Two TV Stations Look East in Seeking Unique Moves
Two western stations want to move to East Coast cities now that the DTV transition is complete. They say Congress gave the FCC authority to approve moves like this. The only TV station licensed to a town in Nevada and a Wyoming broadcaster want to move to New Jersey and Wilmington, Del., they said in commission filings Monday. Broadcast lawyers not involved with the plans called them among the few to cite the Communications Act section they rely on.
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KVNV Ely, Nev., wants to keep its channel and broadcast in Middletown Township, N.J., near New York City, and KJWY Jackson, Wyo., wants to go to Wilmington, near Philadelphia, said PMCM TV, which owns both. The company recently bought the stations, said an industry lawyer not involved with the deal. Neither station is affiliated with a network, said Vince Curtis, whose law firm is representing them.
The FCC could put up for auction the channel slots in the towns that PMCM wants to leave, Curtis said. “The communities aren’t going to lose their channels. Somebody can come in and operate on them.” But KVNV won’t be missed by some in Ely, the town where it’s based. Mayor Jon Hickman said he'd never heard of the station, and the city gets broadcast signals from the Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Reno markets. “As far as local broadcast goes, we just don’t get any,” Hickman said. “I don’t know of ever having one, so if they took it away it’s something I don’t think anyone even knows about.”
The stations said they will fill a “void,” because neither New Jersey nor Delaware have a full-power commercial VHF station. Section 331 of the Communications Act requires the FCC to allow for moves like this when there’s no such station in a state, according to Curtis and the filings. “I believe they have the authority under 331 to just go ahead and do it,” he said. “But it’s doubtful they will do that, because it’s unique. I think they will ask for comment” by putting out a public notice, he predicted. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.
The DTV transition presented an opportunity for KVNV to make the request. New Jersey’s only such station, News Corp.’s WWOR-TV Secaucus, began broadcasting on a UHF channel with the digital switchover, said Curtis and an industry executive. Many other stations also switched frequencies because of the transition, industry officials said.
It’s hard to handicap how the commission will deal with the applications because of their novelty, and they could face obstacles, said industry lawyers not involved in the requests. The “applications are creatively opportunistic,” said attorney John Hane. “That said, section 331 was adopted years ago when VHF stations were considered to be technically superior to UHF stations. That’s not the case anymore, so while the law is on the books, it’s not clear how this will ultimately play out. There are too many interests at stake for this to be as easy” as the broadcaster might like.