WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has rejected license challenges to three full-power Baltimore TV stations and agreed to renew the license for Chesapeake Television Licensee LLC’s WBFF, WNUV, and Deerfield Media's WUTB.
Chesapeake Television Licensee, LLC (Chesapeake), is a subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. WNUV-TV is a subsidiary of Cunningham Broadcasting Corporation and is operated by Sinclair under a local marketing agreement. Sinclair has a joint services agreement with WUTB.
On September 1, 2020, Ihor Gawdiak filed a petition to deny the licenses. Gawdiak claimed that Sinclair has de facto control of Cunningham, Deerfield, and other entities, which would violate station ownership caps. Gawdiak also claimed that Sinclair has repeatedly violated the Commission’s sponsorship identification rules; that Sinclair has repeatedly failed to negotiate with multichannel video programming distributors in good faith; and that Sinclair has repeatedly failed to properly maintain its public inspection files.
After Gawdiak died, his lawyer filed a petition to substitute Eleanor Goldfield as the petitioner.
The FCC said it denied the pension based on the fact that Goldfield lacked legal standing and based on its own investigation of the issues.
The FCC’s decision to renew the licenses came on the same day, June 27th, that Sinclair separately signed a Consent Decree in which it agreed to pay $500,000 to settle various FCC investigations. Under the Decree Sinclair also agreed to take steps to avoid rule violations in the future but did not admit to any wrongdoing.
The decision to renew the licenses and reject arguments that Sinclair was violating ownership caps also comes at a time when the agency has been moving aggressively to potentially modify or eliminate some or all of its ownership caps.
