FCC Proposes to Allow Different Power Levels for FM Digital Stations
The FCC proposed to “accommodate requests” for digital FM stations to increase their power level on one of their two sidebands. That would potentially let in-band on-channel radio broadcasters cover more of their analog service area with digital transmissions, without interfering with other stations. “A significant number of FM stations currently are precluded from taking advantage” of the entire tenfold digital power increase to -10 dB allowed by the commission last year (CD Feb 1/10 p7), a Media Bureau public notice said Tuesday: That’s “due to the presence of a nearby station on one but not both of the two” channels that are each one notch away on the dial.
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The agency sought comment on two studies on asymmetrical sideband use, and listed the URLs for each. One was done by iBiquity Digital (http://xrl.us/bmhkd), the company that licenses digital radio technology to stations and makers of consumer electronics, and the other by NPR (http://xrl.us/bmhkd7). Based on a report filed by the CE company, “iBiquity and NPR requested that the Commission authorize voluntary asymmetric digital sideband power for FM stations,” the commission noted (http://xrl.us/bmhkej). NPR’s own report, based on work at WAMU(FM) Washington, found that coverage could increase in some circumstances with sideband levels that aren’t equal.
Allowing such operations would mean stations could hike their power level on the sideband that’s away from the “limiting station,” the bureau’s notice said. “The two technical reports include data supporting iBiquity’s and NPR’s contention that such operations may improve a station’s digital coverage without causing interference.” The agency tentatively found “that it would be expedient to modify Form FCC 335-FM,” used for digital notifications, so that broadcasters can seek to increase digital power or operate with asymmetric digital sidebands. “We also seek comment on the process by which FM stations engaging in such operations would notify the Commission and how such notifications would be maintained in the Commission’s electronic databases,” the notice said. Comments are due, in docket 99-325, 21 days after the item appears in the Federal Register, replies two weeks later.
Broadcasters opposed another radio proposal (CD Oct 28 p16). SSR Communications petitioned to change rules (http://xrl.us/bmhkfv) so commercial FM stations can use the same antenna locations and power “flexibilities” as noncommercial educational (NCE) stations. “The procedure involved in locating a hypothetical allotment site for a non-reserved band FM facility is purposeless and should not be a requirement for any permitted or licensed non-reserved band facility” seeking a minor change, SSR said over the summer. The NAB and a group of major radio companies that include the biggest one in the U.S. disagreed with SSR, in filings posted Monday in rulemaking 11643. The industry now is “trying to foster digital radio, and its full viability and adoption are still not certain,” said opponent Cohen Dippell, a broadcast engineering firm (http://xrl.us/bmhkgw).
NAB opposed moving to NCE contour protection standards from the current minimum-distance separation rules, which now apply to commercial stations. The change “would increase congestion in the FM frequency band and would prevent upgrades, power increases, transmitter relocations, and other station improvements,” the association said (http://xrl.us/bmhkiw). “A shift to a contour protection-based scheme would allow additional facilities to be ’shoehorned’ into often already crowded communities.” The petition would let existing stations increase their service areas, particularly into bigger markets, “while foreclosing opportunities for new stations at unserved communities, low power FMs and innovative uses of existing spectrum,” said six companies. “As recognized by the Commission, a contour protection system is an inefficient use of spectrum,” Beasley Broadcast Group, Clear Channel and others said (http://xrl.us/bmhkji). “Opportunities for innovative, spectrum-efficient uses of the non-reserved FM band would also be restricted.”