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Graham Brock, Inc. |
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Broadcast Technical Consultants |
| Vol. XIV, No. 3 |
R. Stuart Graham, Jr. |
| March 2007 |
Jefferson G. Brock |
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FM Auction 70 Still Underway |
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As of this writing, the FCC has completed fourteen
rounds in FM Auction 70. Currently, no bid has exceeded
$1,000,000, although, the Class A in Aspen, Colorado is
up to $902,000. Of interest is that twenty-three of the
allotments are listed as being held by the FCC. Perhaps
these allotments did not draw any interest when the
process started. If so, these will be recycled into a
future auction. Ninety-seven of the channels remain in
play, for a total of more than $15,000,000. |
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Since daylight savings started earlier this year,
the FCC decided it was a good opportunity to update
certain AM stations’ pre-sunrise and post-sunset
authorizations. These authorizations allow stations
a consistent sign on time, in many cases with 500
watts, and allow a gradual decrease in power up to
two hours after sunset. Stations were to go to the
FCC’s website and download the revised
authorizations, prior to the time change on March
11, 2007. Many AM licensees were less than pleased
when they noted their power levels had changed, in
some cases from 500 watts down to 7 watts. As it
turns out, the Commission’s model contained some
errors. The biggest seemed to be the overprotection
of stations in Mexico. Under the rules, Mexican
facilities are only protected to the US/Mexico
border. However, the program was protecting the
international stations’ contours within the US.
After attempting to remedy the issue (and other
minor problems), the FCC suspended the new
authorizations and instructed stations to continue
with their present authorizations, using the April
advanced time data for March. The problems with the
computer program are to be repaired, and new data
will be forthcoming, potentially before the switch
back to standard time in early November. |
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Applications Published in Federal Register |
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Those entities that submitted city of license
change applications, as a minor change, have
been published in the Federal Register. This was
a part of the new procedure implemented by the
Commission. The applications must be published,
and the FCC must wait 60 days before they can
act on the application. The first day filers,
all 134 of them, can, theoretically, be acted
upon after April 16, 2007, which is 60 days
after Register publication. There has been a
steady filing of changes of city since the first
day. On a related note, the FCC has still not
released the revised Form 340 applications for
non-commercial broadcasters to use to propose
changes to their station’s community of license.
The form was to be ready by mid-March. |
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LPTV and TV Translator Settlement Window |
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The FCC has released a Public Notice announcing
a 60 day settlement window for the LPTV and TV
translator applications filed in August 2000.
Hundreds of applications are listed in the
public notice and are broken into 204 groups.
Applicants within these groups may choose to
dismiss their applications or seek engineering
solutions to resolve the conflicts. The
settlement period runs through April 23, 2007 at
6:00 PM. If any unresolved groups remain, those
applications will be subject to an auction to
determine which entity can ultimately be issued
a permit for the new station. A list of the
mutually exclusive applicants can be found at
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA
07 193A1.pdf. |
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Stu and Jeff will attend the National
Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las
Vegas next month. If you would like either of
them to set aside time for a meeting or cup of
coffee, please let them know. They will be
staying at the Bellagio if you would like to
reach them during the convention. |
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