Commissioners dismissed an application for review filed by a low-power TV station challenging the Media Bureau’s dismissal of its displacement application, said an FCC order released Friday. WOCK-CD Chicago argued that its channel’s poor signal quality was the result of interference from WHBF-TV Rock Island, Illinois, but failed to provide sufficient evidence for that claim and earlier had filed a displacement application that didn’t blame WHBF, the order said. WOCK is on low-VHF spectrum, which often has reception problems, the order said. “The Commission has long recognized the reception difficulties for digital TV broadcasting in the low VHF band.” After the bureau rejected WOCK’s application, the station filed the application for review, also warning in a separate filing that it couldn't auction off the UHF channel WOCK sought to move to in the broadcast incentive auction without deciding on WOCK’s filing. WOCK’s displacement application was rightfully rejected because it didn’t satisfy the proper criteria for displacement, and its claim on the prospective channel was filed untimely and not part of the broadcaster’s original filing, the full commission ruled. In any case, “no station has a ‘right’ to a specific channel such that the Commission is precluded from reassigning or reallocating that channel in connection with the incentive auction,” the order said.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai acknowledged the May 23 death of Video Division Chief Policy Counsel Dorann Bunkin at the close of Thursday’s FCC meeting. “She is an inspiration to many around this agency,” said Pai, noting Bunkin, who was also legal adviser to the Incentive Auction Task Force, won an award for her public service last year. "We say goodbye to an exemplary friend, exemplary co-worker, and a terrific wife and mother,” Pai said. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly praised Bunkin’s commitment to the FCC, and said her work highlighted the valuable contribution of “all of the people in the agency.”
Pandora wants to sell its sole broadcast radio station KXMZ(FM) Box Elder, South Dakota, to Rapid City-based Haugo Broadcasting for $300,000, said an application in the FCC Consolidated Database System (CDBS) Monday. Pandora went through an extended process to secure approval of the original deal to buy the station and inspired changes to foreign broadcast rules (see 1510220052). The streaming service announced the possibility of selling the station in filings last year (see 1603300056).
The FCC Media Bureau rejected a petition to deny a transaction involving two Arkansas stations filed by a broadcaster disputing the stations’ ownership, said an order. Petitioner Marshall Media argued that seller I Square Media already had sold KMYA-DT Camden and KMYA-LP Sheridan in a previous deal, but I Square said the older deal was never consummated. Marshall’s petition was late filed and considered only as an informal complaint, and the bureau doesn’t weigh in on contract disputes, the order said. The bureau said I Square’s sale of the stations to LR Telecasting served the public interest.
Ion Media will buy WRBU-TV St. Louis; WZRB-TV Columbia, South Carolina; and KTRV-TV Boise, said a news release Tuesday. The deal will expand the group to 63 stations and make Ion “the only network to operate TV stations in each of the 20 largest U.S. markets and 24 of the top 25,” it said. All three stations are full-power UHF, it said.
IHeartMedia and Fox Networks Group will jointly offer digital advertising products for audio and video, the companies said in a news release Monday. Smart A/V Audiences will use FNG and iHeartMedia data sets to bring the features of digital ads to broadcast radio and TV, the release said. “Brands will be able to deliver more compelling creative across platforms by tapping into local data and dynamic creative capabilities based on triggers like weather, sports scores, stock market performance.” By combining technology developed by iHeart with the “data and video assets of Fox,” advertisers will be able to “leverage audio and visual as one integrated platform,” said iHeart CEO Bob Pittman. Smart A/V Audiences will launch “in beta” this fall, the release said.
The FCC Media Bureau mailed the second of its equal employment opportunity audit letters for 2017 on June 12, said a public notice. “Each year, approximately five percent of all radio and television stations are selected for EEO audits.” Stations with five or more employees and a website must post the EEO report on their website by the public file deadline, the PN said. A list of the stations affected is online.
Tegna will sell CareerBuilder to “an investor group led by investments funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management” and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, the broadcaster said in a news release Monday. The deal would reduce its 53 percent controlling interest in CareerBuilder to 12.5 percent, dropping Career Builder out of Tegna’s reporting operating results. Tegna is expected to receive $250 million from the deal. Tribune, which has a 32 percent interest in CareerBuilder, will receive $157 million and its stake will drop to 8 percent, Tribune said. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in Q3 2017, the broadcasters said.
The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters commended the upcoming FM translator window (see 1706070068), said President Jim Winston in a news release. “Members own a disproportionate number of AM stations, and I am sure many NABOB members will benefit from these FM translator filing windows.”
A pirate radio station in Paterson, New Jersey, was warned by the FCC Enforcement Bureau May 2, said a notice of unlicensed operation released Wednesday. Winston Tulloch was operating an unlicensed station on 90.9 MHz, the notice said. It ordered Tulloch to cease operating and gave him ten days to respond with evidence he has a license.