Broadcaster Quest to Get AM-Only FM Translator Window Facing Tough Road
ATLANTA -- There aren't enough commissioner votes in favor of an AM-only window for FM translator applications, broadcast attorneys told us Thursday. Their remarks on the sidelines of the NAB Show came after Commissioner Ajit Pai urged the FCC to include the window in the AM revitalization effort. Pai said he asked the other commissioners Wednesday to include the window in the draft order. “The moment of decision has arrived; Commissioners will now have to decide with whom they will stand,” said Pai in the emailed statement. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn had supported the translator window as acting chairwoman and when the idea was in an NPRM. But she introduced a new wrinkle.
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Clyburn now supports a translator window only after the conclusion of the incentive auction, she said in a statement Thursday. Chairman Tom Wheeler this summer circulated a draft order on so-called AM revitalization that wouldn't open a window, disappointing many broadcasters (see 1508270029), which have mounted a lobbying campaign at the agency (see 1509210050). This week back in Washington, broadcasters reported that campaign continued with more lobbying meetings.
The proposal in the draft order to allow broadcasters to move FM translators within 250 miles offers more immediate relief than a window, said Clyburn. ”I urge my colleagues to offer relief to these broadcasters at the earliest possible date.” Clyburn said she released the statement because the discussion about revitalization had become “incendiary and misleading.”
The draft order's waiver proposal supported by Clyburn would stagger the availability of the 250-mile waiver to prioritize smaller AM stations and stations that are daytime only, she said. A similar priority had been advocated by the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters for the AM-only window. NABOB, the Multicultural Media Internet and Telecom Council, and NAB filed an ex parte letter this week saying they don't support the 250-mile waiver proposal unless it's accompanied by the AM-only translator window.
If Pai can get a majority of commissioners to support the translator window, it would still be included in the draft order, an FCC official told us. Speaking at the NAB show, Commissioner Mike O'Rielly said the window should be part of any FCC effort to preserve AM radio. Pai's bid for votes listed the wide base of supporters for the AM-only translator window, which include legislators, the MMTC, NABOB, NAB, former commissioners Michael Copps and Robert McDowell and most of the radio industry.
The 250-mile proposal would get AM broadcasters quicker relief, said Media Bureau Audio Division Chief Peter Doyle during a panel at the show, in comments echoed by Clyburn's statement. Doyle said that because a translator window would involve auctions, it couldn't be done until after the incentive auction, which has monopolized FCC auction staff time. The waiver proposal would increase possible translator matches “fifty-fold,” Doyle said. Clyburn said she still supports a translator window after the auction.
The 250-mile proposal has started to find favor with some broadcasters who feel it would work for them, broadcast attorneys told us. Others said it had to be combined with the translator window to save AM. "It's like a Band-Aid for a gunshot wound,” said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Frank Montero. “We need the window,” said Jose Ribas, who owns an AM station in Puerto Rico. AM broadcasters have served the country for a long time, he said. “The FCC has a very short memory.”