GCI subsidy Denali Media will buy three Alaska CBS-affiliated stations from Ketchikan TV, Denali said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1dFToMb). The stations involved in the transaction are KXLJ Juneau, KTNL-TV Sitka and KUBD Ketchikan, Denali said. The deal is expected to close in Q2 2014, Denali said.

Four House members signed onto the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA) as co-sponsors, said an NAB news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/1eGw6uQ). They are Reps. Jim Gerlach, R-Pa., Robert Hurt, R-Va., Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. The LRFA was introduced in the House in February as H.Con. Res. 16 (http://1.usa.gov/1bstiK2) and in the Senate in March as S.Con. Res. 6 (http://1.usa.gov/19jGhxF), said the NAB. The bill says Congress “should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over-the-air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings,” it said. The LRFA has 188 co-sponsors in the House and 12 co-sponsors in the Senate, NAB said.

Twitter (TWTR) stock value was up by nearly 4.8 percent at the close of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday (http://bit.ly/K77WLU). After closing at $70 per share on Tuesday, Twitter stock was trading at $73.31 per share by the end of trading Thursday.

The Rockstar Consortium has become a “patent dragnet” that’s intent on killing off Google’s Android mobile operating system, Google said Monday in a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in San Jose. Apple, BlackBerry and Microsoft are among the Google competitors that co-own Rockstar, which some critics claim is a patent assertion entity. Rockstar has filed multiple lawsuits against Google over the Android OS, including one in October that alleged Google had violated Rockstar-owned Nortel patents because of Google’s purchase of Motorola Mobility (CD Nov 4 p18). Rockstar’s lawsuits have created “a cloud on Google’s Android platform; threatened Google’s business and relationships with its customers and partners, as well as its sales of Nexus-branded Android devices; and created a justiciable controversy between Google and Rockstar,” Google said in the lawsuit. Rockstar did not comment.

The FCC is getting tough against companies violating rules designed to protect licensees from stray radio waves thrown off as a by-product by all digital devices, warned Mitchell Lazarus of Fletcher Heald on the law firm’s blog. All manufacturers need should beware, he said. “The biggest FCC fine in recent memory for an equipment violation -- an even $1 million -- came down against a company that marketed digital audio devices,” Lazarus wrote (http://bit.ly/19l2y1l). “Another company that distributes professional audio equipment settled with the FCC for $125,000. Still another company that makes professional gear settled for $72,000. The iconic guitar-maker Fender agreed to pay an impressive $265,000.” Another company, Rane, which supplies DJs and contractors, “agreed to hand over $61,500 because some of its gear (and the associated instruction manuals) did not contain certain fine print disclosures required by the FCC,” he said. Equipment makers should learn from these mistakes, Lazarus said. “Perhaps you think you are safe -- that the FCC will never find you. Think again. We don’t know how the Rane matter came to the FCC’s attention. But we do know that many enforcement actions originate with tips sent in by the offender’s competitors. If you have competitors, chances are they double as FCC agents who watch your company’s every move. The only good defense is to know the rules and comply with them."

Purple Communications supports a request for a temporary waiver of the FCC’s speed-of-answer requirements for Video Relay Service, it said Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1kJzDsp). ZVRS, Sorenson and the Communication Axess Ability Group asked earlier this month for waiver of the requirements, set to go into effect Jan. 1 (http://bit.ly/1bsDL80). Purple said it shares the FCC’s desire for consumers to get a faster speed of answer, but “without properly funding an elevated service level through increased VRS rates, the revised standard is neither operationally practical nor ultimately in the best interests of the consumers who are the intended beneficiaries of the standard,” the VRS provider said. In a separate filing Tuesday, Purple stressed the need for “greater interoperability” in the VRS industry (http://bit.ly/1kJCqSw). “The use of legacy equipment is the largest switching barrier preventing free consumer choice of providers, further perpetuating the highly concentrated market status quo,” it said.

Speculation about a possible Sprint/T-Mobile US merger “will continue to persist,” said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche Thursday in an email to investors. There would likely be “little resistance of such a move from both” AT&T and Verizon Wireless, Fritzsche said. “If the industry continues to see more consolidation, we remain confident that Sprint will play a key role."

Members of the GPS community again said the FCC shouldn’t permit the operations proposed in LightSquared’s request to use its spectrum for a terrestrial network until technical interference concerns have been resolved. The concerns should be resolved in “transparent, public notice and comment rulemaking proceedings,” like the process involving Dish Network’s AWS-4 spectrum, the GPS Innovation Alliance said in an ex parte filing in docket 11-109 (http://bit.ly/1cPXT5e). The filing recounted a meeting last week with members of the Wireless Bureau and the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis, it said.

NCTA President Michael Powell, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President James Cicconi and Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen met with a senior aide to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler on Thursday to discuss the pending judicial review of the net neutrality order, an ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/1gUR1dT). They said that “regardless of how the case comes out, the principles articulated by the Commission enjoy widespread support and broadband customers will continue to enjoy unfettered access to Internet content and applications."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau dealt with various requests for more time beyond a Nov. 20 deadline for licensees along the Mexican border seeking 800 MHz rebanding reimbursement from Sprint to file cost estimates with the company. The order released Tuesday was part of the ongoing 800 MHz rebanding process. FCC rules say “extensions of time shall not be routinely granted,” the bureau said (http://fcc.us/JoldPC): “The import of that rule is especially relevant to 800 MHz rebanding where delay in rebanding by one licensee can cause a ‘domino effect’ delay in the rebanding efforts of other licensees that have met the Commission’s 800 MHz band reconfiguration deadlines, with a consequent delay of the overall program.” The bureau approved some extensions for licensees that “have shown that grant of the request will not unreasonably delay rebanding” while holding other requests in abeyance. Among those getting an extension were Tucson Electric Power Co. and the Glendale Police Department in Arizona and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. Some large licensees need to justify an extension, including Maricopa County, Ariz., Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego County, Calif., the bureau said. All licensees that won approval have promised to complete rebanding cost estimates by March 10.