FCC Seen Likely to Act on Translator Interference Through Adjudication
The FCC is considered likely to act on updating its rules on FM translator interference with full-power stations through an upcoming adjudication rather than through a rulemaking, several radio industry officials said in interviews. The FCC has a pending application for review on an interference complaint between an FM translator and full-power station in Indiana that involves the issues (see 1611040051) raised in recent petitions for rulemaking from NAB and Aztec Capital Partners (see 1706010063), industry officials said. The FCC’s latest FM translator license application window, which opened Wednesday, is likely to exacerbate interference issues between translators and full powers, industry officials said.
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It should be possible for the agency to respond to some of the concerns about how such interference complaints are handled through a decision on an application for review, though such an action would have more authority if it's voted by the full commission rather than approved on delegated authority, an industry official said. Commission action on the issue could come as soon as September, industry officials said.
The application for review that could lead to FCC action on the matter concerns interference complaints between an FM translator in Greenfield, Indiana, rebroadcasting Radio One, and Reising Radio’s full-power station WXCH Columbus, Indiana, said filings in the FCC’s consolidated database system (CDBS). In the proceeding, Radio One questioned the validity of the interference complaints from WXCH listeners, and WXCH argued that Radio One harassed listeners that complained, filings said. The FCC’s handling of listener complaints is a central issue in the Aztek and NAB petitions. Radio One and Reising didn’t comment.
“Broadcasters are asking for more certainty,” said Cromwell Group President Bayard Walters, who owns both full-power FM stations and FM translators. Under the current system, one listener complaint can have the weight of 1,000 people complaining, and that should be changed, Walters said. The current rules also allow powerful FM stations to pursue complaints against translators that may be far outside the station’s nominal coverage area. There are translators that interfere with his stations, but since that interference takes place far outside the community he serves and draws advertising from, Walters said he won’t pursue the matter, but that under current FCC rules, a more aggressive full-power station in his situation could force the translators off the air.
Stations seeking FM translator licenses in application windows like the current one should test to see if their prospective translators will cause interference once in place, instead of relying on calculations, Walters said. Womble Carlyle radio attorney John Garziglia said the current window for C and D AM stations is proceeding smoothly and is unlikely to lead to auctions for mutually exclusive stations. Broadcasters that sat out the previous translator windows in anticipation of this one likely were confident they would be able to find an open channel, and they will be motivated to come to an understanding with any mutually exclusive applications to avoid delays in starting up their translators, he said.
If the FCC does use an adjudication to make changes to the way it handles interference complaints, it could still go further with a rulemaking later, an industry official said.