BEFORE THE Federal Communications Commission WASHINGTON, D. C. 20554
In the Matter of ) ) RM-11338 AM Radio Stations Use of FM Translators )
TO: Honorable Marlene H. Dortch Secretary
ATTN: The Commission
COMMENTS OF HOLSTON VALLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION
George E. DeVault, Jr. President
HOLSTON VALLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION 222 Commerce Street Kingsport, TN 37660 August 23, 2006 Telephone: 423-246-9578 S U M M A R Y
Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation, based in Kingsport, Tennessee, the
licensee and operator of four AM Broadcast Stations in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia with limited nighttime facilities, supports the petition of the National
Association of Broadcasters to amend the FCC’s Rules and Regulations to permit FM
Translator Stations to rebroadcast the signals of AM Broadcast Stations. Holston Valley
details a number of public interest and legal reasons why the current prohibition on
retransmission of AM signals over FM Translators should be repealed.
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Class C AMs—Technically Fulltime But Very Limited Nighttime Coverage 2
WOPI, 1490 kHz, Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia 4
WKPT, 1590 kHz, Jonesborough, Tennessee 5
Holston’s Other AM Stations 6
A Precedent Exists 7
The Present Prohibition of FM Translator Use by AM Stations Is Arbitrary, Capricious and Irrational 7
Band Clutter Is Not an Issue 8
Technical Matters 8
Conclusion 11
BEFORE THE Federal Communications Commission WASHINGTON, D. C. 20554
In the Matter of ) ) RM-11338 AM Radio Stations Use of FM Translators )
TO: Honorable Marlene H. Dortch Secretary
ATTN: The Commission
COMMENTS OF HOLSTON VALLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Holston Valley Broadcasting Corporation (Holston)1 hereby submits its comments,
pursuant to Public Notice, Report No. 2782, Petition for Rulemaking Filed, released July 25,
2006, in support of the petition of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which proposes that AM radio stations be allowed to utilize FM translators to rebroadcast the programming of AM stations (the “Petition”).
The Proposal is Timely
1. Holston believes that the timeliness of this proposal is accentuated by the coming extension of daylight savings time, which will rob many AM stations of their full coverage during an additional hour of morning “drive time” when radio listenership is highest. Holston is
1Holston is licensee of the following commercial AM Broadcast Stations: WKPT, 1400 kHz, Kingsport, TN; WKTP, 1590 kHz, Jonesborough, TN; WOPI, 1490 kHz, Bristol, TN-VA; and WMEV, 1010 kHz, Marion, VA.
liccnsee of four AM stations in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, the audiences of any
or all ofwhich could benefit fi'om approval ofthe NAB proposal.
2. Additionally, willie Holston is a proponent of In Band On Channel ("IBOC" or
"high definition") digital service in the AM broadcast band, it is undeniable that the current
Ibiquity standard creates at best marginally tolerable second adjacent channel interference, a situation which will be dramatically exacerbated when the Conmlission authorizes nighttime use of
IBOC in the AM band as it surely must do if IBOC AM is to flourish in the United States. The stations, which will suffer the most fi'om such interference, will be the smaller lower-powered AM facilities such as those licensed to Holston. Further, the Ibiquity IBOC system limits the fi'equency response of an AM station's analog transmission to 5 kilohertz of aural fidelity versus the current 10 kilohertz. An FM translator signal in high fidelity will be a welcome alternative to those who cUlTently remain hi-fi AM aficionados.
Class CAM's - Technically Fulltime.But Vel)' Limited Nighttime Covemge
3. Two of Holston's AM stations (WKPT and WOPI) are Class C (formerly known as Class IV) "local" stations. While almost all Class C AM stations operate with the same 1,000 watts ofpower both day and night, since the 1,0542 authorized Class C AM stations are licensed operate on only 6 (1230, 1240, 1340, 1400, 1450, and 1490 kHz) of the 117 authorized AM frequencies (540-1700 kHz, inclusive), nighttime interference from co-channel (and to a lesser
'According to a search of the FCC's CDBS database on August 22, 2006, the six Class C ft'equencies contain the following authorizations: 1230 kHz, 163 licensed stations and 6 outstanding construction permits (CPs); 1240 kHz, 155 licensed stations and 3 outstanding CPs; 1340 kHz, 165 licensed stations (of which I is silent) and 7 ontstanding CPs; 1400 kHz, 171 licensed stations and 6 outstanding CPs; 1450 kHz, 174 licensed stations (ofwhich 2 are silent) and 12 outstanding CPs; and 1490 kHz, 179 licensed stations (of which I is silent) and 13 outstanding CPs.
