FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said the FCC should hold an up-or-down vote on ending the sports blackout rule. The time has come for the FCC to repeal its sports blackout rule, he said Tuesday at a Sports Fans Coalition event in Buffalo (http://bit.ly/1osy6ev). The FCC’s job is to serve the public interest, “not the private interests of team owners,” he said. Pai said he couldn’t promise Buffalo residents that they'd be able to watch all Buffalo Bills games on TV if the rule were eliminated. “But that’s no excuse for keeping it on the books.” The commission shouldn’t get involved “in handing out special favors or picking winners and losers,” he said. Repealing the rule “may lead to unintended consequences and deny viewers of valuable sports programming on broadcast television,” said the Protect Football on Free TV campaign. Fans, organizations and community leaders sent more than 10,000 letters to the FCC in support of maintaining the rule, it said. “It’s unfortunate that pay-TV special interests continue to bankroll this effort to overturn a rule that works for millions of Americans,” it said. The campaign is led by former NFL player Lynn Swann (CD July 30 p19).

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed an informal objection to the license renewal of KSCO(AM) Santa Cruz, California. The objection by Thomas Irion alleged that station hosts openly advocate criminal behavior, and the station owner engages in anti-social behavior on the air, the bureau said in a letter to Irion (http://bit.ly/XdlpJi). The objection was filed one month after the bureau granted the application, it said. Irion provided no explanation for why he didn’t object to the application before its grant, it said. Irion “failed to show that the commission erred in granting the application,” the bureau said. The bureau also said it treated the objection as a petition for reconsideration.

The FCC Media Bureau granted a reconsideration petition by Synergy Project for an application for a new low-power FM construction permit. The bureau previously dismissed the application for an LPFM permit in Richmond, Virginia, the bureau said in a letter to an attorney for Synergy (http://bit.ly/1sRpFZB). The bureau granted the petition on the condition that Synergy dismisses its application for review for a noncommercial educational station at Montpelier, Virginia, it said. The FCC decided grant of both the LPFM application and the NCE application would violate the commission’s cross-ownership rule, it said. The bureau found that it hasn’t provided the requisite “explicit notice” for dismissing applications based on application defects, it said.

Prometheus Radio Project urged the FCC to delay opening an FM translator filing window exclusively for AM stations. Prometheus argued in an ex parte filing in docket 13-249 (http://bit.ly/1riuw3O) that eligibility for the AM-only filing window should be restricted to Class C and Class D stations. Prometheus also cautioned against raising the maximum effective radiated power for low-power FM stations from 100 watts to 250 watts. Holding an FM translator window exclusively for LPFM licensees “would significantly unburden LPFM stations while remaining faithful to the word and intention of the Local Community Radio Act,” it said. The filing in docket 99-25 was on a meeting with Courtney Reinhard, chief of staff for Commissioner Mike O'Rielly.

CBS and Tribune renewed their affiliation agreement and will move the Indianapolis CBS affiliate from LIN Media’s WISH-TV to Tribune’s WTTV starting Jan. 1, said a news release from CBS (http://bit.ly/1kXapdy). Through the deal, Indianapolis Colts games will be broadcast on WTTV starting in 2015. The agreement also includes affiliation agreement renewals for four Tribune Media-owned CBS stations: WREG-TV Memphis, WHNT-TV Huntsville, Alabama, KFSM-TV Ft. Smith, Arkansas, and WTVR-TV Richmond, Virginia, the release said. CBS also renewed its affiliation agreement with Dreamcatcher Broadcasting’s WTKR Norfolk, Virginia, which is operated through a shared services agreement with Tribune.

The FCC Media Bureau approved a temporary waiver of newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership (NBCO) rules and the license renewal application for Fox’s WWOR-TV Secaucus, New Jersey, over objections from public interest groups, said an order Friday (http://bit.ly/1uwy44J). The NBCO waiver is necessary to allow Fox to own both the station and the New York Post, the order said. In several petitions to deny and objections to the waiver and WWOR’s renewal, Free Press, United Church of Christ and Voice for New Jersey said WWOR had not fulfilled its obligation to serve northern New Jersey, the order said. Public interest groups had also accused Fox of misrepresenting how much northern New Jersey news and content the station was broadcasting (CD Feb 18/11 p6). The bureau concluded that any misrepresentations were “unintentional and harmless errors.” “Whether the station might have selected different stories to cover or presented its stories using different formats is not a part of our review,” said the order. “It is well-settled law that the Commission does not substitute its own editorial judgment for that of a licensee.” The bureau’s decision “whitewashed Fox’s abject failure to meet the needs of Northern New Jersey,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Voice for New Jersey in the matter. Fox’s NBCO waiver is temporary, pegged to the commission’s 2014 quadrennial review proceeding, the order said. Fox will have 90 days after the effective date of a 2014 quadrennial review order that either adopts a new NBCO rule or upholds the existing one to either come into compliance or request another waiver, the order said.

The Last Bastion Station Trust completed the sale of KRDJ(FM) New Iberia, Louisiana. Bible Broadcasting Network in Charlotte, North Carolina, bought the station for $1.78 million, Media Venture Partners, which represented the seller, said Wednesday in a news release.

The FCC Media Bureau put a freeze on the applications for minor changes for FM stations. The bureau will make available three non-reserved FM band allotments for existing, vacant FM allotments on channels 221 through 300 that have been reserved for noncommercial educational use, the bureau said Thursday in a public notice (http://bit.ly/V5nEwm). The window opens Aug. 8 and closes Sept. 8, it said. The bureau also put a freeze on applications proposing to change the reference coordinates of any of the three vacant allotments available through this window, “or petitions and counterproposals that propose a change in channel, class, community, or reference coordinates” for any of the vacant allotments, it said. The freeze will automatically terminate the day after the close of the filing window, the bureau said. The vacant channels are 254 in Asbury, Iowa, 230 in Greenup, Illinois, and 260 in Van Alstyne, Texas, the bureau said (http://bit.ly/1peDK2S).

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $16,000 fine for Satv10 for allegedly failing to file quarterly TV programs lists and children’s TV programming reports for its TV station KYVV in Del Rio, Texas. Satv10 allegedly didn’t file the quarterly programs lists for 21 quarters, and didn’t timely file the children’s TV reports for four quarters, the bureau said in a notice of apparent liability (http://bit.ly/1kM0BTU).

The FCC Media Bureau granted Pine Telephone special relief to add a Portland, Oregon, cable community to the TV markets of Boise, Idaho, stations KBOI-TV and KTVB. The bureau also denied special relief for Pine’s Nampa, Idaho, stations KIVI and KTRV, and KNIN-TV Caldwell, Idaho, the bureau said Wednesday in an order (http://bit.ly/1qWY3oi). Because cable systems in the Halfway community have carried KBOI, KIVI and KTVB, for as long as there has been cable service there, “we find that these stations have demonstrable historic carriage, whereas KNIN-TV and KTRV-TV do not,” it said.