The Minority Media & Telecommunications Council is asking the commission to review the so-called Tell City waiver decision.
The organization is asking the commissioners to set aside the Media Bureau decision denying the waiver and grant the request to move an FM translator to rebroadcast an AM signal 65 miles — further than commission rules allow now in one hop. MMTC President David Honig says in a letter the agency’s own rules allow a reversal until Oct. 29.
We reported the Media Bureau felt a waiver was not the proper venue for the request originally made by The Cromwell Group owner Bud Walters, especially while the agency considers options for AM revitalization.
“The removal of FCC regulatory barriers prohibiting FM translator relocations an appreciable distance is the single most immediate and effective step that the FCC can take today to revitalize AM stations,” says Honig. Allowing an AM station to search 50 miles or more from its transmitter site for an FM translator it might acquire and move would be an approximately two-month approval process — rather than a two or three-year wait before possible relief under an AM-only FM translator window, he says.
Related:
FCC Denies “Tell City” Waiver
