Union Calendar No. 219

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 486

[Report No. 106–384]

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission

to preserve low-power television stations that provide community broadcasting, and for other purposes.

OCTOBER 14, 1999

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,

and ordered to be printed
IB

Union Calendar No. 219

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 486

[Report No. 106–384]

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission to preserve low-power television stations that provide community broadcasting, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 2, 1999

Mr. NORWOOD (for himself, Mr. KLINK, Mr. DEAL of Georgia, Mr. OXLEY,

Mr. BURR of North Carolina, Mr. CUNNINGHAM, Mr. BISHOP, Mr.

CONDIT, and Mr. WEYGAND) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Commerce

OCTOBER 14, 1999

Additional sponsors: Mr. WAMP, Mr. WHITFIELD, Mr. WOLF, Mr. ADERHOLT,

Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island, Mr. FORBES, Mr. CLEMENT, Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota, Mr. HOLT, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, Mr. OBERSTAR,

Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. MURTHA, Ms. CARSON, Mr. FOLEY, Mr. SABO, Mr.

GILLMOR, Mr. BOUCHER, Mr. JENKINS, Mr. BUYER, Mrs. CUBIN, Mr.

CRAMER, Mr. LUTHER, Mr. WEXLER, Mr. PETERSON of Pennsylvania,

Mr. MINGE, Mr. MORAN of Kansas, Mr. MASCARA, Mr. LARGENT, Mr.

HOUGHTON, Mr. WICKER, Mr. KUCINICH, Mr. CONYERS, Mr. HUTCHINSON, Mr. FILNER, Mr. ISAKSON, Mr. RYUN of Kansas, Mr. LUCAS of

Oklahoma, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. HOEFFEL, Mr. HASTINGS of Washington,

Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. BLAGOJEVICH, Mr. KIND, Mr. DICKEY, Mr.

GORDON, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mr. RUSH, Mr. RILEY, Mr. RADANOVICH,

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. SLAUGHTER, Mr. GONZALEZ, Mr.

BAKER, Mr. COBURN, Mr. COYNE, Mr. BOEHLERT, Mrs. BONO, Mr.

THUNE, Mr. TIAHRT, Mr. DAVIS of Florida, Mr. SWEENEY, Mr.

COOKSEY, Mr. MOORE, Mr. ETHERIDGE, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr.

DOOLEY of California, Mr. SCARBOROUGH, Mr. TURNER, Mr. BILBRAY,

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. Wynn, Mr. HILLIARD, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr.

KANJORSKI, Mr. DEMINT, Mr. LINDER, Mr. CHAMBLISS, Mr. KINGSTON,

Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. FORD, Mr. HERGER, Mr. PICKERING, Ms. BROWN
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of Florida, Mr. JOHN, Mr. POMEROY, Mrs. JONES of Ohio, Mr. REGULA,

Mrs. WILSON, and Mr. SAWYER

OCTOBER 14, 1999

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole

House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on February 2, 1999]

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the

Federal Communications Commission to preserve lowpower television stations that provide community broadcasting, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Broad5 casters Protection Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds the following:

8 (1) Since the creation of low-power television li9 censes by the Federal Communications Commission, a

10 small number of license holders have operated their

11 stations in a manner beneficial to the public good

12 providing broadcasting to their communities that

13 would not otherwise be available.
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1 (2) These low-power broadcasters have operated

2 their stations in a manner consistent with the pro3 gramming objectives and hours of operation of full4 power broadcasters providing worthwhile services to

5 their respective communities while under severe li6 cense limitations compared to their full-power coun7 terparts.

8 (3) License limitations, particularly the tem9 porary nature of the license, have blocked many low10 power broadcasters from having access to capital, and

11 have severely hampered their ability to continue to

12 provide quality broadcasting, programming, or im13 provements.

14 (4) The passage of the Telecommunications Act

15 of 1996 has added to the uncertainty of the future sta16 tus of these stations by the lack of specific provisions

17 regarding the permanency of their licenses, or their

18 treatment during the transition to high definition,

19 digital television.

20 (5) It is in the public interest to promote diver21 sity in television programming such as that currently

22 provided by low-power television stations to foreign23 language communities.
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1 SEC. 3. PRESERVATION OF LOW-POWER COMMUNITY TELE2 VISION BROADCASTING.

