FCC Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin granted an extension until Jan. 8 in a hearing proceeding over allegedly false transfers of control by the owners of several low-power radio and television stations, said an order posted Wednesday in docket 23-267 (see 2308110063). Accused of transferring stations to his niece to avoid including them in a bankruptcy filing, Antonio Guel, due to filing deadlines falling during the holidays, requested the extension so he could reply to an FCC Enforcement Bureau motion to enlarge the case. “The Presiding Judge agrees that there is good cause to afford Mr. Guel more time to file a response,” the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a petition to allow Border International Broadcasting, which owns WLYK(FM) Cape Vincent, New York, to be up to 100% foreign owned, said a declaratory ruling Tuesday. The petition is connected to Border International’s transfer to the Canadian-controlled 1234567 Corp. The petition didn’t draw any objections.

Gray Television has reached an agreement with NBCUniversal to extend and renew all of Gray’s NBC network affiliations, which were set to expire at year’s end, said a release Wednesday. Gray owns NBC-affiliated television stations in 56 markets, the release said.

The prevalence of broadcasters using multicast channels and low-power TV stations to get around the FCC’s top-four prohibition isn’t evidence that such “loopholes” serve the public interest, NCTA said in an ex parte letter to the FCC posted Friday in docket 18-349. “Rather, it is evidence that the loopholes need to be closed for the Top-Four Prohibition to fulfill its purpose.” NAB has argued that broadcasters need such combinations to provide service in markets where there aren’t enough full-power stations, but the broadcasters haven’t shown why markets need multiple top-four stations to have common ownership, NCTA said. When determining how an extension of the top-four prohibition to multicast channels and LPTV stations would influence existing combinations, the agency should scrutinize triopolies and quadropolies, which "present a particularly significant risk of undermining the purposes of the rule," said NCTA. Constraints on a single broadcaster airing multiple network-affiliated streams with LPTV and multicast streams would “disincentivize investment, hamper growth, and limit broadcasters’ ability to sell their business and exit the industry,” representatives of the four broadcast network affiliate associations said in an ex parte filing Friday, documenting a Tuesday call with an aide to FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez. “The efficiencies generated by dual affiliations” enable “the production of more and more varied locally-focused news, weather, emergency and other programming, often in otherwise underserved markets,” the affiliate groups said.

There are many reasons why even in markets with three or more full-power TV stations, top-four network programming might need to be broadcast on a low-power TV station or multicast channel, NAB said in an ex parte filing in FCC docket 18-349 Tuesday, responding to a filing last week from the American Television Alliance (see 2312070061). Many such markets “have independent, Spanish language or religious stations that are not interested in affiliating with any of the four largest broadcast networks,” NAB said. “Stations that have elected mandatory carriage cannot simply ‘pick up’ a ‘Big Four’ network affiliation,” and stations “cannot simply unravel their existing agreements with program suppliers,” it added. NAB also pushed back on ATVA submissions concerning DOJ's past stances against broadcast transactions involving top-four combinations. The FCC “is not simply DOJ’s younger sibling, destined to follow DOJ blindly over the cliff,” NAB said. “The FCC’s public interest analysis is broader than and distinct from DOJ’s statutory role.” The commission should “reject the self-interested, anti-competitive, and ultimately anti-consumer arguments being made by the pay-TV industry in these proceedings,” said NAB.

The FCC received 1,336 applications for new low-power FM station construction permits during the recent filing window, an FCC spokesperson said Monday. The window opened Dec. 6 and closed Friday. The last LPFM filing window, in 2013, drew 2,819 applications (see 1311250032). Interest in the LPFM window indicates there still is robust interest in radio, the FCC spokesperson said.

The low-power FM filing window for new station construction permits closed at noon Friday, according to Media Bureau public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest. Applications submitted after the deadline will be dismissed. The PN also announced a temporary freeze on amendments to new LPFM station applications that went into effect Friday and lasts until Jan. 31. During the freeze, bureau staff will review the LPFM applications to identify mutually exclusive groups, the PN said. Future public notices on mutual exclusivity and settlement procedures will be issued after the freeze, the PN said.

The FCC Public Safety Bureau granted Paramount Global’s request for a 30-day extension, until Jan. 10, of the agency’s requirement that emergency alert system participants update their equipment to be able to prioritize alerts delivered by common alerting protocol by Dec. 12, said an order in Friday’s Daily Digest. Paramount requested the extension for 29 stations that had been affected by vendor delays (see 2312120039). “Based on the circumstances described herein, we conclude there is good cause to provide” the extension, said the order.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau sent warnings of possible forfeitures of up to $2.3 million each to two owners of New York properties for allegedly hosting pirate radio stations, said enforcement bureau letters in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The notices to property owners The Joseph Best and Sheila Y. Best Living Trust in Brooklyn and 271 Zacko, LLC in Scarsdale formally notify them of the illegal broadcasting identified by FCC field agents, demand proof that the broadcasts have ceased and request that the broadcasters be identified. “Persons or entities found to willfully and knowingly suffer” third parties “to engage in so-called 'pirate radio' broadcasting on their property can face significant financial penalties,” the letters said.

It's “long past time” the FCC “should have recognized the wide range of competitors local radio stations face for audiences and advertising revenues,” the NAB said in meetings last week with aides to Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, according to a pair of similar ex parte filings posted in docket 18-349 Friday. The agency urgently needs to reform “analog-era” ownership rules for local TV and radio, especially in small markets, NAB said in the filings. The trade group also said the FCC shouldn’t crack down on TV broadcasters using low-power TV stations and multicast channels to air top-four network programming (see 2312060065). “The FCC’s previous determinations that the local TV ownership rule should not be applied to streams of programming or LPTV stations remain valid today,” NAB said.