GatesAir urged the FCC to work with broadcasters to adopt reasonable policies that help broadcasters ensure that viewers won’t experience unnecessary disruptions after the spectrum incentive auctions take place. The timelines proposed in the order “must be modified with the goal of minimizing disruption to broadcasters and viewers alike,” the broadcast equipment provider said in comments filed in docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1mwg7T4). “There simply is no way to rebuild the facilities of several hundred stations nationwide, as the commission is contemplating, in 39 months.” The comments pertain to a public notice on a report from Widelity outlining additional expense categories (CD March 21 p11). The report is comprehensive and based on sound engineering, but the report does have limitations, GatesAir said. While the case studies serve as a useful illustration of how a transition may occur at different sites, “they do not provide ... an accurate assessment of the time required for a simultaneous national transition,” it said.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a change in community of license for WTKV(FM) Oswego, N.Y., causing the bureau to deem its application for review (AFR) moot. WTKV owner Galaxy Communications placed itself into compliance with the local radio ownership rule, after the bureau dismissed its AFR to modify the community of license due to Galaxy’s failure to comply with the rule, the bureau said in an order (http://fcc.us/1iDGoeV). Galaxy came to comply with the rule after it divested its interests in two FM stations in the Syracuse Arbitron Metro Survey Area, the bureau said.

The FCC’s Widelity Report on the costs of the post-incentive auction repacking effort leaves too many “critical questions” unanswered for broadcasters to provide “meaningful comments,” said NAB in comments filed in docket 12-268 Monday (http://bit.ly/1i8ZlBN). Though the report echoed many of NAB’s earlier comments about the scope of repacking expenses and the timing issues of the large undertaking, it doesn’t address the specifics of how the FCC will use the $1.75 billion reimbursement fund and who will be eligible to receive those funds, NAB said. “The larger point is that the Commission must begin to address significant unanswered questions surrounding the plan and process for relocation and reimbursement,” said NAB. Many of the questions NAB wants answers to concern the nuts and bolts of how stations will be reimbursed and how the catalog of reimbursable expenses will be used in conjunction with the reimbursement fund. The FCC should clarify the catalog “is intended only to provide non-exhaustive guidance to affected stations,” and begin a “notice-and-comment rulemaking process” on the unanswered questions of the repacking “at the earliest opportunity,” NAB said.

FCC agents and the office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz seized equipment from three Massachusetts pirate radio operators, the FCC said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1msFouP). The stations, operating from Everett, Mattapan, Brockton and Boston, allegedly operated without FCC licenses, Ortiz’s office said in a separate news release (http://1.usa.gov/1ttnLiK). One station operated from multiple locations, it said. Forfeiture actions were brought after complaints were received, “including a complaint from a licensed broadcaster about interference with its radio signal,” it said. Federal officials seized the equipment last week from the stations using frequencies 100.1 MHz, 106.1 MHz, and 88.7 MHz, it said.

NAB’s proposal to relax instead of end the audio filtering requirement for Travelers’ Information Stations seems like a good solution, said a broadcast attorney. With the solution, the poor audio quality on TIS gets better, “but it doesn’t substantially increase the risk of interference,” said Fletcher Heald attorney Jon Markman in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1mklHFs). After proposing to eliminate the filtering requirement, the FCC opened a comment period on NAB’s proposal last week (CD April 17 p14). By doing so, the commission is giving the public another opportunity to comment on the possible new direction proposed by NAB and the Society of Broadcast Engineers, he said. The FCC has given the users and operators of the TIS a chance to weigh in on this new 5 kHz proposal, he said.

The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council requested a one-month extension of the comment deadline for the multilingual emergency alert system proceeding. Comments are due April 28 (CD March 31 p15). The current period “is insufficient for MMTC to provide meaningful comments to each of the complex questions raised,” the council said in its request in docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1kFcaJk). The proceeding stemmed from MMTC’s 2005 proposal for a multilingual EAS plan.

Sports Fans Coalition continued to urge the FCC to repeal the sports blackout rule that bars multichannel video programming distributors from carrying games blacked out by sports leagues in markets where the games haven’t sold out. The rules “are anti-consumer and do not serve the public interest,” it said in an ex parte filing in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1hVtoN6). Existing FCC regulations and federal copyright statutes offer significant protection to the sports leagues, it said. The sports blackout rule should be examined separately from the network non-duplication and syndicated exclusivity rules, SFC said. The commission also may repeal the rule for open video systems and direct broadcast satellite systems, it said. SFC also continued to urge the Media Bureau to investigate SFC’s allegations that the NFL pressured some stations to buy unsold tickets in order to avoid blackouts. SFC made the allegations earlier this year (CD Feb 25 p14). The filing recounted a meeting with Media Bureau staff.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed an application for review (AFR) of the bureau’s decision denying Northeast Hartford Acorn’s petition against the caption application of Legion of Christ College for a new noncommercial education radio station. NHA in Hartford, Conn., argued that LCC of Cheshire, Conn., “lacked reasonable assurance of site availability at the tower site identified in the LCC Application,” the bureau said in a memorandum opinion and order (http://bit.ly/1h4rFVv). NHA later argued that LCC’s proposed tower didn’t exist at the time LCC filed its application, and that Optasite Tower “had apparently canceled its plans to construct the proposed tower in March of 2007,” it said. “NHA makes this argument for the first time in the AFR.” Upon review of the entire record, the bureau concluded that NHA’s argument “must fail because NHA never presented it to the Bureau,” it said. The bureau dismissed another AFR from Covenant Network for the same reason. After the FCC dismissed its application for a new noncommercial FM station in Macomb, Ill., Covenant, based in St. Louis, argued that various aspects of the bureau decisions violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the bureau said in a separate memorandum opinion and order (http://bit.ly/Qq1YsE). “Covenant makes these arguments for the first time in its AFR."

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought comment on a proposal by NAB to relax, but not eliminate, the audio filtering requirement for Travelers’ Information Stations. NAB filed the proposal in its reply comments to an FCC proceeding that proposed to eliminate the rule, the bureau said Wednesday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/QpZSJo). NAB said full-power AM radio stations “routinely use 5 kHz filters to address and prevent interference among AM stations, with few significant problems,” the bureau said. The bureau seeks comment on whether the public interest would be better served by NAB’s request, it said. It also invites comment on any other measures that could improve the intelligibility of TIS and provide adequate measures “to protect adjacent channel stations from harmful interference,” it said. The public notice explores other issues, including whether any change in the filtering requirement should be mandatory, it said. Comments are due May 16, replies June 2.

A joint sales agreement (JSA) waiver request from Howard Stirk Holdings doesn’t come from Sinclair and Free Press shouldn’t have presented the request that way in a filing earlier this week, said Sinclair in an ex parte letter filed at the FCC Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1hVVO9M). “Sinclair is not the moving party behind the HSH proposal or the HSH letter,” said Sinclair. “Nor is this a ’scheme’ by Sinclair, as Free Press alleges, to evade the commission’s rules,” Sinclair said. Sinclair is in the process of restructuring its proposed deal to buy Allbritton so it won’t include JSAs that would run afoul of the commission’s new rules, the filing said. That restructuring changed HSH’s participation in the Allbritton deal. However, Sinclair agreed to give HSH time to try to obtain assurances of a waiver from the FCC so HSH could then participate in the Allbritton deal, Sinclair said. HSH is minority-owned, and the FCC has said JSAs that assist in promoting public interests like diversity are more likely to receive a waiver. That makes it incorrect for Free Press to suggest that the HSH waiver request is an attempt by Sinclair to “renege” on the restructuring, Sinclair said.