The FCC’s new policies on TV sharing arrangements are to blame for three stations closing in Nebraska and North Dakota, said Commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly in a joint statement Tuesday (http://fcc.us/1l7YsuU). The stations are KHAS-TV Hastings, Nebraska, and in North Dakota KNDX Bismarck and KXND Minot. The three stations were to have been purchased by Excalibur Broadcasting and operated through sharing deals with Gray Television, the statement said. “These transactions, however, were blocked by the Commission’s new rules prohibiting the use of JSAs in these markets.” Similar to a recent announcement by Sinclair, the stations will be replaced by multicast channels on other Gray-owned stations. Gray has three more stations in Colorado, Louisiana and North Dakota that “will soon go dark because of the Commission’s JSA restrictions” the statement said. Gray said earlier this month it hired the brokerage arm of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council to sell all six stations. “Are these the victories for competition that critics of sharing agreements were hoping to see?” Pai and O'Rielly asked. “Or has the real goal all along just been to drive television stations off the air?” It could be hard to find a buyer, the commissioners said. “It could be difficult for a station to be viable in markets of this size over the long term with neither a major network affiliation nor a sharing agreement.” The stations referenced in the joint statement “aren’t dead,” said MMTC President David Honig in an interview, but are going dark as they wait to be sold. That’s not an uncommon practice, he said. “They are for sale, and we hope to find buyers."

The FCC Enforcement Bureau fined a Florida man $15,000 for operating an unlicensed FM station on 89.5 MHz in Miami. Though Jean Salvador denies presently having a station, he doesn’t deny operating the unlicensed station in June or July 2013, “or being a DJ or organizer for the unlicensed station,” the bureau said in a forfeiture order (http://bit.ly/1mkkgbK). The bureau also proposed a $25,000 fine against CMARR for allegedly interfering with a Federal Aviation Administration weather radar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, by operating radio transmitters without a license. Given the risk to public safety, “and the fact that CMARR had already received a warning for similar violations, these actions warrant a significant penalty,” it said in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1nD2ayi).

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., urged the Department of Defense to reassess the level of advertising spending on black-owned radio stations. The stations aren’t having commercial ads placed “with those stations at a level commensurate with the audience they serve,” he said in a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. If national advertisers are targeting the same demographics with a much more use of radio than DOD, “the department may be missing an opportunity,” he said. Johnson requested information from DOD, including a list of every broadcast and nonbroadcast entity with which the services placed ads. The National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters said it supported Johnson’s effort. “From our prior efforts, we know that obtaining cooperation from the Department of Defense can be a very difficult and time consuming task,” NABOB said Tuesday in a news release. The department received the letter from Johnson, said a spokesman for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense. DOD “will respond promptly and directly to him,” he said. “We appreciate his concerns regarding this issue."

KTSF-TV San Francisco launched a mobile TV Nielsen mobile measurement app. The app will help the station inform its research and insights, and drive advertising effectiveness, Nielsen said Monday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1izTTih). The app will allow KTSF “to go beyond how many viewers download an app and time spent to understand granular information important to advertisers such as demographics,” and ad campaigns that were watched, it said. Supplemental mobile viewing will contribute to existing TV audience estimates with mobile viewers, “allowing KTSF to identify additional viewing that it is not currently receiving credit for today,” it said.

Sinclair will sell WHTM-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to Media General, said the seller in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1q1lXgX). Sinclair said it’s also selling its interest in WTAT-TV in Charleston, South Carolina, to Cunningham Communications, which already owns the station’s license. Sinclair had provided services to WTAT through a sharing agreement. The deals, which combine for a sale price of $97.4 million, are related to Sinclair’s $985 million deal to buy Allbritton Communications’ TV stations. Sinclair said it expects to complete the buy of the Allbritton stations in Q3, “pending customary approvals and a waiver from the FCC.” Sinclair said last month it would shutter three other stations to bring the Allbritton deal into compliance with new FCC sharing arrangement policies (CD May 30 p4). The waiver would be a temporary one, allowing Sinclair to briefly own WHTM and an existing Harrisburg station at the same time, since the Allbritton transaction is likely to be approved before the Media General deal, Sinclair told us.

Sander Media has sold Phoenix TV stations KTVK and KASW to Meredith Corp. for $407.5 million, Gannett said in a news release Thursday (http://bit.ly/UiN6i7). Sander is affiliated with Gannett, and operates some stations through sharing arrangements with the larger company. Both stations were conveyed to Gannett and then to Sander as part of Gannett/Belo (CD Dec 17 p6), said Gannett. The deal to subsequently sell them to Meredith arose out of a Department of Justice consent decree, which required Gannett to divest KMOV St. Louis to get approval for its Belo acquisition. At the close of the deal, Meredith simultaneously conveyed KASW to SagamoreHill of Phoenix, which, through its affiliates, owns and operates two TV stations in two markets, said Gannett.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $10,000 fine against Duhamel Broadcasting Enterprises for failing to ensure that its antenna structure was properly illuminated. The Federal Aviation Administration notified Duhamel that lighting was required for its antenna structure in Rapid City, South Dakota, the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability and order released Thursday (http://bit.ly/1oLympK). Given that public safety is at risk when antenna structures aren’t properly illuminated, “Duhamel’s failure to light the structure after the FAA notification warrants a significant penalty,” it said.

Rentrak expanded its partnership with CBS-owned TV stations by providing two Los Angeles stations with Rentrak’s local ratings services. KCBS and KCAL will have full access to Advanced Automotive Demographics, “which measure television viewing tied to automobile make/model purchase behaviors,” Rentrak said Thursday in a news release (http://bit.ly/1vYUMUf). With the addition of these stations, Rentrak provides its services to nine CBS-owned stations in five markets, it said.

The Sports Fans Coalition continued to urge the FCC to repeal the sports blackout rule. While the FCC may find it prudent to sunset the rules by a certain date, it shouldn’t “delay taking swift action on a final Order that would ultimately eliminate” the sports blackout rule, SFC and the National Consumers League said in an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 12-3 (http://bit.ly/1iHmJrO). The rule is unnecessary because professional sports leagues, like the NFL, can rely on market forces to negotiate with cable- and satellite-TV providers to continue their blackout policies, it said. The rule serves as a government subsidy “that harms fans by cutting televised access to games the ticket buying public has determined are too expensive to attend in person,” it said. The filing recounts meetings with staff from the offices of Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel.

Scoring based on pre-auction assessments could distort pricing at the “critical end-stages of the” incentive auction, said an anonymous group of auction-eligible broadcasters in an FCC ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 12-268 (http://bit.ly/1q9LvpU). The group met with staff from the Incentive Auction Task Force, the Media Bureau and the Wireless Bureau last week. The FCC should release detailed information about any scoring mechanisms, as well as general information about likely auction pricing, the filing said. The broadcasters presented an option for estimating the possible funds available for broadcasters, using a “conservative estimate of forward auction revenue.” Their estimate projected $113 million in revenue per broadcaster, but the filing said the opening prices offered to broadcasters “should be much higher, allowing market forces to establish the actual market clearing prices, which could significantly exceed these values if forward auction revenue exceeds the estimated amount."