- 2 - degree adjacent channel) stations often limit interference-fi'ee nighttime coverage to an area a
very few miles (often less than two miles) from the respective station's transmitter; often at an
electrical field strength level of 30 mV/m or more (by contrast, an AM station's normally
protected (intet1erence-fi'ee) contour during daylight hours is 2 mV/m in urban areas and 0.5
mV/m in rural areas. This comes as no surprise when one considers that the Class C stations,
which comprise over 21 percent of all authorized AM stations], are confined to less than five per
cent ofthe standard broadcast AM spectrum. In many instances there isn't even interference-free
nighttinle coverage of the entire community of license of the station thus drastically limiting the
ability ofthese stations to serve even their home community audiences.
4. From tinle to time proposals for use of FM Translators by AM Stations have been made, but have suggested that only "daytinle-only" AM stations be afforded the opportunity to utilize FM translators. Holston reminds the Commission that since the late 1980s most Alvl
"daytimers" (other than certain AM stations licensed on the so-called "clear channels") have at least some nighttime authorization and that in many cases the limited nighttime coverage of what is teclmically a daytinle station exceeds that many of the hundreds of Class C (former Class IV)
AM stations are able to render.
5. For example, in Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia, the community oflicense ofHolston's
WOPI, a "traditional daytinler" competitor, WZAP, 690 kHz is able to achieve better nighttime coverage with a mere 14 watts than WOPI with its 1,000 watts.
3According to our use of the cons database search facility on August 22, 2006, there are a total of 4,748 AM stations licensed by the FCC on all AM frequencies, ofwhich 45 are silent, and another 161 outstanding CPs, for a total of4,909 authorized stations.
- 3 - WOPI(AM), 1490 kHz, Bristol, Tennessee-Virginia
6. The situation of Holston's WaPI in Bristol, a pioneer voice which signed on in
1929 (making it the oldest station between Knoxville and Roanoke), is a pertinent example.
WaPI broadcasts local high school football and basketball games of the local Temlessee High
School; however, some students, parents, and other fans are not able to clearly receive the
broadcasts. The same coverage limitation prevents many local listeners from hearing vital
weather infonnation, election returns, and other merit programming provided by WapI. Over
time such lack ofcoverage inevitably leads to less innovative nighttinle programming.
7. Like most AM stations WaPI also experiences interference even during daytime
hours from man-made sources such as television receivers, fluorescent lighting, computers,
vacuum cleaners, razors, and a myriad of other appliances, interference which plagues AM, but does not affect FM broadcasts.
8. In Bristol, Holston also operates a local FM translator, W249AK, on 97.7 MHz.
While this translator currently relays the programming ofWRZK(FM) (to which Holston provides programming under a time brokerage agreement), coverage improvements for WRZK in recent years make W249AK much less important to WRZK(FM) than it would be to WOPI(AM).
Attachment I hereto depicts WOPI(AM)'s predicted 2 mV/m coverage and W249AK's predicted
60 dBu coverage. While the translator's predicted 60 dBu contour fulls fur sholt of WaPI's 2 mV/m coverage, it is much greater than the interference-fi'ee coverage WaPI enjoys at night.
Indeed, Holston intends to seek Special TemporalY Authority (an "STA") to allow W249AK
- 4 - (which shares WapI's tower) to begin rebroadcasting the programming of WaPI as soon as
possible pending the outcome ofthe currcnt proceeding.
WKTP, 1590 kHz, Jonesborough, Tennessee
9. Holston's WKTP, whose community of license is Jonesborough, TN, the county
seat of Washington County, Tennessee and the Volunteer State's oldest town, has coverage
difficulties similar to those of its sister station, wapI. WKTP broadcasts play-by-play accounts
of Science Hill High School football and basketball. Many fans, however, cannot hear those
broadca~ts. Although technically a "Class B" regional station with a nominal operating power of
5 kilowatts, WKTP's daytime and nighttime coverage from its four tower directional array is
limited, and especially at night its signal falls far short of reaching all of the citizens of
Jonesborough and nearby Johnson City, the largest city in Washington County.
10. There is hope for WKTP, however, because Holston is also the licensee of FM translator station W249AH, 97.7 MHz, in nearby Johnson City. As demonstrated by the map shown in Attachment 2 hereto, W249AH's 60 dBu coverage falls almost totally within WKTP's predicted 2 mv/m contour. Should W249AH be allowed to carry WKTP's programming, many citizens ofthe JonesboroughlJolmson City area would be able to clearly hear that programming -
--- including sports broadcasts, weather, local news, election returns, and entertainment programs for the first time especially during nighttime hours when co-chatmel and adjacent channel interference plagues reception of WKTP's 1590 kHz AM signal. Again, Holston believes STA's or a "blanket" waiver of the current prohibition on AM stations' programming being carried by
FM translators should be in order.
