7224 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS 

COMMISSION 

47 CFR Parts 0, 27, 73, and 74 

[MB Docket No. 22–227, FCC 23–72; FR ID 

173529] 

Establishing Rules for Full Power 

Television and Class A Television 

Stations 

AGENCY: Federal Communications 

Commission. 

ACTION: Final rule. 

SUMMARY: In this document, the Federal 

Communications Commission 

(Commission or FCC) adopts several 

rule updates for full power and Class A 

television stations that no longer have 

any practical effect given the 

completion of the transition from analog 

to digital-only operations and the post 

incentive auction transition to a smaller 

television band with fewer channels. 

The Commission also adopts a 

restructuring of its full power television 

rules, which largely consist of the 

technical licensing, operating, and 

interference rules for full power 

television. 

DATES: Effective March 4, 2024, except 

for the amendments in instruction 15 

(§ 73.619), instruction 21 (§ 73.625); 

instruction 52 (§ 73.1250); instruction 

53 (§ 73.1350); instruction 56 

(§ 73.1560); instruction 59 (§ 73.1615); 

instruction 60 (§ 73.1620); instruction 

61 (§ 73.1635); instruction 62 

(§ 73.1675); instruction 63 (§ 73.1690); 

instruction 64 (§ 73.1740); instruction 

65 (§ 73.1750); instruction 66 

(§ 73.2080); instruction 75 (§ 73.3540); 

instruction 78 (§ 73.3544); instruction 

79 (§ 73.3549); instruction 80 

(§ 73.3550); instruction 86 (§ 73.3598); 

instruction 103 (§ 73.5006); instruction 

116 (§ 73.6024); and instruction 117 

(§ 73.6025), which are delayed 

indefinitely. The Media Bureau will 

publish a separate document in the 

Federal Register announcing the 

effective date of these amendments. The 

incorporation by reference of certain 

material listed in the rule was approved 

by the Director of the Federal Register 

as of October 11, 2011. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Emily Harrison, Media Bureau, at (202) 

418–1665 or Emily.Harrison@fcc.gov. 

For additional information concerning 

the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) 

information collection requirements 

contained in this document, contact 

Cathy Williams at 202–418–2918, or 

Cathy.Williams@fcc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a 

synopsis of the Commission’s Report 

and Order, in MB Docket No. 22–227; 

FCC 23–72, adopted on September 18, 

2023, and released on September 19, 

2023. The full text of this document is 

available for download at https://

www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-updatesrules-television-and-class-televisionstations. To request materials in 

accessible formats (braille, large print, 

computer diskettes, or audio 

recordings), please send an email to 

FCC504@fcc.gov or call the Consumer & 

Government Affairs Bureau at (202) 

418–0530 (VOICE), (202) 418–0432 

(TTY). 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 

Analysis 

This document may contain new or 

modified information collection 

requirements subject to the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public 

Law 104–13, see 44 U.S.C. 3507. The 

Commission, as part of its continuing 

effort to reduce paperwork burdens, will 

invite the general public, the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB), and 

other federal agencies to comment on 

the information collection requirements 

contained in this document in a 

separate Federal Register Notice, as 

required by the PRA. All such new or 

modified information collections will 

become effective after the Commission 

publishes a document in the Federal 

Register announcing such approval and 

the relevant effective date. 

In addition, pursuant to the Small 

Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, 

Public Law 107–198, see 44 U.S.C. 

3506(c)(4), the Commission previously 

sought specific comment on how the 

Commission might further reduce the 

information collection burden for small 

business concerns with fewer than 25 

employees. 

Congressional Review Act 

The Commission will send a copy of 

this Report and Order to Congress and 

the Government Accountability Office 

(GAO) pursuant to the Congressional 

Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). 

Synopsis 

Incorporation by Reference 

The Commission’s adopted rules are 

limited to the incorporation by reference 

of standards that are associated with full 

power and Class A television services. 

Incorporation by reference is the process 

that Federal agencies use when referring 

to materials published elsewhere to give 

those materials the same force and effect 

of law in the Code of Federal 

Regulations as if the materials’ text had 

actually been published in the Federal 

Register. 5 U.S.C. 552(a)(1) and Office of 

the Federal Register, IBR Handbook 

(June 2023), available at https://www.

archives.gov/federal-register/write/ibr. 

By using incorporation by reference, the 

Commission gives effect to technical 

instructions, testing methodologies, and 

other process documents that are 

developed and owned by standards 

development organizations. Referencing 

these documents in the Commission’s 

rules substantially reduces the volume 

of material that would otherwise be 

published in the Federal Register and 

the Code of Federal Regulations. It also 

permits the Commission to more 

efficiently implement future standards 

updates. Once the Commission 

completes any necessary notice-andcomment rulemaking proceedings and 

applies agency expertise to ensure that 

any standards adopted are sound and 

appropriate, the Commission need only 

update the references to the standards in 

its rules. 

The following standards have 

previously been approved for the 

locations in which they appear in the 

amendatory text: ATSC A/52; ATSC A/ 

53; Parts 1–4 and 6: 2007; ATSC A/53 

Part 5: 2010; ATSC A/65C; and OET 

Bulletin No. 69. 

Deletion of Obsolete Rules and 

Language Recognizing the Full Power 

and Class A Digital Transition 

As stated in the NPRM, full power 

television stations were required to 

terminate all analog operations no later 

than June 12, 2009, and Class A stations 

by September 1, 2015. Accordingly, the 

NPRM proposed to amend our rules to 

reflect those transitions. With the 

exception of two of our proposals 

discussed at the end of this section, the 

comments we received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and therefore, for the reasons 

discussed in the NPRM, and described 

below, we adopt those proposals as 

detailed below. 

We eliminate entire rules, and 

portions of rules, that provide for 

analog-to-analog and analog-to-digital 

interference protection requirements 

and other analog operating requirements 

from subpart E (Television Broadcast 

Stations), subpart H (Rules Applicable 

to All Broadcast Stations), subpart I 

(Procedures for Competitive Bidding 

and for Applications for Noncommercial 

Educational Broadcast Stations on NonReserved Channels), and subpart J (Class 

A Television Broadcast Stations). The 

rules we amend are related to analog 

operations (i.e., rules that reference 

‘‘NTSC’’ or ‘‘analog’’). See 47 CFR 

73.622(d)(1) (Digital television table of 

allotments) (removing text of this rule 

that refers to analog stations); 73.623(d) 

and (h) (removing analog technical 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7225 

references); 73.624(b) and (c)(3) (Digital 

television broadcast stations) (removing 

text of this rule that refers to analog 

stations); 73.683(d) (Field strength 

contours and presumptive 

determination of field strength at 

individual locations) (removing text of 

this rule that refers to analog stations); 

and 73.686(d) (Field strength 

measurements) (removing text of this 

rule that refers to analog stations). In 

addition, regarding 47 CFR 73.5000(a) 

(Services subject to competitive 

bidding), we delete the word ‘‘analog’’ 

where it appears in the rule because 

there is no need to differentiate between 

analog and digital television services. 

We eliminate references to Grade A, 

Grade B, city grade contours, or F(50,50) 

curves. See 47 CFR 73.683(a) through (b) 

(Field strength contours and 

presumptive determination of field 

strength at individual locations); 

73.6000 (Definitions); and 73.6010(b) 

(Class A TV station protected contour). 

The one exception is 47 CFR 

73.626(f)(2)(i) (DTV distributed 

transmission systems), which states that 

the F(50,50) service contour of a DTS 

transmitter shall not extend beyond that 

of its reference facility, which will be 

retained. We separately add text in 47 

CFR 73.683(a) (Field strength contours 

and presumptive determination of field 

strength at individual locations) to 

provide guidance for those reviewing 

the cross-reference to this section found 

in 47 CFR 90.307(b) (Protection criteria). 

Or, we replace references to Grade A, 

Grade B, city grade contours, or F(50,50) 

curves with the corresponding digital 

contours defined in §§ 73.625(a), 

73.622(e), 73.6010, and/or 74.792. See 

47 CFR 73.1675(a)(1)(iii) (Auxiliary 

antennas) (deleting analog contour and 

replacing with digital noise limited 

contour); and 73.5007(b)(2)(iii) and 

(b)(3)(iv) (Designated entity provisions). 

We also amend or eliminate rules that 

reference peak power, visual or aural 

carriers, or carrier frequencies because 

these are technical engineering terms 

related to analog television operations. 

See 47 CFR 73.653 (Operation of TV 

aural and visual transmitters); 73.664(a) 

through(c) (Determining operating 

power); 73.665 (Use of TV aural 

baseband subcarriers); 73.667 (TV 

subsidiary communications services); 

73.669 (TV stereophonic aural and 

multiplex subcarrier operation); 73.681 

(Definitions) (we delete the following 

definitions relating to analog operations: 

‘‘Aural center frequency;’’ ‘‘Aural 

transmitter;’’ ‘‘Baseband;’’ ‘‘Frequency 

departure;’’ ‘‘Frequency deviation;’’ 

‘‘Frequency swing;’’ ‘‘Main channel;’’ 

‘‘Multiplex Transmission (Aural);’’ 

‘‘Peak power;’’ ‘‘Visual transmitter 

power’’); 73.682(c) (TV transmission 

standards); 73.687(a), (b), (c) 

introductory text, (c)(1), and (e)(2) 

(Transmission system requirements); 

73.688(a) (Indicating instruments); 

73.691 (Visual modulation monitoring); 

73.699 (TV engineering charts), Figure 

12 (Figure 12 is referenced only by 

73.687(b), which we delete); 

73.1350(f)(3) (Transmission system 

operation); 73.1540(a) (Carrier frequency 

measurements); 73.1545(c), (e), and 

Note to (e) (Carrier frequency departure 

tolerances); 73.1560(c)(1) through (2) 

(Operating power and mode tolerances); 

73.1570 (updating section heading) and 

(b)(3) (Modulation levels: AM, FM, TV 

and Class A TV aural); 73.1635(a)(5) 

(Special temporary authorizations 

(STA)); and 73.6024(c) (Transmission 

standards and system requirements). We 

amend or eliminate such rules as digital 

TV signals do not have specific visual 

or aural carriers. See generally 47 CFR 

73.682(d) (Digital broadcast television 

transmission standard); see also 47 CFR 

73.8000 (Incorporation by reference) 

(each of the several standards listed in 

the rule relate to DTV). We similarly 

amend or eliminate rules and figures 

which reference the vertical blanking 

interval, stereophonic sound 

transmission, modulation, subcarriers of 

any kind, components of the picture 

such as chrominance or color, or the 

sound or picture itself beyond the lines 

of resolution. As noted in the NPRM, 

these references are technical 

engineering terms associated with 

analog television operations since they 

are related to the picture derived from 

an analog visual carrier or the sound 

derived from an analog aural carrier. See 

47 CFR 73.621(g) (Noncommercial 

educational TV stations—referencing 

Telecommunications Service on the 

Vertical Blanking Interval and in the 

Visual Signal); 73.646 

(Telecommunications Service on the 

Vertical Blanking Interval and in the 

Visual Signal); 73.681 (Definitions) 

(deleting definitions and the Note for: 

‘‘Amplitude modulation (AM);’’ 

‘‘BTSC;’’ ‘‘Blanking level;’’ 

‘‘Chrominance;’’ ‘‘Chrominance 

subcarrier;’’ ‘‘Color transmission;’’ 

‘‘Field;’’ ‘‘Frame;’’ ‘‘Frequency 

modulation (FM);’’ ‘‘IRE standard 

scale;’’ ‘‘Luminance;’’ ‘‘Monochrome 

transmission;’’ ‘‘Multichannel 

Television Sound (MTS);’’ ‘‘Negative 

transmission;’’ ‘‘Percentage 

modulation;’’ ‘‘Pilot subcarrier;’’ 

‘‘Program related data signal;’’ 

‘‘Reference black level;’’ ‘‘Reference 

white level of the luminance signal;’’ 

‘‘Scanning;’’ ‘‘Scanning line;’’ ‘‘Visual 

carrier frequency;’’ and ‘‘Visual 

transmitter’’); 73.699 (TV engineering 

charts) (Figures 5, 5(a), 6, 7, 8, 16, and 

17); 73.1207(b)(2) (Rebroadcasts— 

referencing multiplex subcarrier or 

telecommunications service on the 

vertical blanking interval); and 

73.1590(a)(5) (‘‘TV stereophonic or 

subcarrier transmission equipment’’), 

(c)(1), and (c)(3) (Equipment 

performance measurements). Section 

73.699, Figure 11 (Assumed Ideal 

Detector Output) is no longer referenced 

anywhere else in the rules, and appears 

to have been inadvertently overlooked 

during a 1984 rule modification, which 

deleted the sole reference to it from 

§ 73.687(a) (see 49 FR 48305, 48312 

(Dec. 12, 1984)), and we thus delete it. 

