Another law firm filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against Sinclair and former-merger partner Tribune accusing them of colluding over advertising rates, in a complaint filed Friday (in Pacer) in U.S. District Court in Maryland. A similar suit was filed last month by an Arkansas law firm (see 1807310054). As in the other case, MyPhillyLawyer bought ads from the companies sued on behalf of itself and other advertisers. Like the previous suit, this one refers to reports of DOJ investigating advertising collusion by the companies. Sinclair, Tribune and MyPhillyLawyer didn’t comment.

The Public Safety Bureau will do a voluntary test of the disaster information reporting system (DIRS) for broadcasters Sept. 13 and 14, said in a public notice in Tuesday's Daily Digest. “The purpose of this exercise is to help users become familiar with the system and ready to file DIRS reports when a real disaster strikes.” The exercise will simulate a disaster by asking broadcasters to file reports on both days. The bureau “encourages broadcasters that have not already registered in DIRS to do so now.” The simulation had been set for last month but was moved in response to the threat of then-Hurricane Lane, which eventually required DIRS activation (see 1808230044).

Prometheus Radio Project and Media Mobilizing Project filed a petition for review of the FCC’s incubator order in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to court documents (in Pacer). The order and incubator program uses a definition of eligible entities that won’t increase ownership diversity and “fails to compile a record sufficient to consider its impact” on minority ownership, the petition said. The incubator order violates the Administrative Procedure Act, Communications Act and previous media ownership rulings of the 3rd Circuit, petitioners said. The anti-consolidation groups also filed a motion (in Pacer) seeking to have the appeal consolidated with their appeal of the FCC reconsideration order on media ownership rules. The 3rd Circuit requested -- and received -- information on the incubator program as part of that case, which is on hold. The agency didn’t comment.

Live college and professional football games are “the most frequently targeted” for blackouts during retransmission consent battles, said the American Television Alliance. “Blackouts in 2017 reached a record high of 213, breaking the previous calendar year record set in 2015 of 193.” There have been 83 blackouts this year, said the group of MVPDs and others seeking retransmission-consent rule changes." The irony of ATVA lamenting infrequent loss of broadcast sports programming is especially rich in light of Big Pay TV’s never-ending blackout of Los Angeles Dodger baseball games that’s lasted nearly five years," an NAB spokesperson said Friday. "Broadcasters have every incentive to keep our programming on pay TV platforms, as evidenced by the fact that 99 percent of all retransmission consent deals end without a disruption.”

Broadcasters in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that haven’t been able to resume broadcasting have six additional months to rebuild, from Sept. 6 until March 6, the FCC Media Bureau said in a public notice Thursday. The one-year anniversary of the storms is approaching, and a year of silence can ordinarily cause a station to lose its license. The “catastrophic nature” of the 2017 storms and power loss in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands “warrants consideration of equity and fairness,” the PN said. Stations currently silent because of storm damage that won’t be able to resume broadcasting by the 12-month mark should file requests for special temporary authority and provide a projected date before March 6 by which the station will be operating, it said. “Delineate the specific factors preventing the station’s resumption of broadcast operations prior to the one-year mark.” Staff said they won't “entertain requests to extend or reinstate an expired license from licensees that have not filed a Silent STA Request prior to the end of their twelve full months of silence.”

The FCC Media Bureau proposed a $6,000 fine for Malibu low-power licensee Zuma Beach FM Emergency and Community Broadcasters but rejected a petition of reconsideration filed against its grant of a permit to modify Zuma’s facilities, said an order and notice of apparent liability in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The proposed forfeiture is based on Zuma’s broadcasting on an incorrect frequency while it was building new facilities. “Zuma operated for about a month with power levels and on a channel that were specified in its construction permit but not in its existing license,” the NAL said. Zuma operated at incorrect power levels during a wildfire emergency, and not at the request of public safety officials, the NAL said. Nearby radio licensee Future Roots argued the bureau incorrectly granted Zuma’s construction permit, but the bureau disagreed. Zuma didn’t comment.

The FCC Media Bureau granted a request from Border Media Licenses for a declaratory ruling, letting it buy WRGR(FM) Tupper Lake, New York, said an order in docket 18-66 listed in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. BML is 100 percent owned by residents of the U.K. and Poland and its petition and license transfer application were unopposed, the order added. “It will serve the public interest to grant the Petition.”

Beasley Media doesn’t support an FCC proposal to limit interference complaints by full-power FM stations against FM translator stations outside the full-power’s 54 dBu contour, said CEO Caroline Beasley in an Aug. 21 meeting with Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner, recounted a filing posted Monday in docket 18-119. Significant listening occurs outside an average FM station's 54 dBu contour, the broadcaster said. Beasley supports the other proposals in the FM translator interference NPRM.

Phase one of the post-incentive auction repack starts Sept. 14, the Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau reminded broadcasters in a public notice in Monday’s Daily Digest. The phase one testing period stretches until Nov. 30, with phase two starting Dec. 1. During their testing period, repacked broadcasters can begin broadcasting on their new frequencies for testing purposes, and commence operation on the new channel while ceasing broadcasting on their former channel, the PN said. “The purpose of the testing period is not for stations to simulcast signals to viewers on two channels.” Stations must file an application for a license within 10 days of “commencement of program test authority,” the PN said. Stations that need more time will need to file for special temporary authority, and can get a single 180-day extension of their construction permit, the PN said. Construction permit extensions must be filed 90 days before the end of a station’s phase, the PN said. Thirty days before ceasing operation on pre-auction channels, broadcasters must air “at least 60-seconds per day of on-air consumer education public service announcements (PSAs) or crawls” about the transition, the PN said. MVPDs must be notified 90 days ahead of time, the PN said.

Comments on the FCC’s proposals for directing reimbursement funds to low-power TV stations, translators and radio stations are due Sept. 26, according to a Federal Register notice for Monday. Replies are due Oct. 26. An accompanying order directing the Media Bureau to determine costs and engage a contractor to administer the reimbursement fund was also scheduled in the FR and to be effective Monday.