3 Section 336 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

4 U.S.C. 336) is amended—

5 (1) by redesignating subsections (f) and (g) as

6 subsections (g) and (h), respectively; and

7 (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the following

8 new subsection:

9 ‘‘(f) PRESERVATION OF LOW-POWER COMMUNITY TEL10 EVISION BROADCASTING.—

11 ‘‘(1) CREATION OF CLASS A LICENSES.—

12 ‘‘(A) RULEMAKING REQUIRED.—Within 120

13 days after the date of enactment of the Commu14 nity Broadcasters Protection Act of 1999, the

15 Commission shall prescribe regulations to estab16 lish a class A television license to be available to

17 licensees of qualifying low-power television sta18 tions. Such regulations shall provide that—

19 ‘‘(i) the license shall be subject to the

20 same license terms and renewal standards

21 as the licenses for full-power television sta22 tions except as provided in this subsection;

23 and

24 ‘‘(ii) each such class A licensee shall be

25 accorded primary status as a television

26 broadcaster as long as the station continues
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1 to meet the requirements for a qualifying

2 low-power station in paragraph (2).

3 ‘‘(B) NOTICE TO AND CERTIFICATION BY LI4 CENSEES.—Within 30 days after the enactment

5 of the Community Broadcasters Protection Act of

6 1999, the Commission shall send a notice to the

7 licensees of all low-power televisions licenses that

8 describes the requirements for class A designa9 tion. Within 60 days after such date of enact10 ment, licensees intending to seek class A designa11 tion shall submit to the Commission a certifi12 cation of eligibility based on the qualification re13 quirements of this subsection. Absent a material

14 deficiency, the Commission shall grant certifi15 cation of eligibility to apply for class A status.

16 ‘‘(C) APPLICATION FOR AND AWARD OF LI17 CENSES.—Consistent with the requirements set

18 forth in paragraph (2)(A) of this subsection, a li19 censee may submit an application for class A

20 designation under this paragraph within 30

21 days after final regulations are adopted pursu22 ant to subparagraph (A) of this paragraph. Ex23 cept as provided in paragraphs (6) and (7), the

24 Commission shall, within 30 days after receipt of

25 an application of a licensee of a qualifying low-
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1 power television station that is acceptable for fil2 ing, award such a class A television station li3 cense to such licensee.

4 ‘‘(D) RESOLUTION OF TECHNICAL PROB5 LEMS.—The Commission shall act to preserve the

6 service area of each low-power television licensee

7 pending the final resolution of the class A appli8 cation of such licensee. If, after granting certifi9 cation of eligibility for a class A license, tech10 nical problems arise requiring an engineering so11 lution to a full-power station’s allotted param12 eters or channel assignment in the digital tele13 vision Table of Allotments, the Commission shall

14 make such modifications, as necessary, to ensure

15 replication of the full-power digital television ap16 plicant’s service area, as provided for in section

17 73.622 of the Commission’s regulations (47 CFR

18 73.622).

19 ‘‘(2) QUALIFYING LOW-POWER TELEVISION STA20 TIONS.—For purposes of this subsection, a station is

21 a qualifying low-power television station if—

22 ‘‘(A)(i) during the 90 days preceding the

23 date of enactment of the Community Broad24 casters Protection Act of 1999—
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1 ‘‘(I) such station broadcast a min2 imum of 18 hours per day;

3 ‘‘(II) such station broadcast an average

4 of at least 3 hours per week of programming

5 that was produced within the market area

6 served by such station, or the market area

7 served by a group of commonly controlled

8 low-power stations that carry common local

9 programming produced within the market

10 area served by such group; and

11 ‘‘(III) such station was in compliance

12 with the Commission’s requirements appli13 cable to low-power television stations; and

14 ‘‘(ii) from and after the date of its applica15 tion for a class A license, the station is in com16 pliance with the Commission’s operating rules

17 for full-power television stations; or

18 ‘‘(B) the Commission determines that the

19 public interest, convenience, and necessity would

20 be served by treating the station as a qualifying

21 low-power television station for purposes of this

22 section, or for other reasons determined by the

23 Commission.

24 ‘‘(3) COMMON OWNERSHIP.—No low-power tele25 vision station authorized as of the date of enactment
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1 of the Community Broadcasters Protection Act of

2 1999 shall be disqualified for a class A license based

3 on common ownership with any other medium of

4 mass communication.