While 47 CFR 73.621(h) 

(Noncommercial educational TV 

stations), which refers to the 

transmission of non-program related 

data service on ‘‘Line 21,’’ does not 

specifically use the term ‘‘visual 

blanking interval,’’ ‘‘Line 21’’ refers to 

part of the vertical blanking interval, 

and thus we delete it. 

To the extent such analog rules are 

superseded by related requirements for 

digital operations, the digital rules are 

found in the digital broadcast television 

standard documents incorporated by 

reference in § 73.682(d). In addition, a 

number of rules we amend have a 

digital equivalent elsewhere in the 

rules, and for all of these cases, we 

either modify the analog reference to 

specify a digital equivalent. Sections 

73.682(a)(2) through (13) and (15) 

through (24) (TV transmission 

standards) are replaced by § 73.682(d). 

The digital equivalent of § 73.687(e)(1) 

(Transmission system requirements) is 

replaced by § 73.622(h), which we are 

moving to § 73.611. Section 73.3550(b) 

(Requests for new or modified call sign 

assignments) has a reference to 

§ 74.783(d), but § 74.791(a) is the 

equivalent digital rule. Accordingly, we 

are replacing the reference to § 74.783(d) 

with § 74.791(a). The digital equivalent 

of § 73.3572(a)(4) (Processing of TV 

broadcast, Class A TV broadcast, low 

power TV, TV translators, and TV 

booster applications) is § 74.787(a)(4). 

Or, delete the analog-related rule 

entirely. Section 73.613 (Protection of 

Class A TV stations) relates to analog 

because Class A protections for digital 

stations are in § 73.616(e), which we are 

moving to § 73.620(d). Section 73.684 

(Prediction of coverage) is in § 73.625 

(DTV coverage of principal community 

and antenna system), some of which we 

are moving into other rule parts in the 

reorganization of our rules; the reference 

in § 73.681 is removed. The digital 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7226 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

equivalent of § 73.685(a) through (c) 

(Transmitter location and antenna 

system) is found in § 73.625(a)(1) 

through (3), which we are moving to 

§ 73.618. The digital equivalent of 

§ 73.685(f) (Transmitter location and 

antenna system) is contained in 

§ 73.625(c)(3), which also applies to 

§§ 73.1690(b)(3) and (c)(3) (Modification 

of transmission systems). The digital 

equivalent of § 73.698 (Tables) is 

replaced by § 73.623(d)(2), which we are 

moving to § 73.622(k). The digital 

equivalent of § 73.6012 (Protection of 

Class A TV, low power TV and TV 

translator stations) is found in 

§§ 73.6017 and 73.6019. The digital 

equivalent of § 73.6013 (Protection of 

DTV stations) is found in § 73.6018 

(Digital Class A TV station protection of 

DTV stations). The digital equivalent of 

§ 73.6014 (Protection of digital Class A 

TV stations) is found in § 73.6017. 

We also amend rule section headings 

and rules in subpart E (47 CFR 73.616 

(section heading), (a) through (e), and (g) 

(Post-transition DTV station interference 

protection); 73.621(j) (Noncommercial 

educational TV stations); 73.622(a) 

introductory text and (a)(2) (also 

deleting reference to out-of-corechannels), (c)(1), (e)(1), (f)(6), (f)(7), (f)(8) 

(also deleting references to out-of-core 

channels) (Digital television table of 

allotments); 73.623 (updating section 

heading), (a) through (f) and (h) (DTV 

applications and changes to DTV 

allotments); 73.624 (updating section 

heading), (a) through (c) and (g) (Digital 

television broadcast stations); 73.625 

(updating section heading), (a)(1), (b)(1), 

(b)(3), (c)(4)(i) through (ii) (DTV 

coverage of principle community and 

antenna system); 73.626 (updating 

section heading), (a), (c)(1), (e), (f)(2), 

(f)(6) (DTV distributed transmission 

systems); 73.686(e) (Field strength 

measurements)), subpart H (47 CFR 

73.1201(b)(1) (Station identification)), 

and subpart J (47 CFR 73.6010(c) and (d) 

(Class A TV station protection contour); 

73.6017 (Digital Class A TV station 

protection of Class A TV and digital 

Class A TV stations); 73.6018 (Digital 

Class A TV station protection of DTV 

stations); 73.6019 (Digital Class A TV 

station protection of low power TV, TV 

translator, digital low power TV and 

digital TV translator stations); 73.6020 

(Protection of stations in the land 

mobile radio service); 73.6022(a) 

(Negotiated interference and relocations 

agreements); 73.6023 (Distributed 

transmission systems); and 73.6024(d) 

(Transmission standards and system 

requirements). We also amend 

§ 73.6024(d) (Transmission standards 

and system requirements) to require 

stations in the Mexican border zone to 

specify a full-service emission mask in 

any modification applications requiring 

coordination. We also adopt a nonsubstantive, technical revision to 

§ 73.6023(b) and (c) to remove ‘‘DTV’’ 

and ‘‘digital’’ to be consistent with the 

changes we adopt herein) to remove 

references to digital television (DTV) 

and digital television service since all 

television services have transitioned 

from analog to digital operations and 

thus, there is no further need to 

differentiate between two separate kinds 

of service. We remove from certain part 

74 rules inadvertent references to DTV 

and digital television service, 

overlooked in a prior part 74 

rulemaking, since, with rare exception, 

all part 74 television services have 

transitioned from analog to digital 

operations and thus, there is no further 

need to differentiate between two 

separate kinds of service. See 

Amendment of Parts 73 and 74 of the 

Commission’s Rules to Establish Rules 

for Digital Low Power Television and 

Television Translator Stations, Update 

of Parts 74 of the Commission’s Rules 

Related to Low Power Television and 

Television Translator Stations, MB 

Docket Nos. 22–261 and 03–185, Order 

and Sixth Notice of Proposed 

Rulemaking, FCC 22–58 (July 13, 2022) 

(‘‘2022 Part 74 Order’’ or ‘‘Part 74 

NPRM’’); Erratum, FCC 22–58 (Sept. 9, 

2022); Report and Order, FCC 23–25 

(Apr. 17, 2023) (2023 Part 74 Report and 

Order). See 47 CFR 74.792(b) (Low 

power TV and TV translator station 

protected contour); 74.793(e), (g) 

through (h) (Low power TV and TV 

translator station protection of broadcast 

stations); and 74.794 (section heading, 

paragraph (b) introductory text, (b)(1), 

and (b)(2) (Digital emissions). We also 

delete the second sentence in 47 CFR 

74.793(b) (Low power TV and TV 

translator station protection of broadcast 

stations), given the fact that we delete 

the analog threshold interference levels 

in 47 CFR 73.623(c)(2) (DTV 

applications and changes to DTV 

allotments) and therefore there is no 

need to distinguish digital operations. In 

the NPRM, we noted that a small 

number of translator stations in Alaska 

were still operating in analog. All of 

those stations have now either 

converted to digital or canceled the 

licenses, and, as such, that matter is 

moot. We also eliminate provisions of 

rules and amend section headings and 

language that are obsolete due to the 

conversion from analog to digital 

television technology, including 

references to the analog television 

booster service in subpart E. See 47 CFR 

73.622(d)(1) through (2), Note to (e)(2), 

(e)(3), (f)(5), (f)(6), (f)(7), and (f)(8) 

(Digital television table of allotments); 

73.623(a) through (b), (c)(2), (c)(3), 

(c)(5), (d), and (h) (DTV applications 

and changes to DTV allotments); 

73.624(a), (b)(1) through (2), (d) through 

(f) (refer to pre-DTV transition 

procedures) (Digital television broadcast 

stations); and 73.626(c)(2) (DTV 

distributed transmission systems). 

Section 73.622(c)(2) states that an 

application may be filed for a channel 

or community not specified in the DTV 

Table of Allotments (formerly 

§ 73.622(b)) if it is consistent with the 

rules and policies established in Service 

Rules for the 746–764 and 776–794 MHz 

Bands, and Revisions to Part 27 of the 

Commission’s Rules, WT Docket No. 

99–168, Third Report and Order, 16 FCC 

Rcd 2703, 2717–18, paras. 34–36 (2001) 

(stating that the Commission would 

allow stations on channels 59 through 

69 to enter into voluntary agreements to 

temporarily relocate to channels 52 

through 58). Because § 73.622(b) has 

been deleted and channels 52 through 

58 reallocated for non-broadcast use, we 

delete this section of the rule. Similarly, 

we delete the last five sentences of 

§ 73.622(c)(1), which discuss procedures 

for filing applications for channel 

changes made in the deleted subsection 

(b), DTV Table of Allotments, citing the 

Advanced Television Systems and Their 

Impact Upon the Existing Television 

Broadcast Service, MM Docket No. 87– 

268, Memorandum Opinion and Order 

on Reconsideration of the Sixth Report 

and Order, 13 FCC Rcd 7418 (1998) 

(MO&O on Reconsideration of the Sixth 

R&O), and analog channel swaps. We do 

the same in subpart H, since these 

services were not carried over into 

digital operations. See 47 CFR 

73.1001(c) (Scope); 73.3521 (Mutually 

exclusive applications for low power 

television, television translators and 

television booster stations); 73.3525 

(Note) (Agreements for removing 

application conflicts); 73.3533(a)(5) 

(Application for construction permit or 

modification of construction permit); 

73.3572 (section heading, (a)(2), (c) and 

(f) through (g)) (Processing of TV 

broadcast, Class A TV broadcast, low 

power TV, TV translators, and TV 

booster applications); 73.3584(a), (c) 

(Procedure for filing petitions to deny); 

and 73.3598(a) introductory text (Period 

of construction). Finally, we amend 

§ 73.6026 (Broadcast regulations 

applicable to Class A television stations) 

to remove references to analog-only 

rules applicable to Class A television 

stations, consistent with the rule 

changes above. See 47 CFR 73.6026 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7227 

(deleting reference to § 73.635 (Use of 

common antenna site); 73.646 

(Telecommunications Service on the 

Vertical Blanking Interval and in the 

Visual Signal); 73.653 (Operation of TV 

aural and visual transmitters); 73.665 

(Use of TV aural baseband subcarriers); 

73.667 (TV subsidiary communications 

services); 73.669 (TV stereophonic aural 

and multiplex subcarrier operation); and 

73.691 (Visual modulation monitoring)). 

As discussed infra, we delete the rules 

related to the Subscription Television 

Service as unnecessary and no longer in 

use, and amend 47 CFR 73.664 

(Determining operating power). 

We also adopt our proposal to remove 

references to an element of the Table of 

Allotments that has been previously 

updated. As we explained in the NPRM, 

to accommodate the analog to digital 

television transition, the Commission 

adopted § 73.622(b) (DTV Table of 

Allotments) to allot a paired DTV 

channel to each analog television 

licensee and permittee. See 47 CFR 

73.622(b) (2021) (DTV Table of 

Allotments); Advanced Television 

Systems and Their Impact Upon the 

Existing Television Broadcast Service, 

MM Docket No. 87–268, Sixth Report 

and Order, 12 FCC Rcd 14588 (1997) 

(Sixth Report and Order); MO&O on 

Reconsideration of the Sixth R&O. The 

Commission later deleted § 73.622(b), 

leaving behind successor § 73.622(i) 

(Post-Transition Table of Allotment). 47 

CFR 73.622(i); see also October 2021 

Order at Appendix (removing 

§ 73.622(b)). The rules, however, 

continue to refer to ‘‘Appendix B,’’ 

which specified the technical 

parameters and service area that must be 

protected for each channel allotted in 

§ 73.622(b) during most of the transition 

period. We therefore remove references 

to ‘‘Appendix B’’ in our rules as 

obsolete. Appendix B, and a description 

of its use and contents, is in the Sixth 

Report and Order, 12 FCC Rcd at 

14693–754. Corrections were made to 

Table 2 of Appendix B in the MO&O on 

Reconsideration of the Sixth R&O. We 

note that § 73.622(f)(3)(i) and (ii) both 

refer to policies specific to Appendix B, 

and thus, we delete them. 

We amend § 73.612 to remove 

references to distance separations, 

which, outside of new allotment 

proceedings, are not used in digital TV. 

See 47 CFR 73.612(a) through (b) and 

Note (Protection from interference). 

