The FCC granted a request from Johnson Broadcasting of Dallas, licensee of KLDT in Lake Dallas, Texas, for authority to cease analog broadcasting on NTSC Channel 55, surrender its license for that channel prior to the end of the DTV transition and operate as a digital-only television station on Channel 54. Johnson argued that KLDT is not among the top four stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth market; that affected viewers will continue to receive service from at least 16 other analog stations and 17 other DTV stations; and that a grant of the request would allow MediaFLO to deploy and operate a mediacast service.
In its request, Johnson said that as part of its band-clearing agreement with Qualcomm, it has constructed the maximized DTV facilities authorized in its construction permit, providing service to more than 390,000 people who did not receive KLDT before. Johnson also allowed Qualcomm's MediaFLO service to interfere with up to 1 percent of the of KLDT digital service area. KLDT said this is in an area where only 0.86 percent of the people covered by the station's digital Grade B contour reside, and that the interference would be temporary since the station will be required to move to an in-core channel at the end of the DTV transition.
The FCC agreed with Johnson and granted the request. The Grant (DA 06-2319) noted that before discontinuing analog service and surrendering the NTSC license, the commission expected Johnson to supply all cable systems carrying its digital signal with conversion equipment necessary to translate KLDT's digital signal to analog.
In separate letter (DA 06-2320) the FCC Media Bureau said, "we believe the public interest will be served by a grant of Qualcomm's application, conditioned upon operating within the technical parameters specified in the application, and in accordance with the [Johnson] agreement. Any changes to the technical parameters of the proposed facilities that will result in levels of interference greater than those agreed to in the preceding agreements herein will require separate commission approval."
