Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of: ) ) Amendment of Section 73.622(i), ) MB Docket No. the Table of Allotments for ) Digital Television Stations, ) Rulemaking No. For KCTS-TV, Seattle, Washington ) (Facility ID No. 33749) ) To: Office of the Secretary, Federal Communications Commission Attn: Chief, Mass Media Bureau PETITION FOR RULEMAKING CASCADE PUBLIC MEDIA (“Cascade”), licensee of non-commercial educational television station KCTS-TV, Facility ID No. 33749, Seattle, Washington (“KCTS” or the “Station”), by counsel, hereby respectfully petitions the Commission to institute a rulemaking proceeding pursuant to Section 1.401 of the Commission’s Rules1 for the purpose of amending the digital television Table of Allotments set forth in Section 73.622(i) of the Rules (“DTV Table”)2. Cascade requests that the Commission amend the DTV Table to substitute UHF Channel 17 for Seattle, Washington, in lieu of VHF Channel 9 (on which the Station is currently operated), in accordance with the technical parameters set forth in the Engineering Statement attached hereto as Exhibit 1.3 As demonstrated below, the proposed substitution meets the 1 47 C.F.R. § 1.401 2 47 C.F.R. § 73.622(i) 3 See Engineering Statement of Don Everist, Cohen, Dippell and Everist, P.C., in Support of Petition to Amend the Table of Allotments for KCTS-TV, Seattle Washington, dated December 2020 (“Engineering Statement”) (attached as Exhibit 1 hereto). applicable technical requirements set forth in Rules 616, 623 and 625(a) for post-transition DTV channel changes, 4 and would serve the public interest by: addressing ongoing reception complaints KCTS has received from viewers since commencing operations on Channel 9; optimizing Seattle, Washington DTV allotments by improving the Station’s OTA reception within its community of license and core service area, allowing it to better compete for viewers with other full-power television stations in the Seattle-Tacoma market; and enabling the Station to better serve the Seattle community by substantially improving viewer access to its non- commercial educational and public affairs programming, in both “over-the-air” (“OTA”), and in the forthcoming ATSC 3.0 mobile device, environments. KCTS is licensed to Seattle, Washington, and transmits on VHF Channel 9, at 21.7 kW ERP. It is one of two full-power non-commercial educational digital television stations serving the Seattle-Tacoma DMA, and, of those, the only NCE DTV station operating on a VHF channel.5 In the DTV “repack,” KCTS was originally allotted digital Channel 41. KCTS is a PBS affiliate, and many residents of Seattle and KCTS’ core viewing area depend on the Station’s OTA transmissions in order to receive PBS’ outstanding educational, cultural and public affairs programming. Apart from KCTS, only two of the 15 other full-power television stations in the Seattle-Tacoma DMA operate on VHF channels, and no other television station in the DMA operates on a VHF channel as low as KCTS’ Channel 9.6 As set forth below and in Cascade’s Vice President of Engineering and Technologies’ declaration attached as Exhibit 2, 4 47 C.F.R. §§ 73.616, 73.623, and 73.625(a). 5 https://www.stationindex.com/tv/markets/seattle-tacoma 6 See supra, n.5. 2 since the digital transition and commencement of DTV operations on VHF Channel 9 in 2009, KCTS has consistently received viewer complaints of poor reception and interference, many of whom complain that Channel 9 is the only station they cannot receive reliably over the air.7 These persistent VHF reception issues put KCTS at a severe disadvantage in reaching viewers, compared with most other full power DTV stations in the Seattle market which now operate on UHF channels. Moreover, KCTS’ high-VHF band channel allotment will effectively preclude the Station and its core viewers from realizing the full benefits of the ATSC 3.0 transition, because VHF frequencies are unsuitable for mobile devices with onboard antennas. Generally, the Commission will grant a proposed reallotment when the change will result in a “preferential arrangement of allotments.”8 The Commission will consider a proposal to change the DTV Table to be in the public interest if it satisfies one of the Commission’s five allotment priorities.9 The Commission’s stated objective of the post-transition DTV Table is ensuring the provision of digital television service “to the American people in an expeditious and efficient manner.”10 The Commission has recognized repeatedly that substitution of UHF 7 Statement of Jabran Soubeih, Cascade Public Media Vice President of Engineering & Technology (“Soubeih Statement”), attached hereto as Exhibit 2. 8 See generally Amendment of Section 3.606 of the Commission's Rules and Regulations, Sixth Report and Order, 41 F.C.C. 148, 167-173 (1952). 