Consistent with the tentative 

conclusions in the NPRM, we find that 

this rule is obsolete, as TV stations are 

now protected using OET Bulletin No. 

69. See 47 CFR 73.616(d) (Posttransition DTV station interference 

protection). We delete § 73.622(g)(2), 

which pertains to protection of analog 

TV signals by an upper-adjacent digital 

signal. See MO&O on Reconsideration of 

the Sixth R&O, 13 FCC Rcd at 7467, 

para. 120. We also eliminate § 73.1620(f) 

(Program tests) since it refers to a policy 

of allowing 1000 watt ultra-high 

frequency (UHF) translators on vacant 

allotments, a policy which was ended 

prior to 1984, and eliminate from 

§ 73.6024(b) (Transmission standards 

and system requirements) a reference to 

§ 74.736, as that section was recently 

eliminated in the 2022 Part 74 Order. 

We also eliminate §§ 73.685(g) 

(Transmitter location and antenna 

system) and 73.6025(b) (Antenna system 

and station location) because those rules 

were adopted many decades ago for the 

analog era and are not relevant to or 

used in the digital environment. 

Minor Modifications to Proposed 

Amendments to Section 73.614(b) and 

Analog Technical Rules. We next turn to 

evaluating the comments we received 

with two changes proposed in the 

NPRM. First, the National Association of 

Broadcasters (NAB) notes that the 

NPRM ‘‘correctly states that ‘digital TV 

signals do not have specific visual or 

aural carriers.’ ’’ Yet, as proposed in the 

NPRM, § 73.614(a) would have retained 

the term ‘‘visual effective radiated 

power.’’ NAB argues that ‘‘[s]ince DTV 

operations are fundamentally data 

streams that may carry video, audio, or 

other data the word ‘visual’ has no 

meaning and should be eliminated.’’ We 

agree. We therefore adopt our proposal 

in the NPRM to amend this rule with a 

minor modification to delete the word 

‘‘visual,’’ as reflected in § 73.614(a) in 

Appendix A of this Report and Order. 

Second, we decline to make another 

modification requested by NAB. The 

NPRM proposed to eliminate § 73.615 

because the Commission staff’s current 

practice in evaluating technical 

proposals and issuing authorizations 

provides additional precision beyond 

what the text of the current rule 

requires, since authorizations are now 

based on the more precise kilowatt (kW) 

value as opposed to dBk and do not 

round HAAT values as described in this 

rule. See 47 CFR 73.615 (Administrative 

changes in authorizations). As 

explained in the NPRM, for example, a 

station authorized at 30 dBk (decibels 

above 1 kW) would operate at 1000 kW, 

while a station at 29.9 dBk consistent 

with the current rule would operate at 

approximately 977 kW. The Bureau, 

however, authorizes stations today 

based on kilowatts, allowing a station to 

be authorized at an intermediate value 

such as 990 kW. The Bureau’s current 

practice therefore provides more 

precision. For the same reason, the 

NPRM proposed to remove the dBk 

reference in § 73.614(a). 

NAB comments that the current and 

proposed rules specify formulas for 

determining effective radiated power 

(ERP) as a function of HAAT with the 

results in logarithmic units of dBk, and 

claims that the proposed change fails to 

define the significant figures to use and 

will lead to confusion. NAB also argues 

that since § 73.615 currently describes 

how to convert power in dBk to power 

in kilowatts and specifies the number of 

significant figures and the rules for 

rounding the results, the proposed 

deletion of § 73.615 makes the 

determination of ERP in kilowatts 

ambiguous. NAB further argues the 

revised rule should define the algorithm 

that produces that result and ‘‘computer 

software used by FCC staff’’ should be 

modified to match the formulas in the 

rules. NAB believes that the ‘‘staff’s 

current practice’’ will inevitably result 

in inconsistent results between the 

staff’s practice and the rules, and gives 

an example of a UHF station where it 

believes the allowable ERP (to the 

nearest 0.1 dBk) of 20.4 dBk converts to 

110 kW when rounded to three 

significant figures as presently specified 

in the rules. NAB believes that when 

calculated using the staff’s ‘‘arbitrary 

precision,’’ the same station would be 

allowed just 108.4 kW (to four 

significant figures) or 108 kW (to three 

significant figures) absent the 

administrative rounding provisions of 

§ 73.615. NAB states that this can cause 

confusion when applying the largest 

station in the market rule (currently 

§ 73.622(f)(5) and proposed 73.614(b)(6)) 

and potentially require modification of 

longstanding authorizations to reflect a 

changed calculation methodology. NAB 

further added that the ‘‘language of 

present rule Section 73.615 concerning 

administrative changes in 

authorizations is an essential 

complement to the formulas in Section 

73.614, which specify station radiated 

power levels in decibels above on [sic] 

kilowatt (dBk).’’ NAB also maintains 

that it ‘‘is troubled by the apparent 

acknowledgement in the NPRM that the 

staff’s practice has been inconsistent 

with the plain language of the rules for 

years,’’ and that if the Commission now 

wishes to amend its rules to bring them 

into alignment with the staff’s 

preferences and practices, the 

Commission should grandfather existing 

operating parameters for current stations 

so that no broadcaster is penalized for 

that choice. 

We disagree with NAB’s assessment 

of this issue. First, while NAB claims 

that the Commission staff has applied a 

standard that is inconsistent with the 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7228 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

rules in processing applications, the fact 

is that the Commission rule (47 CFR 

73.615) stating how to specify power in 

TV broadcast authorizations applies to 

analog operations only. The 

Commission proposed a digital full 

power Table of Allotments in 1996 by 

specifying ERP in kilowatts, and all 

tables adopted by the Commission since 

then use similar ERP values in 

kilowatts. The use of kilowatt ERP 

values has continued through the 

present time, including use in the ‘‘tv_

process’’ software the Media Bureau 

used for application processing in the 

past, and the TVStudy software the 

Media Bureau currently uses for 

application processing. Second, given 

the Commission’s implementation of a 

system using ERP in kilowatts for digital 

stations in the 1997 Order, the ERP in 

the digital television broadcast station 

license and modification authorizations 

issued by the Media Bureau have since 

been issued in kilowatts. NAB is 

therefore incorrect to suggest that there 

is any conversion or algorithm being 

applied. Current § 73.615 is an analogera rule that was never applied to digital 

authorizations so no such conversion or 

algorithm is applied. Moreover, all full 

power and Class A television stations 

have a digital authorization given in 

kilowatts, so there is no need to modify 

outstanding digital authorizations, and 

no confusion should occur as a station’s 

ERP would be given as 110 kW, 108.4 

kW, or 108 kW, as appropriate, on its 

existing authorization. Third, evaluation 

of the largest station in the market under 

§ 73.622(f)(5) has been conducted using 

the more precise kilowatt values found 

in the Commission’s LMS database 

rather than the dBk values to three 

significant figures. For these reasons, 

with respect to NAB’s request that the 

Commission grandfather existing 

operating parameters, we find that since 

all full power and Class A television 

stations are operating with digital only 

facilities and are all operating with 

authorizations issued based on 

kilowatts, it is unnecessary to grant 

NAB’s request. Finally, in response to 

NAB’s contention that removal of this 

rule will lead to confusion, we disagree. 

Since § 73.615 is an analog rule, it has 

not applied to digital operation and we 

are unaware of any actual instance 

where a station’s power level would be 

impacted by removal of the analog rule. 

Further, requiring such rounding for 

power limits would reduce flexibility 

for stations attempting to conduct a 

largest station in the market analysis or 

a loss analysis by artificially preventing 

them from choosing a more precise 

power level which may allow stations to 

more closely match the service they are 

attempting to replicate. We therefore 

adopt the changes to § 73.615 as 

proposed in the NPRM. 

Updates and Corrections to the Full 

Power and Class A Rules 

The NPRM proposed to make several 

updates and corrections to the full 

power and Class A rules. The comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, and we 

received no specific objection to these 

proposals. Thus, for the reasons 

discussed in the NPRM, and described 

below, we adopt the proposals as 

detailed below. 

We update the reference to the 2000 

census population data found in 

§ 73.616(d)(1) to reflect a reference to 

the most recent official decennial U.S. 

Census population data, which 

conforms paragraph (d)(1) to the 

language in § 73.616(e)(1). See 47 CFR 

73.616(d)(1) (Post-transition DTV station 

interference protection). This language 

was inadvertently not included in 

subsection (d)(1). See Authorizing 

Permissive Use of the ‘‘Next 

Generation’’ Broadcast Television 

Standard, GN Docket No. 16–142, 

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 32 FCC 

Rcd 1670, 1696–7, para. 59 (2017) (in 

proposing to adopt § 73.616(e)(1), the 

Commission stated that ‘‘[w]e propose 

to update the Commission’s rules 

regarding acceptable levels of 

interference resulting from a 

broadcaster’s application for new or 

modified facilities’’); Authorizing 

Permissive Use of the ‘‘Next 

Generation’’ Broadcast Television 

Standard, GN Docket No. 16–142, 

Report and Order and Further Notice of 

Proposed Rulemaking, 32 FCC Rcd 

9930, 9986–7, para. 114 (2017) (in 

adopting the rule, the Commission 

stated that ‘‘after the repacking process 

is complete, any broadcast television 

service or interference calculations will 

be based on the 2010 U.S. Census 

statistics, until after 2020, when the 

next U.S. Census statistics are 

scheduled to become available and the 

Media Bureau subsequently announces 

the date of application of such data’’). 

We also make a similar revision in 47 

CFR 73.686(c)(1)(i) to conform the rule 

to 47 CFR 73.616. We also amend 

references to the ‘‘Table of Allotments’’ 

in § 73.622(j) to the ‘‘Table of TV 

Allotments’’ in all places where it is 

referenced in subpart E. See 47 CFR 

73.622 (section heading and (a)) (Digital 

television table of allotments); 

73.623(d), (f), and (h) (DTV applications 

and changes to DTV allotments). We do 

the same in subpart H, for continuity. 

See 47 CFR 73.1015 (Truthful written 

statements and responses to 

Commission inquiries and 

correspondence). We also update the 

reference to FM Table of Allotments to 

‘‘Table of FM Allotments’’ in 47 CFR 

73.1015 to reflect the name of the table 

in 47 CFR 73.202(b). We amend 

§ 73.622(j) to reflect a channel 

substitution previously adopted upon a 

notice and comment rulemaking that 

was adopted shortly before the current 

version of the Table of TV Allotments 

was adopted, but was not incorporated 

into the new Table of TV Allotments for 

procedural reasons. On January 12, 

2021, the Media Bureau issued a Notice 

of Proposed Rulemaking in response to 

a petition filed by KTUL Licensee, LLC, 

the licensee of KTUL, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 

requesting the substitution of channel 

14 for channel 10 at Tulsa in § 73.622(i), 

the DTV Table of Allotments. 

Amendment of Section 73.622(i), PostTransition Table of DTV Allotments, 

Television Broadcast Stations (Tulsa, 

Oklahoma), MB Docket No. 21–9, 

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 36 FCC 

Rcd 157 (Vid. Div. 2021) (Tulsa NPRM). 

