Washington Beat

Has FCC Chairman Ajit Pai taken improper actions to benefit Sinclair Broadcast Group in its bid to merge with Tribune Media -- namely, bringing back the Commission's "UHF Discount" so such a Goliath transaction can take place? Two leading Democrats in the House of Representatives say so, and they want the FCC's Inspector General to investigate the matter.

The FCC has selected the program manager for Native American and International Affairs at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to serve as its new chief of ONAP -- the Office of Native Affairs and Policy.

What's fact and what's fiction with respect to broadcast regulation and its impact on multicultural broadcasters and consumers? That's exactly what was discussed in a Thursday phone call that saw the president of the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters (NABOB) and the President Emeritus and Senior Advisor for the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) discuss what they consider the facts with the Chief of Staff for Democratic Commissioner Mignon Clyburn.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has a whole bunch of mail from Congress to answer. Thank Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell for the cordial written correspondence. Dingell is one of 13 Members of Congress who penned a letter to Pai today that raises "serious concerns" regarding the Commission's proposal -- authored by the Chairman -- "to essentially eliminate the existing broadcast TV ownership rules with virtually no public input."

The FCC today granted the Merger and Divestiture Applications submitted by Entercom and CBS Corp. — the final hurdle that will see the Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger of CBS Radio with Entercom's radio holdings. The deal's approval, the Commission says, is "subject to certain conditions." With that, the FCC also granted associated waivers on a temporary basis of six months. 

A member of powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), has written directly to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai demanding "a complete understanding of the overall impacts of this new standard." 

On June 29, the FCC's Media Bureau dismissed an application from Cortaro Broadcasting Corp. to renew the license of an AM station it owns in Arizona. This led to a license cancellation and the deletion of its call sign from the FCC database. Did the Media Bureau go to far? We now know. Also in TRANSACTIONS TODAY: A tower deal has closed, with Kalil & Co. serving as the broker.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed the new Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). In doing so, it gave its thumbs up to the individual who has until now served as Chief Council on Communications and Technology for the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

The Media Bureau is temporarily lifting the freeze imposed on April 5, 2013 on the filing and processing of minor modification applications that would increase a full power television station’s noise-limited contour or a Class A station’s protected contour in one or more directions beyond the station’s authorized facilities.

Doug Ferber of DEFcom Advisors LLC and Erwin Krasnow of Garvey Schubert Barer have created a special podcast series exclusively for RBR+TVBR members based on a series of articles centered on the topic “Broadcast Deal Myths Debunked.” In this ninth podcast installment, Ferber and Krasnow discuss the myth that one should avoid deal intermediaries.

Forget Entercom and Cumulus Media -- the biggest headlines of the day came right from Capitol Hill, as top House Republicans including Rep. Paul Ryan introduced legislation that would greatly change the U.S. tax code. The changes could effect every business, or household, and there's already chatter about caps to mortgage-interest deductions, bushwhacking to the corporate tax rate, and shrinking the seven tax brackets for families and individuals to four. What it will do for broadcast media, and the ability to fully deduct business advertising expenses, got the NAB's seal of approval.

Don't think for a minute that the potential growth in in-home listening from Smart Speakers from makers such as Amazon Echo and Google Home are only for big-city broadcasters? There's gold in them thar hills, valleys and villages for radio broadcasters, and Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker is about to let the nation know all about it.

Thus far into the 115th U.S. Congress, multiple efforts to bring additional royalty payments to radio stations across the U.S. appear to be flailing and twitching like one of the Walking Dead. Now, it appears that any tax reform measure that would change a business' ability to fully deduct the costs of advertising in the year they are incurred may be as equally challenged from gaining support of legislators on both side of Capitol Hill.

An associate attorney at the top D.C. law firm has taken the role of Deputy General Counsel for the Federal Communications Commission. She'll direct all administrative law issues for the agency, and settled in to her new office at the Portals today.

There are plenty of concerns surfacing across the nation about the proposed merger between Sinclair Broadcast Group and Tribune Media. The latest entity to voice its opposition to the deal is an association representing some 800 of the smallest, mostly rural cable operators scattered throughout the U.S.