A recent Media and Democracy Project (MAD) submission of a petition with 25,000 signatures against the renewal of Fox-owned WTXF-TV Philadelphia (see 2407250056) is an attempt at “distort[ing] the Commission’s processes” and less than 2.3% of the signatories reside in WTXF’s viewing area, the network said in an ex parte filing Friday. “Taking at face value MAD’s claim as to the accuracy of the names and locations in its filing,” only 571 of them “possibly reside in Fox 29 Philadelphia’s viewing area,” Fox said. “In contrast, over 3.1 million households, and many more people, live in the Philadelphia” designated market area. The FCC “does not, and should not, make decisions on whether to grant a license renewal application based on the number of persons allegedly willing to fill out a webform.” The petition “cannot outweigh the testimony of numerous viewers of Fox 29 Philadelphia who have urged the Commission to swiftly renew the station’s broadcast license.” The FCC “should adhere to its own precedent, weigh the evidence in the record fairly, and grant Fox 29 Philadelphia’s license renewal without further delay.” The "issues raised in the petition go well beyond the Philadelphia station and raise serious questions about the decisions made by its owner to knowingly spread dangerous lies to protect profit,” MAD Executive Director Milo Vassallo said in an email. “It is time to remind Fox that we the people own the airwaves, not any single individual or corporation."

The FCC should reconsider resurrecting rules restricting commonly owned, same market FM stations from duplicating content, NAB said in a petition for reconsideration posted Monday in docket 19-310. In 2020, the previous FCC dropped the rule for FM and AM stations, but the current commission reinstated the FM portion in June, responding to a 2020 petition from REC Networks, the musicFIRST Coalition and the Future of Music Coalition (see 2407020055). The FCC “has no basis to reverse its initial judgment in this proceeding and willfully turned a blind eye to conducting any research including seeking any updated comment after waiting nearly four years to act,” NAB said. The FCC should have sought comment on whether the reversal was needed but instead acted based only on the record from 2020, NAB added. The trade group also said the recon order returning the nonduplication rules “turns the petition for reconsideration standard on its head.” FCC precedent requires showing a material error or omission in the order, but in the FM nonduplication recon order the agency “reasons that it has the ability to reconsider the Order here because the material error is that the Order itself was wrongly decided.” NAB added, “Were the FCC to adopt this new approach to petitions for reconsideration, the standard would amount to no standard at all.” The FCC should “reconsider its grant of the Reconsideration Petition in this proceeding, and solicit comment on the effect of eliminating the FM radio duplication rule during the past four years.”

The Media Bureau granted permission for Amar Broadcasting to exceed the 25% foreign-ownership benchmark, a declaratory ruling in Friday’s Daily Digest said. Amar is the parent company of KNTS (AM) Seattle owner BAAZ, and the ruling allows Canadian citizen Sukhdev Dhillon to own 100% of Amar. No oppositions were filed in response to the petition, the ruling said.

The FCC updated the Licensing and Management System (LMS), making major change applications for Class A, low-power TV and TV translator stations available in advance of the Aug. 20 lifting of the 14-year freeze on channel change filings (see 2405290068), a public notice in Friday’s Daily Digest said. “Effective immediately, applicants are permitted to input information in their major change application, but should not submit their application prior to August 20, 2024,” the PN said. Applications filed before Aug. 20 “will be dismissed and applicants will need to re-file once the freeze is lifted.” The PN also included a reminder that after updates to the FCC’s TVStudy software, all TV broadcast applications filed after Aug. 1, must use 2020 Census Data for conducting interference analyses. “Failure to do so will require amendment and may result in dismissal of applications as defective,” the PN said.

The full FCC approved a $2.3 million forfeiture against Bronx, New York, pirate radio broadcaster Johnny Peralta, an order released Thursday said. Peralta was operating the pirate station La Mia Radio for years. The Enforcement Bureau initially contacted him in 2018. EB agents have noted La Mia Radio’s continued unauthorized broadcasts ever since, according to a notice of apparent liability in November. Peralta didn’t respond to the NAL, the FCC said. The forfeiture is the maximum allowed under law. “Some of the most egregious pirate radio operations are run by individuals who have ignored prior enforcement actions by the Commission,” the forfeiture order said. “As such, it merits the strongest possible enforcement measures to the fullest extent of the law.” The FCC lacks the power to enforce collecting fines, especially from non-licensees. Only DOJ can bring delinquent forfeiture subjects to court, but broadcasters have told us that the high fine amounts like Peralta’s are expected to make pursuing collection more worthwhile for prosecutors. Peralta couldn’t be reached for comment. The forfeiture order was originally part of the agenda for Wednesday's FCC meeting, though it was listed only as an Enforcement Bureau item, as is typical for enforcement actions. A deletion notice was released late Thursday.