In the Tulsa NPRM, the Bureau noted 

that the Commission had completed the 

incentive auction and broadcast 

television spectrum repacking 

authorized by the Spectrum Act and 

that the Bureau would amend the rules 

to reflect all new full power channel 

assignments in a revised Table of 

Allotments. Because the Table had not 

yet been amended, however, the Bureau 

continued to refer to § 73.622(i) for the 

purpose of the Tulsa proceeding. The 

Bureau adopted a Report and Order 

amending § 73.622(i) to substitute 

channel 14 at Tulsa, see Amendment of 

Section 73.622(i), Post-Transition Table 

of DTV Allotments, Television 

Broadcast Stations (Tulsa, Oklahoma), 

MB Docket No. 21–9, Report and Order, 

36 FCC Rcd 13620 (Vid. Div. 2021), and 

shortly thereafter the Commission 

adopted the Table of TV Allotments, 

which superseded § 73.622(i). October 

2021 Order, 36 FCC Rcd at 15894–5, 

para. 8. The amendment to § 73.622(j) 

reflects this channel substitution, which 

did not become effective until after the 

new Table of TV Allotments was 

adopted. We amend certain rules in 

subpart E to add common abbreviations 

used elsewhere in the Commission’s 

rules and forms. See, e.g., 47 CFR 

73.614(a) (adding abbreviations for 

‘‘ERP’’ and ‘‘HAAT’’) (Power and 

antenna height requirements); and 

73.625(a)(1) (adding abbreviations for 

‘‘ERP’’ and ‘‘HAAT’’) (DTV coverage of 

principal community and antenna 

system). We amend certain rules in 

subpart H and subpart I to provide full 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7229 

power and Class A licensees and 

permittees with accurate information 

about current Commission forms and 

filing procedures, including the removal 

of obsolete forms. 47 CFR 73.1250(e) 

(Broadcasting emergency information); 

73.1350(h) (Transmission system 

operation); 73.1560(a)(1) and (d) 

(Operating power and mode tolerances); 

73.1615(c) (Operation during 

modification of facilities); 73.1620(a)(1) 

through (3) (Program tests); 

73.1635(a)(2) through (3) (Special 

temporary authorizations (STA)); 

73.1675(b) (Auxiliary antennas); 

73.1690(b) and (c)(3) (Modification of 

transmission systems); 73.1740(a)(4) 

(Minimum operating schedule); 73.1750 

(Discontinuance of operation); 

73.2080(c)(6) and (f) (deleting the 

references to obsolete Form 397 and 

updating the names of forms) (Equal 

employment opportunities (EEO)); 

73.3500 (Application and report forms); 

73.3533(a)(1) and (a)(4) through (a)(8) 

(Application for construction permit or 

modification of construction permit); 

73.3536(b) through (c) (Application for 

license to cover construction permit); 

73.3540(c) through (f) (Application for 

voluntary assignment or transfer of 

control); 73.3541(b) (Application for 

involuntary assignment of license or 

transfer of control); 73.3544(b) through 

(c) (Application to obtain a modified 

station license); 73.3549 (Requests for 

extension of time to operate without 

required monitors, indicating 

instruments, and EAS encoders and 

decoders); 73.3550(a) and (j) (also 

adding ‘‘–DT’’ suffix in (a), (f), (k), and 

(m) (Requests for new or modified call 

sign assignments). The Commission has 

acknowledged the use of the ‘‘–DT’’ 

suffix in prior rulemakings. In 2004, the 

Commission permitted stations 

simulcasting their analog programming 

on their digital channel to make station 

identification announcements 

simultaneously for both stations as long 

as the identification included both call 

signs ‘‘(e.g., ‘‘WXXX–TV and WXXX– 

DT’’).’’ See Second Periodic Review of 

the Commission’s Rules and Polices 

Affecting the Conversion to Digital 

Television, MB Docket No. 03–15, 

Report and Order, 19 FCC Rcd 18279, 

18355, para. 173 (2004) (subsequent 

citations omitted) (Second Periodic 

Review); see also Digital Transition Call 

Sign Procedures, Public Notice, 24 FCC 

Rcd 7617 (MB 2009). We also update 47 

CFR 73.3578(b) (Amendments to 

applications for renewal, assignment or 

transfer of control); 73.3587 (Procedure 

for filing informal objections); 

73.3598(c) (Period of construction); 

73.5005(a) (Filing of long-form 

applications); and 73.5006(b) (Filing of 

petitions to deny against long-form 

applications). We note that the 

numbering of the broadcast application 

and report forms has changed with the 

transition of the Commission’s 

broadcast licensing database from CDBS 

to LMS, and certain form numbers have 

changed since the release of the NPRM, 

which we update in this Report and 

Order. See Media Bureau Announces 

Transition of Additional Filings to 

Licensing and Management System, 

Public Notice, DA 23–600 (MB 2023). 

For example, Form 301 for AM stations 

is now Form 2100 Schedule 301–AM. 

We update § 73.1030 to reflect updated 

contact information for the National 

Radio Astronomy Observatory site and 

the Radio Frequency Management 

Coordinator. See 47 CFR 73.1030(a)(1) 

and (b)(2) (Notifications concerning 

interference to radio astronomy, 

research and receiving installations). We 

delete § 73.682(a)(1) as duplicative of 

§ 73.624(a) and thus, unnecessary. See 

47 CFR 73.682(a)(1) (TV transmission 

standards) and 47 CFR 73.624(a) (Digital 

television broadcast stations) (both 

noting the width of a television channel 

is 6 MHz). 

We also make amendments to correct 

typographical errors in words and crossreferences that contain incorrect rule 

citations. See 47 CFR 73.622(c)(1) 

(Digital television table of allotments); 

73.623(d)(1), (d)(4) (DTV applications 

and changes to DTV allotments); 

73.624(g) (Digital television broadcast 

stations); 73.625(c)(5) (cites to 

73.622(f)(4), which is irrelevant to 

electrical beam tilt) (DTV coverage of 

principal community and antenna 

system); 73.626(c)(2) (DTV distributed 

transmission systems); 73.682(d) (TV 

transmission standards); 73.683(c)(3) 

(Field strength contours and 

presumptive determination of field 

strength at individual locations); 

73.1217 (Broadcast hoaxes); 73.1250 

(Broadcasting emergency information); 

73.1615(b)(3) (Operation during 

modification of facilities); 73.1690(b)(3) 

and (c)(3) (Modification of transmission 

systems); 73.3550(b) and (i) (Requests 

for new or modified call sign 

assignments); 73.5007(b)(3)(v) 

(Designated entity provisions); 

73.3578(b) (Amendments to 

applications for renewal, assignment or 

transfer of control); 73.6018 (Digital 

Class A TV station protection of DTV 

stations); 73.4060(a) (Citizen 

agreements); and 74.793(g) (Low power 

TV and TV translator station protection 

of broadcast stations). We delete 

repetitive language within a rule. See 47 

CFR 73.623(e) (DTV applications and 

changes to DTV allotments). We revise 

§ 73.682(d) to break the existing 

paragraph into subsections, without 

altering its content, in order to make the 

paragraph more accessible to licensees 

and the public. See new § 73.682(d)(1) 

through (3) (TV transmission standards). 

We also remove citations to sections of 

the Communications Act in new 

§ 73.682(d)(3)(ii) relating to the 

organization and functions of the 

Commission that we believe were 

inadvertently included in the rule, as 

well as add a cross-reference to 

§ 73.8000 to find contact information for 

the availability of the ATSC standards. 

We also update the contact information 

for information on the availability of the 

ATSC standards in 47 CFR 73.8000 

(Incorporation by reference). We also 

note that NARA’s Office of Federal 

Register made editorial revisions to 

§§ 73.682, 73.683(d), and 73.8000 in line 

with its publishing conventions. In 

addition, we eliminate notes to rules 

and shift the language into the text of 

the relevant rule to conform to the 

publishing requirements of the 

Administrative Committee of the 

Federal Register. See 47 CFR 73.682 

(TV transmission standards); 73.1216 

(Licensee-conducted contests); 73.1217 

(Broadcast hoaxes); and 73.3525 

(Agreements for removing application 

conflicts). 

We next delete § 73.685(e) 

(Transmitter location and antenna 

system) because it is redundant with 

§ 73.625(c)(2) (antenna system), and 

contains certain requirements regarding 

directional antennas which are no 

longer in use. We delete § 73.622(f)(2) as 

obsolete, since all applications are now 

evaluated for interference using OET 

Bulletin No. 69. See 47 CFR 73.622(f)(2) 

(Digital television table of allotments). 

See also 47 CFR 73.616(d) (Posttransition DTV station interference 

protection), which requires applications 

to pass an analysis with OET Bulletin 

No. 69. We also delete § 73.6027 as 

duplicative and unnecessary as it is a 

cross-reference to a rule already 

applicable to Class A stations. See 47 

CFR 73.1030 (Notifications concerning 

interference to radio astronomy, 

research and receiving installations). 

Class A licensees are required to comply 

with all part 73 regulations except for 

those that cannot apply for technical or 

other reasons. Establishment of a Class 

A Television Service, MM Docket No. 

00–10, Report and Order, 15 FCC Rcd 

6355, 6365, para. 23 (2000) (Class A 

Report and Order). We also place a 

reference to § 73.1030 in § 73.6026 

(Broadcast regulations applicable to 

Class A television stations), which lists 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7230 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

rules that apply to Class A by reference. 

We similarly delete the last sentence of 

73.6020 (Protection of stations in the 

land mobile radio service) with respect 

to land mobile radio service (LMRS) 

operations on channel 16 in New York, 

as it is duplicative of the reference to 

§ 74.709 in the first sentence of 73.6020, 

since § 74.709 requires protection of 

channel 16 in New York. We also 

streamline § 73.6000 by amending the 

rule, after deleting the analog references, 

to simplify and shorten the language 

without further altering the meaning or 

content. See 47 CFR 73.6000 

(Definitions—because we delete 

subsection (1), we delete the number (2), 

but retain the text). 

Finally, we add an explanatory note 

to § 73.623 to reference and explain the 

existence of a granted waiver with 

respect to the community of Los 

Angeles, California. See 47 CFR 73.623 

(DTV applications and changes to DTV 

allotments). A similar explanatory note 

was added to § 74.709 in the 

Commission’s 2022 Part 74 Order at 

para. 8. As explained in the NPRM, 

§ 73.623 requires television stations to 

protect certain channels for use by 

LMRS in thirteen U.S. cities listed in the 

rule. In 2008, the Commission’s Public 

Safety and Homeland Security Bureau 

(PSHSB) granted a waiver pursuant to 

§ 337(c) of the Communications Act of 

1934, as amended, allowing the County 

of Los Angeles to use channel 15 in Los 

Angeles for public safety 

communications. See Request for 

Waiver of the Commission’s Rules to 

Authorize Public Safety 

Communications in the 476–482 MHz 

Band (County of Los Angeles, 

California), Order, 23 FCC Rcd 18389 

(PSHSB 2008). Because this channel is 

adjacent to two channels contained in 

§ 73.623, we find, consistent with the 

tentative conclusion in the NPRM, that 

the public interest is served by 

including a note explaining the 

existence of the 2008 waiver. 

Post-Incentive Auction Licensing and 

Operation (§ 73.3700) 

The NPRM proposed removal of 

outdated rules relating to the postincentive auction transition period. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to these proposals. Therefore, 

for the reasons discussed in the NPRM, 

and described below, we adopt the 

proposals as detailed below. 

As explained in the NPRM, 

§ 73.3700(a)(2) includes licensing and 

procedural rules for television stations 

during the post-incentive auction 

transition. The incentive auction closed 

on April 13, 2017, and thus, we amend 

§ 73.3700(a)(2) to add the citation to the 

Channel Reassignment Public Notice 

that was released by the Commission’s 

Media and Wireless 

Telecommunications Bureaus and 

Incentive Auction Task Force 

announcing the completion of the 

auction and deadlines for stations 

assigned new channels through the 

repacking process to terminate 

operations on pre-auction channels. See 

47 CFR 73.3700(a) (Definitions), and 

(a)(2) (Channel reassignment public 

notice). We also delete as obsolete 

certain definitions that relate to the bid 

options that were available to full power 

and Class A television broadcasters 

eligible to participate in the incentive 

auction that closed on April 13, 2017. 

See 47 CFR 73.3700(a) (Definitions), (6) 

(High-VHF-to-Low-VHF station), (7) 

(License relinquishment station), and 

(17) (UHF-to-VHF station). We also 

delete as obsolete procedural rules that 

governed the post-incentive auction 

period for stations to transition off their 

pre-auction channel, which ended on 

July 13, 2020. This includes portions of 

the rule pertaining to the special postincentive auction displacement filing 

window which closed on June 1, 2018 

and applied to low power television 

(LPTV) and television translator stations 

displaced by the auction. See 47 CFR 

73.3700(b) (Post-auction licensing), (c) 

(Consumer education for transitioning 

stations), (d) (Notice to MVPDs), and (g) 

(Low Power TV and TV translator 

stations). Consistent with the proposals 

in the NPRM, we retain those portions 

of the rule pertaining to the small 

number of stations that are still engaged 

in constructing final facilities on their 

post-auction channel assignments and 

to the TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund. 

NPRM at para. 14. See 47 U.S.C. 

1452(j)(1)(A) through (B); see also 

Incentive Auction Task Force and 

Media Bureau Report on the Status of 

the Post-Incentive Auction Transition 

and Reimbursement Program; 

Announce a Further Allocation from the 

Relocation Fund; and Announce 

Procedures for Eligible Entities to Close 

Out Accounts in the Fund, MB Docket 

No. 16–306, GN Docket No. 12–268, 

Public Notice, 34 FCC Rcd 304, 312, 

para. 26 (IATF/MB 2019); Expanding 

the Economic and Innovation 

Opportunities of Spectrum Through 

Incentive Auctions, GN Docket No. 12– 

268, Report and Order, 29 FCC Rcd 

6567, 6825–26, paras. 632–36 (2014). 

