Laytonville, Calif., is a bucolic town along U.S. 101 in Northern Mendocino County. Technically, it is a part of the vast San Francisco-Oakland-San Francisco DMA. As such, a broadcast ministry wrote the FCC seeking modification of the television market for a broadcast TV station with a tower in this town, giving it “must carry” status.
Comcast opposed the request, which would have forced it to add this religious noncomm to its Santa Rosa, Calif., lineup.
The Senior Deputy Chief of the FCC Media Bureau’s Policy Division has sided with Comcast, denying the station owner’s request.
“We conclude that the facts do not support the grant of the Petition to modify the market of KQSL, Fort Bragg, California, to include the Santa Rosa Communities served by Comcast,” ruled Steven Broeckaert.
There are several clear reasons for this. First, KQSL-8’s primary broadcast location is a site on top of Cahto Peak, near Laytonville, and uses a directional antenna at 26kw effective radiated power that transmits the station’s signal north toward Eureka, some 112 miles away. San Francisco is 160 miles to the south. Meanwhile, KQSL enjoys a signal to the east toward Red Bluff, and south over a portion of Sonoma County.
That Sonoma County coverage is crux to the argument presented by One Ministries that KQSL gain coverage of Santa Rosa via must-carry rules.
Here’s the issue: In 2011, Comcast successfully petitioned to modify KQSL’s market to exclude the communities which are the focus of the One Ministries petition.
While “no discernable viewership” was one factor, the bigger issue is that KQSL’s noise-limited service contour did not cover the communities, that it was geographically distant from the communities at an average distance of 140 miles, and that it was separated from those communities by mountainous terrain.
Lastly, although KQSL stated that it “intended” to “provide Asian language programming targeted to Bay Area residents,” the Bureau did not consider this expressed intention a sufficient basis for treating KQSL as a specialty station, Broeckaert explained.
One Ministries unsuccessfully argued that the factors that applied to KQSL in 2011 no longer apply. However, changes it made to the KQSL broadcast signal were found to be irrelevant to the Policy Division of the Media Bureau.
“[W]e do not find sufficient support for modification of the station’s market to include the addition of the Santa Rosa Communities,” Broeckaert said.
This ruling came even as Comcast carries KQSL on its Healdsburg system in Windsor, California, which is adjacent to Santa Rosa, and in the nearby communities of Cloverdale, Geyserville, and Healdsburg, all of which are in the same county (Sonoma) as Santa Rosa.
However, these communities are in different geographical zones, given the topography of the wine-producing region.
— Additional reporting by Ethan Hunt, in Eureka, Calif.
