No broadcast incubator applications have been filed, said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in early comments Tuesday on the FCC 2018 quadrennial review in docket 18-349. “Industry is balking because the agency has done nothing to welcome incubator applicants,” said MMTC, saying the FCC should do an incubator workshop. MMTC wants to alter the incubator program to prevent broadcasters from receiving benefits in markets far larger than the ones where they offer incubation opportunities (see 1809280052). MMTC again suggested diversity rules on procurement and tradable diversity credits (see 1606240058) and said the FCC shouldn't eliminate or reduce local radio ownership subcaps. Press Communications disagreed. “Expanded ownership caps are essential” to allow radio broadcasters the scale to compete with satellite radio and streaming services such as Spotify, the company said. It offered three possible solutions: caps that change based on the prospective owner’s size, caps based on where a station’s market is, or allowing Class A broadcasters to double their ownership cap limits. “The hardships faced by Class A broadcasters are irrefutable and require an immediate change to the ownership limits,” Press said.

WFHD-LP Ann Arbor, Michigan’s, license will expire Oct.1 if no renewal application is received by the FCC before then, said a public notice listed in Monday’s Daily Digest. The station is licensed to Max Henry & Associates. WFHD and other Michigan and Ohio TV stations were required to file a renewal application by June 1, the PN said.

WMDN Meridian, Mississippi, was admonished by the FCC Media Bureau for late filing of quarterly issues/programs lists to its public file, said a letter to licensee WMDN TV listed in Monday’s Daily Digest. “It uploaded two lists between one month and one year late, and eight lists between one day and one month late,” staff said. “While we do not rule out more severe sanctions for similar violations of this nature in the future, we have determined that an admonition is appropriate.”

FCC Media Bureau OK of Corridor Television’s request to change KCWX Fredericksburg, Texas, from Channel 5 to 8 takes effect Tuesday, says that day’s Federal Register. A request from Gray Television to delete Channel 4 from Superior, Nebraska, allot it to York, Nebraska, and substitute Channel 24 for 4 for its KSNB-TV York also takes effect Tuesday, the FR says.

Address a Meredith TV station’s policy against advertisements encouraging cord cutting, as a condition of approving Gray Television buying Meredith’s stations, asked an informal objection posted Friday in FCC docket 21-234 from Mr. Antenna. The Las Vegas-based company that installs outdoor TV antennas advertised on KVVU-TV Henderson, Nevada, until June, when Mr. Antenna was told KVVU would “no longer accept advertising from vendors whose products presented a ‘cord-cutting’ alternative to cable service,” the objection said. KVVU is part of Gray/Meredith broadcasting. “The reason given for the change in policy was that Meredith’s retransmission consent income is tied to cable subscribership,” the filing said. Gray and Meredith didn’t comment Monday.

Pearl TV stations have “started to look" at doing over-the-air ATSC 3.0 transmissions in 4K, Managing Director Anne Schelle told the ATSC NextGen Broadcast Conference Thursday. “We had an almost opportunity -- I can’t really talk about it -- where a network was looking at it, but for rights issues and others, we didn’t do it,” she said. She foresees stations in 2022 will begin doing events-based broadcasts in 4K for live sports, she said. “Some of the stations are talking about production in 4K” for some of the “shoulder content they’re producing around sports,” she said.

The FCC should merge the 2018 quadrennial ownership review into the upcoming 2022 QR to “take the time to conduct a proper review,” two university professors studying media ownership said in joint comments posted Friday in docket 18-349. “A continuing legal impasse on media ownership policy benefits neither citizens nor the broadcast industry,” said Christopher Terry, University of Minnesota assistant professor of media law and ethics, and Caitlin Ring Carlson, Seattle University associate professor of communication. The FCC “set a precedent for incorporating ongoing quadrennial reviews to newly required ones during the crossover between the 2010 and 2014 reviews,” the professors said. “There is little reason to abandon the approach at this time.” The agency is likely to receive “increased deference” due to the U.S. Supreme Court opinion from the FCC’s successful Prometheus appeal, and could use that to develop a record to allow an eventual 2022 QR order to survive legal challenge, the filing said. The FCC “should commit to rapid action when launching the 2022 proceeding, unlike the last possible moment launch of the current proceeding in December of 2018,” the professors said. “Releasing a notice of proposed rulemaking shortly after the new year will give the agency some time to properly consider the comments.”

GeoBroadcast Solutions’ (GBS) geotargeted radio proposal “threatens to completely upend the radio industry’s business model with only an illusion of an upside,” said NAB and iHeartMedia in a call Monday with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, according to an NAB ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 20-401. Starks has been a vocal proponent of the geotargeted radio technology as a way to make minority-owned radio stations more viable. “The reality is quite the opposite,” NAB and iHeart said. Geotargeted radio will put downward pressure on ad rates, hurting smaller broadcasters, said NAB and iHeart. It could also be used to specifically target more affluent areas, and could lead to interference concerns, the filing said. GBS didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,000 forfeiture for Nexstar Media’s WSPA-TV Spartanburg, South Carolina, for repeatedly failing to file quarterly TV issues/programs lists, said a notice of apparent liability listed in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The station uploaded four lists over one year late and three lists between one month and one year late, the NAL said.

Proposed increases in FY 2021 regulatory fees would be “especially challenging after the huge revenue downturns of the past two years,” state broadcast associations told acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel in a call Monday, according to an ex parte filing in docket 21-190. The group included the executive directors of the Indiana, West Virginia, Minnesota and Georgia broadcast groups. The FCC plan “to charge broadcasters 16% of its operating costs while those same broadcasters hold only 0.07% of the spectrum regulated by the Commission is an unsustainable approach to funding,” the filing said. Continuing the FCC’s traditional regulatory fee approach and charging broadcasters for costs associated with broadband mapping “merely forces broadcasters to subsidize through excessive regulatory fees their fiercest competitors -- social media and technology companies,” the filing said. The FCC should “promptly launch a separate proceeding to commence that effort and ensure a thoughtful process in which all may participate,” the associations said.