When the DTV transition took place in June 2009, there were still a handful of proceedings in the works in which applicants were seeking either new analog television stations or modifications to existing facilities. The FCC has pulled the plug on them.
The reason is simple – even if the applicants were able to convince the FCC that their requests are in the public interest, necessity and convenience, the FCC would still have to turn them down.
It simply cannot authorize anything involving an analog television station any longer.
Or as the FCC put it, “We dismiss as moot these petitions for reconsideration of the Second DTV Periodic Order because the proceedings underlying these petitions seek an analog authorization which we are statutorily prohibited from issuing.”
Acme Communications Inc., Television Capital Corporation of Portland and Ramar Communications II were the unfortunate licensees caught in this web of time.
Ramar and TCC had been seeking reconsideration of a DTV-related order that prescribed the denial of any analog television application that was still pending. ACME was seeking reconsideration of an already-dismissed application.
