The FCC on March 1 unveiled its tentative March Open Meeting agenda, along with a special note that the March 22 gathering will start one hour earlier than usual, at 9:30am.
While most of the agenda items do not pertain to broadcast media, there’s something that will be of interest to some TV station owners.
The Commission will consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that proposes to streamline the reauthorization process for television satellite stations that are assigned or transferred in combination with a previously approved parent station.
This is MB Docket Nos. 18-63, 17-105, originating in the Media Bureau, and is captioned “Streamlined Reauthorization Procedures for Assigned or Transferred Television Satellite Stations.”
Presentations are subject to “permit-but-disclose” ex parte rules. Persons making ex parte presentations must file a copy of any written presentation or a memorandum summarizing any oral presentation within two business days after the presentation (unless a different deadline applicable to the Sunshine period applies).
A television satellite station rebroadcasts in full another “main” broadcast facility.
Before its spectrum was auctioned off in the FCC’s incentive auction for the tidy sum of $34.56 million and signed off on Dec. 1, 2017, Nexstar-owned WCDC-19 in Adams, Mass., was a key satellite station for ABC affiliate WTEN-10 in Albany, N.Y. With a tower on Mt. Greylock, WCDC gave a broadcast signal to communities across the Berkshires, Catskills and mid-Hudson Valley.
