No AM Translator Window Will Hurt Minority Broadcasting, 50 CEOs Say
Broadcasters ratcheted up a push for an FCC FM translator window for AM stations, as expected (see 1508270029), with lobbying visits and a letter to Chairman Tom Wheeler. Any approach to AM revitalization that doesn’t include an AM-only window for FM translator applications will make it “extremely difficult” for AM stations to remain competitive, 50 CEOs of minority-owned AM licensees said in a letter to Wheeler Monday. “AM radio has been the technological gateway for entrepreneurs of color in broadcasting,” said the letter, which listed officials from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) and National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters as contact points. “Two-thirds of minority-owned broadcast stations are AM radio stations,” the letter said. The draft AM revitalization order doesn't include a translator window.
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Ex parte filings in docket 13-249 from NAB and station owner Q Media echoed the CEOs on the importance of the translator window. “The best lifeline the FCC could provide is an application window for FM translators that is limited to AM stations,” NAB told Commissioner Mignon Clyburn in a meeting Wednesday, according to an ex parte filing.
Representatives of MMTC and the broadcasters that wrote the letter are meeting with Commissioners Clyburn, Ajit Pai and Jessica Rosenworcel this week as part of a push in opposition to the current draft order on AM revitalization, Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero told us. Montero is on the MMTC board and involved with the CEO letter. Wheeler is seen as opposing the window, FCC officials have told us.
It's a misperception that an AM-only window is a “handout” to incumbent broadcasters, said Womble Carlyle radio attorney John Garziglia. Since the AM-only window concept would include auctions for mutually exclusive translator applications, and there are likely to be hundreds of those situations, the AM-only window is just like any other broadcast station window, Garziglia said.
Without an AM-only window, the FM translators will be priced out of the range of most small market AM stations, Montero and Garziglia said. The more players there are in an auction, the higher the price rises, Garziglia said, and the AM-only window “would have allowed the stations to get the translators at a much lower price.”
Though AM broadcasters have said part of the reason they need more FM translators is that the current ones aren't where they’re needed, NAB and Q Media attacked an FCC proposal that would allow AM stations to receive waivers to relocate translators up to 250 miles. That proposal would favor large well-situated stations over the small rural ones that most need the translators, Montero said. Such an approach would expand the universe of well-funded stations only in large markets because small AM stations "would have to compete against in a bidding war,” NAB said.