National Translator Assn. (NTA) asked FCC to amend its rules to e...
National Translator Assn. (NTA) asked FCC to amend its rules to establish rural translator service, saying doing so would “help equalize” Commission’s broadcast TV policies between urban and rural areas. “For various reasons, rural America has been shortchanged for…
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more than 20 years by a Commission policy of not promoting the delivery of broadcast services to those rural areas,” association said in petition for rulemaking. Group said authorizations for translator stations for that purpose had met with Commission’s “unreasonable reliance on window filings spaces years apart” or rules that failed to differentiate among categories of auxiliary stations based on nature of service proposed. Cable can’t provide service due to prohibitive cost of wiring sparsely populated areas, group said, and DBS can’t provide full local-into-local service because of spectrum limitations. Rural areas are entitled to same level of service as urban areas, association said: “The only effective way for that service to be provided is by integrating the use of translators directly into the Commission’s policy process.” NTA is organization of owners and operators of commercial and noncommercial, over-air TV translator stations.