9 Id. The five allotment priorities are: (1) to provide at least one television service to all parts of the United States; (2) to provide each community with at least one television broadcast station; (3) to provide a choice of at least two television services to all parts of the United States; (4) to provide each community with at least two television broadcast stations; and (5) to assign any remaining channels to communities based on population, geographic location, and the number of television services available to the community from stations located in other communities. Id. 10 See, e.g., In the Matter of Amendment of Section 73.622(B), Table of Allotments, Digital Television Broadcast Stations (Nampa, Idaho), Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd. 4491, 4493 3 channels for VHF channels under parameters meeting applicable technical requirements may serve the public interest and the Commission’s DTV Table priorities, where the channel change would address viewer reception and interference issues caused by the relatively poor signal propagation characteristics of DTV VHF operations.11 Reliable high-quality reception of free DTV programming over the air has become even more important than ever, as more people rely increasingly on OTA reception in this era of pandemic-induced economic uncertainty and “cord cutting.”12 Yet, since at least 2010, the Commission has recognized that “VHF channels have certain technical characteristics that have posed challenges for their use in providing digital television service,” including “propagation characteristics of these channels [that] allow undesired signals and noise to be receivable at relatively farther distances,” the tendency of “nearby electrical devices … to emit noise in this (2004); In the Matter of Amendment of Section 73.622(B), Table of Allotments, Digital Television Broadcast Stations (In the Matter of Amendment of Section73.622(B), Table of Allotments, Digital Television Broadcast Stations (Albany, New York), 19 FCC Rcd. 4329, 4331 (2004); see also In the Matter of Advanced Television Systems & Their Impact Upon the Existing Television Broadcast Service, 12 FCC Rcd. 14588 ¶ 76 (1997). 11 See, e.g., In Re Amendment of Section 73.622(i), ) Post-Transition Table of DTV Allotments, Television Broadcast Stations, (Portland, Oregon), Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, MB Docket No. 20-334, RM-11864 (rel. Oct. 13, 2020); In Re Amendment of Section 73.622(i), Post- Transition Table of DTV Allotments, Television Broadcast Stations (Mesa, Arizona), Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, MB Docket No. 20-331, RM-11863, DA-20-1192 (rel. Oct. 13, 2020); In Re Amendment of Section 73.622(b), Table of Allotments, Digital Television Broad. Stations, Ontario, CA, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 16 FCC Rcd. 2276 (2001); In Re Amendment of Section 73.606(b), Table of Allotments, Television Broadcast Stations, Moscow, Idaho, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 17 FCC Rcd. 19447 (2002). 12 See, e.g., Jon Lafayette, “Cord-Cutting Hit Record Levels in First Quarter,” Broadcasting + Cable, https://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/cord-cutting-hit-record-levels-in-first-quarter (May 8, 2020); Aaron Pressman, “Cord cutting is speeding up as the coronavirus pandemic squeezes consumers,” Fortune, https://fortune.com/2020/05/05/cord-cutting-coronavirus-cable- satellite-tv-comcast-verizon-charter-altice-att-dish/ (May 5, 2020). 4 band that can cause interference,” and the fact that “reception of VHF signals requires physically larger antennas that are generally not well suited to the mobile applications expected under flexible use, relative to UHF channels.”13 The Commission further noted that independent studies by a private engineering firm and the Commission’s own staff both found “large variability in the performance (especially intrinsic gain) of indoor antennas available to consumers, with most antennas receiving fairly well at UHF and the substantial majority not so well to very poor at high-VHF” and that it is expected “that the reception capabilities of an indoor antenna at low- VHF will generally to be less than at high VHF.”14 The Commission continues to recognize that, although VHF reception issues are not universal, “environmental noise blockages affecting [VHF] signal strength and reception exist” and “[vary] widely from service area to service area.”15 KCTS’ real-world experience since the DTV transition to Channel 9 has been consistent with the Commission’s observations: in fact, the reception of KCTS on its high-VHF Channel 9 experienced by a large number of viewers in its community of license and core service area 13 Innovation in the Broadcast Television Bands: Allocations, Channel Sharing and Improvements to VHF, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 25 FCC Rcd. 16498, 16511 ¶ 42 (2010) (“VHF Improvements NPRM”). 14 Id. at 16512 ¶ 44. See also Amendment of Parts 73 and 74 of the Commission’s Rules to Establish Rules for Digital Low Power Television, Television Translator, and Television Booster Stations and to Amend Rules for Digital Class A Television Stations, Second Report and Order, 26 FCC Rcd. 10732, 10750 ¶ 37 (2011) (“As a result of the full power digital television transition, some full power stations on VHF channels have experienced reception problems and such problems have not been alleviated even by allowing these stations to operate with the maximum power permitted under the full power television rules.”).