250-Mile Proposal Acceptable Only as Complement to AM-Only Translator Window, NAB Says

Since broadcasters pay hefty regulatory fees and are required to provide their services free to the public, allowing AM radio licensees to obtain FM frequencies through translators is not a spectrum giveaway, NAB said Friday in a meeting with FCC Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and bureau staff, according to an ex parte filing. “Unless the Commission is interested in a communications industry that supports only those services for which consumers must pay hefty fees, it should make it a priority to care about the health and well-being of free over-the-air radio and television,” NAB said. An AM-only window for FM translator applications is the best way to help AM stations and would be “a huge victory for diversity,” NAB said. The proposal has the support of “a large number of minority broadcasters and the Congressional Black Caucus,” NAB said. A proposal for a waiver allowing AM stations to purchase and move distant translators from up to 250 miles away would be effective only as a complement to the window, not a replacement for it, NAB said. The 250-mile proposal “threatens to favor large station groups over small ones and big markets over small,” NAB said.