Gray Television and privately held SagamoreHill Broadcasting have gotten the regulatory approval to proceed with a plan that effectively substitutes one channel for another — twice — in a Table of TV Allotments adjustment for Lubbock, Tex.
Video Division Chief Barbara Kreisman said yes to the plan after receiving zero comments other than those from the interested parties, who filed the joint petition for rulemaking seeking FCC approval for the changes.
First, Gray-owned KCBD-11 in Lubbock, an NBC affiliate, is abandoning its Construction Permit that would have seen it move to digital channel 35. Instead, KCBD is getting digital channel 11, aligning it with its PSIP.
Allowing this to happen involves a facility exchange with SagamoreHill-owned KJTV-34, the FOX affiliate serving Lubbock — operated by Gray through a Shared Services Agreement. KJTV presently operates on digital channel 36, and with regulatory approval KJTV would take digital channel 35 instead.
The benefit of Kreisman’s yes here is SagamoreHill: It will allow the licensee to replace KJTV-TV’s failing tube transmitter with the equipment currently used by KCBD on channel 11. In the petition, the companies said the cost to replace the transmitter for KJTV-TV’s 1000 kW facility is prohibitively expensive.
Because Gray had planned to invest in a new 1000 kW transmitter for KCBD on channel 36, it will be able to use the new transmitter to instead replace the failing channel 35 transmitter and operate KCBD on channel 35.1.