Updates to Listing of FCC Policies 

The NPRM proposed to update the 

Commission’s policy rules in § 73.4000 

et seq., which provide certain FCC 

policies and citations related to all 

broadcast stations for the purpose of 

reference and convenience. Section 

73.4000 addresses the fact that the 

present listing of FCC policies and 

citations contained in 73.4000 et seq. 

may not be an all-inclusive list. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to this proposal. Therefore, for 

the reasons discussed in the NPRM, and 

described below, we adopt the proposal 

as detailed below. 

We include cautionary language in 

the rule to note that subsequent 

decisions or actions may exist. We also 

amend a number of rules in § 73.4000 et 

seq. that are now obsolete or otherwise 

require updates. For instance, the 

Commission no longer uses comparative 

hearings to award commercial broadcast 

licenses so § 73.4082 related to such 

proceedings is obsolete. See 47 CFR 

73.4082 (Comparative broadcast 

hearings—specialized programming 

formats). The Commission no longer 

resolves mutually exclusive broadcast 

applications through comparative 

hearings but rather now uses 

competitive bidding procedures. See 47 

CFR 73.5000 et seq. (procedures for 

competitive bidding); Implementation of 

Section 309(j) of the Communications 

Act; Competitive Bidding for 

Commercial Broadcast and 

Instructional Television Fixed Service 

Licenses, MM Docket No. 97–234, First 

Report and Order, 13 FCC Rcd 15920 

(1998) (subsequent citations omitted) 

(Competitive Bidding First R&O). We 

remove or update rules that implicate 

audio services that are obsolete or 

require updates. Section 73.4017 is 

revised because these policies have been 

replaced by competitive bidding 

procedures in §§ 73.5000 through 

73.5009. See 47 CFR 73.4017 

(Application processing: Commercial 

FM stations); 47 CFR 73.5000 through 

73.5009; Competitive Bidding First R&O, 

13 FCC Rcd at 15972, para. 137 (1998). 

Section 73.4100 and § 73.4101 are 

retained and amended to add a more 

recent policy pronouncement from 1981 

and 1987. See 47 CFR 73.4100 

(Financial qualifications; new AM and 

FM stations) and 73.4101 (Financial 

qualifications, TV stations); Revision of 

Application for Construction Permit for 

Commercial Broadcast Station (FCC 

Form 301), Memorandum Opinion and 

Order, 50 R.R.2d 381, para. 6 (1981) and 

Certification of Financial Qualification 

by Applicants for Broadcast Station 

Construction Permits, Public Notice, 2 

FCC Rcd 2122 (1987). Section 73.4107 is 

eliminated as the cited documents refer 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7231 

to a completed proceeding. All of the 

cited documents concern the rollout and 

implementation of Docket 80–90 and 

the 689 FM allotments adopted therein. 

The allotments have been established, 

the proceeding is terminated, and we 

believe there is no public interest served 

by listing the cited documents in the 

policy statement. See 47 CFR 73.4107 

(FM broadcast assignments, increasing 

availability of). We also eliminate 

§ 73.4108 because this requirement was 

eliminated for FM stations. See 47 CFR 

73.4108 (FM transmitter site map 

submissions); 1998 Biennial Regulatory 

Review—Streamlining of Mass Media 

Applications, Rules, and Processes, MM 

Docket Nos. 98–43 and 94–149, Report 

and Order, 13 FCC Rcd 23056, 23082, 

para. 60 (1998) (rejecting the suggestion 

that the Commission continue to require 

the filing of site maps, finding it to be 

an ‘‘unnecessary expense for 

applicants’’ ‘‘in most instances’’). And 

we update rules to reflect the 

availability of newer versions of 

procedures and Commission orders. See 

47 CFR 73.4210 (Procedure Manual: 

‘‘The Public and Broadcasting’’) (The 

rule is updated to reflect a newer 

version of the procedure manual, which 

is available at: https://www.fcc.gov/ 

media/radio/public-and-broadcasting); 

73.4267 (Time brokerage) (The revisions 

to the rule remove outdated citations 

and add citations to reflect current 

policy). See Review of the Commission’s 

Regulations Governing Attribution of 

Broadcast and Cable/MDS Interests, 

MM Docket Nos. 94–150, 92–51, 87– 

154, Report and Order, 14 FCC Rcd 

12559 (1999). See also 47 CFR 73.3555, 

Note 2(j). We also update certain rules 

to reflect the subsequent passage of 

legislation and the later Commission 

revision of the relevant policy. See 47 

CFR 73.4055 (Cigarette advertising) 

(updated to reflect that in 1986, 

Congress extended the ban to include 

advertisements for smokeless tobacco 

products. See 15 U.S.C. 4402(c)). 

Deletion of Obsolete Language Due to 

Passage of Time and Changes in 

Commission Policy 

The NPRM proposed to delete 

language that has become obsolete due 

to the passage of time or changes in 

Commission policy. The comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, and we 

received no specific objection to these 

proposals. Therefore, for the reasons 

discussed in the NPRM, and described 

below, we adopt the proposals as 

detailed below. 

We amend or delete a number of rules 

that apply exclusively to the Class A 

television service, which was 

authorized by the passage of the 

Community Broadcasters Protection Act 

of 1999 (CBPA). Given that nearly 

twenty-five years have elapsed since 

passage of the CBPA and deadlines 

related to its implementation have 

elapsed, and all operating TV stations 

are now digital, we delete a number of 

rule sections that are now obsolete. 

NPRM at paras. 16 and 18 (proposing to 

remove 47 CFR 73.613 (Note to 

73.613(a)) (Protection of Class A TV 

Stations) and portions of 47 CFR 

73.6018 (Digital Class A TV protection 

of DTV stations). We also delete 

references to digital and DTV. We also 

delete the last sentence of 47 CFR 

73.623(c)(5) (DTV applications and 

changes to DTV allotments). We believe 

this deletion is further supported by the 

fact that this change was also reflected 

in the Federal Register publication, 86 

FR 66193 (Nov. 22, 2021), which states 

‘‘Section 73.623 is amended by revising 

paragraph (a) and by removing and 

reserving paragraphs (c) and (g).’’ 

(emphasis added). 86 FR 66193, 66209 

(Nov. 22, 2021). While references to the 

section were deleted, the subsection 

remains in the rules. Additionally, 

consistent with the NPRM, we amend 

the section heading of 47 CFR 73.6022 

(Negotiated interference and relocation 

agreements)) and delete 47 CFR 

73.6022(b) as a pre-DTV transition rule 

because Class A stations are no longer 

subject to displacement by full-power 

station modification applications and 

channel substitutions. Additionally, 

since a number of rules relating to the 

post-incentive auction transition have 

deadlines that have passed, we delete 

these as obsolete. See the final sentence 

of 47 CFR 73.6019 (Digital Class A TV 

station protection of low power TV, TV 

translator, digital low power TV and 

digital TV translator stations), citing 

§ 73.3700(b)(1). 

We amend § 73.1020(a) to delete dates 

in the past and include the applicable 

dates for future license renewal cycles. 

Given the timing of the release of this 

Report and Order and the pendency of 

the current television license renewal 

cycle, we update the dates in § 73.1020 

with all future license renewal 

deadlines. We amend the dates in 

§ 73.1020(a) from the default time of 

expiration for initial and renewal 

broadcast licenses by state to the license 

expiration dates for the next renewal 

cycle. In addition, we remove as 

obsolete language from § 73.1020(b) that 

refers to the cutoff date for the filing of 

applications mutually exclusive with 

renewal applications that are filed on or 

before May 1, 1995, as no such 

applications are on file. See 47 CFR 

73.1020(b) (Station license period). See 

also Reading Broadcasting, Inc., for 

Renewal of License of Station 

WTVE(TV), Channel 51 Reading, 

Pennsylvania and Adams 

Communications Corporation, for 

Construction Permit for a New 

Television Station to Operate on 

Channel 51, Reading, Pennsylvania, 

MM Docket No. 99–153, 17 FCC Rcd 

14001, 14002, para. 1 (2002) (In this 

decision, the Commission explained 

that it was ‘‘dispos[ing] of the last 

remaining ‘comparative renewal’ 

proceeding, in which an incumbent 

licensee faces a comparative challenge 

from a construction permit applicant for 

the same facilities. Congress, by Act of 

February 8, 1996, Public Law 104–104, 

110 Stat. 56, codified as 47 CFR 

309(k)(4), prohibited the comparative 

consideration of renewal applicants 

filed after May 1, 1995.’’). 

Similarly, we remove as obsolete due 

to the passage of time § 73.3598(b)(3), 

which provides that the period of 

construction for an original construction 

permit will toll for certain reasons of 

international coordination during the 

DTV transition, which is now complete. 

We delete language in new 

§ 73.682(d)(1) specifying that digital 

standards incorporated by reference into 

the Commission’s rules became effective 

October 11, 2011, as the specific start 

date has long since passed. We also 

delete references to DTV and digital. We 

also remove as obsolete the portion of 

§ 73.3572(a)(3) providing a window that 

expired October 1, 2000 for certain 

minor change applications. We also 

delete provisions that reference the 

comparative hearing process, which no 

longer exists. See 47 CFR 73.1620 

(Program tests) (g)(1) through (3) 

(Reports required); 73.3519(a) 

(Repetitious applications) (the last 

sentence of subsection (a) that 

applicants whose applications have 

been denied in a comparative hearing 

may apply immediately for another 

available facility); and 73.4082 

(Comparative broadcast hearings— 

specialized programming formats). We 

delete § 73.3523, the first sentence of 

§ 73.3516(e), and the second sentence of 

§ 73.3516(e)(1), which deal with 

obsolete procedures regarding mutually 

exclusive proceedings for renewal 

applications filed prior to May 1, 1995. 

We also delete the first clause of 47 CFR 

73.3525(a) (Agreements for removing 

application conflicts), which crossreferences § 73.3523. In addition, we 

delete the second sentence of 

§ 73.3533(b), which discusses an 

obsolete procedure for filing 

construction permit extension 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7232 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

applications. Specifically, that rule 

refers to § 73.3534, which specified 

three factors that could justify an 

extension of a construction permit. The 

referenced section, however, was 

deleted in 2004. 

We also delete obsolete language in 

§ 73.664(c)(3)(iii) concerning the 

certification of equipment. In its 

comments, CDE states that it does not 

agree with our proposal to delete 

obsolete language in § 73.664, but does 

not provide a reason why it disagrees 

and thus, there is no basis for us to 

depart from the proposal in the NPRM. 

Accordingly, for the reasons described 

in the NPRM, we adopt our proposal to 

delete the language as obsolete. As 

explained in the NPRM, the FCC no 

longer ‘‘type accepts’’ equipment, 

having overhauled the process to allow 

private parties to verify such equipment 

meets FCC requirements, and the results 

of such verifications do not need to be 

submitted to the FCC. See 47 CFR 

73.664(c)(3)(iii) (Determining operating 

power). As explained in the NPRM at 

n.89, currently, there are two 

procedures used for RF device 

equipment authorization: SDoC and 

Certification. See 47 CFR 2.906 

(Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity) 

and 2.907 (Certification); see also Office 

of Engineering & Technology (OET), 

Equipment Authorization, https://

www.fcc.gov/engineering-technology/ 

laboratory-division/general/equipmentauthorization (last visited Aug. 1, 2023). 

On July 14, 2017, the Commission 

amended its radiofrequency equipment 

authorization rules. Amendment of 

Parts 0, 1, 2, 15, and 18 of the 

Commission’s Rules Regarding 

Authorization of Radiofrequency 

Equipment, ET Docket No. 15–170, First 

Report and Order, 32 FCC Rcd 8746 

(2017). The adopted rules phased out 

the Verification and Declaration of 

Conformity equipment authorization 

procedures and replaced them with a 

new equipment authorization 

procedure, the SDoC. Federal 

Communications Commission, 

Authorization of Radiofrequency 

Equipment, 82 FR 50820 (Nov. 2, 2017). 

A device authorized under previously 

accepted procedures remains authorized 

and may be marketed or used if it 

continues to meet the requirements 

attendant to that authorization. To the 

extent CDE is seeking reconsideration of 

the Commission’s 2017 decision, that 

request is untimely under 47 U.S.C. 

