LPTV, Translator Derby Yields Hundreds of Applications
Hundreds of applicants for new digital low-power TV and translator stations filed paperwork with the FCC this week after a filing window opened Tuesday (CD Aug 18 p6). The first-come first-served application process also prompted some existing licensees to modify or reapply for construction permits, said Chairman Byron St. Clair of the National Translator Association. “A lot of translators in the last couple of weeks crawled out of the woodwork and decided to file an application to flash cut to digital.” Had they waited, those stations could have been displaced by new entrants.
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The filing window is still open, and it’s difficult to gauge how many applications have already been submitted, because they don’t appear in the FCC’s Consolidated Database System until all filing fees are paid, St. Clair said. Applicants have 10 business days after filing to pay the fee. He estimated about 1,600 applications have come in so far. Among the applicants were some full-power stations that wanted to expand service into remote areas, St. Clair said. It appears that few speculative applications were filed, he said. “We were concerned that there might be because those get in the way of people who really want to do something. From what we've seen so far, that does not seem to be a problem.”
Still, some observers expected more activity, attorney Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher Heald said. “It’s a far smaller number than I anticipated.” Some applicants may be waiting until January when a national window opens. This window excluded any new service within 75 miles of a top 100 market. That doesn’t leave much space, especially east of the Mississippi River, Tannenwald said. Some applicants are hoping to use LPTV permits to build out new advanced services, said Tannenwald, who represents a company that wants to help LPTV operators offer broadband and other advanced services. Those applications were mostly focused around highways and crossroad communities, he said.
More than 20 applications for new services on channels 5 and 6 have come in so far, despite efforts by the Broadcast Maximization Committee to set those aside for radio service (CD Aug 7 p8). The committee hasn’t decided how it will address those applications, said Wiley Rein attorney Mark Lipp, who represents the committee. “We could ask the commission to do a freeze on the processing of those applications. We could go to the applicants themselves and suggest some alternative channels,” he said. “We're going to just wait and see the scope of this, and decide how to proceed.”