By Ken Benner
In June, Karen and I were engaged in a 100+ station alternative broadcast inspection tour during which there was substantial concern about translator compliance.
We had produced a small modified certificate that required a date, my signature and that of a manager, engineer or staffer that were responsible for translators on the entire tour.
We made no charge for these translator certifications simply because hiring a helicopter and/or doing a difficult, if not impossible, time-consuming mountain climb to simply determine if a translator was behaving properly just didn’t make sense.
As explained in a prior column, the licensee was provided with a copy of the FCC’s “Self Inspection Booklet” for translators that we reviewed with the station staffer who co-signed the appropriate inspection report indicating his/her full understanding of what was required for compliance.
During this very intensive tour, I was unaware of the recently issued FCC “Report And Order” – MB-Docket No. 18-119 – designed to “streamline the rules relating to interference caused by FM translators and to expedite the translator complaint resolution process.”
My sincere appreciation to Messrs. Dan Kirkpatrick and Keenan Adamchak from Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth for their very excellent item on this. If at all possible, obtain a copy of this item titled “All You Need To Know On New FM Translator Compliant Procedures.”
In this you will ,find a link to the 55+ pages of MB Docket No. 18-49. Both of these items should be carefully reviewed by any licensee involved with a translator.
Trust me, this is an education.
I was most certainly enlightened to learn there is a minimum number of complaints to stir the Commission’s interest, numbers of waivers of the 45 dB𝛍 contour, a required map plot defining locations related to this contour, required contents of translator interference claims, and contour limits involved with interference complaints.
You have to credit Streamline Publishing and RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam Jacobson for the great job they do. With awesome amounts of information that have diminished substantially the amount of fines, fees, forfeitures and legal expenses that have, in the past, been such a costly factor for American Broadcast Licensees.
Ken Benner is an independent Alternative FCC Compliance Certification Inspector and a research analyst for the Coalition for Transparency, Clarification and Simplification of Regulations pertaining to American Broadcasting. Benner has more than 55 years of experience providing service to the broadcast industry. He is based in Tucson and writes independently for RBR+TVBR; he is not paid for his services.