405(a). As reflected in the NPRM, our 

proposal did not seek to change the rule 

substantively, only to update FCC rules 

to accurately reflect the current 

operating environment. Arguments for 

substantive changes to the rules that 

were not the subject of notice and 

comment in the NPRM are beyond the 

scope of this proceeding. We modify 

text throughout § 73.664 in order to 

remove references to analog operations 

such as references to the visual 

transmitter and to peak power. We 

retain the remainder of § 73.664 that 

continues to provide important 

information for measuring transmitter 

operating power even in the posttransition context. We remove similar 

references to the visual transmitter in 

§ 73.688, but retain other portions of 

this rule. 

We delete §§ 27.60 (TV/DTV 

interference protection criteria) and 

27.1310 (Protection of Broadcast 

Television Service in the 600 MHz band 

from wireless operations), which 

concern the protection of TV stations on 

certain channels by wireless services. 

See 47 CFR 27.60 (TV/DTV interference 

protection criteria) and 27.1310 

(Protection of Broadcast Television 

Service in the 600 MHz band from 

wireless operations). As explained in 

the NPRM, all of these protections are 

for channels above channel 37, and thus 

are no longer relevant because the 

completion of the digital TV transition 

and the incentive auction and repacking 

process reassigned channels in that 

range for wireless use. 

Reorganization of Subpart E— 

Television Broadcast Stations 

The NPRM proposed to reorganize 

subpart E of our part 73 rules. We 

received no objection to many of these 

changes and the comments received 

were generally supportive of the effort 

to update our rules. Therefore, for the 

reasons discussed in the NPRM, and 

described below, we adopt the 

proposals as detailed below. 

As described in the NPRM, full power 

television began to transition to digital 

with the passage of the 

Telecommunications Act of 1996, and 

ended on June 12, 2009, when full 

power television stations commenced 

digital-only operations. Many of these 

rules adopted during the digital 

transition were temporary and meant to 

be effective only during the DTV 

transition. Others, however, had more 

long term application to digital-only 

operations. Because the more long term 

rules were adopted at the same time as 

temporary rules, the NPRM noted that 

the long term rules are currently not 

organized in a straight forward or userfriendly manner. In addition, there are 

instances where the rules are 

duplicative. 

To make the organization of the rules 

more practical and the rules easier to 

find, we largely reorganize subpart E as 

proposed in the NPRM, while also 

adopting some minor clarifications and 

amendments to some of the rules. First, 

we create a new § 73.611 (Emission 

levels and mask filters) which relocates, 

verbatim, the language from 

§ 73.622(h)(1) and (2), which is 

currently part of the Table of TV 

Allotments section. This change will 

improve the organization of the rules 

because this technical rule has little 

direct relationship to the Table of TV 

Allotments. 

We next remove the analog power 

limits from § 73.614(b) (Power and 

antenna height requirements) and 

replace them with the digital power 

limits currently found in § 73.622(f)(5) 

through (8) (Digital television table of 

allotments), and clarify in § 73.614(b) 

that all applications for new full power 

television stations, applications for 

changes in authorized full power 

television stations, and petitions for 

changes to the Table of TV Allotments 

must comply with these requirements. 

See 47 CFR 73.614(b) (Power and 

antenna height requirements). This 

would make § 73.622(f)(4) redundant, as 

§ 73.622(f)(8) also contains a 1000 kW 

limit for UHF stations, and, as proposed, 

we delete § 73.622(f)(4). We also delete 

§ 73.614(b)(7) (Power and antenna 

height requirements) as duplicative of 

§ 73.625(c)(1) (DTV coverage of 

principal community and antenna 

system). See 47 CFR 73.614(b)(7) and 

73.625(c)(1). Consistent with the 

proposal in the NPRM, we retain for 

digital operations a requirement that 

existed for analog operations that 

applications will not be accepted for 

filing if they specify less than a 

minimum ERP of 100 watts because the 

Media Bureau staff already applies this 

minimum level in routine processing 

and we do not believe it is in the public 

interest for full power television stations 

to operate with what is essentially a low 

power facility. For stations requesting 

DTS operation pursuant to § 73.626 

(DTV distributed transmission systems), 

we clarify that the 100 watt minimum 

ERP requirement applies to at least one 

site in the DTS. See 47 CFR 73.614(a) 

(Minimum requirements). 

We also amend the rules to collect 

provisions on related matters that are 

currently spread over various rules and 

group them together. First, we create a 

new § 73.617 (Interference protection of 

other services) which collects 

provisions from §§ 73.623(e) (Protection 

of land mobile operations on channels 

14–20), 73.687(e)(3) through (4), 

73.623(f), and 73.685(d). We also adopt 

our proposal to substitute ‘‘blanket 

area’’ with ‘‘blanketing,’’ which reflects 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7233 

the updated term now used by 

stakeholders. Most of these rules are 

used for both licensing and allotments 

and we believe they will be easier to 

identify and use if gathered into one 

section rather than scattered among 

various rules. We also include a new 

paragraph 73.617(e) to codify a long 

standing Commission practice to place a 

condition on all television broadcast 

station authorizations that result in a 

change in coverage area, including all 

authorizations for new stations, which 

requires TV broadcasters to identify and 

notify hospital and other health care 

facilities within the station’s coverage 

area to avoid interference to medical 

telemetry devices. This condition 

reflects our current practice, which had 

been agreed to between the Commission 

and the Food and Drug Administration 

in 1998, and we believe codifying this 

practice in our rules will ensure that all 

licensees are aware of this requirement 

to avoid interference to medical 

telemetry devices. See Joint Statement 

of the Federal Communications 

Commission and the Food and Drug 

Administration Regarding Avoidance of 

Interference Between Digital Television 

and Medical Telemetry Devices (Mar. 

25, 1998), https://transition.fcc.gov/ 

Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/ 

News_Releases/1998/nret8003.html. 

We create a new § 73.618 (Antenna 

location and principal community 

coverage), which relocates, verbatim, 

the language from 73.625(a) (DTV 

coverage of principal community and 

antenna system). We also centralize 

multiple existing rules into one rule that 

includes instructions on how to 

determine the protected facilities of a 

television allotment (see 47 CFR 

73.616(c)), the noise-limited contour 

level of a television station (see 47 CFR 

73.622(e), as amended), how the noiselimited contour is determined (see 47 

CFR 73.625(b), as amended), and the 

purposes for which field strength 

contours are used (see 47 CFR 

73.683(c)). We include these existing 

requirements in a new § 73.619 (Contour 

and service areas), and update the 

section heading of § 73.683 to 

‘‘Presumptive determination of field 

strength at individual locations,’’ in 

order to remove reference to portions of 

the rule that are relocated to the new 

§ 73.619. Similarly, we create a new 

§ 73.620 (Interference calculation and 

protection of TV broadcast services) that 

includes the requirements currently 

spread throughout multiple rules in 

§ 73.623(c) and §§ 73.616(d) and (e) 

(merged into a new § 73.620(a) through 

(d)). Additionally, we move the rule 

from § 73.616(g) to a new § 73.620(f). 

We modify §§ 73.622 (Digital 

television table of allotments) and 

73.623 (DTV applications and changes 

to DTV allotments) to separate out rules 

specific to the Table of TV Allotments 

and application processing procedures. 

In § 73.622(a), we modify the language 

to clarify the rule sections specific to 

petitions to modify the Table of TV 

Allotments. Due to this change, 

§ 73.616(a) (Post-transition DTV station 

interference protection) becomes largely 

duplicative of this revised § 73.622(a) 

and we thus delete § 73.616(a). We also 

remove (a)(1) and (a)(2) as redundant 

with the content of § 73.603 (Numerical 

designation of television channels). We 

redesignate the language in 

§ 73.622(d)(2) as § 73.622(d), clarify the 

rule text to indicate this subsection 

applies to all allotments, and clarify that 

the ‘‘reference coordinates’’ for each 

allotment are those of the authorized 

facility (or for new allotments, the 

coordinates given in the order amending 

the Table of TV Allotments). Section 

73.616(b) is duplicative of this revised 

§ 73.622(d) and we thus delete 

§ 73.616(b). We also make editorial 

changes for clarity in § 73.622(d).We 

relocate the text from § 73.623(d), 

relating to the minimum distance 

separations for new TV allotments, to a 

new § 73.622(k). We also reformatted 

the table previously found in 

§ 73.623(d)(2) into new §§ 73.622(k)(2)(i) 

through (iv). In § 73.623(a), we modify 

the language to clarify the rule sections 

specific to application processing and 

remove discussion of modifications to 

the Table of TV Allotments. We relocate 

the text from § 73.622(c), regarding the 

availability of channels for application, 

into § 73.623(b). Finally, we update 

cross-references found in § 73.623(h) 

and update the section heading to ‘‘TV 

application processing priorities’’ in 

order to clarify its purpose. 

We reorganize § 73.624(b) (Digital 

television broadcast stations) for clarity 

by splitting some of the text in subpart 

(b) into a new subpart (b)(1) (requiring 

stations broadcasting in ATSC 1.0 to 

transmit an over the air signal at no 

direct charge to viewers). We relocate 

§ 73.685(h) (Transmitter location and 

antenna system), pertaining to AM 

stations, to become new 

§ 73.625(c)(4)(iii) (DTV coverage of 

principal community and antenna 

system). We also relocate § 73.682(a)(14) 

(TV transmission standards), regarding 

the use of elliptically- and circularlypolarized antennas, to become a new 

§ 73.625(d) (TV coverage of principal 

community and antenna system). See 

new § 73.625(d) (TV antenna system). 

While the rest of § 73.682(a) related 

specifically to analog station operations, 

we believe this specific subpart of 

(a)(14) applies to all stations and, as 

noted in the NPRM, its content is 

consistent with the functions in LMS 

applicable to applications. 

While the current rule structure has 

become disjointed over the years, and is 

only exacerbated by the deletion of 

obsolete portions of the rules, the NPRM 

acknowledged that the structure is also 

familiar to many users, including 

licensees and counsel, and, therefore, 

users of our rules may have concerns 

about a reorganization to our rules that 

have been in the same location or under 

the same section number for many 

years. While the NPRM proposed to 

mitigate that concern by including 

cross-references to the new location of 

a rule in the rule location where it was 

previously found, due to publishing 

conventions of NARA’s Office of the 

Federal Register, we instead adopt 

‘‘Table 1: Cross-references’’ as reflected 

below, and included herein as 

Appendix D, to cross-reference to the 

old and new location of rules. We find 

that providing cross-references in this 

manner will make it easier for users to 

become accustomed to the new 

structure. 

TABLE 1—CROSS-REFERENCES

Instead of 

referencing . . . Reference . . . 

§ 73.614(b)(7) ............ § 73.625(c)(1). 

§ 73.616(a) ................ § 73.622(a). 

§ 73.616(b) ................ § 73.622(d). 

§ 73.616(c) ................ § 73.619(d). 

§ 73.616(d) ................ § 73.620(c). 

§ 73.616(d)(2) ............ § 73.620(a). 

§ 73.616(e) ................ § 73.620(d). 

§ 73.616(g) ................ § 73.620(f). 

§ 73.622(b) ................ § 73.622(j). 

§ 73.622(c) ................ § 73.623(b). 

§ 73.622(e) ................ § 73.619(c). 

§ 73.622(f)(5) ............. § 73.614(b)(6). 

§ 73.622(f)(6) ............. § 73.614(b)(1). 

§ 73.622(f)(7) ............. § 73.614(b)(2). 

§ 73.622(f)(8) ............. § 73.614(b)(3). 

§ 73.622(h) ................ § 73.611. 

§ 73.622(i) ................. § 73.622(j). 

§ 73.623(c)(1) ............ § 73.618(a). 

§ 73.623(c)(2) ............ § 73.620. 

§ 73.623(c)(3) ............ § 73.620(b). 

§ 73.623(c)(4) ............ § 73.620(a). 

§ 73.623(c)(5) ............ § 73.620(d). 

§ 73.623(d) ................ § 73.622(k). 

§ 73.623(e) ................ § 73.617(a). 

§ 73.623(f) ................. § 73.617(c). 

§ 73.623(g) ................ § 73.620(e). 

§ 73.625(a) ................ § 73.618. 

§ 73.625(b) ................ § 73.619(b). 

§ 73.683(c) ................ § 73.619(a). 

§ 73.685(b) ................ § 73.618(b). 

§ 73.685(d) ................ § 73.617(d). 

§ 73.685(f) ................. § 73.625(c). 

§ 73.687(e) ................ § 73.617(b). 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7234 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

Although we did not receive comment 

on our proposal to relocate 

§ 73.616(d)(1) to new § 73.620(b), upon 

further consideration, we decline to 

make this change. On reflection, we do 

not believe that the reorganization of 

this section is necessary and could 

result in possible confusion for 

regulatees in the short term. Therefore, 

we will maintain the existing placement 

in our rules and we do not adopt the 

location change proposed in the NPRM. 

