A House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on the American Music Fairness Act (see 2109200050) will include testimony that broadcasters are falsely “crying poor” on compensating performers for radio play, and that musician groups failed to come to the negotiating table with radio stations, said the two sides in dueling previews of the testimony on AMFA. HR-4130 would charge radio stations a performance royalty fee for the artists, in the form of yearly payments based on station size and profitability. “NAB put forward serious proposal after serious proposal” on compensating artists but “received no serious counteroffer,” said President Curtis LeGeyt in an interview Tuesday. LeGeyt will testify, along with singer Gloria Estefan, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) International Executive Officer Dave Pomeroy and others. LeGeyt said it's “disappointing” to broadcasters to be relitigating the issue before legislators. In a virtual news briefing Tuesday, musicFIRST Coalition Chairman Joe Crowley slammed NAB for not producing a broadcaster to address legislators, and condemned iHeart Media CEO Bob Pittman for not testifying. MusicFIRST is made up of several music industry entities, including AFM, SoundExchange and RIAA. Pittman is “unwilling to flip open his laptop” and “defend the indefensible,” Crowley said. IHeart declined to comment. Large radio groups make billions of dollars from the “unpaid labor” of artists, and the AMFA would charge lower rates to 63% of radio stations -- only the largest radio groups would face significant fees, Crowley said. “We are not an industry rolling in revenue,” LeGeyt said. Even the largest groups maintain community stations that require resources, he said. In addition to iHeart, he said the bill would affect middle-size radio groups such as Beasley and Hubbard. The AMFA would draw a bright line for stations with revenue of over $1.5 million that would cause fees to shoot up. A “performance tax” is “not a workable business model,” LeGeyt said. “NAB loves to call any attempt to ensure fair pay for artists a performance tax,” Crowley said. “This legislation doesn’t direct money to the government, it directs money to performers.” Former Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate and the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters wrote the committee this week in support of NAB.

The FCC should expeditiously act on the 2018 and 2022 quadrennial reviews of broadcast ownership said several public interest groups in a virtual meeting Wednesday with staff from the Media Bureau and the Office of Economics and Analytics, according to an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 18-349. Free Press, Common Cause and the United Church of Christ Justice Ministry said the agency should begin analyzing ownership data to understand the current state of media diversity and to affirmatively declare in a 2018 QR order that the Communications Act's public interest standard includes race and gender ownership diversity. The agency should also clamp down on broadcast ownership loopholes such as shared service agreements, the filing said. “There is no reasonable justification” to conclude the 2018 QR “without closing these operating agreement loopholes, which have abetted the broadcast industry’s reliance on shell companies,” the filing said. The Future of Music Coalition and musicFIRST said the agency shouldn’t loosen local radio ownership caps, and the agency should “conduct studies analyzing the extent to which past consolidation events have led to a reduction of viewpoints." Other groups on the call included the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Communications Workers of America.

FCC email notices sent to stations that didn’t timely file biennial ownership reports are likely a last warning before fines, blogged Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford Friday. “The FCC warned back in November that ‘enforcement action’ would follow if stations did not file.” Sent last week, the notices gave stations until March 1. The filings were due Dec. 1.

The full FCC ordered landowners to dismantle a 114-meter broadcast tower in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, after being unable to determine the specific owner, said an order Friday. The structure has been unlit since 2005, and was declared “a menace to aviation” by FAA, the order said. The tower was constructed in 1990 on an easement, and changed hands among multiple now-defunct broadcasters, including SeArk Radio and MRS Ventures, the order said. One of the landowners, Lora Gaither, told the FCC she's interested in having the tower dismantled but her efforts “have been stymied by her inability to obtain local counsel,” who, "are wary of representing her because of their unfamiliarity with the Commission’s regulatory requirements.” Because of the aviation hazard, the FCC can’t wait for the landowners to dissolve the easement and take possession, the order said. “The Land Owners presently possess the Structure,” the order said. “Any person having a remaining interest in the Structure is subject to this Order.” The landowners got 90 days to dismantle it. We couldn't reach Gaither.

A March 8 status conference is scheduled on the license of a broadcaster convicted of attempting to have a woman raped (see 2112100056), said an FCC order Thursday. The previous conference, set for Jan 13, was canceled after broadcaster Roger Wahl abruptly informed the office of Administrative Law Judge Jane Halprin that he was undergoing a medical procedure (see 2201120063).

The FCC Media Bureau approved Gray Television’s request to switch the channel of WYMT-TV Hazard, Kentucky, from 12 to 20, said an order in docket 21-125 Thursday. The bureau seeks comment on a request from E.W. Scripps to change KTVQ Billings, Montana, from Channel 10 to 20. Comments will be due 30 days after Federal Register publication and replies 15 days later, in docket 22-39.

The FCC Media Bureau’s grant of KPTV-KPDX Broadcasting’s request to switch KPTV Portland, Oregon, from Channel 12 to Channel 21 took effect Tuesday, said an item in that day’s Federal Register.

The FCC Media Bureau dismissed Gray Television’s application for review of the agency’s rejection of Gray’s market modification application for WYMT-TV Hazard, Kentucky, at Gray’s request (see 2112150054), said an order in Tuesday’s Daily Digest. The agency rejected Gray’s original application in part because the satellite MVPDs in the area were carrying another Gray station with a duplicate network affiliation.

Filings submitted to the FCC Media Bureau via email after the shutdown of the consolidated database system (see 2201120056) must include a certification that the applicant hasn’t been denied federal benefits due to drug offenses, said a public notice clarifying the new filing procedures Tuesday. The requirement stems from the 1988 Drug Abuse Act, the PN said. Added to the list of filings that should be emailed to the bureau, the PN said, are consummation notifications, consummation extension requests, and notifications of non-consummation. Commercial applicants should pay application fees for emailed filings using the commission registration system (CORES), the PN said.

The FCC unanimously approved changes to political advertising rules, an item that had been on Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting agenda, said an order Tuesday in docket 21-293 (see 2201190072). The draft order was considered noncontroversial and administrative, and the final version appeared to have no substantive changes. The order changes the language of FCC rules to conform to the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, requiring information on political issue ads to be included in station online public files. The Media Bureau has required the filings since 2002, but until now the text of the rules didn’t reflect the BCRA. The order also incorporates campaign websites and social media activity into the list of factors broadcasters consider when judging if a write-in candidate is “bona-fide” and therefore eligible for lowest unit ad rates and other benefits. The changes “not only conform our rules with statutory requirements, they also reflect modern campaign practices and increase transparency,” the order said.