On May 5, the FCC’s Media Bureau announced 75 tentative DTV channel designations based on the second round of channel elections made by the fall 2005 deadline.
This list includes:
- stations that elected channels that would not result in impermissible interference to other stations;
- stations that have successfully resolved interference conflicts;
- stations that participated in negotiated channel arrangements (NCAs); and
- stations requesting the commission to determine the “best available” channel for post-transition use.
Designations for certain stations along the U.S. border are subject to international coordination.
The commission also concluded matters related to NCAs in Philadelphia and the San Francisco areas. With no objections filed to the Philadelphia NCA and after an engineering analysis verified the NCA would not cause impermissible interference to another station, the commission approved the Philadelphia NCA.
In the matter of the California NCA, the commission sent conflict letters to three of the six parties involved in the NCA. In response, KFTY-TV in Santa Rosa and KVIE-TV in Sacramento elected their contingent channels. The commission approved FFTY and KVIE’s channel election and three other licensees that were part of the NCA.
KTFK-TV in Stockton, the third station to receive a conflict letter, proposed technical changes that were unacceptable to the commission. Thus, the station didn’t receive tentative channel designation and moves to the third round of channel election.
The commission notified 26 other licensees that engineering analyses revealed their proposed digital operations would cause impermissible interference to other channels. In response, 23 modified their proposed operation and were given tentative channel designations.
KCRA-TV in Riverside, CA; WNYI-TV in Ithaca, NY; and WTVA-TV in Tupelo, MI, amended their proposed facilities, but the commission determined they would still cause more than 0.1 percent interference to other DTV stations. Thus, the commission didn’t approve their elections and the stations move on to round three.
The deadline for filing FCC Form 386, Third Round Election Form, is May 26. The form is available at www.fcc.gov and is available for electronic filing.
To view second round designations, visit http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-991A2.pdf.