- 5 - Holston's Otb.er AM Stations
II. The audiences of HoL~ton's other two AIvI stations could also benefit from
approval ofthe instant proposal. As noted above, WKPT is a Class C facility operating on 1400
kHz during unlinlited hours with nominal power of 1 kilowatt. It has served Kingsport, "The
Model City," for two-thirds of a century. Although WKPT utilizes a five-eighths wave tower
located in a swampy wetlands area, its interference-free nighttinle coverage falls far short of
reaching even its entire community oflicense (as a result ofthe growth ofthe community over the
past several decades) leaving many local listeners unable to clearly hear the play by play
broadcasts oftheir alma mater, Dobyns-Bennett High School, which WKPT has featured for over
halfa century, or nighttime broadcasts from WKPT's award-wilming local news operation.
12. While Holston's WMEV(AM) operating at 1010 kHz in Marion, Virginia (another pioneer station in its small market having signed-on in 1948) is technically classified as a "Class
D" station (prior to the late 1980s it had to sign off at local sunset in order to protect the dominant full-time stations on its assigned fi'equency, a Canadian clear channel, CFRl3, Toronto and WINS, New York City), it has for many years offered fulltime service through the limited nighttinle coverage afforded by a mere 35 watts of power. Carriage of its programming via an
FM translator could allow vastly improved service to the citizens of Marion and Smyth County,
VA.
- 6 - A Precedent Exists
13. There may be those who complain that allowing an AM station to benefit fi'om
carriage by FM translators on a ftll-in basis would be unfair to FM stations or that it would lead to
the "FM-ization" of AM radio. Similar complaints were voiced decades ago in the television
medium. It has long been recognized that just as FM coverage is almost universally superior to
that provided in the AM service, in the television medium the coverage and propagation of VHF
signals is far superior to that ofUHF signals, yet for many years the Commission had a policy of allowing only VHF TV stations to operate VHF TV translators. At that time UHF stations were only allowed to operate UHF translators and only on channels 70-83 (frequencies now allocated to non-broadcast services). The Commission apparently feared that the already disadvantaged
UHF stations would try to in essence become VHF operations by ringing themselves with VHF translators. Later the Commission recognized the fact that the viewing public was the ultimate loser as a result ofthis policy. The viewers of Holston's UHF station, WKPT-TV, were among the first (if not the very first) to benefit fi'om tltis policy change when Holston's translator station
W07BK (now WKTP-LP), Weber City/Gate City, VA, commenced operation on VHF channel 7 in 1983.
The Present Prohibition of FM Translator Use by AM Stations Is Arbitrary, Capricious and Irrational
14. The prohibition of rebroadcasting the signals of AM stations over FM translators may have made sense in the 1960s and 1970s when the FCC was trying to develop interest in and use of the FM Band, but it makes no sensc today, particularly since the advent of the so-called
"DARS" service, in which the nationwide "satellite radio" providers XM and Sirius operate. For
-7- example, if a listener doesn't have a built-in radio capable of receiving Sirius on a separate band,
but rather one buys a Sirius unit from a consumer electronics retailer and installs it in a car, Sirius
is heard on 88.1, 88.3, 88.5 or 88.7 FM on the built-in car radio. Why should the DARS service providers get to be can'ied on the FM band wllile AM stations, many of whom have been around
for 50 years or more, cannot be? This is arbitrary, capricious and irrational, and violates 5 U.S.c.
706(a)(2). It would appear that a reviewing court would invalidate this rule just as it invalidated the arbitrary and capricious policies that governed comparative broadcast hearings when it turned out that those policies no longer "actually producerd] the benefits the Commission originally predicted they would". Bechtel v. FCC, 10 FCC 3d 875, 880 (D. C. Cir. 1993).
Band Clutter is Not an Issue
15. Some may argue that approval of the instant proposal will lead to unwarranted clutter in the FM broadcast band. Holston submits that, on this point, "The horse is already out of the barn." In the last FM translator filing window the Commission accepted some 13,000 applications for the construction ofnew FM translators. Over 3,300 of these have been granted, and it is likely that a total of around 5,600 applications resulting fi'om this window will ultimately be granted. Like it or not, it is fi'om among these thousands of new permits that many AM stations will find the means to better serve their audiences should the instant proposal be approved.
