The FCC Media Bureau withdrew a notice of apparent liability for Seaview Communications’ WPEX(FM) Kenbridge, Virginia, because the station’s license was canceled, said an order Friday. WPEX faced a possible $15,000 forfeiture over public file violations, but the bureau also received information that WPEX had been silent or operating on unauthorized facilities for over 12 months. WPEX didn’t respond to a bureau letter on the matter, and its license was subsequently canceled.

The FCC Media Bureau denied a request to stay the foreign-sponsored content rules from NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the Multimedia, Telecom and Internet Council, said an order posted Wednesday. The groups jointly filed their initial brief in a legal challenge of the rules in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday (see 2112080047). Claims that the rules are overbroad and focus on the wrong entities “do not withstand scrutiny, and largely simply repeat issues raised, considered, and rejected, during the rulemaking proceeding,” the bureau said. Broadcaster arguments that the FCC didn’t establish that foreign agents leasing broadcast content is an existing problem are illogical, staff said: “There is no requirement that the American public suffer some requisite amount of harm before regulatory intervention is justified.” The broadcasters overstated the possible harms of the rules, the bureau said: “Requirements adopted in the Order are a reasonable extension of licensees’ existing obligations and should not require an overhaul in how licensees operate nor impose undue costs.”

The FCC Media Bureau granted CXR Radio Station Trust a divestiture deadline extension of 60 days rather than the year it requested, said a letter to CXR posted in docket 19-98 Wednesday. CXR’s deadline to divest two FM stations connected with the Terrier/Cox deal is now Feb. 15 (see 2112060044). “We do not find persuasive the justification that market conditions made it appropriate for CXR to wait until early 2022 to begin a meaningful marketing process for the sale of the Stations,” said the order. CXR’s decision to delay "any meaningful efforts to market the Stations to prospective purchasers is contrary to its express commitment," the bureau said. CXR “was granted two years to come into compliance with the Local Radio Ownership Rule,” but “no marketing efforts to sell the Stations have been initiated, until recently,” the order said. CXR didn’t comment Thursday.

Requiring broadcaster disclosures for foreign-sponsored content “attacks a problem that does not exist, and does so with a bludgeon,” said NAB, the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters, and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council in a brief filed in docket 21-1171 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday. The broadcast groups want the court to reject the FCC requirement for being too broad, and violating the Communications Act and the First Amendment. The order, approved in April, requires broadcasters to check entities against the Foreign Agents Registration Act and FCC databases on foreign agents before signing sponsored content leasing agreements with them. If the party is in the databases, the broadcasters must air disclosures that the content comes from a foreign agent. The vast majority of broadcast content lease agreements are with local and domestic entities, and the databases are vast and complicated to search, the broadcasters told the D.C. Circuit. The “enormous waste of resources” spent investigating domestic entities “that pose an infinitesimal risk” of being undisclosed foreign agents “burdens far more speech than warranted to serve the putative government interest.” It's unlikely a foreign entity seeking to hide its affiliation would register with FARA, the broadcasters said. “This non-existent problem cannot justify imposing onerous investigative burdens on every single lease, for any amount of airtime, entered into by thousands of local radio and television stations.” The FCC could have required stations to investigate only when there’s reason to believe a lessor is affiliated with a foreign government or when the programming addresses “matters of public controversy,” the filing said.

Liberman Media Group is a potential buyer for CXR Radio Station Trust’s stations and the FCC should grant CXR’s requested extension (see 2112060044), LMG said in a letter posted Tuesday in docket 19-98. “Any effort to cut short this process will deny us a chance to fully evaluate the opportunity, conduct our due diligence, and review and negotiate an offer.” Denying additional time is “both unfair and inconsistent with Commission policy,” LMG said.

