The FCC Media Bureau canceled a proposed forfeiture for the Minority Educational Broadcasting Association, and instead admonished the low-power FM broadcaster, said an order released Friday. The bureau changed the order due to Minority’s inability to pay, the order said. “Licensee indicates that it does not generate any funds and therefore does not have or maintain a bank account,” the order said. The agency had issued a notice of apparent liability for $3,500 against Minority for failing to file a license renewal on time and continuing to operate WPJM-LP Palatka, Florida, after the license expired, the order said. Minority also argued that the violation was due to an oversight, but the bureau said the FCC “has long held that violations resulting from inadvertent error or failure to become familiar with the Commission’s requirements are willful violations.”

Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council President Robert Branson again pushed for FCC action on a range of initiatives MMTC said would “create and preserve racial justice.” The effort came on a call Wednesday with an aide to acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel (see 2108040064), said an ex parte filing posted in docket 17-105 Thursday. The proposed policy moves include authorizing geotargeted radio, a C4 FM class, multilingual emergency alerts, a broadcast incubator program, and the addition of diversity impact statements in FCC orders.

Changing the draft FY 2021 regulatory fee order (see 2108130076) to prevent an increase for broadcasters from the Broadband Data Act is a unique situation that won’t lead to long-term changes for the agency’s regulatory fee methodology, NAB told an aide to FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr in a call Thursday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 21-190 Tuesday. The FCC “can rest easy that this appropriation is a purple cow,” the filing said. The FCC “should not muddle through” and “simply do nothing to adjust its approach because it is complicated or difficult or tedious,” NAB said. “That would be an abdication of responsibility to the American public.”

The FCC Enforcement Bureau is “intentionally abusing the discovery process” said Auburn Network in a motion posted in docket 21-20 Monday calling for a recent EB filing to be struck and the bureau to be sanctioned (see 2108040061). “Auburn asks that the Presiding Judge consider whether the Enforcement Bureau can continue in this proceeding due to abuse of process,” said the motion. The bureau violated process rules by twice filing replies to Auburn filings that under the rules don’t provide for replies, Auburn said. “If the Enforcement Bureau is not sanctioned, this proceeding will spin out of control with the parties filing replies and counter-replies,” said Auburn. “This is exactly what the Enforcement Bureau wants.” The bureau’s reply filing disputed Auburn’s characterization of the number of documents the EB had asked Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin to privately review. “It is in the public interest for the record to accurately reflect that the Bureau requested that the Presiding Judge consider reviewing in camera all of the documents for which Auburn claimed privilege,” said the bureau. “Does the Enforcement Bureau believe that the Presiding Judge is incapable of reading the Enforcement Bureau’s late-filed July 23, 2021, Motion to Compel,” asked Auburn in the most recent motion. “What is the purpose of the Enforcement Bureau Motion and unauthorized Reply, if not to abuse process?” The bureau declined comment.

Xperi’s HD Radio is expanding into the commercial truck category, said the company Monday. Receivers will be available first on the digital dash display of the Mercedes-Benz Freightliner Cascadia truck, said the company. HD Radio’s digital broadcast system sends a signal over traditional AM and FM frequencies, allowing up to three additional channels of new audio programming, along with information such as album art, station logos, song and artist information, traffic, weather and critical emergency alerts.

The FCC should reconsider its relaxed rules for ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems and instead adopt an expedited waiver process, said Microsoft in reply comments Friday in docket 20-74 (see 2108040076). NAB and America’s Public Television Stations didn’t push back on Microsoft’s arguments that an expansion of DTS would hurt unlicensed use of the TV bands, but they “embrace that outcome as a victory in eliminating a perceived ‘constrain[t]’ on their business objectives,” Microsoft said. “Their response is that they are happy with the apparently unintended outcome of expanded coverage and that any harm to unlicensed operations is unimportant,” Microsoft said. NAB and APTS’ response “confirms that the Commission erred” in the original order, Microsoft said. “The soundest approach to permit the further expansion of a broadcast station’s DTS signal beyond its maximum facility is through a targeted expedited-waiver process.” The FCC’s original decision “failed to account for the vast harms imposed on TV White Spaces and the public interest,” said the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Tribal Digital Village in joint reply comments in docket 20-74. “The ability of several rural, Tribal, and other hard-to-serve communities nationwide to procure broadband networks depends on the Commission getting this policy right."

A lack of interest in radio construction permits, especially for AM stations, could stem from the FCC’s local ownership rules, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Friday (see 2108120037). A third of the permits in Auction 109 didn’t sell, and no permits for AM stations did. “I have been told that parties would have been interested in bidding on channels that went unsold but, because of the FCC’s ownership limitations, they were precluded from owning those stations,” Oxenford said: “Instead of providing new service to the public, these channels will lie fallow, providing service to no one.” Forty-two channels went unsold, some having opening bids as low as $750, Oxenford said. This auction and the upcoming comments on the 2018 quadrennial ownership review (see 2107160039) could “inform the Commission on the realities of the current audio marketplace,” Oxenford said.

A draft regulatory fees order on circulation still contains language that would increase fees for broadcasters, industry officials told us. The item went on circulation early this month. NAB, including President Gordon Smith, has been actively lobbying against the increase (see 2108050054), and an ex parte filing posted in docket 21-190 Friday documented calls by the trade group last week with aides to Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Nathan Simington. The increased fees are intended to fund broadband mapping efforts that don’t directly aid or involve broadcasters, NAB said. “Any attempt to cobble together an argument that broadcasters should contribute to broadband mapping because they allegedly benefit from the Commission’s broadband activities is specious,” NAB said. “For mapping purposes, broadcasters are merely consumers of broadband, much like any other company or individual in the United States.” The FCC generally approves the regulatory fees order at the start of September, industry attorneys told us.

The FCC’s Auction 109 finished Aug. 5 and raised $12,344,110 from 67 bidders for 97 AM and FM construction permits, said a public notice listed in Thursday’s Daily Digest. Down payments are due Aug. 26, final payments deadline and long-form applications must be in Sept. 13, the PN said.

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $1,500 forfeiture for Radio by Grace over a late-filed renewal application for W257DF(FM) Atlanta but will renew the station’s license, said a notice of apparent liability and order listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The renewal application was due March 1 but filed July 19, just before the license’s July 22 expiration date. Radio by Grace didn’t provide an explanation to the bureau or comment to us.