MMTC, NABOB Want Data Behind 250-Mile AM Waiver Plan Made Public

The FCC Media Bureau should make public the data behind its proposal to offer a waiver to relocate existing FM translators up to 250 miles instead of opening an AM translator application window, said Multicultural Media, Telecommunications and Internet Council Senior Advisor David Honig in a Sept.1 meeting with staff from the bureau’s Audio Division, according to an ex parte filing. If the FCC doesn’t approve an AM-only window, it should issue a Further NPRM on the 250-mile proposal “since that proposal is not a logical outgrowth of the AM-only window proposal and the public has not had notice that the Commission is considering such a resolution,” said MMTC in the filing posted Wednesday in docket 13-249. A 250-mile waiver “could be worse than doing nothing because it creates an opportunity for larger stations to corner the market on all the remaining translators,” said National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters President Jim Winston and Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney and MMTC board member Frank Montero in a separate meeting. “Instead of expanding the universe of available translators, the waiver will expand the universe of large stations with which the smaller operators will have to compete,” the MMTC filing said.