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.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,500 forfeiture for LMNOC Broadcasting over the company’s failure to file a timely license to cover for FM translator station K251CJ, Taos, New Mexico, and for operating the translator after the broadcaster’s construction permit expired, said a combined order and notice of apparent liability in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The bureau will grant the broadcaster’s license renewal application when the forfeiture is resolved, the order said. LMNOC engaged in unauthorized operation for more than six months, the order and NAL said.

The FCC Media Bureau granted Gray Television’s requests to delete Channel 4 from Superior, Nebraska, and allot it to York, Nebraska, and substitute Channel 24 for 4 at York for its station KSNB-TV, said an order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. KSNB-TV had been licensed to Superior but with the change is now licensed to York. The move is part of an effort by Gray to improve service to viewers in the Lincoln, Nebraska, area after another station’s tower collapse in 2020 and “the imminent failure of KSNB’s existing technical facility,” Gray told the agency, according to the order. The bureau also granted Corridor Television’s request to change the channel of KCWX Fredericksburg, Texas, from 5 to 8, said another order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,500 forfeiture for Hoosier AM/FM for failing to file a timely license to cover for its FM translator station W288DN, Marion, Indiana, and for operating the translator after the broadcaster’s construction permit expired, said a combined order and notice of apparent liability listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The bureau will grant Hoosier’s license renewal application when the forfeiture is resolved, the order said. Hoosier's proposed forfeiture was reduced from $7,000 because translators are a secondary service, the item said.

The Patent and Trademark Office accepted CTA’s statement of use on the NextGenTV logo as a certification mark for ATSC 3.0-compliant TVs, clearing its final hurdle toward a trademark registration certificate, said an agency notice Tuesday. The certificate “will issue in due course barring any extraordinary circumstances,” said PTO. CTA’s July 1 statement of use said the logo was first deployed commercially “at least as early” as March 2020 (see 2107260021).

The FCC Media Bureau canceled a notice of apparent liability proposing a $4,500 forfeiture for Autaugaville Radio after it was found that the agency's licensing and management system listed the wrong license expiration date for Autaugaville’s Alabama stations WXKD(AM) Brantley and W292HL Troy, said an order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest (see 2108020048). With the incorrect date in the LMS, the broadcaster couldn’t file renewal applications on time, the order said.

The FCC’s FY 2021 regulatory fees NPRM ignores congressional requirements that the fees be based on benefits provided to the payor, said NAB in a meeting Wednesday with acting FCC General Counsel Michele Ellison and staff from her office, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 21-190 (see 2108170065). The NPRM’s “pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey approach to assessing fees for Bureaus and Offices that have little or nothing to do with broadcasters” would “certainly result in an unconstitutional delegation of authority,” the filing said. “The Commission must rectify its’ [sic] error and simply remove the Media Bureau contribution to this purely broadband-centric exercise,” the filing said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $3,500 forfeiture for Natkim Radio for failing to file a timely license to cover for its translator station W285FR, Palatka, Florida, and for operating the translator after the broadcaster’s construction permit had expired, said a combined order and notice of apparent liability listed in Monday’s Daily Digest. The bureau will grant Natkim’s license renewal application when the forfeiture is resolved, the order said. Natkim’s engineer told the FCC he was primarily responsible for the translator’s construction and he “inadvertently failed to notify [Permittee] that a license to cover application was required,” the NAL said.

State broadcast associations said the FCC should “hold the line” on FY 2021 regulatory fees. The request came in calls last week with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks, Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington, said three similar ex parte filings posted in docket 21-190 on Friday (see 2108170065). Broadcast associations from Minnesota, Georgia, Indiana, Montana and Missouri participated in the calls. Requiring broadcasters to face increased regulatory fees to cover the FCC’s broadband mapping efforts violates legislation requiring regulatory fees be tied to the benefit they deliver and is inconsistent with the FCC’s past practice, the representatives said. The FCC’s plan “to charge broadcasters 16% of its operating costs while those same broadcasters hold only 0.07% of the spectrum” regulated by the FCC “is an unsustainable approach,” the filings said. The FCC should keep fees level for broadcasters and launch a separate proceeding to investigate charging regulatory fees to additional entities, such as tech companies, the filings said. “By expanding the universe of payors, the Commission can reduce the impact of the fees on any one particular industry, like broadcasting, while achieving greater fairness for all.”