It isn’t a conflict of interest for Dan Alpert to represent multiple people in an FCC hearing proceeding because all the parties have given him permission and their testimony doesn’t conflict, the broadcast attorney said in a filing posted Monday in docket 23-267. Alpert was responding to a request from Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin, who temporarily suspended discovery in the proceeding over conflict concerns (see 2407230051). The facts conceded by Alpert’s client Antonio Guel don’t conflict with those of Guel’s daughter, Maria Guel, or his niece, Jennifer Juarez, Alpert said. The Enforcement Bureau claims Guel arranged a false sale of broadcast stations to Juarez while maintaining control of them, and that Maria Guel runs companies involved in the transaction. Alpert, who practices in Virginia, also told Halprin that he checked on the ethics of his position with the Commonwealth of Virginia Bar counsel. “As long as all three persons were aware of the simultaneous representation, that representation of all three persons was permissible,” Alpert said. “If at any point in time, circumstances change, and an actual conflict arises, that undersigned counsel will discontinue such simultaneous representation.”

Filings for mandatory disaster information reporting and network outage reporting systems would hinder broadcasters during disasters, NAB, Morgan Murphy Media and Beasley Media said in a meeting with Public Safety Bureau staff Wednesday. “Unlike other services, broadcast stations must report timely news and information about a disaster as a situation unfolds,” an ex parte filing posted in docket 21-346 Friday said: “Mandatory reporting would distract station staff from this core duty.” Commenters in the docket who support mandatory reporting for broadcasters “demonstrate a lack of real-world experience in dealing with emergencies or understanding of the competing demands on station staff during a disaster,” the filing said. The FCC’s suggestion that mandatory reporting would lead to more effective allocation of emergency resources doesn’t ring true, the broadcasters said. “With all due respect to emergency responders, filing a DIRS report has rarely, if ever, led to government assistance that helps a station maintain or restore service.”

The FCC’s rule barring stations from using affiliation deals to get around ownership limits falls outside the agency's congressional authority, Gray Television told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday. In a supplemental brief (docket 22-14274), Gray said the appellate court should determine that authority's scope and meaning without deference to the commission. The 11th Circuit earlier this month requested a brief about the effects of the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision (see 2407110058). Gray is appealing a $518,000 forfeiture order over its alleged violation of the FCCs "Note 11" affiliation deals rule related to its purchase of the network affiliation of an Anchorage TV station (see 2301040059). The FCC has 14 days to respond to the supplemental brief. In its brief, Gray said Loper Bright mandates that the court first resolve whether the agency had statutory authority to promulgate and enforce Note 11. It said while Congress gave the FCC regulatory authority over license transfers, Note 11 and the forfeiture order are about what the FCC considers the "functional equivalent" of a license transfer.

The Media and Democracy Project submitted a petition with 25,532 signatures calling for an FCC hearing on whether Fox News' conduct during the 2020 election violated the agency's requirements for broadcast licensees. The item was filed on the one-year anniversary of MAD’s original filing challenging the license renewal of Fox-owned station WTXF-TV Philadelphia and includes signatories from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, MAD said. The FCC has not acted on MAD’s petition to deny. “These thousands of signees want satisfaction for the discord Fox has sown, alienating friend from friend and family member from family member over contrivances it pushed to preserve ratings and profits,” the filing said. “While FOX has peppered this proceeding with politicians and sports teams, we have dedicated our efforts to educating everyday Americans about the FCC’s role in determining whether FOX's leadership meets the character expected of a broadcast licensee,” MAD Executive Director Milo Vassalo said. A New York Times article Tuesday reported that Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch is involved in a court battle with several of his children over changes to the family trust and ownership of Fox. Former Fox and Disney executive Preston Padden, who supports MAD’s petition, said the FCC would have to act if control of Fox is transferred from Rupert Murdoch to one of his sons. Benton Institute for Broadband & Society Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman said that while the agency normally resolves license challenges before a transfer of control is complete, it could simply deny the MAD petition or refuse action on the transfer. Fox didn’t comment.

Religious radio broadcaster theDove Media filed a petition for review against the FCC’s February equal employment opportunity order in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to court documents and a news release from Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), which represents theDove and owner Perry Atkinson. The EEO order was also challenged in filings in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and at the FCC (see 2405130041). The PLF release says the EEO order puts theDove at risk of being sued by third parties over “perceived disparities in the race or gender makeup of their workforce” and is outside the FCC’s authority. “The Constitution gives Congress alone the power to make laws and, therefore, Congress cannot give that power away to agencies,” PLF Senior Attorney Oliver Dunford said in the release. “Nor can these agencies accomplish indirectly what they are precluded from doing directly.”