Sinclair buying Tribune would put local weather anchors “at risk," said deal opposition group Coalition to Save Local Media (see 1708150063), with members like the American Cable Association, Competitive Carriers Association, Dish Network, ITTA, NTCA and Public Knowledge. Sinclair has a “record of eliminating veteran weather anchors, reporters, and resources used by newsrooms to report live and on the ground during weather events,” the group said Thursday. Local weather reporters are “especially threatened” in markets where Sinclair will acquire new big-four stations, including Seattle, Denver, Cleveland and Sacramento, it said. “To suggest that Sinclair would ever put the well-being of our viewers at risk by cutting local weather coverage is absurd," said Senior Vice President-News Scott Livingston. "Broadcasting provides critical information during crises and we remain committed to providing this essential information to our local communities." Sinclair stations "devoted countless hours to round the clock coverage by local meteorologists," during the recent hurricanes, he said. Sinclair's WPEC West Palm Beach, Florida, offered continuous coverage for four days during Hurricane Irma, Livingston said.

NAB launched a consumer education website about TV channel changes connected with the post-incentive auction repacking process, said a news release Wednesday. “The website is part of a consumer education campaign to keep viewers apprised of channel changes during the repack’s 39-month timeline.” The site has sections explaining the repack, links to FCC explainers, lets users know when they will have to rescan their TV tuners, and lets them sign up for mobile alerts to do so. “NAB is devoted to working with Congress, the FCC, the wireless industry and third-party groups to keep the public informed throughout this enormously challenging undertaking,” said President Gordon Smith. NAB will release “tools" for local stations in coming weeks, including “talking points, sample scripts and crawls and even automated phone messaging,” the group said.

The FCC should do an economic study of the impacts of TV channel repacking on low-power TV and translators, said the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition in a meeting with Commissioner Brendan Carr Monday, according to an ex parte filing. Final costs of the repacking to LPTV “will surely exceed $300 million over the next four years,” the group said in docket 12-268. “The FCC has never studied this and needs to do it now!” Such a study should be used as the basis for funding the relocation of LPTV and translators, the LPTV advocate said. “We should be given a fixed amount based on an economic analysis that the FCC should conduct,” it said. “Chairman [Ajit] Pai has indicated that economic analyses should be done for all new FCC rulemakings.”

FCC Media Bureau extension of the first priority filing window for repacked TV stations to Friday was in Wednesday's Federal Register. The extension is intended to make up for technical issues that affected the Licensing and Management System and prevented some entities from submitting construction permit and reimbursement cost information.

The FCC Wireless Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology modified the table of frequency allocations and Part 27 rules to reflect results of the incentive auction, said an order released Wednesday. The order doesn’t employ a notice and comment procedure because it's implementing a prior rulemaking that was part of the orders that created the auction.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued warnings against five suspected pirate radio operators broadcasting from the same street in Boston neighborhoods in August, in notices of unlicensed operation. Michelle Joseph, Quenton Joseph, Richard Clouden and Tayla Lantz were cited for suspected unlicensed broadcasts on different frequencies Aug. 14 out of 616 or 614 Blue Hill Ave. in Dorchester, and Yvon Grandchamps was cited for doing so on the same day a few miles down the same road in Mattapan, and also for similar activity on June 14.

The remaining portions of the FCC order allowing some noncommercial stations to do third-party fundraisers (see 1704200048) is to take effect Nov. 13, 60 days after scheduled Tuesday Federal Register publication. Some of the rule’s provisions that didn’t involve information collection took effect July 5 (see 1705050021). Others awaited paperwork approval from the Office of Management and Budget. That approval was received in August, a new FCC FR notice said.

The FCC Media Bureau rejected Edward Stolz’s petition for reconsideration of its decision to renew the licenses of five California radio stations owned by Entercom because he lacks standing and his petition doesn’t raise new facts, said a letter Monday. The full FCC rejected other appeals by Stolz connected with Entercom’s former station KDND(FM) Sacramento last week, also for a lack of standing (see 1709080039). “Stolz fails to demonstrate that he is currently a competitor in the Stations’ market and lacks the direct competitive injury or likely financial injury required to assert such standing as an ‘aggrieved party,’” Monday's letter said.

If the FCC requires simulcasting of stations transitioning to ATSC 3.0, that rule shouldn’t require identical content on both stations and should have a three-year time limit, NAB said in a Wednesday meeting with Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey and other staff, said an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 16-142. NAB has consistently argued against any sort of simulcasting requirement. The association laid out what provisions it would like to see in such a rule, including allowances to let stations demonstrate the capabilities of the new standard for consumers still viewing in 1.0. The FCC should permit stations to “from time to time, transmit programming intended to highlight features and capabilities not available using ATSC 1.0 without transmitting substantially similar content on another station,” the group said. It wants the agency to except localized emergency warnings and allow the simulcasting station to air alternative content to “address, for example, breaking news, features or content that cannot be transmitted using ATSC 1.0.” Broadcasters should be able to get waivers of a simulcast requirement if they can’t find a simulcast partner, NAB said. “Rural markets should not be shut out of innovation solely because they do not have enough broadcast stations to participate in partnership arrangements.” NAB also proposed that the FCC allow broadcasters to rely on both components of the 3.0 physical layer, A/321 and A/322, and that it not require use of A/322 for other services that use 3.0. NAB asked the FCC not to mandate consumer education efforts for the 3.0 move and said it doesn’t object to allowing low-power stations to transition to 3.0 without simulcasting.

Edward Stolz doesn’t have standing to appeal administrative law judge decisions on Entercom’s former station KDND(FM) Sacramento, commissioners said in an order. Stolz had filed a reconsideration petition against a hearing designation order on KDND that didn’t permit him to intervene in the proceeding, and later an application for review against the proceeding being terminated (see 1612290039). The KDND HDO was terminated after Entercom voluntarily surrendered the station’s license. KDND was originally designated for hearing over a 2007 radio contest that led to the death of a listener (see 1610280058). Stolz argued he had standing to appeal those matters because he was in the station’s listening area and separately involved in a pending appeal of FCC approval of a deal involving a station that competed with KDND. Stolz raised his status as a possible potential competing licensee only after the agency rejected his listener argument, Friday’s order said. Even if he initially raised that argument, the possibility that he might win a pending case involving another station doesn’t mean he has a stake in the KDND matter, the order said. Since Stolz doesn’t have standing in the initial case, his appeal of the HDO’s dismissal is also invalid, the order said.