FCC Actions

Following the Supreme Court unanimously overturning the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling against the FCC’s 2017 changes to the broadcast ownership rules in April, the FCC has ordered the rule changes be implemented upon their publication in the federal register.

The rule changes are:

• Eliminating the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership rule preventing a company from operating a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same market.
• Eliminating the radio/television ownership subcaps so a television station no longer counts towards the limit of eight radio stations (maximum of five on each band) that a company can own.
• Eliminating the requirement that at least eight independently owned television stations must remain in the market following the combination of two television stations in a market
• Modifying the ban against common ownership of two top-four rated tv stations in a market to allow waivers on a case-by-case basis
• Eliminating the JSA Attribution Rule requiring television stations to count a station it sells more than 15% of ad time for under the ownership cap.

The move will also reinstate the incubator program proposed in 2018. The incubator program will see an established broadcaster providing financial and operational support, including training and mentoring, to a new or small radio broadcaster. At the end of a successful incubation, the established broadcaster will be eligible to receive a waiver of the Commission’s Local Radio Ownership Rule, subject to certain requirements.

The FCC is also opening a comment period for the 2018 Quadrennial Review to seek comment on whether to retain, modify, or eliminate any of its structural media ownership rules. The full order can be read here.

Grand Junction Media’s 101.5 KGJX Fruita CO and St. Louis Community College’s 89.5 KCFV Ferguson MO are the latest stations to enter a consent decree with the FCC resolving issues from their online political file as part of the station’s license renewal.

Deletions

Donald Pugh’s Eternity Media Group filed for a license to cover for its 103.5 WETI Lake Village AR/Greenville MS in November 2016. During the time since the station purportedly operated along with a series of Silent STA’s for issues such as inability to staff the station, broken coaxial cable, and the COVID pandemic. At its license renewal time three petitioners came forward questioning the station’s operation with Larry Fuss, owner of the in-market Delta Radio Network cluster, supplying photographic evidence that the station was never built and has never once broadcast. Following an inquiry from the FCC that went by Pugh, the station’s license has been deleted.