Tribune reached a comprehensive agreement with Fox, renewing the affiliation of eight Tribune stations, Tribune said in a release.

Bonneville International will buy eight radio stations from Entercom, four each in Sacramento and San Francisco, for $141 million, said a Bonneville release. Bonneville has been programing the stations under a local marketing agreement since 2017, the release said. “The transaction is pending regulatory approval, and is expected to close in late 3rd quarter or early in the 4th quarter of this year,” the release said.

BBC Late Night Laugh, a series of nightly radio comedy specials highlighting the talent appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that runs through Aug. 27, launched Friday for smart speakers, including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomePod or Google Home devices, said the broadcaster. “Comedy is hugely popular on smart speakers and we love the idea of people asking for a late night laugh,” said Julia McKenzie, BBC Studios head-radio comedy.

The FCC should delete its WPXQ Channel 17 at Block Island, Rhode Island, and substitute Channel 17 at Newport in the DTV table of allotments (see 1806120016), Ion commented in docket 18-153. That “will represent a preferential arrangement of allotments by affording Newport its first local full-power television service in satisfaction of the Commission' s second allotment priority,” Ion said.

Nexstar will buy KRBK Osage Beach, Missouri, and WHDF Florence, Alabama, for a total of $19.45 million, Nexstar said in a news release Thursday. KRBK is being sold by owner KRBK and WHDF by owner Huntsville TV. Under local marketing agreements, “Nexstar began operating WHDF-TV on July 15, 2018 and KRBK-TV on August 1, 2018,” the release said. The deals are expected to close in Q4.

Public media groups endorsed the FCC plan to end rules requiring physical posting of broadcast licenses and other information at stations. “Public Broadcasting is concerned with the outdated Commission rules that continue to impose obligations to post licenses on the premises,” commented America’s Public Television Stations, NPR and PBS, posted in docket 18-121 Wednesday.

Changes creating the FCC online reporting system for emergency alerts take effect Sept. 4, says a Federal Register notice set for Thursday. The reporting system replaces paper filing and is intended to make state EAS plans more uniform and more accessible to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (see 1804100043).

Commissioners dismissed a petition for reconsideration by the former holder of a construction permit for a deleted Texas low-power TV station, said an order on reconsideration in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. The petition was the latest in a series of appeals by permittee Gwendolyn May of FCC and Media Bureau rulings that the agency acted properly in 1990 in rescinding an erroneously granted application to assign the station to the Faith Pleases God Church Corp. The application was invalid because May let the station’s construction permit expire, the order said. Over many years of appeals, May “has failed to provide any evidence of material error or set forth any legal or equitable reason that the Commission should grant this Petition,” the order said. Any subsequent pleadings from May on the matter are to be summarily dismissed. Commissioners also dismissed a recon petition by the Daytona Beach Broadcasting Association appealing an order dismissing a previous association application for review of the agency's rejection of an LPFM construction permit, said an order in Wednesday's Daily Digest. The petition was dismissed for being filed five days late, the order said. "The Commission generally lacks the authority to extend or waive the statutory 30-day filing period for petitions for reconsideration."

The European Broadcasting Union will lead a team that includes Dolby, Fraunhofer and 17 other “industry partners” to do the world’s first distribution of Ultra HD signals with HDR and high frame rates of the European Athletics Championships in Berlin, said EBU Tuesday. The goal of the trials is to transmit 4K signals with hybrid log-gamma HDR at 100-Hz frame rates, it said. “Current state-of-the-art live broadcasts don’t exceed a field or frame rate of 50Hz in Europe, and HD interlaced (1080i25) is still the dominant broadcast emission format even though commercial encoders and TV sets manage up to 2160p50 resolution.” The championships open Thursday in Berlin for a 10-day run.

Physically posting licenses and authorization information is “no longer the most reliable or efficient means of making information available to the public,” broadcaster HC2 commented in docket 18-121 in support of an FCC proposal to do away with broadcaster license posting requirements. “Times have changed, and the Commission’s rules should change too,” HC2 said. “Chairman [Ajit] Pai recognized that maintaining the current bevy of posting and record keeping requirements serves no public interest,” HC2 said. “Displaying licensing documents and other authorizations for broadcast stations is outdated because these locations are often inaccessible and redundant with information found online.”