Hybrid ATSC 3.0 streaming video service Evoca-TV and emergency alerting company Digital Alert Systems have developed a method for transmitting broadcast emergency alerts to viewers watching programming via the internet, said an Evoca news release Monday. “Because the Evocasolution is both an over-the-air and an over-the-top system, we’re able to deliver alerts directly to the viewer,” said Evoca’s Michael Chase, vice president-systems. Evoca’s receiver “can insert emergency alert information right on top of programming being watched by a viewer, regardless of what that channel happens to be,” the release said. The method is “a unique solution” that works because Evoca “controls both the transmission and reception of signals that reach the viewer,” for users of its service, the release said. The two companies are going to continue studying the matter, the release said.

Sinclair is encouraging its employees and viewers to recycle household batteries at a Batteries Plus location or through their local municipalities under its “Sinclair Green” promotional campaign running through April in honor of Earth Month, said Sinclair Thursday. Each of more than 700 Batteries Plus locations will accept up to five pounds of household batteries and recycle them free of charge for residential customers in April, it said. Batteries Plus estimates more than 3 billion batteries are thrown away across the U.S. in an average year, said Sinclair.

It's “past time” for the FCC to conclude the 2018 quadrennial review, NAB President Curtis LeGeyt said in meetings with Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Media Bureau Chief Holly Saurer and Commissioner Geoffrey Starks this week, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 20-401. NAB “understands the potential challenges of completing the review without a full complement of commissioners” but said the agency should act “as soon as possible after a full Commission is seated or even sooner if that process does not conclude in the near term,” the filing said. The trade association said it doesn’t oppose an FCC proposal to collect broadcaster employment data, and the agency should have “a well-defined plan” for analyzing the equal employment opportunity data “so the process is not in vain.” LeGeyt also urged the agency to act quickly on ATSC 3.0 multicasting and “move on” from a GeoBroadcast Solutions proposal to change the FCC’s booster rules to allow for geotargeted radio. “The only beneficiary of approving this proposal is the company whose technology is at issue,” NAB said.

The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America filed another petition asking the FCC to revoke the licenses of stations belonging to Arthur and Yvonne Liu. The two own a Washington-area station that broadcasts the Russian-sponsored news channel Radio Sputnik, WZHF(AM) Columbia Heights, Maryland (see 2203230054). The new petition targets the license renewals of six stations in New York and New Jersey owned by the Lius’ company Multicultural Broadcasting, and contains a testimonial from a New Jersey UCCA member who listens to the stations. The previous filing used much of the same language and contained a testimonial from a D.C. UCCA member. UCCA attorney Arthur Belendiuk, of Smithwick and Belendiuk, told us the new version is necessary because FCC staff told him the petitions had to target an application -- such as a license renewal application -- to be valid. The new filing is “fundamentally identical” to the previous one but addresses the agency’s standing issue, he said. The stations in the petition include WZRC(AM), New York; WHWH(AM), Princeton, New Jersey; and WPAT(AM), Paterson, New Jersey.

The NAB Show surpassed 900 signed exhibitors with a little more than two weeks before its April 23 opening, said the association Wednesday. The 2019 show, NAB’s last physical event in Las Vegas before the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 and 2021 installments, drew 1,600+ exhibitors. The more than 900 exhibiting companies at this year’s show includes about 160 first-time exhibitors, said NAB. “As a platform for millions of dollars in commerce, the NAB Show is pivotal in ushering in the latest innovations propelling content forward and leading our community into new territory,” said Chris Brown, NAB executive vice president-managing director, global connections and events.

The FCC Media Bureau approved the license renewal applications of Wiseman Media's WZYX(AM) Cowan, Tennessee, and two translators over objections that the translators were broadcasting to the substantially same area, said an order and consent decree in Wednesday’s Daily Digest. Triangle Access Broadcasting argued that one or more of the renewal applications should be denied, but the Media Bureau ruled the matter moot after granting a minor modification request from Wiseman to fix the overlap. The consent decree requires Wiseman to implement a plan to comply with online political file rules, the order said.

The FCC Media Bureau seeks comment on Gray Television’s request to shift to Channel 30 from 5 for WMC-TV Memphis, Tennessee, said an NPRM in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. Comments are due 30 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register, replies 45 days.

A petition seeking revocation of the station licenses of a broadcaster that airs content from Russia-controlled Radio Sputnik (see 2203230054) on a Washington, D.C., area station doesn’t satisfy evidentiary rules, violates the First Amendment, and ignores a 2020 Enforcement Bureau investigation that concluded the FCC couldn't act against the stations involved, said an opposition filing Monday from Way Broadcasting, which owns WZHF(AM) Columbia Heights, Maryland. Other companies also owned by Arthur and Yvonne Liu are also parties to the filing. “It’s about what I expected,” said Arthur Belendiuk, the Smithwick & Belendiuk attorney representing petitioner the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Belendiuk said the Media Bureau told him the matter can’t proceed unless the petitioners challenge a specific application, and it shifted the matter to the Enforcement Bureau. Belendiuk expects to file challenges soon to Liu stations that are currently up for renewal, he said. WZHF is the only Liu station that airs Sputnik; its license doesn’t expire until 2027. The denial of a station’s license renewal can’t be based on another station’s violations, said Way’s filing Monday. The revocation petition also doesn’t have the required specificity for the allegations against even WZHF, said Way. “It does not provide dates or quotes of the alleged false programming,” and doesn’t present evidence to prove the inaccuracy of WZHF’s content, the opposition filing said. Radio Sputnik is not “a Kremlin public relations outlet beamed in from Moscow” but instead similar to programming on the BBC, the filing said. “Unlike in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Americans enjoy the bedrock freedoms of speech and of the press,” Way said. The FCC also investigated WZHF in 2018 and declined to act in 2020, Way noted. Then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai ordered that investigation in response to requests from Congress. The EB sent several letters of inquiry to the licensees and determined “there is no enforcement action that could be taken against the licensees in question,” wrote Pai in a 2020 letter to Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. The petition to revoke “fails to demonstrate that licensees breached any of their duties as public trustees and the petition must be denied,” Way said.

The FCC Media Bureau identified tentative selectees in 16 groups of mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational FM construction permits from the November NCE window, said a public notice Friday. The selectees include Cheyenne Broadcasting Foundation’s application for Wilhoit, Arizona; the National Association for the Prevention of Starvation’s application for Elkmont, Alabama; and Ethree Group’s application for Cypress Quarters, Florida. Petitions to deny the applications of the selectees are due 30 days after the order is published in the Federal Register.

The FCC Media Bureau approved several TV channel adjustments, said orders in Monday’s Daily Digest. The bureau granted WNYT-TV’s request to shift WNYT-TV Albany from Channel 12 to 21, Scripps’ request to move KTVQ(TV) Billings, Montana, from 10 to 20, and the Alabama Educational Television Commission’s request to be allotted Channel *4 in Vernon, Alabama -- the FCC uses the asterisk to identify noncommercial educational stations -- as the community’s first local NCE station.