LPTV Broadcaster Challenges Class A Window in DC Circuit

Connecticut low-power TV broadcaster Radio Communications Corp. wants the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn an FCC order creating a window for certain LPTV stations to upgrade to Class A status. “Review is required” because the FCC’s implementation of the Low-Power Protection Act “fails to protect, in a very substantial manner, Low Power Television stations and licenses (LPTV), and the newly created Class A stations, as required by Congress,” said a petition for review filed with the D.C. Circuit Jan. 10 and posted Thursday. The order, parts of which will take effect Feb. 9, would open a one-year window only for LPTV stations that broadcast a minimum of 18 hours a day, carry three hours per week of local programming and are located in markets of 95,000 households or fewer -- and that already met those requirements for the 90 days prior to the LPPA's Jan. 5, 2023, approval by Congress. The petition asks the court to review the order on an expedited basis, stay it, find it unlawful and rule that RCC isn’t precluded from applying for the window, that program content can’t be used to deny Class A licenses and that Class A stations can assert must-carry in their markets.