The FCC tentatively selected mutually exclusive low-power FM applications for grant in some western states using a point system, the agency said in a public notice released in Thursday’s Daily Digest (http://bit.ly/1kagUE3). The point system favored stations with an established community presence, local programming and diverse ownership, among other considerations, the PN said. The release of the notice kicks off a 30-day period for petitions to deny to be filed against the applicants, and a 90-day window for major change amendments and for applicants who are tied under the point system to file applications to “time-share” on the same frequency, the PN said. Full-power TV station owners should be aware of those dates, because many LPFM stations have asked for waivers of channel spacing rules, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1mOIFaV). “Full-power stations need to be vigilant to make sure that none of these applications (or any amendments subsequently filed by these LPFM applicants) will cause interference to their operation."

Broadcast station deal volume was $1.85 billion for Q2, a $2 billion drop from the year-ago quarter, said SNL Kagan in a news release Wednesday. Some $1.33 billion of the Q2 2014 number comes from TV station deals, while $518.6 million comes from radio. The broadcast sphere is “still a very robust deal market despite the decline from last year’s huge totals,” said the industry research firm. It said 613 stations total changed hands in the first half of 2014: 449 radio and 164 TV. The average price of a TV station in the first half of the year was $46.5 million, compared to $2.3 million for radio stations. The slower “pace of consolidation” in the TV station market was likely caused by recent changes to FCC ownership rules, SNL Kagan said. The largest TV transaction of the quarter was a $429.7 million 21st Century Fox trade of owned-and-operated affiliates in Boston and Memphis for a Cox Fox affiliate in San Francisco together with an independent station in the same market, SNL Kagan said. The largest deal that wasn’t a swap was Gannett’s $215 million purchase of six stations from London Broadcasting, SNL Kagan said. Those companies completed that deal, said a Gannett news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1w1x47Y). In radio, SNL Kagan said Q2’s biggest deal was the $105 million sale of four FM stations by Wilks Broadcast Group to Steel City Media.

American Community Television (ACT) joined broadcaster group TVfreedom.org to advocate for the basic service tier, TVfreedom.org said in a new release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1pXwrPl). ACT is concerned that “pay-TV-led legislative add-ons” to the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA) could threaten public, educational and government (PEG) channels, the release said. ACT represents more than 5,000 PEG access channels, the release said. STELA add-ons could “erode competition in the U.S. video marketplace” and “ultimately hurt the long-term viability of PEG channels across the nation,” said ACT Executive Director Bunnie Riedel. TVfreedom.org also said it backs the Community Access Preservation Act (S-1789), which would preserve PEG access channels on the cable basic tier and prevent cable companies from charging local governments to transmit PEG channels. Cable companies are “attempting to skirt long-standing public interest obligations associated with the basic service tier and community-based programming despite the fact that effective competition has not been found in more than half of the local television markets across the country,” said TVfreedom.org.

Access to emergency alert system (EAS) warnings isn’t just a Spanish-language issue, but talk about it “has basically been an English-Spanish conversation,” said Asian Americans Advancing Justice. The Asian nonprofit group, which also goes by the AAJC acronym, backed a Minority Media and Telecommunications Council FCC proposal for multilingual broadcast alerts. But “simply concentrating on Spanish” EAS alerts “or the number of markets with Spanish-language stations ignores significant limited English proficient (LEP) Asian American populations who do not receive in-language warnings about emergencies,” said AAJC. MMTC’s proposal for backup stations to transmit alerts in languages other than English when nearby non-English stations are off-air raised implementation questions for some industry commenters, while others backed much of the plan (CD May 30 p10). MMTC had cited problems with Spanish speakers not getting alerts in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit, which AAJC said affected Asian-Americans, too. “Federal, state, and local authorities responsible for multilingual EAS alerts must use census data and other appropriate demographic surveys and conduct community outreach to assess the languages commonly spoken in any given community,” said an AAJC comment posted Monday in docket 04-296 (http://bit.ly/1tjwcPX). “With this knowledge, authorities at all levels can begin to ensure that language minority communities receive timely and accessible EAS alerts.” MMTC’s proposal “has always focused on all of those who speak languages other than English,” responded President David Honig in an email to us Tuesday. “Those populations sometimes have been misperceived as entirely Spanish speaking. We fully support AAJC’s observations and suggestions."

