The FCC will begin an inquiry into whether foreign ownership rules were violated by the relationship between several California radio stations and the Chinese government, said spokesman Neil Grace in a news release Tuesday. The inquiry is based on information released by Reuters in a recent series of reports.

Gray Television will sell all radio stations included in its proposed buy of Schurz Communications' broadcast properties, Gray said in a news release Monday. At the closing of Gray/Schurz, Schurz will transfer its radio stations in South Bend, Indiana, to Mid-West Family Broadcast Group, its stations in Lafayette, Indiana, to Neuhoff Communications, and a radio station in Rapid City, South Dakota, to The HomeSlice Group, the release said. The stations will be sold for a total of $16 million, and “such proceeds will reduce the total consideration payable by Gray to Schurz for the television station assets,” it said. "We originally intended to acquire and operate the Schurz radio stations for the long-term," said Gray Senior Vice President-Business Affairs Kevin Latek. "In recent weeks, it became clear that experienced radio broadcasters could better lead these successful radio stations into the future than we could hope to accomplish." The radio station deals will close simultaneously with Gray/Schurz, which is expected to close in Q4 2015 or the Q1 2016, Gray said.

The New York office of the FCC Enforcement Bureau proposed a $10,000 fine for an alleged Passaic, New Jersey, pirate radio operator who the bureau said continued operating his unlicensed station La Consentida FM despite several warnings from the bureau, said a notice of apparent liability released Friday. It said Jose Luis Hernandez, called “El Emperador,” received a warning notice from the bureau in March, but didn't respond and was found operating his station out of a house in July. The superintendent of Hernandez's building removed the unlicensed antenna after the bureau issued him a notice of unlicensed operation, the NAL said.

Broadband access is a necessary tool for addressing the "homework gap" in the Hispanic community, Univision and Common Sense Media told Chairman Tom Wheeler Monday, said an ex parte filing posted in docket 09-197 Thursday. The company and group's Avanzamos Conectados! (Connected, We Advance) initiative intended to help Hispanics get access to broadband has seen 50,000 people sign up to receive information on obtaining service, 21,000 people attend education fairs promoting the program, and registered more than 60,000 calls for information, they said. Univision supports “responsible programs, whether public or private, that help U.S. Hispanics gain access to affordable broadband in the home,” it said.

SESAC is trying to get radio stations to sign an alternative to the settlement it reached with the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), said Fletcher Heald attorneys Kevin Goldberg and Harry Cole on the firm’s blog Thursday. The letters offering stations the alternative agreement offer a “reduced fee schedule” for 2016-18 if the stations sign by Nov. 15, the lawyers said. “We’re hearing a lot of chatter from radio stations on the heels of this letter, with stations confused as to (1) whether signing on directly with SESAC binds them to the settlement agreement or not and, (2) what to do.” RMLC “seems confident” that the actual settlement agreement “will result in license fees considerably below those now being offered by SESAC for 2016-2018,” the blog said. The SESAC offer also only goes to 2018, while the actual settlement agreement is for the next 20 years, the blog said. The deals are mutually exclusive, the blog said. Stations “can sign up individually for SESAC licenses, in which case they will be on their own to negotiate future fees on a one-on-one basis. Or they can sign up with RMLC, thereby aligning themselves with a broad cross-section of the radio industry on one side of the negotiating table -- with the added assurance of an arbitration process as a safety net if the negotiation fails,” said the blog post from the firm with broadcast clients. SESAC didn't comment.

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force scheduled a workshop on the reverse auction application process Nov. 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room, the IATF, Media and Wireless bureaus said in a public notice Wednesday. The workshop will include a review of the pre-auction process and guidance on submitting Form 177, “including an overview of ownership requirements, channel sharing agreements, and the red light rule,” the PN said. The window for filing Form 177 to apply to participate in the auction opens at noon Dec. 1 and closes at 6 p.m. Dec. 18. The workshop will also be streamed live at www.fcc.gov/live.

The FCC's unanimous decision approving an AM-only translator window in 2017 (see 1510220060) is a "truly life-saving measure for dozens of small minority owned broadcast companies," the Multicultural Media Internet and Telecom Council said in a Tuesday statement. “We especially applaud Commissioners [Ajit] Pai and [Mignon] Clyburn for their recent calls to the other commissioners to act quickly on this important item,” MMTC CEO Kim Keenan said.

International Broadcasting Corp. agreed to pay $61,500 in a settlement with the FCC over multiple ownership violations involving TV and radio stations in Puerto Rico, according to a consent decree released Monday. It said that IBC violated the ownership rules in the process of transferring two FM stations, three AM stations and three TV stations from IBC owner Pedro Roman Collazo to his heirs Angel Roman Lopez and Ruth Roman Lopez. Angel Lopez became Collazo’s legal guardian when Collazo was diagnosed with dementia in 2011, and was later appointed his heir by the court system when Collazo died in 2013. Lopez filed involuntary transfer of control petitions for the stations with the FCC, but they were stalled because the commission found that Lopez had a controlling interest in Aerco Broadcasting, which owns an FM and TV station in San Juan, Puerto Rico. IBC didn’t respond to commission requests for information about possible multiple ownership rule violations until 2015. Since the Lopezes have been in effective control of IBC’s stations since 2011, it appears that the ownership rules were violated, the consent decree said. The stations also violated some of the public file rules, it said.

Already busy with spectrum auction issues, broadcast groups are asking for a two-month extension on comment deadlines in a NPRM on possible changes to the "totality of circumstances" test for good-faith retransmission consent negotiations. "The requested extension would materially assist broadcasters in their auction preparation and in meeting the FCC's strict deadline for auction participation," ABC Television Affiliates Association, CBS Television Network Affiliates Association, FBC Television Affiliates Association, NAB and NBC Television Affiliates said in motion posted Friday in docket 15-216. "The Associations and our members ... will be unable to participate fully in this retransmission consent proceeding and provide a comprehensive record to the Commission under the current comment deadlines given the FCC's recently set overlapping deadlines for the approaching spectrum incentive auction," they said. Comments now are due Dec. 1 with responses due Dec. 31; the broadcasters said they would prefer Feb. 1 and March 2 deadlines.

The FCC's approach to translators “isn't perfect” but shows “significant progress,” Commissioner Ajit Pai said in a released statement on the AM revitalization order Friday. The order itself was released later Friday. Pai said the order, as expected (see 1510220060), includes two windows allowing AM stations to get translators. “First, we will open a window in which AM stations will have greater flexibility to move an FM translator purchased in the secondary market,” Pai said. “And then we will give those AM stations still without an FM translator a chance to apply for a new one.” The AM order also makes it easier for stations to improve their signal quality and gives them more flexibility for site location, Pai said. “I’m hopeful that this two-prong plan will accomplish our goal of distributing FM translators to as many AM stations as want them.”