CXR Radio Station Trust anticipates being able to sell the two stations it holds in the first half of 2022, it told FCC Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey in a call last week, per a filing posted in docket 19-98 Monday. The stations were to be divested by Dec. 17 as part of the Terrier/Cox deal; CXR recently sought delay (see 2111230057). “Given the uncertainty of the current times, CXR initially requested the year’s extension,” the filing said. CXR wants the extra time to establish an online “dataroom” for prospective bidders, allow them to review the information and radio market, and conduct a bidding process, the filing said. “A rushed process with a very short deadline will undermine the ability of interested parties to meaningfully participate in the process,” and disproportionately discourage smaller buyers, it said.

There's “overwhelming opposition” across the radio industry to the Geobroadcast Solutions (GBS) proposal to allow geo-targeted radio, iHeartMedia told an aide to FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington in a call last week, according to an ex parte filing posted in docket 20-401 Friday. NAB and several broadcasters filed comments in opposition to the proposal, but numerous smaller broadcasters and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council supported the technology (see 2102100055). IHeart has concerns about “the nature of the testing that has occurred thus far, the lack of listener evaluation data, and the negative impact on listeners of increased interference should this technology be deployed,” the filing said. “Approving this proposal would put additional competitive pressures on radio stations across the industry.” "Our proposal before the FCC seeks to put radio on a progressive track both technologically and monetarily, and in-line with other mediums," emailed a GBS spokesperson. "It would be an elective enhancement for any station interested in a geo-targeted offering for its listeners and advertisers and would wholly benefit the industry."

Modifications to the FCC’s servers may have caused hyperlinks in broadcaster online public files to stop working, said a blog post Thursday from Fletcher Heald. “The hyperlinks currently direct viewers to a webpage that reads as follows: ‘We’re Sorry. We couldn’t find the page you were looking for,” said the post. “To resolve this issue, broadcasters who maintain public files should update the on-line public file hyperlink on their website homepage as soon as possible,” said the law firm. Broadcasters are obligated to have functioning links in their online public files, Fletcher Heald said. "The FCC experienced a technical issue just prior to Thanksgiving that affected its Online Public Inspection File system," an FCC spokesperson emailed. "The issue has been resolved as of December 1." The Alabama Broadcasters Association warned members about the glitch in a message earlier this week. "Apparently, the Commission while doing maintenance on the OPIF [online public inspection file] site last week, changed the way the link works," said the ABA.

An FCC hearing proceeding on possibly revoking the license of a Pennsylvania broadcaster convicted of attempting to have a woman raped was terminated after he didn’t respond to the agency (see 2110190056), said an order in docket 21-401 from Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin Wednesday. The termination of the hearing for Roger Wahl, licensee of WQZS(FM) Meyersdale, kicks the matter back to the FCC, which is likely to revoke the license, a broadcast attorney told us. Wahl didn’t file an appearance with the FCC by Monday's required deadline and didn’t petition to have the hearing dismissed, the order said. “Because Mr. Wahl has not filed the required notice of appearance or other permissible pleading, his right to a hearing in this matter is deemed waived,” said the order. Wahl pleaded guilty in July 2020 to the felony crime of criminal use of a communications facility and four misdemeanors involving the incident. He had sought to transfer the station to his daughter Wendy Sipple, which the bureau initially granted and then rescinded in July 2020. Wahl’s application to transfer the station remains pending. Wahl and WQZS didn’t comment.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied broadcaster Chinese Voice of Golden City’s appeal of FCC rulings (see 2011250062) that it violated agency rules by operating a low-power FM station from an unauthorized location and then filing an application to modify the license without disclosing that the station was already operating from the modified location. “Chinese Voice by its own admission broadcast from an unauthorized location more than two miles from its licensed site for about fifteen months,” wrote the three-judge panel of Nina Pillard, David Tatel and Robert Wilkins in an unpublished order released Tuesday in appeals docket 20-1514. Unauthorized transmissions don’t count as broadcast signals, the panel said. “Because Chinese Voice failed to transmit broadcast signals for a consecutive twelve-month period, it forfeited its license.” The FCC’s prior decisions to take Golden City’s license and require the broadcaster to disclose the violation in future applications were “reasonable and reasonably explained,” the court said. “Chinese Voice repeatedly obscured its purposeful fifteen-month relocation, including before this court,” the order said.