Technical Matters
16. Holston heartily agrees with the coverage contour considerations in the NAB proposal. Community grade coverage is considered to be 70 dBu (3.16 mV/m) in FM and 5
- 8 - mV1m in AM. The next weaker coverage grade normally considered is the so-called "normally
protected" contour-for most FM stations the 60 dBu (I mV1m) contol11', and is for AM the 2
mV/m contour in urban areas. It is within the parent station's predicted 60 dBu contour that FM
stations must keep the predicted 60 dBu coverage of their co-owned translators. A similar
restriction is appropriate for FM translators carrying the programming ofAM stations.
17. Holston believes, however, that the Conunission should waive or otherwise allow the contour overlap limitation in cases where the FM translator's predicted 60 dBu contour
exceeds the AM station's 2 mV/m contour by a de minimus amount. Perhaps the FM translator's
60 dBu contour exceeding the AM's 2 mV/m contour by a modest alllount in one direction should be allowed in situations where the area in which the translator contour exceeds the AM contour is
less than half as large as area(s) elsewhere in the AM's predicted 2 mV/m contour where no predicted 60 dBu coverage from the subject translator (or any other FM translator relaying the
AM's signal) exists. Another possibility would be where 80% of the primary service contour of the FM translator is within the daytime 2 mV/m contol11' ofthe AM station. This exception would be particularly helpful in situations where an attempt is being made to replicate the pattern created by ffil AM directional array.
18. Holston also agrees with the other coverage limitation proposed by NAB -.-- keeping the entire predicted 60 dBu coverage contour ofthe FM translator within a 25 mile radius ofthe AM station's transmitter site. We submit that the rationale for this proposal is to help AM stations better serve their primary audiences. There is also something ofa precedent in that AM stations (and FM and TV stations as well) may locate their main studios anywhere within a 25
- 9 - mile radius oftheir communities of license even if their community grade coverage contour does
not reach that far. Without a mileage limitation some AM stations ---- especially those with high power and a low dial position ,,--- could in theory operate dozens of such FM translators potentially depriving many other smaller AM stations of the oppOliunity to fill-in their own coverage by utilizing FM translators.
19. Holston agrees that the Commission should allow the transmitters of FM translators relaying the programming of AM stations to be fed their programming by any legitimate means including wire-line, microwave, television or FM sub-carriers, or digital multicasts, or even by internet streaming. Delays of up to one minute in the prograrruning on the
FM translator versus what is on the AM station should be considered simultaneous as such delays are common in some forms ofdigital relay transmission.
20. Finally, Holston believes that FM translators carrying the programming of AM stations should be able to transmit any ofthe ancillary services traditional FM stations are allowed to utilize including stereophonic transmission (even ifthe AM station does not transmit in stereo),
Radio Broadcast Data Service (REDS), one or more Subsidiary Communications Authorization
(SCA) sub-carriers, and In Band On Channel (so-called mac or high defmition radio) digital transmissions including multicasting.
21. While some may suggest that this AM programming on FM translators proposal should only be applicable in smaller markets, Holston agrees with NAB that there should be no limitation on market size. While as a practical matter the existing channel loading situation in larger markets means that most opportunities for FM translator construction will exist in less-
- 10- populated areas, the problems and needs of AM stations and AM listeners are not limited to smaller communities. A number of major cities have Class C AM facilities. Washington has two
(WYCB 1340 and WOL 1450); Baltimore has two (WITH 1230 and WWIN 1400); and even the
Chicago metropolitan area has two such stations, WSBC 1240 (licensed to Chicago) and WCEV and WVON 1450 Cicero, inunediately north of Midway Airport (a share time situation). Atlanta has one, WALR 1340. The San Francisco Bay Area is another area with two such stations,
KVTO AM 1400 Berkeley (diplexes with 610 KEAR San Francisco) and KEST 1450 San
Francisco.
Conclusion
22. AM Radio is our nation's oldest broadcast medium. It was in an effort to conquer many of the shortcomings of AM broadcasting in the medium wave band that Major Edwin H.
Armstrong devoted much of his life to the development of FM. Even at the modest radiated power levels the Commission allows for FM translators, many AM stations could through the use of such translator stations overcome the ever increasing interference to AM reception in the medium wave band fi'om scores of manmade devices, which currently hinder their abilities to reach their local communities as well as the "cracks and pops," which result fi'om lightning and similar natural electrical discharges, and in many instances render for the first time effective coverage of those communities during nighttime hours. The interest and convenience of the listening public would be well-served should the Commission adopt the NAB's proposal to allow the programming ofAM stations to be broadcast via FM translators as a "fill-in" to the daytime coverage areas ofthe subject AM stations.
- II - Respectfully submitted,
HOLSTON VALLEY BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Geo e E. DeVault, Jr. Its President
222 Commerce Street Kingsport, TN 37660 (423)246-9578
DATED: August 23, 2006
- 12 - Attachment 1 82"1SW 82'O'W
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