Comments on Ocean State Television's petition seeking to move its WPXQ-TV Block Island, Rhode Island, to Newport as the community of license, giving Newport its first local full-power TV service, are due July 13, replies July 30, said a notice scheduled for Wednesday's Federal Register. Newport is a larger community than Block Island and this won’t involve changing station facilities, the NPRM said (see 1805150037).

An incubator program could help first-time station owners raise equity, said BIA Capital Strategies and BIA Advisory Services in a letter posted Tuesday in FCC docket 17-289. “Because there are serious obstacles for obtaining such financing, we support an FCC incubator program that would promote investment by established broadcasters in new entrants.” Lenders to broadcasting decreased, and investors already hesitant to back established broadcasters are unlikely to consider new station owners, BIA said. It’s ”difficult for even established broadcast owners” to get financing, it said. Earlier its analysis was used to make the case for a national 50 percent TV ownership cap (see 1806110058).

The FCC Enforcement Bureau rejected an unlicensed radio operator’s petition for reconsideration of his $15,000 forfeiture, said an order released Friday. The petition by Ivan Angeles, fined for operating a pirate station in Passaic, New Jersey, was filed late, and claimed he wasn’t notified of the notice of apparent liability against him. The bureau sent a copy of the NAL to Angeles’ last known address as required by the law, the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on Gray Television’s bid to be allowed to own two top-four stations in the same market, said a public notice in Friday's Daily Digest. The top-four showing concerns Gray’s proposed buy of South Dakota stations KDLT-TV Sioux Falls and satellite KDLV-TV Mitchell from Red River Broadcast. Since Gray already owns KSFY-TV Sioux Falls, and the stations are ranked second and third in the market, a top-four showing is necessary, the PN said. Petitions to deny are due July 9.

Comments on proposed changes to the way the FCC handles interference between FM translators and full-power FM stations are due July 6, replies Aug. 6, the Media Bureau said in a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. The NPRM in docket 18-119 seeks comment on setting a minimum number of listener complaints, setting a limit on how far from a station’s contour interference can occur, and relaxing relocation rules for translators (see 1805100057).

The FCC Media Bureau Audio Division dismissed and denied objections to 994 FM translator applications said a letter listed in Friday’s Daily Digest. The objections were raised by Prometheus Radio Project, the Center for International Media Action and Common Frequency. The groups have filed “an undated Informal Objection to virtually every FM translator application pending” since May, the letter said. The objections are based on the argument that the Local Community Radio Act requires the FCC to ensure that equal numbers of licenses are available for low-power FM, FM translators and FM boosters in all markets, and said the FCC hasn’t acted to ensure the availability of LPFM licenses in its recent series of FM translator windows. The objections are “overbroad” and don’t include enough factual basis, the division said. “We reject Objectors’ conclusion that equality of status as secondary services necessarily implies that the Commission must ensure that all remaining available spectrum in all markets is equally apportioned,” staff said. “The consistent application of our codified FM translator and LPFM licensing rules does not constitute ‘bias’ against LPFM applications,” they said. “It merely reflects the fact that the applications in these two services are not similarly situated.” A Prometheus appeal of translator siting rules that it also saw as a threat to LPFM also was recently rejected (see 1805220073).

The FCC should grant Ion, Trinity Christian Center and Univision permanent grandfathering “in the event of a change to the UHF discount or national ownership cap,” the TV broadcasters said, posted in docket 17-318 Friday. They built their groups “in reliance on the UHF discount” and permanent grandfathering would allow them to operate “with certainty,” they said. The FCC is considered likely to change both rules (see 1806050040) and uncertainty about the cap makes financing the broadcast groups “very difficult,” the letter said. The permanent grandfathering also needs to include “full transferability,” allowing the groups’ UHF stations to be counted at 50 percent reach for future owners as well, the broadcasters said. “Find a path forward that preserves the competitive gains and programming diversity made possible by the UHF Discount, regardless of how it resolves the national cap and UHF Discount questions.”

FCC staff deemed 27 applicants qualified to bid on 33 new FM translator construction permits in Auction 83 that starts June 21, said a public notice from the Wireless and Media bureaus Thursday. They include Bible Broadcasting Network, Big Broadcasting, Black Media Works, Carolina Radio Group, Clear Channel Broadcasting, Educational Media Foundation, the Pacifica Foundation, University of Northwestern-St. Paul and Vermont Public Radio.

On TV ownership caps, "the Commission should, in effect, maintain the status quo," NAB lobbied Chief Michelle Carey and others in the Media Bureau, the association reported, as posted Thursday in FCC docket 17-318. "If the Commission continues to employ a 39 percent national TV cap, it should determine compliance with it by accounting for all TV stations at 50 percent of their theoretical audience reach." That's because "the premise underlying the national audience reach cap" that stations reach all TV households in their markets "is a fiction," NAB representatives including General Counsel Rick Kaplan said. "NAB’s proposal to account for both UHF and VHF stations at half their theoretical audience reach still overstates their actual marketplace reach and therefore would be a conservative method of attributing stations under a 39 percent national cap." Broadcasters are split on how to address ownership limits, with a court seen likely to end the UHF discount and Sinclair proposing to buy Tribune (see 1806050040).

The FCC order rejecting Prometheus Radio Project’s appeal of relaxation of translator siting rules takes effect Tuesday, with publication in the Federal Register. Prometheus challenged the rule change as violating the Administrative Procedure Act (see 1805220073).