Comments on Italian-owned Anco Media’s FCC petition for declaratory ruling to buy Florida broadcaster Zoo Communications (see 1711290053) are due Jan. 18, replies Feb. 2, said a Media Bureau public notice Tuesday. An Anco owner, Marco Mazzoli, manages Zoo but doesn’t own an interest, said the petition.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai didn’t eliminate any possibilities for protecting from interference in the AM band, in a Dec. 6 reply letter to Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. The FCC may craft final rules on AM interference protection, seek comment on alternative proposals, or reject increasing such protections entirely, said Pai. Chabot wrote Pai in November with concerns that proposals on AM revitalization could interfere with Cincinnati-area radio stations.
The FCC Media Bureau approved reassigning WBIN-TV Derry, New Hampshire, from WBIN Inc. to Univision, it said in Monday's Daily Digest. Its sale was looked at as a potential test for how the FCC would handle "zombie" deals of stations that sold their spectrum at auction and then sought to sell the station itself to channel sharing partners (see 1708310037). The bureau dismissed as moot NCTA comments challenging the grant.
The FCC issued the text of the TV ownership cap NPRM, following 3-2 OK at Thursday's commissioners' meeting (see 1712140054). Comments are due 30 days after Federal Register publication, replies in another 30 days, said the rulemaking notice on docket 17-318.
Tegna agreed to buy San Diego TV and radio stations for $325 million cash from another broadcaster. The company said it agreed to buy from Midwest Television San Diego's KFMB-TV (CBS), KFMB (CW digital subchannel), and KFMB-AM-FM. The deal is expected to be completed in Q1.
Into Tomorrow radio broadcaster Dave Graveline spared few words in blasting CTA and CEO Gary Shapiro, as well as the viability of CES, for the fact that his company won’t have a broadcast booth on the show floor for the first time in 23 years. CTA wanted Into Tomorrow to pay $17,600 this year to build its broadcast “pavilion” in a secluded “alcove” of the Las Vegas Convention Center, but the company refused, blogged Graveline Friday. CTA at previous shows gave Graveline the space for next to nothing, he said, suggesting Shapiro was taking retribution for not having been interviewed often enough on Into Tomorrow: “It’s not all about you Gary Shapiro, it’s about your Exhibitors!” The association respects and appreciates "how Dave and his Into Tomorrow team have covered CES and other CTA events over the years," said spokesman Jeff Joseph in a statement Monday. "As a general rule, we do not pay our CES Media Partners or other broadcast outlets to cover our events, and as we communicated to Dave several months ago, following our 2018 show we can no longer justify continuing the financial subsidy we uniquely provided for several years to his company. Respecting our long relationship, we did, however, offer him space in one of our broadcast towers for CES 2018."
Information collection requirements of the FCC main studio rule elimination were approved by the Office of Management and Budget, and take effect Jan. 8, said a notice to be published in Monday's Federal Register. The main studio rule elimination takes effect the same date (see 1712070041).
The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology gave the NFL special temporary authority Friday to use TV channels 15 and 16 outside U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis for the Feb. 4 Super Bowl, agency records show. The channels are “unused” in the area around the stadium, and the league needs them “to conduct two-way radio communications for logistical, security, public safety, media and operational purposes before, during and shortly after” the game, said its application.
The Blue Alerts report and order -- creating a dedicated emergency alert system code to be used on a voluntary basis for law enforcement officers in danger -- was released Friday. It was approved 4-1 at Thursday's FCC members' meeting (see 1712140045).
Sinclair disagrees with Sen. Claire McCaskill's, D-Mo., call for the FCC to bar it from owning two of the top-four TV stations in St. Louis as a condition of its proposed buy of Tribune, said Vice President-News Scott Livingston in a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. McCaskill sought the condition amid concerns about Sinclair taking ownership of Tribune's Fox affiliate KTVI while retaining ownership of ABC affiliate KDNL-TV. Sinclair has shown a “stunning disregard for local news” via KDNL, McCaskill said in a letter to Pai. KDNL's lack of local news “is the exception, not the norm,” for Sinclair, Livingston said: “Our inability to broadcast traditional local news in St. Louis is a result of numerous factors,” including the need to cut costs. The station at times “aired newscasts produced by another station in St. Louis” and later “launched a news talk show,” he said. “If we are allowed to purchase Tribune’s television stations in St. Louis, we plan to begin producing and broadcasting traditional local news programming on KDNL,” Livingston said. “This is not something that we believe would take place if KDNL were to remain separately owned, whether by Sinclair or another broadcast company.”