Symons, Gravino Spar Over LPTV, FCC 'Sensitive' to Wireless Mic Industry Concerns
The FCC has looked at the impact of the incentive auction on low-power TV, said Incentive Auction Task Force Vice Chairman Howard Symons on The Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU(FM) Washington Tuesday. Symons was responding to comments from LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino, who said on the show that the FCC should have studied the auction’s effects on LPTV stations before deciding to exclude them from the incentive auction. “Our starting point is the statute, what Congress told us to do,” Symons said.
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Symons and Gravino also discussed FCC policy toward unlicensed spectrum, the spectrum crunch and the expected outcomes of the auction. Symons also said that the commission is paying close attention to the concerns of wireless mic users, which have said they fear the new incentive auction procedures approved at last week's FCC meeting will hurt them. The WAMU interview was aired and simultaneously webcast.
If the FCC had made a more comprehensive study of the effects on LPTV, owners of such stations would be receiving accommodations such as relocation compensation, Gravino said. LPTV contains the most multicultural and diverse TV stations, and those are the ones likely to be displaced by the auction, Gravino said. Symons pointed to FCC policies intended to help LPTV stations displaced in the auction, such as allowing them to stay put on their former spectrum until wireless carriers actually commence operation on it.
Symons also highlighted the transition period in response to a listener concerned about wireless mics. Though the caller asked what the FCC was doing to prevent such mics from being moved to different bands, Symons responded by explaining FCC actions last week opening new bands for wireless mic use “so they have a home to go to.”
One listener compared the incentive auction to the government's having to repurchase national park land, but Symons responded that the auction could create as much as $40 billion in revenue and open up a significant amount of spectrum to wireless use. The money going to broadcasters is a “financial sweetener” to encourage participation, Symons said.
The incentive auction is the result of a “decades long conspiracy” to help large companies such as carriers, Gravino said. Smaller LPTV broadcasters are being forced to bear their own relocation costs so that carriers can get more spectrum, he said. Gravino also corrected Symons and Nnamdi when they said that public access TV channels would be displaced by the auction -- Nnamdi is the chairman of Public Access Corp. of the District of Columbia.