Who needs to follow a main transmitter rule when boosters can provide a better signal to a more significant population? That’s the argument ZoneCasting and MaxxCasting provider GeoBroadcast Services is making to the FCC in a petition tied to its “Delete. Delete. Delete” rule review initiative.
In the view of Chris Devine-founded and led GeoBroadcast Solutions LLC, the Commission must modernize regulations that currently mandate the use of a main transmitter by radio broadcasters.
GBS calls this a forward-thinking proposal — one it claims “highlights the opportunity to replace outdated rules with technology that better serves the public, improves operational resilience, and reduces unnecessary costs for broadcasters.”
Under current FCC rules, licensees are required to maintain a central main transmitter. That only makes sense … right?
Not entirely, GBS argues. It believes it is a policy originally designed decades ago when large, high-powered towers were the only means to provide coverage.
Enter GBS’s “ZoneCasting” technology, which relies on program origination — albeit for mere minutes on the hour — from an FM booster. With the FCC allowing that, GBS is now going for the gusto in arguing FM booster can be used instead of a main transmitter.
How so? Distributed transmission systems “have proven to be more effective and more sustainable in many markets.”
Enter Beasley Media Group-owned KOAS-FM “Maxima 105.7” — a Spanish-language Classic Hits station serving Las Vegas from a mammoth broadcast tower in Dolan Springs, Ariz., south of the Colorado River in a remote portion of Arizona. The tower is visible from the future Interstate 11 (U.S. 93) when driving between Las Vegas and Kingman, Ariz., and puts a city-grade signal over the eastern portion of Las Vegas.
But, as experienced by RBR+TVBR the weekend of the 2025 NAB Show, KOAS’s 2.5kw booster licensed to Henderson, Nev., and atop the Stratosphere Tower on the Las Vegas Strip, is the key signal impacting the market.
“Technology has changed, and so should the rules,” said a spokesperson for GeoBroadcast Solutions. “Broadcasters should not be forced to bear the high costs and environmental burdens of maintaining a main transmitter when modern, distributed systems can provide equal or better service to listeners.”
The proposal includes a data-driven case study using KOAS-FM. In particular, GBS says a comparison of current versus proposed coverage maps illustrates how KOAS’s signal remains fully within its designated contour and “even improves urban coverage without reliance on a costly and environmentally burdensome tall tower.”
In the filing, GBS touts improved service reliability, as it asserts distributed systems “are less vulnerable to natural disasters than tall, centralized towers, providing more reliable public service during emergencies.” There’s also “environmental and financial efficiency,” as it claims eliminating the need for large towers “can reduce broadcasters’ energy consumption, insurance premiums, and real estate costs, by millions of dollars annually in some cases.”
GBS also asserts that DTS “allows broadcasters to target dense population centers more effectively, overcoming terrain and urban interference challenges.”
That said, the likelihood radio broadcasting companies will abandon a 100kw transmitter to do business with GBS — the only company authorized to provide such a service — is low. But, should a company such as Beasley opt to do away with KOAS’s main transmitter, GBS argues the FCC should allow it.
“This proposal does not mandate change for broadcasters who rely on main transmitters — it simply introduces flexibility,” GBS concludes. “Broadcasters who wish to continue using traditional infrastructure may do so. For those ready to evolve, GBS’s plan opens the door to innovation without increasing interference or altering coverage obligations.”
— With reporting by RBR+TVBR’s West Coast Bureau, in Mesa, Ariz.
