“We’re improving digital FM radio service.” That’s how FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel posits a coming vote by all five Commissioners at the September Open Meeting on a plan that would streamline the process for allowing digital transmissions at different power levels on the upper and lower digital sidebands.
As RBR+TVBR first reported in August 2023, the FCC has teed up a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would change the methodology used by digital FM stations to determine whether they can boost their HD Radio output. It would also allow asymmetric sideband operation. Comments and reply comments were welcomed by the Commission, through October 6, 2023.
Then, in February 24, the NAB and HD Radio parent Xperi Inc. submitted a Petition for Clarification after they detected “an important ambiguity” requiring a clear-up as it pertains to the maximum allowable effective radiative power (ERP) of a digital FM signal.
NAB and Xperi asked the Commission to incorporate a reference in the rules to the NRSC-5 standard, which is subject to modification, as an appropriate means to implement the proposed change; a second comment and reply comment period came and went.
Now, the Commissioners are ready to vote on MB Docket No. 22-405, offering a change that Rosenworcel says “will help stations to improve digital FM signal coverage while minimizing the risk of harmful interference to other stations.”
The September Open Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 26, starting at 10:30am Eastern.
