FCC approval for an all-digital AM service “will not happen overnight,” and won’t go anywhere without “industry support,” blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford Friday. He represents Bryan Broadcasting, which petitioned the FCC in docket 13-249 March 27 for a rulemaking to let AM stations go all-digital (see 1903270057). Comments on the petition are due May 13, said a public notice Thursday, and Oxenford urged anyone “interested in having the option to operate an all-digital AM station” to file support. Proponents of all-digital AM argue that it allows for “better reception and increased stability of the transmission,” said Oxenford. They also say it’s time for stations “that are willing to transmit in this better system to be allowed to do so without having to seek experimental authority -- the only way in which an all-digital AM transmission is now allowed,” he said. If the FCC senses “enough industry support” for the Bryan petition, it will issue an NPRM “seeking additional comments on rules for implementing this proposal,” he said. Hubbard Radio's WWFD Frederick, Maryland, was the first AM to transmit in digital full time using the HD Radio “MA3" mode, said an NAB Show paper that won top technical honors at the Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology conference last week in Las Vegas.

Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said that an FCC staffer saying broadcasters may want to keep quarterly issues/program lists since the data shows stations' public service efforts "seemed to be out of place." He wants "to follow up" about those remarks, he told reporters after Friday's commissioners' meeting. Commissioner Brendan Carr said he hadn't seen those comments and declined to address them. Media Bureau Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman had suggested at the NAB Show last week that broadcasters walk back calls to relax such reporting requirements (see 1904090063). The bureau declined comment now.

The FCC is trying to both claim it has addressed broadcast race and gender ownership diversity issues while insisting it also can't, when neither is true, petitioner anticonsolidation groups Prometheus Radio Project and others said in a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal reply brief Friday. They are challenging the 2014 quadrennial review, ownership reconsideration order and broadcast incubator program. They said the FCC and intervenor opposition briefs (see 1903220045) don't address their central arguments and that the agency's untying its ownership rules from race and gender diversity is without any support, thus deserving no deference. They said the FCC wrongly ignored the incentive auction's effect on race and gender diversity while also claiming the auction might help diversity efforts. They said the record doesn't support the claim the radio incubator will encourage new entrants and small businesses, including female and minority applicants. The agency didn't comment.

Magid Research's finding for Pearl TV that consumers in the Phoenix model market would be willing to pay up to $300 more for an ATSC 3.0-capable TV (see 1812060027) must be tempered with “this research was not a pricing study,” Magid analyst Nicole Meighan told the NAB Show this week in Las Vegas. “We would have to do more research on that, but this just shows that there is excitement and interest in paying.” Magid canvassed 95 consumers in 12 group “labs” in October on impressions of 3.0 features they were shown, said Meighan. After the labs, Magid picked 38 participants for six focus groups to “share what they actually thought in depth,” Meighan said. Enhanced 3.0 video with audio “drove the most interest across all the groups,” she said. "We would have to do more research in order to understand if enhanced video or enhanced audio alone is enough." The Phoenix research found 4K video was a 3.0 killer app for some, not all, with early Ultra HD adopters less swayed, said Meighan. The Pearl team was “a little bit surprised how high audio ranked” for dialogue enhancement and immersive 3D audio, a Pearl technology consultant said at the show (see 1904070001). Thursday, the FCC posted filings showing the extent to which broadcasters lobbied commissioners at the conference (see 1904110033).

Comments are due May 10, oppositions May 28 and replies June 4 on Apollo Global Management’s application to buy some Cox stations and pair them with TV stations from Northwest Broadcasting, said an FCC Media Bureau public notice Wednesday. Apollo would pay $3.1 billion for the Cox stations (see 1903060078).

An FCC forum on enhanced electronic newsroom technique procedures for live captioning local news programming will be 1 p.m. May 10 in the Commission Meeting Room, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau said in a public notice Tuesday.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will integrate HD Radio’s emergency alerts feature into its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) test and demonstration center in Maryland, said parent company Xperi Monday. For the first time, FEMA will be able to test the emergency alert system using commercial HD Radio receivers, said Ashruf El-Dinary, Xperi vice president-radio technology solutions. The HD Radio emergency alerts feature provides visual and auditory notifications to consumers, and the digital radio features allow broadcasters to expand public service information in communities, Xperi said. HD Radio receivers with the emergency alerts feature are available in select vehicles, and aftermarket and tabletop radios, in the U.S. and Canada. The emergency alert feature will be demonstrated at the NAB Show in the FEMA/IPAWS booth, Central Hall stand C3330.

Univision Communications sold the assets of Gizmodo Media Group and The Onion, as expected (see 1807100067). The buyer is Great Hill Partners private equity firm, which is starting G/O Media to operate the media companies "as independent assets," the broadcaster said Monday. GMG includes Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel and The Root. The Onion portfolio includes the namesake parody publication and The A.V. Club.

Over opposition of another broadcaster, Connecticut Public Broadcasting Inc. can move WEDW Bridgeport to Stamford, the FCC Media Bureau ordered Monday. CPBI noted that Stamford, with a 2010 census-measured population of 122,643 and the state's No. 3 city, doesn't have another full-power TV station licensed to it, while Bridgeport would continue to host WZME. PMCM objections included that Stamford is “a dummy site” to achieve CPBI's goal to serve New York City and the public broadcaster's distributed transmission system (DTS) application for WEDW proposes to “broadcast from the Empire State Building over a large swath of New York and northern New Jersey." The opponent said OK'ing the change “will open the floodgates” to similar applications using the DTS rules “to effectively reallocate licenses.” The bureau said now that "WEDW’s service area will remain the same." The floodgates argument was "speculative at best," staff said. The company didn't comment.

Nexstar agreed to sell to Circle City Broadcasting WISH-TV Indianapolis and WNDY-TV Marion, Indiana, for $42.5 million cash after Nexstar buys Tribune Media, said the divester Monday. CCB is a new minority-led broadcaster controlled and owned by DuJuan McCoy. He's owner-CEO of Bayou City Broadcasting. The divestitures (see 1903200058) complete Nexstar’s plan to comply with FCC ownership rules and to obtain FCC and DOJ approval of taking over Tribune Media transaction, it said. “The $1.36 billion of gross proceeds from the proposed station divestitures exceeds our initial estimate by approximately 36%,” said Nexstar CEO Perry Sook. “Our borrowings and leverage will be lower than anticipated at closing.” CCB will run the stations “hands-on,” with no shared service agreements or joint sales agreement, “maintaining full control of both stations and their content -- a tremendous win for diverse voices,” said the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council.