AM Radio Advocates Weigh Proposals in AM Band Revitalization NPRM

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said the NPRM identifies challenges that should be addressed and proposes remedies to the threats facing AM service. “We propose to modify the nighttime coverage rules to keep more stations on the air after dark,” she said in a statement issued her last week as acting chairwoman (http://bit.ly/1h6uvPN). Clyburn also said electric bills for AM broadcasters can be high: “Our proposal to let AM licensees use Modulation Dependent Carrier Level control technologies or algorithms is intended to reduce those bills and lower operating costs."

Commissioner Ajit Pai, who proposed an AM band revitalization initiative in September, reiterated his support for the action. The proposals “will not be an immediate panacea for the difficulties confronting the AM band,” he said in a statement (http://bit.ly/19jIzQi). “But based on the conversations I have had with AM broadcasters across the country during the past year, I am convinced that they can make a substantial, positive difference to numerous AM stations.” The NPRM embraces a “sensible two-stage strategy for improving AM radio service,” he said. “Perhaps most importantly, we seek public input on letting AM stations apply for new FM translators.”

The Minority Media & Telecom Council always was concerned that the declining prospect of the band “could shut off a wellspring of opportunity for the next generation of minority entrepreneurs in media and telecom,” said David Honig, MMTC president. Fortunately, a great deal of promise can be found in simple technological tweaks and innovations, he said. Some of the suggestions made in MMTC’s 2009 Radio Rescue Petition are included in the NPRM, such as modifying the daytime coverage requirement for licensed AM facilities “to require that the station cover either 50 percent of the population or 50 percent of the area of the community of license with a daytime 5 mV/m contour,” the NPRM said.

The NPRM calls for an FM translator filing window just for AM station licensees. The FCC proposed allowing such licensees to apply for one new FM translator station in the non-reserved FM band, “to be used solely to re-broadcast the broadcaster’s AM signal to provide fill-in and/or nighttime service,” it said. The commission is considering limitations that include requiring that the FM translator be authorized to the licensee or permittee of the AM primary station it rebroadcasts, rather than an independent party, it said. The filing window is “really huge,” said Honig. This makes it possible for stations to broaden their coverage, their audience and reach and to expand their advertising, he said. “It won’t solve every AM station’s issues, but it will go a long way to making them competitive and sustainable."

Some AM radio advocates said granting FM translators to AM licensees will likely take a very long time and, therefore, the filing window proposal doesn’t go far enough. “If the FCC had removed its procedural barriers to allow for greater flexibility in moving FM translators, it would have gone a long way toward helping AM stations now rather than years later,” said John Garziglia, a radio attorney at Womble Carlyle. “There are hundreds of FM translators cluttering the FM band that will inevitably continue to be used as repeaters for distant stations that could otherwise have been used by AM broadcasters if procedural barriers to moving translators had been relaxed."

Garziglia bemoaned what appears to be the commission’s discouraging AM licensees from moving their translators to different areas. The Media Bureau concluded that such “hopping” subverts the purpose of the commission’s minor change requirement, the NPRM said. The contour overlap requirement’s purpose is to prevent FM translator stations from abandoning their present service areas, the commission said. “The FCC never asks if the abandonment of the current service area by an FM translator in order to serve an AM station better serves the public interest,” Garziglia said. “If an FM translator can better serve the public by re-broadcasting a local AM station rather than carrying distant satellite-fed programming, why is it not in the public interest to allow an FM translator to move a significant distance to better serve the public?”

Other concerns stem from the grant of low-power FM station licenses. The FCC opened the LPFM filing window Oct. 17 and it will remain open until Nov. 14 (CD Oct 22 p2). That window will have come and gone before the AM revitalization rulemaking proceeding wraps up, said Richard Zaragoza, a Pillsbury Winthrop attorney who represents AM stations. Zaragoza said he’s concerned about “what effect the licensing of more LPFM stations will have on the availability of FM frequencies for new AM companion FM translators."

NAB also endorsed the proceeding. “AM radio is a cultural touchstone and jobs generator in cities large and small,” NAB President Gordon Smith said in a statement. “Many of the top revenue-generating stations are on the AM band."

MMTC also has pushed the FCC to allow the migration of AM channels into the VHF channels 5 and 6, Honig said. “That’s the single biggest thing that could be done to preserve the value of companies in AM radio and provide new opportunity.” He said MMTC plans to continue to press for this change in its comments.