FCC TV Channel Auction Threatens Free TV in Small Communities

Published on Tue, Jul 29, 2014 (8:15 p.m.)

Submitted by National Translator Assn.

www.NationalTranslatorAssociation.org
Our goal: Broadcast TV in Every Home!
(970) 593-8443 (303) 378-8209
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
July 30, 2014
FCC TV Channel Auction Threatens Free TV in Small Communities
Washington, D.C. - As a result of the “Spectrum Act” of 2012, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) developed an auction to sell to smartphone operators the TV channels
now used by many TV stations. While large market full power TV stations receive some of the
proceeds from the auction of their channels, the small Low Power TV and TV translator stations
which broadcast over the air to thousands of America’s small communities may have their
channels taken from them and will receive no payment whatever. Many of them will go off the
air forever as a result.
Because many small TV stations are nonprofit and all operate on shoestring budgets to
bring educational programs, emergency broadcasts, news and entertainment to their communities,
they will go silent if they cannot afford the high cost of finding a new channel or a new location,
forcing them to relinquish channels their viewers have watched for many years. Worse,
this may cause loss of entire groups of rural stations. If the channel is in a daisy-chain translator
system, entire networks of up to 20 or more towns can lose access to free antenna TV.
Service from a large city TV station 75 or more miles away may also disappear as most
are delivered to viewers by one or more translator stations near the smaller cities. Thus, no
over-the-air TV signal in rural areas can be considered safe. Jim McDonald, President of the
National Translator Association, stated “Congressional offices, especially in rural districts, want
to hear from viewers who are in danger of losing their TV signals. Viewers who depend on TV
in these areas should voice their support of rural over the air television.”
In Nevada, some 450 small stations in widespread areas of the state are vulnerable to
these changes. Contacting Nevada’s U. S. Representatives Dina Titus, Mark Amodei, Joe Heck
or Steven Horsford as well as Senators Harry Reid and Dean Heller at their local or Washington
offices to insist that the FCC respect rural Nevada citizens in the TV channel auction process
will help citizens’ voices be heard in this potential loss of free antenna TV.
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For further information, visit www.NationalTranslatorAssociation.org or call (970) 593-8443