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Graham Brock, Inc. |
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Broadcast Technical Consultants |
| Vol. XII, No. 10 |
R. Stuart Graham, Jr. |
| October 2005 |
Jefferson G. Brock |
| Auction Payments Postponed |
| As indicated in the Commission’s Public Notice, FM
Auction 62 has been postponed from November 1, 2005
until January 12, 2006 because of Hurricane Katrina. The
FCC originally required participants in this second FM
auction to pay the initial minimum payments by the end
of September; however, they now have until 6:00 PM EST,
December 2, 2005 to submit them. The deadline for filing
Form 175, the expression of interest in a channel(s),
closed August 12, 2005; therefore, this extension of
deadlines does not allow new participants to come into
the auction. However, this extension does give the
participants additional time to consider the channels on
which to focus. |
| Additional Time for AM Settlements |
| A reminder that the FCC issued a Public Notice
extending the settlement period for mutually
exclusive AM applications for new and major changes,
involved in the upcoming AM Auction #84. These
applications were filed during the January 2004
major change window. The Commission will allow
certain applicants to submit settlements, which if
granted by the FCC, will enable the issuance of
permits for new or changed stations, without having
to go through the auction process. The extension was
due to the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The deadline for the submission of settlement
agreements is October 31, 2005. |
| DTV Operation for LPTV and TV
Translators |
| Now that the FCC has put rules into effect
for digital TV operation for low power TV and TV
translators, licensees may file an application
to convert from analog operation to digital (on
the same channel). To implement the conversion
to digital, the licensee/applicant must file FCC
Form 346, application for construction permit,
demonstrating the proposed digital operation
meets the required rules, since the protection
criteria for digital operation is different than
its analog counterpart. The Commission also
announced that at some point in the future,
although no time frame was announced, it will
open a filing window for existing LPTV stations
and translators to file for a companion digital
channel, based on channel availability. Those
facilities which have already filed to convert
to digital operation will not be eligible for a
companion digital station. |
| The FCC updated its list of full power
TV stations’ DTV elections. A few months ago
the FCC released a list of 1,554 stations,
indicating which channels the stations will
remain on post transition to DTV. That list
has now been updated to reflect the stations
that participated in negotiated channel
arrangements, which brings the total of
stations selecting channels in Round One to
1,713. Now, it is on to Round Two, which
includes stations with one core channel and
one out of core channel, as well as those
with two out of core channels, singleton
applicants and stations which elected to go
to Round Two. The deadline for stations
participating in Round Two elections is
October 24, 2005. |
Main Studio
Compliance, Revisited |
| On a recent station inspection trip,
we found a station owner confused about
the regulations regarding the location
of a station’s main studio. The licensee
believed that if the studio was located
inside the city grade contour of any of
its other stations serving the same
market, the facility in question was in
compliance with the rules.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. The
main studio for an AM, FM or TV station
must be within the city grade contour of
the subject station or any other full
service AM, FM or TV station licensed to
the same community or within 25 miles of
the city of license. Are you in
compliance with the rules? |
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