NAB Questions GBS Support, Takes Aim at CEO Devine

NAB took direct aim at geotargeted radio proponent GeoBroadcast Solutions founder and CEO Chris Devine, detailing in an ex parte filing “credible and public accusations” of “fraudulent and deceitful conduct” against Devine and alleging the company’s support among smaller broadcasters may not be as broad as it appears. The FCC should “take a close and exacting look at the record and proceed with extreme caution,” before authorizing the changes to FM booster rules called for by GBS and other geotargeted radio supporters, NAB said in the filing posted in docket 20-401 Friday.

“In a desperate attempt at character assassination, the NAB’s tabloid filing omits one critical but publicly known fact: the lawsuit that gave rise to all of these allegations that the NAB launders before the FCC was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff with prejudice,” emailed a GBS spokesperson: “Frivolous lawsuits and accusations happen in business, and the NAB’s members know this.” NAB “resorted to character assassination to shield the largest radio stations from competition by minority-owned and small broadcasters” because the trade group’s technical arguments “are going nowhere,” GBS said.

NAB questioned whether 93 smaller broadcasters represented by the same attorney -- Aaron Shainis of Shainis & Peltzman -- actually support Zonecasting. “The vast majority of comments filed ‘in support’ of the rule change are identical form letters,” NAB said. “These forms are not signed by the broadcaster whose name appears on the form, and no contact person or telephone number for the broadcaster is listed.” Many of those commenters have small service areas, “making ZoneCasting not remotely financially sustainable for their operations” and some are noncommercial and thus can’t accept ads, NAB said.

All the comments filed on behalf of his clients were filed with their authorization, Shainis said in an interview, calling NAB “desperate.” He said there are no rules barring noncommercial stations from using geotargeted radio. Shainis “is a longtime counsel to GBS” and wrote GBS’ original petition for rulemaking in 2012, NAB said. “In addition to sufficiently informing his clients of the substantive issues regarding ZoneCasting, one hopes that Mr. Shainis, at the least, adhered to D.C. Bar rules and informed the station clients he solicited to support GBS of his involvement with the company,” NAB said in a footnote.

Contacted by Communications Daily, some Shainis clients on whose behalf the identical comments were filed appeared unfamiliar with Zonecasting but told us they couldn’t comment without first speaking with Shainis. One client, Q Media President Andrew DeVall, said he has "no idea" how his company “got looped in” with supporters of Zonecasting, and the first he had heard of it was when the Minnesota Association of Broadcasters recently asked him why he favors the technology. His station, WCMP-FM, Pine City, Minnesota, serves small communities and wouldn’t be a good fit for the tech, he said. “Q Properties believes that the proposal would bring numerous benefits to consumers, local communities and radio broadcasters,” says a Q Media filing from Feb.1, 2021, signed by Shainis. Shainis did not immediately respond to a request for reaction to DeVall's comments.

Citing news reports and court and FCC filings, NAB said Devine was the target of a 1993 FCC inquiry into an allegedly fake broadcast sale and was sued in 2009 over accusations that he defrauded a would-be radio investor of $70 million. The lawsuit’s docket (in Pacer) lists it as having been dismissed with prejudice, but NAB said it was “settled out of court.” Devine was “accused of a long-running and successful con to befriend and then defraud a mentally and physically infirm senior citizen out of tens of millions of dollars,” said NAB. NAB’s filing also includes a series of news reports about lawsuits against Devine over problems with marathon races his company Devine Racing oversaw in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.

In the 1993 proceeding, the full FCC said Devine had made false or deceptive responses to FCC inquiries about the divestiture of a Utah station to one of Devine’s employees. That matter was closed before it went to a hearing proceeding after Devine sold the station under the FCC’s now defunct minority distress sales rules, NAB said.

Zonecasting supporters the National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and Roberts Radio didn’t respond to requests for comment. The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council, which also supported GBS, said it has “no knowledge of the matters asserted” by NAB: “But Chris Devine has always been straight with us.”

“This documented pattern of dealings is directly relevant to the proceeding at hand, as GBS is itself engaging in frequent misrepresentations, misdirections, and false claims,” NAB said. “To NAB’s knowledge, nearly every broadcaster that has seriously considered the implications of the rule change at issue has vehemently opposed it.” “The question before the FCC is whether the technology can be deployed consistent with the FCC's rules and the record overwhelmingly shows it does,” said GBS.