Pai-Backed New FM Class Could Brush Up Against Translators
FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai's proposal to explore creating a new C4 class of FM stations with a wider range than Class A stations but smaller than C3 FM stations (see 1609220070) has some broadcast attorneys concerned about the translators granted under the agency's AM revitalization. “Translators are secondary facilities,” said Womble Carlyle radio attorney John Garziglia. The expansion of the contours of Class A FM stations could interfere with existing translators, including the hundreds recently purchased by AM stations under the revitalization effort, broadcast attorneys told us. Any final order would have to protect existing translators, especially the translators granted under the revitalization effort, a Pai spokesman told us.
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Pai's proposed NPRM stems from a 2013 petition for rulemaking from Class A broadcaster SSR Communications, which asked the FCC to create a new FM C4 category that would permit broadcast facilities of “12,000 Watts of effective radiated power from an antenna height above average terrain of 100 meters,” which is larger than a Class A FM station but smaller than the existing C3 stations. “The implementation of a C4 allocation would provide a potential upgrade opportunity to hundreds of FM Class A facilities,” said SSR CEO Matthew Wesolowski in the petition. The new class also would provide more opportunities for minority broadcasters, the petition said. “Several hundred additional licensed FM Class A (and even other class) facilities would be able to take advantage of the proposed C4 allocation, thereby enabling improved radio service to millions of potential listeners.”
The C4 FM stations would be an opportunity to help radio stations in rural areas and small towns, the Pai spokesman said. “They could broadcast with increased power and provide service to more Americans so long as they didn’t impact the existing service contours of other stations,” Pai said in a speech Thursday.
Several broadcast attorneys said FCC FM translator efforts have made the FM band rather tightly packed. Pai himself trumpeted the success of the translator efforts in his speech at the Radio Show Thursday, saying the commission granted 824 applications for FM translators in 2016. The space those translators occupy could be the same space into which Class A stations expanding into C4 stations would want to grow, numerous broadcast attorneys told us.
The impact the C4 class would have on translators has been “quite overblown,” Wesolowski said in an interview. His petition limits the request to rural areas, and he suggested some provisions that would protect translators. Wesolowski also conceded that protecting all the translators from the AM revitalization would limit the C4 class' effectiveness, but said he's “ecstatic” that Pai is backing his petition. Single-owned full-power FM stations can “fall through the cracks” at the FCC, he said.