Stakeholders aired ongoing concerns following Thursday’s House Communications...

Stakeholders aired ongoing concerns following Thursday’s House Communications Subcommittee legislative hearing on a proposed low-power TV bill. During the hearing, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, defended his draft version of the LPTV and Translator Preservation Act, which proposes to help those entities amid the FCC’s broadcast TV incentive auction (CD July 25 p8). “The spectacle we saw today in this Hearing, having a witness who is funded by the full power broadcast industry, and is from an organization which does not disclose how many LPTV members it has, creates for the industry a very bad taste and raw emotions,” said Mike Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition, in a statement. “Then, to erroneously attempt to blame the FCC for how the Incentive Spectrum Act legislation was written, and to do it while the LPTV industry is facing a collective $1 billion unfunded mandate for channel relocations, creates real and direct harm for these small and diverse businesses.” Gravino was referring to Advanced Broadcasting TV Alliance Executive Director Louis Libin, who last week blasted Gravino’s concerns as “silly” and defended to us his alliance’s majority funding from Sinclair (CD July 24 p6). Jim McDonald, who heads the National Translator Association, also issued a long statement noting that “surprisingly” the subcommittee had refused testimony from his group and that “an important historical and consequential perspective of this matter was left undiscussed” due to its absence. “While the NTA would like to believe that the bill discussed today will have a favorable effect on TV translators and LPTV stations in the anticipated spectrum auction, the FCC’s history with our service is all too well documented,” McDonald said, laying out the history of TV translator struggles. National Religious Broadcasters President Jerry Johnson issued a statement following the hearing urging “Congress to ascertain what steps the FCC will be taking to keep low-power stations from simply being forced off the air.”