In 1999, Jeremy Lansman re-programmed KZND-LP, Channel 6, in
Anchorage, Alaska to offer a "modern rock" radio format. A
genius radio engineer, Jeremy recognized that the aural carrier
on a Channel 6 at 87.7MHz was right next to the noncommercial FM
band at 88.1 to 92.1 MHz. Most car radios had cheap tuners, and
if you tuned counterclockwise to the bottom they could easily
receive 87.7 as a separate channel. The station owners promoted
this format and positioned it as "the End". The rest of KZND was
filled with a slide chain or pretty travelouge pictures and
later, with a live studio camera.
This idea of a TV Channel 6, walking and talking and warbling
like a radio station, caught on with other Channel Sixes, in
Hawaii and the lower forty eight. The radio establishment of
course was horrified, and eventually came to brand these
services as "FrankenFM". A better label might have been
"FreshenFM" because they presented a wholesome new breeze into a
channel group that had been static since 1948. Everywhere that
they opened for business these stations drew competitors'
complaints and condemnations at the FCC.
The gripes from the established radio stations always were more
theatrics than substance. Arbitron, the monopoly provider of
radio ratings, never included the 87.7 broadcasters in it's
ratings. Without a rating book to show the size of a listener
audience, the stations are hard pressed to sell their
advertising time.
Whatever you called them, the Channel 6 FM'ers presented one of
those classic situations at the FCC where technological change
was running far ahead of the ability of the regulators to deal
with it. These were TV stations under the jurisdiction of the
Video Division. But they were functional FM stations, which fall
under the jurisdiction of the Audio Division. For years the FCC
did nothing.
It was
recognized that the use of Channel 6 for radio was an artifact
of good old NTSC, which used FM for its sound component, so that
the DTV transition (to ATSC 1.0) would wipe out these facilities
anyway. But then manufacturers designed equipment that would
preserve the 20khz FM chunk at the top of the band, transmitting
at 87.75MHz, while transitioning the rest of a channel 6 to DTV.
Initially the
FCC indicated that they would band this workaround. In 2014 it
issued a notice asking all the right questions to adopt some
kind of policy governing these services. The following year,
after massing a record with an expanse of comment for and
against, they declined to decide the question. But a
number of stations had already put the new technological fix
into effect, and asked for waivers. In 2021 a total of 13
Channel 6 stations were granted six-month special temporary
authorizaitons, under several restrictions, to condunue their
aural services while transitioning to DTV. The STA's are
regularly extended.
Finally, on June 7
of 2022, some twenty three years after the KZND-LP as radio
station launched in Anchorage, the FCC adopted what may be the
definitive notice of proposed rule making, seeking public
comment on the path forward for these facilities. The Notice is
basically an option paper. The Agency could ban them outright.
It could OK the current group of 13 under strict conditions. Or
it could open the door and permit others to provide this
service. And, most intriguing, the FCC asked if it should
re-allot all vacant Channel Sixes throughout the country, in
their entirety, re-alotting the six MHz from 82MHz to 88MHz to
form twenty new 20kHz channels for FM radio. (The same redesign
could apply equally to the next TV channel down, Channel Five,
76MHz to 82MHz, but that is not up for discussion in this
notice)
Predictably pubic comment on
this notice, like the 2014 public comments, will be all over the
place. These stationswill be lauded for the original and fresh
program concepts, and for their contribution to diversity of
radio ownership. They will be condemned as an unfair workaround
of the rules and a retrograde threat to the recently comleded
and smooth DTV transition for low power television. Looking
ahead, the next generation TV standard, ATSC 3.0, has great
flexibility to slice up a single 6 MHz low power television for
lots of different services. But a special carve-out for clunky
old Frequency Modulation sees oddly out of place.
It does seem clear that, going
forward, the cadre of thirteen privileged stations operating
under STA's will not be sustainable. That they add something
significant to the mix of commercial radio broadcasting would
be, at least, hard to demonstrate or to measure. If they are
permitted to carry on, there is no rational basis to exclude
others willing to make the same investment. And STA's are not
viable as a forever approach to licensing. If they are
grandfathered, it will have to be under orderly, detailed new
rules.
You, dear reader, can participate in this rule
making, andn offer your comment, note or letter. The electronic
comment system is located at
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/standard
In the space for proceedings, Enter the docket number 03-185.
You can find the Notice in several ways, under its labeling as
FCC 22-40, for example, at FCC.Gov/EDOCS/.
Michael
Couzens, NTA, June 2022
Oakland, CA
cuz@well.com