2003 are due Sept. 5, the Media Bureau said in a public notice listed in Wednesday’s Daily Digest, when the settlement period began. The permits in Auction 83 were those with interference conflicts that couldn’t be resolved after a 2003 filing window (see 1801170031).