Monty Tayloe

All three 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges hearing oral argument Wednesday on Gray Television’s appeal of a $518,000 FCC forfeiture order seemed skeptical of the agency’s rationale for the penalty amount but split on Gray’s arguments against the FCC’s authority over deals for TV station network affiliation.

Broadband providers, broadcasters, satellite companies and the FirstNet Authority urged the FCC not to expand outage reporting requirements. Meanwhile, groups such as Public Knowledge, Next Century Cities and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) said increased reporting rules are a matter of public safety. Comments were filed in docket 21-346 by Monday’s deadline.

Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley signaled that his company is open to selling “assets” amid rumors that it's eyeing divesting 60 stations. Meanwhile, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said broadcasters can’t have confidence about transactions in the current regulatory environment. The CEOs spoke during their respective Q1 earnings calls last week. Ripley, Sook and executives from Gray and E.W. Scripps also discussed progress on ATSC 3.0, a backloaded political advertising market, and streaming during earnings calls.

Republican lawmakers blasted NPR CEO Katherine Maher during a House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday and suggested that Congress should conduct more regular oversight of NPR and CPB or defund them (see 2405070044).

Adell Broadcasting will bring legal action against Nexstar and Mission Broadcasting if Mission doesn’t accept the FCC’s conditions for approving Mission’s proposed $75 million buy of Adell’s WADL Mount Clemens, Michigan (see 2404240070), Adell CEO Kevin Adell told us in an interview Tuesday.

The FCC should reign in its Enforcement Bureau to avoid conflicts with recent and expected U.S. Supreme Court decisions, though the current bureau doesn’t “overreach” as frequently as it did under former Chairman Tom Wheeler, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Thursday during a Wiley panel discussion called “Opportunities to Reform FCC Enforcement." Carr told us, “The jury is still out” on whether the EB under FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel needs reform, he said in an interview after the panel discussion: “We’re not off the rails the way the agency was during the Wheeler tenure."

Catholic broadcasters and groups filed two petitions for reconsideration against the FCC’s equal employment opportunity order in part because it updates Form 395-B to account for nonbinary employees.

House Innovation Subcommittee members appeared overwhelmingly supportive of a revised draft version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act during a Tuesday hearing, though some expressed reservations about imposing a mandate on automakers. The revised draft and earlier version HR-3413/S-1669 would require DOT to mandate AM radio's inclusion in future electric vehicles. S-1669 lead sponsors earlier that day announced a filibuster-proof Senate majority formally back the measure.

Standard General and its founder Soohyung Kim filed a civil complaint Wednesday charging that Allen Media CEO Byron Allen, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, along with lawmakers, unions and public interest groups, were partners in a conspiracy and race discrimination aimed at sinking Standard's $8.6 billion purchase of Tegna last year (see 2306010077). The filing was made in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. “The FCC Chairwoman and her personal staffer blocked the deal at the behest of Mr. Allen, who used business allies and six-figure political donations to destroy Mr. Kim’s chances of acquiring TEGNA,” the complaint said.

The FCC Media Bureau granted Mission Broadcasting’s application to buy WADL Detroit Michigan from Adell Broadcasting for $75 million, but with a number of conditions that would bar Nexstar from financing the deal, negotiating retransmission consent for WADL and limiting how much programming Nexstar could provide. If Mission doesn’t accept the conditions, the order says, the deal will be designated for a hearing, traditionally seen as a death sentence for transactions. The Media Bureau is “taking the application the FCC received and substituting it for a new one drafted by the agency,” said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in a statement: “That’s not the FCC’s job or role.”