At the FCC

[Adam MadMan 285]

1 hour ago, T.L. Hughes said:

TVNewsCheck's Harry Jessel has his own opinion on the updated rules.

I'm sorry, all I can hear is the sound of a tongues scraping across the soles of boots.

 

All joking aside, how is allowing far off corporations to control the country supposed to promote localism? For that matter, how the hell is any of the consolidation that's happened over the past several years done anything but screw over the little guy? I'm no fan of big government myself, but this recent change is one of the few I've completely agreed with, and before you point to "market realities" (I don't think you know what that word means), let's not kid ourselves; a lot of the wounds the broadcast industry has suffered over the years have been entirely their own fault (iHeartMedia and Sinclair say hi), and things like retransmission consent and reverse compensation have served little purpose than to further alienate the consumers they supposedly speak for.

[nathannah 2520]

The major issue I have with the editorial is it focuses too much on all these Big Four issues, when the major problem are these subfarm broadcasters like H2/Edge/DTV America, along with Coastal and WRNN that should be operating stations in the local interest, but instead have bought out stations to turn into subchannel farms of absolute low-effort IPTV crap run by the same kinds of people who have made the Internet an advertising hellscape. Or with Coastal and Sinclair, have completely garbage newscasts recorded during studio downtime that are viewer-repellant. Edge Spectrum has been tolling out CP's for nearly 6-8 years with no intention of actually broadcasting, while H2 has wound down networks for filler crap like Timeless TV and Vision Latina and absolutely refused to be competitive.

 

Even Tegna, Scripps and Sinclair are complicit with this, as outside Ion the rest of their channels are reality glurge only there for advertising slots, and instead of multiple networks like Twist dying because there's nobody watching, they're being replaced with more things nobody is watching.

 

There should be a local broadcaster running these stations, and the religious broadcasters should be serving their community. They aren't, and the FCC is at least trying something. I understand the justification being the Main Studio Rule repeal, but there should be some kind of local programming on these stations, and not just 'I called some NPO to drone 20 minutes about their stuff, we're good' malicious compliance. There are YouTubers in those communities that could probably fulfill those guidelines better in themselves.

 

Just stop consolidating and racing to the bottom, broadcasters. You see what happened to radio; don't try to even venture near that result.

[CircleSeven 1962]

We haven't seen a new petition in a while, but we have one. This time its a joint petition.

 

Remember a couple of years back Gray's KCBD in Lubbock wanted to get off VHF 11 for UHF 36?

 

Now, Gray wants to try a different approach. A three-station frequency swap.

• KCBD (11 > 35)
• KJTV (35 > 23)
• KLCW (23 > 11)

In the petition, it states that KJTV's current tube transmitter is failing. And replacement parts are not available. Gray has already bought new equipment for KCBD and will use that for RF 35, instead of RF 36. KJTV would use the transmitter currently used by KLCW on RF 23. And KLCW would move to KCBD's current VHF transmitter on RF 11.

 

Gray evaluated moving KLCW to RF 36, but it stated that buying equipment for both stations would be "financially infeasible in this smaller market".

 

[T.L. Hughes 906]

The FCC has issued a $150,000 fine against WPIX owner Mission Broadcasting over the station's carriage dispute with Comcast, which filed a complaint against Mission concerning its de facto control by Nexstar and its involvement in carriage deals involving Mission shortly before the dispute was resolved in December 2022.

Edited January 15, 2024 by T.L. Hughes

[Adam MadMan 285]

35 minutes ago, T.L. Hughes said:

The FCC has issued a $150,000 fine against WPIX owner Mission Broadcasting over the station's carriage dispute with Comcast, which filed a complaint against Mission concerning its de facto control by Nexstar shortly before the dispute was resolved in December 2022.

And Kevin Adell's chance of consummating his deal to sell WADL has gone from jack squat to jack...y'know.

[nathannah 2520]

14 minutes ago, Adam MadMan said:

And Kevin Adell's chance of consummating his deal to sell WADL has gone from jack squat to jack...y'know.

He'll sell off eventually, but instead of the big payday he expected like he did when he gutted 910 to become the market's conservative failure station, he's going to soon find Innovate, TCT or WRNN are the only ones wanting to buy. And it'll be interesting to see where Nexstar's equivalent deal with KAZT actually goes.

 

He had a golden goose in 1994, but those days are long gone.

[AmericanErrorist 159]

On 1/15/2024 at 12:50 PM, mrschimpf said:

And it'll be interesting to see where Nexstar's equivalent deal with KAZT actually goes.

The action isn't against Nexstar but specifically Mission, and the Loudens haven't had these issues.

[CircleSeven 1962]

New petition.

 

Tegna's WTLV Jacksonville wants to vacate VHF 13 for UHF 33.

[nathannah 2520]

On 1/17/2024 at 9:06 PM, AmericanErrorist said:

The action isn't against Nexstar but specifically Mission, and the Loudens haven't had these issues.

Yes, but they're not the issue; Mission specifically is and just came from a retrans fine, and you hope the Loudens have made it clear that they will make sure all of the duties are properly carried out, and hopefully they still negotiate RTC itself.

[CircleSeven 1962]

A couple of things.

 

On 10/6/2023 at 7:18 PM, CircleSeven said:

NPRM:

• Weigel's Ch. 31 WI allotment (Wittenberg > Shawano)

The Weigel's COL switch from Wittenberg to Shawano on RF 31 was greenlighted (1/24).