Although we did receive comment 

objecting to a modification proposed in 

the NPRM to § 73.622, for the reasons 

set forth below, we decline to modify 

the proposal and adopt the rule as 

proposed in the NPRM. The portions of 

the rule in §§ 73.622(f)(5) through (8) 

focused on power and antenna height 

requirements are sometimes referred to 

in Table of TV Allotment proceedings, 

but they are also frequently considered 

in processing applications, and so the 

NPRM proposed to include these 

provisions in a separate subsection to 

make them easier to reference regardless 

of whether an allotment or an 

application is being considered. The 

NPRM also proposed to clarify in the 

newly placed § 73.614(b)(6), that the 

largest station in the market provision 

only allows a station to exceed the 

maximum height for a given channel 

and zone, and not the maximum power 

for that channel and zone. The NPRM 

suggested this addition to the rule is 

consistent with a clarification adopted 

by the Commission in 2001. 

Maranatha Broadcasting Company, 

Inc. (Maranatha), the licensee of WDPN– 

TV, channel 2, Wilmington, Delaware 

objects to our proposed codification of 

the Commission’s 2001 clarification that 

a station may not exceed the ERP power 

level assigned in the station’s zone and 

asserts that the Commission should 

retain the ‘‘largest station’’ rule or 

‘‘make clear that any change that [the 

Commission] is making to its rules 

do[es] [sic] not preclude power 

increases above zone maximums by 

low-VHF stations necessary to overcome 

the shortcomings of their digital signals 

and impulse noise inference.’’ 

Maranatha acknowledges that the 

Commission’s 2001 decision clarifies 

that low-VHF stations in Zone I, like 

WDPN–TV, are limited to an ERP of 10 

kW under the rules. The Commission 

has recognized, however, that 

significant over-the-air reception 

problems may exist within the service 

area of VHF stations, due to the 

propagation characteristics of digital 

VHF signals and the deleterious effects 

of manmade noise on the reception of 

these signals. See Innovation in the 

Broadcast Television Bands: 

Allocations, Channel Sharing and 

Improvements to VHF, ET Docket No. 

10–235, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 

25 FCC Rcd 16498, 16511, para. 42 

(2010). Thus, since the end of the DTV 

transition in June 2009, Commission 

staff has waived the power limits in 

§§ 73.622(f)(5) or (6) of the rules a 

number of times to increase the power 

levels of stations operating on low VHF 

channels above the 10 kW limit set forth 

in the rules. Indeed, WDPN–TV, on RF 

channel 2 in Zone I, currently operates 

with an ERP of 34 kW, pursuant to a 

waiver of § 73.622(f)(6). We do not 

believe that codifying the 2001 

clarification limits our ability to grant 

such waivers upon an appropriate 

showing, as we have for WDPN–TV, and 

thus we believe it is unnecessary to 

depart from the NPRM’s proposal to 

revise § 73.622 as Maranatha requests, 

and we adopt the NPRM’s proposal. 

The NPRM proposed to move 

§ 73.625(b)(2) to new § 73.619(b)(2), 

which describes the equation for 

determining the ‘‘depression angle 

between the transmitting antenna center 

of radiation and the radio horizon’’ as A 

= 0.0277 square root of H. This 

calculation is used for contour 

projection. In that description, there is 

no mathematical operator (a 

multiplication sign) between the 

coefficient (0.0277) and the variable 

(√H). NAB responded in its comments 

that it believes that the equation, if 

written out, should correctly be A = 

0.0277 times the square root of H, or 

preferably expressed in standard 

mathematical form as: 

A = 0.0277 × √H 

We agree with this clarification 

because it will make the formula clearer, 

and amend the adopted § 73.619(b)(2) 

accordingly. We find good cause to 

make this revision without notice and 

comment. See 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(3)(B) 

(providing that notice and comment are 

not required ‘‘when the agency for good 

cause finds . . . that notice and public 

procedure thereon are . . . unnecessary 

. . .’’). This revision is a nonsubstantive change and merely more 

accurately sets forth the equation in 

§ 73.619(b)(2) of the rules to make the 

formula clearer. 

Protection of Land Mobile Radio 

Service 

We adopt the proposals set forth in 

the NPRM relating to full power 

television protection of LMRS with 

some clarifications. The NPRM 

inadvertently stated that § 73.623(e) 

applied to Class A stations, but this was 

incorrect. Class A stations are required 

to protect LMRS operations using the 

criteria found in § 73.6020. Section 

73.623(e) of the rules requires full 

power television stations to protect 

certain channels for use by LMRS in 

thirteen U.S. cities. The set of 

coordinates for the city centers were 

calculated based on the 1927 North 

American Datum (NAD 27). As a result 

of improvements in technology and 

measuring capabilities, NAD 27 has 

been superseded by the 1983 North 

American Datum (NAD 83). The 

Commission’s Office of Engineering and 

Technology and Office of the Managing 

Director have previously explained that 

‘‘[g]eodetic datum is a set of constants 

specifying the coordinate system used 

for calculating the coordinates of points 

on the Earth. NAD 83 was developed 

based on satellite and remote-sensing 

measurement techniques, and provides 

greater accuracy than the older NAD 

27.’’ See Amendment of Parts 1, 2, 25, 

73, 74, 90, and 97 of the Commission’s 

Rules to Make Non-Substantive 

Editorial Revisions to the Table of 

Frequency Allocations and to Various 

Service Rules, Memorandum Opinion 

and Order, 23 FCC Rcd 3775, 3796, 

para. 61, n.101 (OET/OMD 2008). 

Because it provides greater accuracy and 

the older NAD 27 is outdated, the 

Commission previously amended 

Commission rules to use NAD 83 for 

purposes of specifying these 

coordinates. 

The NPRM tentatively concluded that 

updating the coordinates in § 73.623(e) 

to NAD 83 would serve the public 

interest by conforming the values with 

the coordinate system used in the 

Commission’s LMS database and with 

those found in § 90.303(b) of the rules, 

which define the service that § 73.623(e) 

protects. As such, the NPRM tentatively 

concluded that conforming the values in 

these rules helps to ensure that land 

mobile operations are more 

appropriately considered and protected 

from full power operations. The 

Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) 

agrees that §§ 73.623(e) and 90.303(b) 

should be synced to avoid future issues 

as to whether protections afforded land 

mobile operations are in compliance 

with FCC requirements. 

NAB prefers a different result than 

matching §§ 73.623(e) and 90.303(b). 

NAB states that the National Geodetic 

Survey had developed an algorithm 

known as the North American Datum 

Conversion program (NADCON) to 

convert from NAD 27 to NAD 83 

coordinates, which has been superseded 

by the NGS Coordinate Conversion and 

Transformation Tool (NCAT) and is now 

the ‘‘authoritative source for coordinate 

conversions.’’ NAB argues that we have 

ignored the use of NCAT in favor of 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7235 

simply matching a part 90 rule, which 

NAB alleges ‘‘can result in errors that 

may conflict with FAA tower locations, 

distances from international borders, 

county boundaries, and other critical 

determinations.’’ NAB also requests that 

any updates to the coordinates not 

result in stations having to relocate. 

NAB’s approach is not consistent with 

existing Commission rules or the 

Commission’s prior actions. In the 2023 

Part 74 Report and Order, the 

Commission amended § 74.709, which 

defines the same land mobile station 

protection requirement for LPTV/ 

translator stations, to conform with the 

longitude in § 90.303(b). In that 

proceeding, NAB and another 

commenter agreed that a few of the 

proposed coordinates were different 

from those derived if the existing 

coordinates were converted to NAD 83 

via the update to NADCON. The NPRM 

noted, and NAB acknowledges in its 

comments in this proceeding, that the 

coordinates we proposed found in part 

90 of the Commission’s rules differed by 

25 meters at most (approximately 82 

feet). Given that the values in the table 

are designed to protect the part 90 

service, the most consistent approach 

was to make the values in § 74.709 

match those in § 90.303. NAB provides 

no explanation and we are aware of no 

reason to believe that this issue is 

different for full power and Class A 

stations than it is for LPTV/translator 

stations. We do not believe that 

conforming the rules to part 90 will 

result in errors as NAB suggests. 

Therefore, we believe the same 

approach adopted in the 2023 Part 74 

Report and Order and proposed in the 

NPRM is appropriate with respect to full 

power and Class A television stations 

and we adopt the proposal in the NPRM. 

Given the small differences involved, 

we believe it is unlikely that these 

minor corrections would result in any 

stations suddenly finding themselves no 

longer compliant with land mobile 

protection requirements. But in 

response to NAB’s concern, we clarify 

that we will not require existing full 

power television stations to make 

changes due to these coordinate 

updates. 

NAB also urges the Commission to 

delete from proposed § 73.617(a) the 

requirement that full power and Class A 

television stations protect the channels 

assigned to Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, 

Michigan, as well as to delete references 

to those cities from § 90.303(b), where a 

footnote already states that those 

channels ‘‘are not available [ ] until 

further order from the Commission.’’ In 

the 2023 Part 74 Report and Order, the 

Commission noted that a pending 

petition for rulemaking submitted by the 

Land Mobile Communications Council 

(LMCC) also proposes removing the 

Cleveland and Detroit rows from the 

relevant rule section in part 90. See 

Consumer & Governmental Affairs 

Bureau Reference Information Center, 

Petition for Rulemakings Filed, Land 

Mobile Communications Counsel 

(LMCC), Petition for Rulemaking in the 

Matter of Subpart L of Part 90 of FCC 

Rules: Updated Method to Determine 

Potential Interference Between Land 

Mobile Stations and Digital Television 

Stations Operating in the 470–512 MHz 

Band (‘‘T-Band’’), Public Notice, Report 

No. 3186 (CGB Jan. 12, 2022); Petition 

for Rulemaking of Land Mobile 

Communications Council, RM–11915 

(filed June 24, 2021). Due to the 

pendency of that petition, the 

Commission declined to add a note to 

§ 74.709(a), and stated its belief that the 

decision would not create confusion as 

the note in part 90 already indicated 

that the Cleveland and Detroit channels 

are not available and thus, those areas 

do not require protection. Consistent 

with that finding, we decline to add a 

note to § 73.617(a) or to make additional 

deletions in this section of the full 

power television rules for the same 

reasons. NAB also asks that we 

‘‘reiterate the policy expressed in 

Docket 87–465. Namely, ‘[t]he TV 

station will not be responsible for 

bringing a poor quality land mobile 

station up to the industry’s normal 

performance level or for protecting a 

facility attempting service well beyond 

a normal distance’ ’’ and that ‘‘. . . [i]t 

is not the policy of the Commission to 

always provide interference protection 

to the worst . . . performing receivers.’’ 

(internal footnotes omitted). NAB 

Comments at 5–6, citing Resolution of 

Interference between UHF Channels 14 

and 69 and Adjacent-channel Land 

Mobile Operations, MM Docket 87–465, 

Report and Order, 6 FCC Rcd 5148, 

5153–4 at para. 29 (1991). NAB also 

cites to Land Mobile Communications 

Council, ‘‘Request for Relief from 

Interference from Digital Television 

Stations,’’ (Aug. 28, 2020), available at: 

https://wirelesscouncil.org/wp-content/ 

uploads/2020/08/LMCC-Ltr-Re-DTVInterference-082820.pdf. NAB 

Comments at 5. We see no reason to do 

so. The Commission’s policy is still 

accepted and in use. See, e.g., 

Amendment of Section 73.622(i), PostTransition Table of DTV Allotments, 

Television Broadcast Stations (Tulsa, 

Oklahoma), MB Docket No. 21–9, 

Report and Order, 36 FCC Rcd 13620 

(Vid. Div. 2021). In response to NAB’s 

request that we reiterate the policy 

expressed in Docket 87–465, we find 

that this is outside the scope of our 

proceeding, but we note that the minor 

adjustments to the coordinates we are 

making here do not change any existing 

Commission policy. 

Having received no specific 

objections, and because the comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, consistent 

with our proposal in the NPRM, we also 

amend § 73.1620(a)(1) (Program tests) to 

remind full power and Class A 

television stations on channel 14 of the 

requirement found in § 73.687(e)(4)(iii) 

that they request Program Test 

Authority (PTA) prior to commencing 

operation of new or modified facilities. 

