Unanimous Approval Expected of FCC 'Franken FM' Order
An FCC draft order on FM6 low-power TV stations is expected to change little from the draft version and to be unanimously approved Thursday, FCC and industry officials said. The stations -- sometimes called “Franken FMs”-- broadcast primarily audio content that can be picked up with FM radio receivers and “will get to stay on the air and continue serving the public,” said Wiley broadcast attorney Ari Melzer, who represents several FM6 broadcasters.
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“To preserve their programming (especially public safety and emergency information) that viewers have come to rely on, we find the public interest will be served by continuing existing FM6 operations,” said the draft order. “We find that the benefits of preserving existing FM6 LPTV stations outweigh concerns that FM6 operations are an inefficient use of spectrum.”
Thirteen stations are already broadcasting through grants of special temporary authority, and a 14th, WVOA-LD Westvale, New York, will be allowed to join them. The FM6 stations were originally required to cease broadcasting their analog signals in July 2021 because of the digital transition, but the 13 highlighted in the order hit on a workaround of broadcasting audio and video in ATSC 3.0 as their primary service with their analog audio broadcast offered as an ancillary service. WVOA had also sought to broadcast using ATSC 3.0, but the station’s authorization was delayed by cross-border interference concerns. The order requires WVOA to operate under an STA for a year before it will be granted the same permissions as the other 13.
Under the terms of the order, no new FM6 stations will be authorized, though the order allows the 14 stations to be sold or transferred if they maintain the same contour. Under the FCC’s ancillary service rules, the stations will have to pay 5% of any revenue from their analog signal to the agency. Some low-power TV broadcasters initially called for the agency to allow for new stations to broadcast in FM6, and a broadcast attorney told us the language in the order doesn’t completely foreclose the idea of the FCC one day allowing more. “We believe it prudent to proceed cautiously and establish rules in this Order only for existing FM6 stations, which have an established track record of non-interference and a history of providing FM6 service to the public.”
The draft order hasn’t drawn a lot of ex parte attention in docket 03-185. REC Networks asked the FCC earlier this month to relax interference protections for FM6 stations, but the draft order doesn’t take that proposal up. The draft also rejected the idea of allowing channel 6 spectrum to be repurposed for noncommercial educational FM radio services, a proposal pushed by NPR. (see 2306280064). Turning unused channel 6 TV spectrum over to radio is “neither feasible, because of the possibility of interference; nor efficient, because receivers are not capable of receiving FM stations below 87.7 FM; nor appropriate,” because the spectrum is still needed for broadcast TV use, the draft order said. NPR didn’t comment.