 

Now I'm hoping in the future, should a new low power/translator filing window comes about, and if there is a vacant channel available for an LP, Weigel should pursue filing to get an LP repeater to serve the immediate Brown County area. Because I don't think that new RF 31 would be easily reachable for OTA viewers in that area, unless they have a really good antenna. 

 

Also, the Coastal/Red River transaction was greenlighted (1/23). Are we surprised by this? 

 

 

 

Edited January 28, 2024 by CircleSeven

[T.L. Hughes 906]

Nexstar has filed a lawsuit against the FCC over the recent modifications to its broadcast ownership regulations.

[Rusty Muck 4425]

It's a sore loser lawsuit.

 

It's been repeatedly stated by company officials that Nexstar wants to own more stations and a second television network, as if their 68% national reach and multiple sidecars—let alone their largest station being one they don't really own—isn't enough.

 

The heavily conservative judicial makeup of the 5th circuit already makes it known the fix is in. Only question is how much does that court kneecap the FCC from enacting any policy, or does the FCC simply defy the ruling and make their policies more punitive?

Edited March 4, 2024 by Rusty Muck

[nathannah 2520]

On 1/28/2024 at 1:37 AM, CircleSeven said:

A couple of things.

 

The Weigel's COL switch from Wittenberg to Shawano on RF 31 was greenlighted (1/24).

 

Now I'm hoping in the future, should a new low power/translator filing window comes about, and if there is a vacant channel available for an LP, Weigel should pursue filing to get an LP repeater to serve the immediate Brown County area. Because I don't think that new RF 31 would be easily reachable for OTA viewers in that area, unless they have a really good antenna. 

They did more what I expected with the Shawano bump-over; they've filled a CP modification to transmit from Scrays Hill south of Green Bay with a southward null to protect WITI, so I would still expect a future LP to get more of the market, but likely for Manitowoc/Cleveland or Oshkosh/Ripon to get Fox River Valley/southern lakeshore coverage.

[Megatron81 289]

I'm not surprised Nexstar is suing the FCC as they should since the 3 on The FCC abuse their power way too much thinking that it is still the 1960s which it isn't with the outdated rules that need to be fixed. Broadcasters are facing Big Tech since the days of 3 to 4 channels are over and the FCC acts like there isn't any competition when there clearly is with Big Tech. The 3 on The FCC don't get it and don't like business at all which isn't right.   

[Georgie56 3333]

Trump has announced Brendan Carr as the new chairman.

 

 

[Megatron81 289]

I knew that Brandon Carr was going to be the new Chairmen at The FCC come Jan of this year since he has been the one always making statements when rules came out that he didn't like. Which means that Nexstar/Mission doesn't have to sell WPIX. As Brandon Carr will undo what the outgoing chairwomen Jessica did.

[AmericanErrorist 159]

Carr will seek to alter the equilibrium between stations and networks along with opening up ownership rules:

 

https://deadline.com/2024/12/fcc-donald-trump-broadcast-tv-local-stations-brendan-carr-1236196688

 

 

[TheRolyPoly 2623]

Long live KWHY. The legendary L.A. callsign is back from the dead on what used to be KBEH Channel 63. Filed on January 27th, approved a day later by the FCC on January 28th, and effective February 2nd.

 

Now, instead of KWHY-TV Los Angeles on Channel 22, we have KWHY Garden Grove/Los Angeles on Channel 63.

 

https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076f91943b6ee9019441f45db81a7e&id=25076f91943b6ee9019441f45db81a7e&goBack=N

[tyrannical bastard 4055]

I"ll post this here since it does involve our new FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr.

 

He visited Spanish Fort, Alabama today to climb to the top of WKRG's broadcast tower.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/carr-visits-alabama-tower-workers-public-safety-officials-tv-station

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEld4LA7f4U

(The above links don't reference WKRG, but it was confirmed by WKRG reporter Debbie Williams that it was their tower)

 

Perhaps he should have visited WEAR/WFGX and WPMI/WJTC to see what four stations under common management looks like!

[TheRolyPoly 2623]

ABC and FOX are now gone in Guam. Sorensen Media Group has filed with the FCC to cancel the licenses of both KTGM and KEQI-LD. All that Guam has left is NBC (KUAM), CBS (KUAM.2), PBS (KGTF), and, oddly enough, The CW (KTKB).

KTGM: https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff394e080a001951a1c648e4791&id=25076ff394e080a001951a1c648e4791&goBack=N

 

KEQI-LD: https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff394e080a001951a8a48a44902&id=25076ff394e080a001951a8a48a44902&goBack=N

[mre29 1571]

On 3/7/2025 at 4:30 AM, TheRolyPoly said:

ABC and FOX are now gone in Guam. Sorensen Media Group has filed with the FCC to cancel the licenses of both KTGM and KEQI-LD. All that Guam has left is NBC (KUAM), CBS (KUAM.2), PBS (KGTF), and, oddly enough, The CW (KTKB).

KTGM: https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff394e080a001951a1c648e4791&id=25076ff394e080a001951a1c648e4791&goBack=N

 

KEQI-LD: https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/draftCopy.html?displayType=html&appKey=25076ff394e080a001951a8a48a44902&id=25076ff394e080a001951a8a48a44902&goBack=N

 

Is there a story behind that?

 

[tyrannical bastard 4055]

https://www.thewrap.com/fcc-chair-threatens-company-mergers-over-dei/

 

Completely out of bounds under FCC jurisdiction.  This administration is out of their minds.

Edited March 22 by tyrannical bastard
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