The FCC should take action now to eliminate skywave protections for Class A radio stations, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters said in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. NABOB supports the tentative conclusion in the AM revitalization Further NPRM that critical hours protections for Class A stations should be eliminated, and that some protections from co-channel stations and first adjacent channel stations should remain. Though technical objections to eliminating skywave protections have been offered up by opponents of NABOB's stance, those objections are "unfounded," the group said. The skywave protections are a legacy of a time when many communities didn't have their own local radio stations and had to rely on distant stations for information, the association said. “That rationale is no longer applicable in 2016, almost all communities receive local AM and/or FM service.” When the Class A licenses were given out in the 1920s and '40s, discriminatory laws and policies blocked African-Americans from owning the stations, NABOB said. “When African Americans were able to enter the industry, it was often though ownership of less valuable stations.” Eliminating skywave protections would be “an enormous benefit” to local stations that can't operate at night because of those rules, NABOB said. Class A stations are a draw to the AM band in the same way an “anchor tenant” big box store is to a shopping center, proponents of the skywave protections have said (see 1603220054).

NAB arguments that public interest groups advocating in favor of retaining physical public correspondence files in TV stations have never accessed such files (see 1609150061) are false, said the National Hispanic Media Coalition and Free Press in an ex parte filing responding to the association in docket 16-161. Free Press and NHMC also took issue with NAB filings stating that by advocating for a physical file in this proceeding but for a digital file in others, Free Press was being hypocritical. “The most serious charge that NAB levels at any 'interest group,' in its otherwise inaccurate and meritless letter, appears to be the accusation that Free Press expresses more concern today than it used to for access disparities faced by people of color and people with lower incomes,” said Free Press and NHMC. “Happily, to the extent there is the any truth whatsoever to the accusation, Free Press is glad to be found guilty as charged. Free Press continues to evolve in its understanding of, and its advocacy regarding, the most serious challenges posed by the continued inequity in our nation’s media and telecommunications systems.”

Technology Group 3, the body within ATSC that’s supervising the framing of ATSC 3.0, made “a great deal of progress” in meetings in New York this week on high dynamic range for the next-generation broadcast standard, ATSC President Mark Richer emailed us Thursday through a spokesman. “We now expect A/341 to go out to ballot for Proposed Standard sometime in December,” Richer said of the ATSC 3.0 video document, which has been stuck in candidate standard mode for months as various ATSC committees tried to hash out consensus on HDR. TG3 twice has delayed picking a winning HDR technology for ATSC 3.0. After the latest two-month delay in September (see 1609290074), the candidate standard period on A/341 is now due to expire Nov. 30.

The FCC Media Bureau granted an 18-month extension request from the NAB, the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Council of the Blind (see 1610050042) for more time to develop technology to provide an audio representation of visual, non-text emergency information such as maps and graphics, said an order Wednesday. The petitioners are required to provide a status report in November 2017, the order said. “The report should include information about the extent to which images are conveyed with a corresponding on-screen crawl that includes the critical details conveyed by that image regarding the emergency and how to respond to the emergency.” The order extends a waiver that was first granted to NAB in 2015 of rules that require visual information to be aurally represented for individuals who are blind and visually impaired.

Free Access and Broadcast Telemedia's court challenge of FCC incentive auction rules is an attempt to "relitigate" low-power TV licensee Mako's rejected auction challenge (see 1608300056), the agency said in a reply brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Monday. Though FAB's challenge is against later-released aspects of the incentive auction plan, those orders don't "reopen the issue of whether LPTV stations should be protected" in the incentive auction, the commission said. Since the decision not to protect LPTV stations wasn't made in the orders FAB has challenged, the appeal should be rejected, the FCC said. The court also should reject constitutional arguments that the auction is an "undue taking" of LPTV spectrum, the FCC said. "It is well settled that broadcast stations, including LPTV stations, have no property right in the radio spectrum." The regulator also pushed back against arguments that its treatment of LPTV stations was arbitrary and capricious, arguing that the decision not to protect LPTV was already litigated during Mako. "This Court in Mako affirmed that decision as reasonable and consistent with the Spectrum Act," the FCC said. FAB's "last-ditch challenge" to that decision is "procedurally barred," it said.

Digital TV stations’ annual DTV ancillary/supplementary use services report is due Dec. 1, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Monday. Licensees need to submit a form for each station “detailing whether they provided ‘ancillary or supplementary services’” during the 12 months prior to Sept. 30, the PN said.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $15,000 fine for Vasco Oburoni, the operator of an unlicensed radio station on 102.3 MHz in Worcester, Massachusetts, said a notice of apparent liability released Monday. Bureau agents in 2015 identified Oburoni’s station as operating out of the Christian Praise International’s church building, the NAL said. After repeated warnings in 2015, Oburoni met with bureau agents and asked about getting a license, the NAL said. In May 2016, the bureau found that the station was still operating from the same church building, the NAL said. “That Mr. Oburoni continued to operate an unlicensed station after being put on notice that his actions contravened the Act, the Rules, and related Commission decisions and orders, demonstrates a deliberate disregard for the Commission's authority and requirements,” said the NAL. Oburoni couldn’t be reached for comment, and his station’s website’s online broadcast wasn’t functioning.

Tribune's Q3 results show a fall in political advertising revenue due to less-than-expected ad spending, emailed Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker to investors Wednesday. Gray Television and others have faced similar issues (see 1611080035). “Our results would have been even better but for the [Donald] Trump campaign's substantially lower than expected spend on television advertising and the fact that our station portfolio does not benefit from Olympic advertising because we have only two relatively small NBC affiliates,” said Tribune CEO Peter Liguori in a news release. Tribune did increase its political advertising market share, but also downgraded revenue predictions for 2016, he said. Also this week, Nexstar political revenue was better than expected (see 1611090040).

Nexstar (NXST) expects to complete its purchase of Media General by the end of the year, emailed Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker Wednesday to investors. “We continue to think the FCC wants at least one more stage of the auction under its belt before it starts approving deals -- at this point, we would not expect anything until early December but don’t know that this matters as NXST has completed all 'normal' regulatory requirements.” Nexstar has asked the FCC to waive its rules barring transactions from being completed during the incentive auction to allow Nexstar/Media General to be consummated (see 1609220035). Unlike political advertising revenue for Gray Television and some other station groups (see 1611080035), Nexstar's was more robust than expected. Ryvicker chalked that up to Nexstar's geographic footprint, which she said allowed it to benefit from close races for longer than competitors.

Gray Television Q3 revenue results show much less in political advertising revenue than expected, the company reported Tuesday. Political ad revenue was at $22.3 million, while Wells Fargo had forecast $37 million, analyst Marci Ryvicker emailed investors. Overall Q3 revenue was also less than expected, $204.5 million as opposed to a forecast of $223.8 million, Ryvicker said. Gray also is forecasting lower-than-expected revenue for Q4. “Earlier this year, a large number of races were expected to be highly competitive and political fundraising appeared to be highly encouraging through the summer," said CEO Hilton Howell. “However, actual spending by candidates, political parties and third-parties fell far short of expectations, especially in Gray’s markets.” Howell said the revenue results “make it more likely that Gray will place the highest priority on debt repayment over the next four to five quarters.” Gray stock fell Sept. 21 on concerns about less-than-expected political ad spending as GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump didn't spend as much as past nominees (see 1609210075). Tuesday, Gray shares closed down 10 percent to $7.35.