The venue for court challenges against the FCC’s recent crackdown on sharing arrangements shouldn’t be changed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, NAB said in a filing in the D.C. Circuit, where the cases now are located. Public interest challengers Prometheus Radio Project asked for the change in venue because the 3rd Circuit has been the venue for previous proceedings on FCC ownership rules. Those issues “should not be the tail that wags the dog of venue,” NAB said in a motion filed Thursday in docket 14-1090. Transfer could “set a perilous precedent,” giving a single circuit “a virtual monopoly over review of any future agency proceeding” NAB said. Moving the case would also be physically inconvenient, NAB said. “The gravitational center of this dispute is in this Circuit."

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $9,000 fine against KTGF-TV Great Falls, Montana, for allegedly failing to timely file its children’s television programming reports. The station licensee also allegedly didn’t report the violations in its renewal application, the bureau said last week in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1moBHcu). The bureau also proposed a $3,000 fine for the Kaleidoscope Foundation for failing to timely file the same reports for Class A station KSJF Poteau, Oklahoma, it said in a separate notice (http://bit.ly/1vCeQKb).

Outspoken supplier Antennas Direct is offering 1,000 free ClearStream 2 Complete antennas to Aereo subscribers willing to pay a $10 shipping fee and upload their Aereo billing statements. The offer was publicized in NAB emails Thursday to reporters “covering the Supreme Court’s decision finding that Aereo infringes on broadcasters’ copyrights” (CD June 26 p1). The ClearStream 2 Complete lists for $129 at the Antennas Direct website. “Aereo Customers,” reads the online offer (http://bit.ly/1j0veDD): “We have a solution to the Supreme Court ruling that resulted in the loss of your local broadcast television: A FREE antenna from Antennas Direct.” The company on the day of the decision pulled no punches in a blog post hailing the Supreme Court ruling that days later forced Aereo to suspend its business (http://bit.ly/1lWJ7Tb). “We invite you to join us today in dancing on Aereo’s grave,” the post said. “Aereo is not actually a company,” but a “hobby backed by bloated investors,” it said. “It has not actually sustained itself and made money. It took large amounts of cash and blew them on legal fees. For the millions they have invested in lawyers, Antennas Direct could have supplied scores of Americans with the ability to start watching television right now for free."

Black Television News Channel continued to urge the FCC to grant it a three-year waiver of the ban on ads carried on direct broadcast satellite noncommercial set-aside channels. BTNC said “not a single party has filed comments opposing BTNC’s request,” in reply comments in docket 14-77 (http://bit.ly/1mUIJo8). The FCC has abundant good cause to promptly grant BTNC’s request, and thereby foster a diverse and significant source of news, informational and educational programming “to serve the African-American community and the nation as a whole,” it said. The commission can waive the advertising ban for BTNC, without running afoul of the statute, by clarifying that this ban isn’t a statutory requirement, “but instead reflects a commission interpretation that can be waived for good cause shown,” it said.

The Supreme Court’s recent denial of a cert petition for Minority Television Project’s case against the FCC (CD Dec 3 p4) means broadcasters “will continue to bear the second-class First Amendment status to which they have been officially subjected for nearly 50 years,” said Fletcher Heald litigator Jon Markman on the firm’s blog (http://bit.ly/1ooZS9c). That status stems from the 1969 Red Lion decision, which upheld the FCC’s fairness doctrine, Markman said. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled en banc against MTP that FCC rules barring non-commercial stations from airing commercials don’t violate the First Amendment because of the broadcasters’ special status under the amendment, Markman said. Though MTP sought cert from the high court for an appeal, “the Supremes declined to take the bait,” he said. “As is customary, no reason was given.” Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsberg indicated in past decisions that they believed Red Lion, which hinged on the singular power of broadcast TV, no longer applied, Markman said. “There was cause for optimism that the Supreme Court would be willing to review the case and, possibly, overrule Red Lion.”

Main Line Broadcasting completed its sale for $57 million of radio stations to L&L Broadcasting, said Media Venture Partners, a broker on the deal, Wednesday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1vxaUua). The stations were in markets including Dayton, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, and Richmond, Virginia.