Dozen Radio Broadcasters Seek to get Translator Auction Under Way
A dozen broadcasters sought to jump start an auction of translators they hope can be used for service on either radio band, without waiting for new requests for low-power FM (LPFM) stations that could use the same spectrum. A counterproposal to one made last month from an LPFM group and a broadcaster among those with the most applications pending in the 2003 filing window for Auction 83 was filed by small commercial broadcasters frustrated at the pace of FCC action. The earlier proposal by the Prometheus Radio Project, representing LPFM stations, and Educational Media Foundation, with several hundred translator supplications, has been getting consideration from career FCC staffers and commissioners’ offices aware that many industry stakeholders hadn’t signed onto that plan (CD Oct 4 p8). Prometheus officials said they welcomed debate about their proposal.
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The commission should immediately open a settlement window for FM translator seekers in the auction whose applicants conflicted with each other to settle the conflicts and then auction commercial applications where a deal couldn’t be reached, the 12 broadcasters said in a filing posted Friday in docket 99-25 (http://xrl.us/bh348n). After those commercial applications are dealt with, the commission could take action on non-commercial, educational (NCE) requests and LPFM applications, they said. During the settlement window, NCE seekers could strike deals among themselves to sort out conflicts, said broadcast lawyer John Garziglia of Womble Carlyle, representing the proponents of the new plan. He said they have a total of 51 applications pending in Auction 83. The companies include Cool Radio, Cromwell Group and Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting.
Broadcasters and listeners “have now been waiting more than seven years since filing the Auction No. 83 FM translator applications for the enhanced service that such applications when acted upon will provide,” the proposal said. The Prometheus-Educational Media Foundation (EMF) plan “would substantially harm commercial broadcasters who relied upon the FCC’s rules and policies to file Auction No. 83 FM translator applications while leaving EMF with hundreds of applications pending,” the commercial stations said. “Many of the undersigned commercial broadcasters desire to use FM translators for the rebroadcast of signal-deficient AM stations which has been acknowledged to be a substantial public interest benefit by the FCC.” Under last month’s Prometheus and EMF proposal, revised by those two groups after the FCC requested they seek input from industry, those awaiting translators in the auction could get one granted if they hadn’t had any awarded previously.
"We're looking for a way to get this process moving, because right now it seems this process is stalled and has been stalled for a number of years,” Garziglia said. “The broadcasters involved in this just don’t want to see themselves pushed to the very end” of the line, he added. “This EMF/Prometheus proposal would change the FM translator application rules midstream -- in essence yanking the rug out from under those commercial broadcasters who followed the FCC’s rules and procedures in filing applications under the set rules and procedures."
Prometheus is “happy to see a counterproposal,” said Associate Director Matt Wood of the Media Access Project, representing that group. “This is exactly the sort of thing we're hoping to see, and not go ahead with the 10 application cap” in the auction that the commission had proposed earlier and that the group had backed, he said. But it turns out that cap “isn’t actually going to preserve any LPFM availability,” Wood said. “We're open to anything that will preserve LPFM availability and flexibility” in major metropolitan areas, “but it has to be real availability” and not theoretical, he added.
It’s now “clear” the limit of 10 “doesn’t do very much for low-power availability or do much for speculators” in terms of stopping broadcasters from winning construction permits and then quickly flipping them, said Prometheus Executive Director Pete Tridish. “I hope everyone is starting to realize that the 10 cap wasn’t the panacea that it had been billed as.” The group does “support other people trying to think creatively on how to untangle” this issue, Tridish said. “If there’s real availability that comes out of a scenario and it makes as many parties as happy as possible, then we're all for it.”