Two Proposed FCC DTV Allotments Draw Scant Interest So Far

“The proposed allotment should be adopted as it will serve the public interest by providing the community of Atlantic City with an additional local television service and the State of New Jersey with its sole very high frequency commercial television allotment,” the broadcaster said. “If the proposed allotment is adopted, Nave intends to apply to participate in the auction for the channel and, if it is the successful bidder, to promptly construct the station after grant.”

A lawyer with TV station clients said there may not be much interest in either station because they're both low-band VHF allotments -- where many existing broadcasters have had problems (CD July 2 p2). It’s unclear if it’s possible for the Seaford station to serve much of the state, as one of Delaware’s two U.S. senators recently sought (CD Feb 3 p10), said the attorney, Robert Rini of Rini Coran. “I think low- band [VHF] is a very problematic allocation right now, there are impulse noise issues, interference from power lines. I know many of my clients are avoiding the low Vs right now.” He and other lawyers couldn’t remember the last time the commission allocated a new TV station, which Rini said is good in that it recognizes there’s still use for the spectrum for broadcasting. Another lawyer with TV clients noted there’s growth in the Seaford area.

A comment on a Media Bureau public notice on the allotments said there may not be much interest in channel 5 in Seaford. The bureau rulemaking “failed to mention whether there is any interest expressed in applying for and constructing a new station” there, the Broadcast Maximization Committee, which seeks a freeze on channel 5 and 6 allotments to use them for FM, said. That “has always been a requirement for the allotment of a new channel pursuant to Section 307(b) of the Communications Act,” the committee continued. “Indeed, in the Media Bureau’s letter to PMCM TV” rejecting its bid to move two western stations to the East Coast, “the Bureau recognized that the lower VHF channels 2-6 are ‘not optimal spectrum for digital operations.'” PMCM said the commission “can’t ignore the statutory mandate” of Section 331 that the allotments be made, “whether ordered by the Court of Appeals or implemented by the full Commission itself.”

Seaford is near a large shopping center now being built and any “TV station in Seaford would cover all of the populated areas of the county and may well be eligible for must-carry,” said attorney Henry Solomon of Garvey Schubert. “Sure, there’s now a slowdown in real estate activity, but that too will pass. Personally, I would prefer Seaford to [Atlantic City]. No major development there that I know of. Folks don’t go there to watch TV.”

ABC opposed the Delaware proposal because it would prevent the company’s WPVI-TV Philadelphia, on channel 6, from restoring service to some viewers who used to get it in analog but lost coverage after the DTV transition, the broadcast network said. “Furthermore, the allocation of very high frequency ("VHF") spectrum for a new television station could inhibit and even preclude other VHF stations in the Northeast from modifying their facilities (e.g. channel changes, power increases, etc.) as necessary to fully restore over-the-air television service to their former analog viewers.”