The viral video of Sinclair newsrooms repeating a script about "fake news" (see 1804020056) shows the inevitable result of FCC continued removal of policies that protected localism, former agency Chairman Tom Wheeler blogged Thursday for the Brookings Institution, with which he's affiliated. Axing those rules favor "a new national broadcasting powerhouse with unprecedented reach" over localism, Wheeler said, saying Sinclair, with its planned buy of Tribune Media, is "the consistent beneficiary" of the rule changes. He said the FCC has "one last chance ... to stand up for localism" by blocking Sinclair/Tribune. He said DOJ review of the deal is limited to strict antitrust statutes, but FCC broader public interest standard gives it the opportunity to point to eroding localism as a reason for opposition. The agency didn't comment Friday.

Comments on an FCC proposal to streamline the reauthorization of satellite TV stations (see 1803230054) are due May 11, and replies are due May 29, said a Media Bureau public notice Thursday.

State Emergency Communications Committees have until May 4 to amend their state emergency alert system plans to include summaries of actions taken to provide multilingual EAS messages, said an FCC Public Safety Bureau public notice Wednesday in docket 04-296 on how to make the amendments. The requirement is part of the FCC's data collection on multilingual EAS, which survived a recent court challenge from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (see 1802200033).

The ATSC 3.0 receiver “guidelines work” that CTA is conducting “is an open standards project,” Brian Markwalter, CTA senior vice president-research and standards, emailed us. “The working group, under our Video Systems Committee, develops recommended practices for ATSC 3.0 receivers (mirroring ATSC’s work on ATSC 3.0),” he said. “The recommended practices are being developed as a suite.” Documents addressing the physical layer, logical layer, video and audio are complete, and “others are in process,” he said. “We do not speculate on the schedule” for when work on the entire suite will be finished, he said. Markwalter, an ATSC board member, said in the fall the “pace of work” was accelerating on the CTA-CEB32 “family” of recommended 3.0 receiver practices that would consist of 11 parts plus an overview that will be “easily mapped” to the suite of 3.0 standards (see 1709050038). CTA “has an associated group, where they’re writing recommendations” for 3.0 receivers, said Winston Caldwell, Fox Networks Group vice president-spectrum engineering and advanced engineering, at an NAB Show workshop on maximizing 3.0's future business potential (see 1804100048). “We’ve been involved there just to make sure that those receivers support a lot of the capabilities that we’re interested in.”

The FCC was right to deny former Class A broadcaster Kingdom of God’s petition for reconsideration of a Media Bureau order denying KOG’s request to have its license reinstated (see 1701310063), said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday in a docket 17-1132 judgement. The Indiana broadcaster's complaint to the contrary, the bureau wasn't arbitrary and capricious in pulling the license because KOG had transmitted for years from an unlicensed location, the court said. It also dismissed KOG arguments the agency abused its discretion and said the failure to meet licensing requirements wasn't due to circumstances beyond KOG control. The D.C. Circuit ruling was by Judges Thomas Griffith, Harry Edwards and Raymond Randolph. KOG outside counsel didn't comment.

The FCC unanimously voted to combine the Emergency Alert System (EAS) Test Reporting System with an online filing system for state EAS plans, said an order released Tuesday in docket 15-94. The new system, called the Alert Reporting System (ARS), will “improve the mechanics of filing state plans at this agency” and “is a step forward,” said Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel in a statement released with the order. ARS will replace paper filing requirements, lower the burdens on State Emergency Communications Committees and make it easier for entities such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency to access state plans, the order said. The ARS order also requires state EAS plans to be more uniform to make them easier to access and upload to an online system. “State EAS Plans currently lack consistent structure and content,” the order said. “An online filing system using uniform and consistent terminology will facilitate the input, analysis, and related uses of the Plan information.” A lack of uniformity among state EAS plans complicated the results of the first nationwide EAS test, the order said. Rosenworcel praised the order for giving EAS “some needed care and attention” but said it doesn't go far enough. “The FCC can do more by acting as a convening force to report and incentivize best practices for emergency alerting,” Rosenworcel said. She also said the agency should address other outstanding EAS issues such as false alerts “with dispatch.” After “the false emergency alert earlier this year in Hawaii, this work should be our priority,” Rosenworcel said.

An FCC draft hearing designation order on Family Voice Communications was sent to commissioners last week, according to the agency's circulation list updated Friday, citing a Media Bureau item. The FCC didn't comment Monday.

The FCC's changes to media ownership rules and President Donald Trump's tweets against NBC News and in favor of Sinclair add up to the broadcaster “getting special treatment from the FCC” and “getting a special call-out from the executive branch,” Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said in a speech at the NAB Show Monday. She condemned the pending Sinclair/Tribune deal and Trump's popularization of the term “fake news” as government “being used as a tool to attack the conditions that make it possible for news to serve as a check on power.” It took too long for some on the FCC to respond to Trump's tweet calling for NBC News to have its license pulled, she said. “On these matters, history won’t be kind to silence,” Rosenworcel said. Commissioner Mike O'Rielly remains “open-minded” about what the FCC will do to kids' video rules, he said in a separate speech Monday. Allowing the FCC's kidvid requirements to be fulfilled by dedicated multicast channels is a solution the FCC is examining, O'Rielly said. The FCC should take up the issue of AM/FM subcaps in its 2018 quadrennial ownership review later this year, O'Rielly said. Arguments that eliminating the caps would lead to a decline in the AM band are “speculative,” O'Rielly said. The radio industry and FM band are facing many challenges, and O'Rielly said he is “hesitant to embrace ideas that would bring about even more uncertainty into this space.” A draft proposal on introducing a new C4 class of FM station was circulated to the eighth floor (see 1802140060). O'Rielly praised the recent efforts to reform what some consider to be outdated FCC rules and said he has a list of 40 ideas for further FCC overhauls that he plans to take to Chairman Ajit Pai. License renewal holds based on enforcement actions are one place the FCC might be able to improve its rules, O'Rielly said.

The Puerto Rico Broadcasters Association thinks waiving broadcaster minor change rules for FM translators there and on the U.S. Virgin Islands "will save money that currently does not exist and is needed to get back on air" after hurricanes, PRBA Vice President Eduardo Rivero told us Friday through his lawyer. The previous day, the group asked the FCC Media Bureau Audio Division to allow more time for AM outlets on the islands seeking regulatory reprieve to resolve conflicts with others also seeking FM translators (see Ref:1804050047]). "There is precedent by the FCC of waiving translator rules for Puerto Rico to advance the establishment of FM translators locally," Rivero said now. Waiving the three-up or -down rule, which limits moves to no further than a third adjacent channel, "will provide additional outlets for the emergency alert system in the local communities served by the FM translators for future events," he added.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned low-power FM station WEXI-LP Hallandale, Florida, about operating from a different antenna with a different height than the one for which it's authorized and operating at higher transmitter output power than licensed. A notice of violation In Thursday's Daily Digest said licensee The Truth Will Set You Free had 20 days to respond with explanation of the violations and corrective steps that had been taken, plus a timeline for completion of any further corrective steps. WEXI outside counsel didn't comment Friday.