5 ‘‘(4) ISSUANCE OF LICENSES FOR ADVANCED

6 TELEVISION SERVICES TO TELEVISION TRANSLATOR

7 STATIONS AND QUALIFYING LOW-POWER TELEVISION

8 STATIONS.—The Commission is not required to issue

9 any additional license for advanced television services

10 to the licensee of a class A television station under

11 this subsection, or to any licensee of any television

12 translator station, but shall accept a license applica13 tion for such services proposing facilities that will not

14 cause interference to the service area of any other

15 broadcast facility applied for, protected, permitted, or

16 authorized on the date of filing of the advanced tele17 vision application. Such new license or the original

18 license of the applicant shall be forfeited after the end

19 of the digital television service transition period, as

20 determined by the Commission. A licensee of a low21 power television station or television translator sta22 tion may, at the option of licensee, elect to convert to

23 the provision of advanced television services on its

24 analog channel, but shall not be required to convert
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1 to digital operation until the end of such transition

2 period.

3 ‘‘(5) NO PREEMPTION OF SECTION 337.—Nothing

4 in this subsection preempts or otherwise affects section

5 337 of this Act.

6 ‘‘(6) INTERIM QUALIFICATION.—

7 ‘‘(A) STATIONS OPERATING WITHIN CERTAIN

8 BANDWIDTH.—The Commission may not grant a

9 class A license to a low-power television station

10 for operation between 698 and 806 megahertz,

11 but the Commission shall provide to low-power

12 television stations assigned to and temporarily

13 operating in that bandwidth the opportunity to

14 meet the qualification requirements for a class A

15 license. If such a qualified applicant for a class

16 A license is assigned a channel within the core

17 spectrum (as such term is defined in MM Docket

18 87–286, February 17, 1998), the Commission

19 shall issue a class A license simultaneously with

20 the assignment of such channel.

21 ‘‘(B) CERTAIN CHANNELS OFF-LIMITS.—The

22 Commission may not grant under this subsection

23 a class A license to a low-power television station

24 operating on a channel within the core spectrum

25 that includes any of the 175 additional channels
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1 referenced in paragraph 45 of its February 23,

2 1998, Memorandum Opinion and Order on Re3 consideration of the Sixth Report and Order

4 (MM Docket No. 87–268). Within 18 months

5 after the date of enactment of the Community

6 Broadcasters Protection Act of 1999, the Com7 mission shall identify by channel, location, and

8 applicable technical parameters those 175 chan9 nels.

10 ‘‘(7) NO INTERFERENCE REQUIREMENT.—The

11 Commission may not grant a class A license, nor ap12 prove a modification of a class A license, unless the

13 applicant or licensee shows that the class A station

14 for which the license or modification is sought will

15 not cause—

16 ‘‘(A) interference within—

17 ‘‘(i) the predicted Grade B contour (as

18 of the date of enactment of the Community

19 Broadcasters Protection Act of 1999, or No20 vember 1, 1999, whichever is later, or as

21 proposed in a change application filed on

22 or before such date) of any television station

23 transmitting in analog format; or

24 ‘‘(ii)(I) the digital television service

25 areas provided in the DTV Table of Allot-
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1 ments, (II) the areas protected in the Com2 mission’s digital television regulations (47

3 CFR 73.622 (e) and (f)), or (III) the digital

4 television service areas of stations subse5 quently granted by the Commission prior to

6 the filing of a class A application;

7 ‘‘(B) interference within the protected con8 tour of any low-power television station or low9 power television translator station that—

10 ‘‘(i) was licensed prior to the date on

11 which the application for a class A license,

12 or for the modification of such a license,

13 was filed;

14 ‘‘(ii) was authorized by construction

15 permit prior to such date; or

16 ‘‘(iii) had a pending application that

17 was submitted prior to such date; or

18 ‘‘(C) interference within the protected con19 tour of 80 miles from the geographic center of the

20 areas listed in section 22.625(b)(1) or 90.303 of

21 the Commission’s regulations (47 CFR

22 22.625(b)(1) and 90.303) for frequencies in—

23 ‘‘(i) the 470–512 megahertz band iden24 tified in section 22.621 or 90.303 of such

25 regulations; or
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1 ‘‘(ii) the 482–488 megahertz band in

2 New York.’’.