Cross-Band Translator Waiver Seen Raising Key AM Issues, Though FCC May Not Approve

A request for the FCC to let AM stations buy FM translators farther away from their main transmitter to rebroadcast their programming within the market raises important issues on AMs’ future, though the agency seems unlikely to approve the waiver, industry officials said. The owner of a few dozen radio stations wants the commission to let broadcasters buy FM translators from as far as 100 miles from their AM transmitter, without waiting for a filing window to seek such opportunities. The waiver points out that the radio industry wants FCC help to make changes such as these without needing to wait for a filing window to present such an opportunity, and other regulatory flexibility, said a lawyer and an engineer who reviewed the waiver at our request.

The request was partly tied to FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai’s speech to the NAB Radio show in September (http://xrl.us/bn2khm), where he sought an AM “revitalization” initiative in 2013 (CD Sept 20 p6). Pai’s office declined to comment. NAB thinks the request is “worthy of serious consideration” by the commission, said a spokesman. The waiver wouldn’t lead to fewer opportunities for low-power FM stations, subject of an order commissioners are tentatively set to approve at the Nov. 30 open meeting (CD Nov 15 p6), industry officials and the request said. But the waiver may raise issues about what would be similar to the move-ins by suburban and rural FM stations into more populous areas the commission has cut down on, because some AMs’ coverage areas are so large, said lawyer John Crigler of Garvey Schubert. The law firm has commercial and non-commercial radio station clients.

Friday’s request by Hancock Communications could theoretically be granted now, without waiting for an initiative such as what Pai seeks to be completed, said industry lawyers including John Garziglia of Womble Carlyle, representing Hancock. His request takes a step beyond an earlier waiver request that was approved by the Media Bureau so such minor-change applications can be made for translators to give AMs an FM frequency, too, and possibly broadcast at farther distances at night when AM power must be reduced at many stations to avoid nighttime interference, industry officials said. The bureau earlier allowed AMs to seek moves of maybe 10 or 15 miles without making a major-change request, Garziglia said. He estimated 10-20 stations took advantage of that.

Other AMs would want such translators, if they could obtain them under revised commission rules, said other industry officials including President Bob du Treil of radio engineering firm du Treil Lundin. “There’s been a fairly high interest in this.” Many stations have tried to get translators in such situations, and often can’t because “most of these translators nowadays are already spoken for,” he said. “There is a fairly limited supply of what is out there now, so you have to find someone who is essentially interested in selling the thing.” Way Media agreed contingent on FCC approval of the waiver to sell Hancock an FM translator in Central City, Ky., for the buyer to use at its WTCJ(AM) Tell City, Ind., about 37 miles away, said Garziglia. All of the five other AM stations owned by Hancock President Bayard Walters also have FM translators, Walters said. FM is “a band that is more acceptable to listeners” and advertisers, among whom there’s a “perception” that “no one is listening to AM” in small markets where ratings from Arbitron aren’t available, he said.

Getting an FM frequency would help AMs, though they'd be aided much more if the FCC opened a filing window for major-change applications, said industry officials. The low availability of translators for sale now means AMs might do better to request new frequency allotments for FM translator frequencies, said du Treil. “If they're serious about AM improvement, they need to provide AM stations the opportunity to get an FM translator” in such a filing window, he said of the agency. “A large number of AMs would be interested in getting one of these translators if they could.” The waiver approach the request seeks to use “is really stretching the distance” and “is probably too much of a stretch for the normal FCC procedure,” he said. The waiver would allow AMs not to go through multiple hops -- requests for construction permits to build translators close to an existing authorization -- by instead getting approval for the desired location in one request, du Treil said. “They need to give AM stations an opportunity to obtain a new translator facility without having to go through multiple hops and playing games with the existing inventory,” he said of the commission.

It may be years before there’s a commercial radio filing window, said Garziglia and others.

"You're talking years off,” and he hopes for action soon on the current request. “There are a whole bunch of FM translators out there, right now,” that might trade hands under a waiver, he said. Those translators are too far from existing AM stations seeking a translator to move under the previously approved waiver, he said. A window is potentially a longer-term solution, Walters said. “The larger of the AM’s coverage area, the better of its chances of finding a translator” under the exception he seeks, he said. WTCJ runs about $1,000 in ads monthly, and he hopes a translator would increase that.

New translators for AM programming may mean other full-power FMs would face interference, which the FCC isn’t always keen to remedy when complaints arise, Crigler said. “The commission is very reluctant to get involved in those kinds of disputes,” he said. “They're sometimes difficult to resolve.” Translators unlike full-power stations lack interference protection, and must stop interfering with other stations or shut down, Crigler said. Because the agency will hold an LPFM filing window before any new one for other types of radio stations, it may be a while before there’s a major-change opportunity for such translator applications, he said. The FCC hasn’t finished acting on pending requests from a 2007 filing window for translators, which was the last such opportunity, Crigler and Garziglia said.

Pending radio proposals at the FCC won’t provide “the prospect of immediate help to AM stations,” Hancock’s request said. It cited power increases that can cost “tens of thousands of dollars” per station and a new radio band or move to all-digital AM transmissions. Making it easier for AMs to get FM translators “is staring the FCC In the face as a change we can make today -- with results occurring today -- to revitalize AM stations,” said the request accepted Monday in FCC consolidated database file No. BPFT-20121116ALE (http://bit.ly/QU3zGr). Approving the waiver won’t help all AM stations, the request said (http://bit.ly/100X8CR): Achieving such a “chimera” isn’t a reason to “disregard” the request.