We also include a new sentence 

codifying the practice of requiring LPTV 

and TV translator stations on channel 14 

to request PTA prior to beginning 

operation with new or modified 

facilities. We believe that adding rule 

text reflecting this practice consistently 

across all television services will better 

reflect the purpose of the requirement to 

protect existing land mobile operations. 

Coverage Area—Determining Coverage 

The NPRM proposed amendments 

relating to the calculation of HAAT and 

determination of coverage. The NPRM 

noted that § 73.625(b) of the 

Commission’s rules describes how 

coverage and HAAT are to be calculated 

or determined. The Commission 

proposed to make changes to certain 

procedures contained in § 73.625(b), 

which we believe are obsolete, 

unnecessary, and are otherwise 

superseded by the software based tools 

that the FCC and industry use to prepare 

and process applications. We received 

some specific comments suggesting 

modifications of the proposals in the 

NPRM. As discussed below, we are not 

persuaded by those comments, and, 

because the other comments received 

were generally supportive of the effort 

to update our rules, we thus adopt the 

proposals as stated in the NPRM, with 

a clarification offered in light of NAB’s 

comments. 

We remove the second sentence of 

paragraph (b)(2), which indicates that 

when the relative field strength at a 

depression angle is 90% or greater, the 

100% value should be used. This 

wording would create a discontinuity in 

the contour, and is inconsistent with 

how application processing software 

functions. Having received no 

objections to this proposal, we adopt it. 

As noted in the NPRM, § 73.625(b)(5) 

specifies a number of paper maps which 

should be used to prepare the profile 

graphs described in paragraph (b)(4), 

and to determine the location and 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7236 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

height above sea level of the antenna 

height. Multiple references to various 

sources of paper maps contained in the 

rule are outdated methods to make these 

types of calculations. We therefore 

remove those references to outmoded 

paper maps and replace them with a 

reference to the National Elevation 

Dataset and other similar bald earth 

terrain datasets which are used by 

modern automated software currently 

used by the Commission and industry. 

In paragraph (b)(6), we clarify that we 

generally expect these calculations to be 

done via computer, versus the 

preference for paper calculations that 

was specified previously, and then 

indicate that to the extent a submission 

to the Commission uses sources 

different from those officially reflected 

in our rules, those sources should be 

clearly identified in the submission. 

As discussed below, commenters 

expressed concern about certain 

proposals in the NPRM to eliminate the 

requirement to produce and submit 

profile graphs and to streamline the 

section in order to bring it into line with 

modern software-based tools used to 

determine contours and HAAT today. 

Upon consideration of those comments, 

we adopt the proposals in the NPRM, 

including our proposal to eliminate the 

requirement to produce and submit 

profile graphs, with certain 

clarifications as described below. 

As explained in the NPRM, the fifth 

and sixth sentences in paragraph (b)(4) 

of § 73.625 discuss the creation and 

submission of a radial in the direction 

of the community of license. See 47 CFR 

73.684(d) (1963) (Section 73.625(b)(4) 

was largely adapted from § 73.684(d), 

and § 73.684(d) itself had been 

condensed since the 1963 version of the 

rule. The 1963 version more clearly 

details the purpose and execution of the 

rule than the current text.). The rule 

does not require the use of a radial in 

the direction of the community of 

license in any other calculations, so 

with the elimination of the requirement 

to produce and submit profile graphs of 

radials, a rule that requires the 

calculation of this radial becomes 

unnecessary. Moreover, the softwarebased tools the Commission and 

industry use to process and prepare 

applications do not produce this radial. 

As such, the NPRM proposed to delete 

the language. Paragraph (b)(4) also 

contains similar detail in the seventh 

and eighth sentences explaining how 

and when to produce and submit a 

profile graph for radials over water or 

foreign territory. Again, with the 

elimination of the requirement to 

produce and submit profile graphs of 

radials, the NPRM stated that the 

Commission believes this calculation for 

radials over water or foreign territory is 

unnecessary. The rule itself does not 

require the radials to be used in any 

other calculations and automated 

software used by the Commission and 

industry does not do this. As such, the 

NPRM proposed to delete this language. 

We also adopt our proposal to delete the 

companion language in § 73.681 in the 

definition of ‘‘antenna height above 

average terrain.’’ Paragraph (b)(4) also 

describes how to plot the radials on a 

graph and provides a range of options 

for the number of points of elevation to 

use in each radial. The NPRM proposed 

to conform the requirement to reference 

the TVStudy software currently used for 

preparing and processing applications, 

and specify the use of 10 points per 

kilometer in all circumstances 

consistent with present practice found 

in the TVStudy software used by the 

Commission and licensees to process 

and prepare applications. See Federal 

Communications Commission, Office of 

Engineering and Technology, TVStudy 

Interference Analysis Software, https://

www.fcc.gov/oet/tvstudy (last visited 

Aug. 1, 2023) (the ‘‘FCC Contours’’ 

screen in the ‘‘Parameters’’ tab of 

TVStudy provides a default value of 10 

points per kilometer using the default 

Interference Check template). 

CDE indicates in its comments that it 

disagrees with this proposal to the 

extent it would eliminate those parts of 

§ 73.625 that discuss the creation and 

submission of a radial in the direction 

of the community of license and 

explains how and when to produce and 

submit a profile graph for radials over 

water or foreign territory. But CDE does 

not provide an explanation for its 

position except to say that ‘‘Not Agreed 

Reason—certain terrain situations 

require greater detail and study.’’ As a 

result, CDE did not provide any 

explanation of how the change would 

undermine detail available in the prior 

version of the rule. Therefore, CDE’s 

comment provides no basis upon which 

we would amend the proposal included 

in the NPRM, and we therefore adopt it. 

Furthermore, to the extent that there are 

terrain differences in the direction of a 

station’s community license, water, or 

foreign territory, the software based 

tools that the Commission and industry 

use to prepare and process applications 

account for and visualize those 

differences and so we give no weight to 

CDE’s objection. We note that to the 

extent additional detail may be needed, 

per CDE Supplemental Comments 2, 

nothing prevents a station from 

providing that additional detail when 

submitting applications to the Media 

Bureau, but it is not needed in many 

cases and we do not believe it is 

practical for the rules to continue to 

require all stations to provide 

documentation that the vast majority do 

not need to provide. 

NAB expresses concern that deleting 

parts of § 73.625(b)(4) describing the 

HAAT calculation, as well as the related 

words ‘‘less than 8 directions may be 

used’’ in § 73.681, could require some 

stations to make changes in their current 

licensed facilities. NAB suggests the 

proposed change could alter HAAT and 

power calculations for many existing 

stations. As examples, NAB cites three 

instances where application of the 

proposed rule could potentially require 

stations to reduce power for 

transmitting sites involving fewer than 

eight radials or using radials other than 

the ‘‘eight cardinal radials,’’ and 

suggests there could be other instances 

in which this situation arises. NAB does 

not request that the referenced words be 

kept in the rule, but instead seeks 

assurance that stations presently 

operating or proposed to operate from 

sites having an average terrain value 

determined by means other than the 

proposed uniform eight-radial method 

can continue to use the present average 

terrain elevation and, by extension, 

determine their HAAT and ERP values 

using the historic values. 

We note that all full power and Class 

A television stations have been 

operating with digital authorizations 

issued using the then-most recent 

version of the Commission’s application 

processing software, and that the 

software-based tools the Commission 

and industry use to process and prepare 

applications do not produce these 

modified radials. Therefore, we do not 

foresee, nor do we intend, that the rule 

change would require a station to 

reduce power. In response to NAB’s 

concern, however, we clarify we do not 

expect full power television stations 

will need to make changes solely due to 

this amendment to § 73.625(b)(4), and 

we will allow stations to continue to use 

a historic HAAT calculation for a given 

location if one was previously used to 

comply with the rules regarding power 

limits. We adopt the rule change as 

proposed in the NPRM. 

The NPRM also proposed to delete 

unnecessary references in the rule. 

There are several sentences in paragraph 

(b)(4) which describe how profile graphs 

should be formatted for submission to 

the FCC. Because we eliminate the 

requirement to submit profile graphs, 

we also proposed to delete the 

formatting requirements. The rule also 

provides multiple options on how to 

obtain elevation points. The software 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7237 

currently used by the Commission and 

industry, however, simply averages the 

points as provided in the first option. 

The NPRM proposed to delete the text 

on options to obtain elevation points 

and clarify the use of the average of 

points elsewhere in the paragraph. 

Finally, the NPRM proposed to add a 

sentence clarifying that actual 

calculated values are used to determine 

the HAAT, and to eliminate the final 

two sentences of paragraph (b)(4) which 

are no longer used with the conversion 

from analog to digital. Specifically, this 

language is no longer necessary due to 

the change from the requirements of 

providing a city grade strength signal of 

74–80 dBu, depending on channel, to a 

principal community strength signal of 

35–48 dBu depending on channel. With 

the conversion from analog to digital, 

the use of the city grade contour to 

determine community coverage was 

replaced with the use of the minimum 

service level contour, which tends to be 

significantly larger, making the issue of 

an inability to reach the community of 

license that this rule was designed to 

capture significantly less likely. 

Although CDE stated it disagreed, 

noting that ‘‘certain terrain situations 

and obstacles require greater detail and 

study,’’ it did not provide any 

explanation of that position of how the 

change would undermine detail 

available in the prior version of the rule. 

Without such rationale, we find no basis 

to reject the proposed changes and thus 

we adopt the proposals. 

Antenna Patterns 

With some clarifying changes, we 

adopt all but one of the proposals set 

forth in the NPRM relating to antenna 

patterns. The NPRM proposed to clarify, 

in § 73.625(c)(3)(ii) of the rules, that the 

horizontal power is to be higher than or 

equal to the vertical power in all 

directions, and require documentation 

that the antenna meets this requirement. 

The Commission stated in the NPRM 

that this clarification is consistent with 

the requirements contained in 

§ 73.682(a)(14). No commenter objects to 

this proposal, but NAB does offer an 

observation. Specifically, NAB notes 

that over the years, the meaning of the 

phrase ‘‘horizontal plane pattern’’ in 

proposed § 73.625(c)(3)(ii) and (v) no 

longer means the same as the ‘‘azimuth 

plane pattern,’’ which is the pattern 

supplied by antenna manufacturers. 

Therefore, NAB suggests that it would 

be more accurate to refer simply to the 

‘‘azimuth plane pattern’’ of the antenna 

in an application. NAB also notes that 

the horizontal plane pattern of the 

antenna may be required for certain 

calculations, such as those relating to 

bilateral agreements between the United 

States and Mexico, and when required, 

has no objection to providing both the 

azimuth plane and horizontal plane 

patterns. We agree with NAB and adopt 

the proposed changes to the rule with 

the adjustments NAB suggests, 

including the addition of text to the 

adopted rule clarifying that Media 

Bureau staff can ask a station for 

additional documentation for the 

purpose of coordination with Mexico or 

Canada should it be requested. We note 

that one goal here is to ensure that 

undistorted and complete antenna 

patterns are available for review. For 

example, when a station with 

mechanical beam tilt files a distorted 

horizontal plane pattern in LMS to 

reflect what the antenna looks like in 

terms of interference to other stations, it 

can be difficult or impossible to 

determine the undistorted azimuth 

pattern absent additional 

documentation. A station with 

mechanical beam tilt should instead 

submit in LMS an undistorted azimuth 

and elevation pattern and provide the 

amount and azimuth of the mechanical 

tilt, or may submit a matrix pattern, but 

such stations are not required to do so. 

The NPRM also proposed to update 

§ 73.625(c)(3)(ii) to reflect that the LMS 

filing system permits two methods of 

specifying mechanically beam tilted 

facilities. While we received no 

opposition to this proposal, on further 

reflection, we note that this type of 

specific reference to our filing system 

procedure is not typically contained in 

our rules, but rather is contained in the 

instructions of the application form, and 

thus we decline to adopt it. 

In the NPRM, the Commission noted 

that § 73.625(c)(3)(v) is outdated, as it 

requires that horizontal plane patterns 

be plotted ‘‘to the largest scale possible 

on unglazed letter-size polar coordinate 

paper.’’ The NPRM proposed instead to 

require licensees to submit patterns in 

the form of a .pdf attachment to an 

application filed in LMS, and clarified 

that similar plots are required for 

elevation or matrix patterns submitted 

in the LMS form. See revised 

§ 73.625(c)(3)(vi) and new 

§ 73.625(c)(3)(vii). The NPRM stated that 

this approach provides flexibility to 

applicants and conforms to modern 

practices. 

CDE indicates in its comments that it 

disagrees with this proposal, but merely 

states ‘‘Not Agreed For ATSC 3.0 SFN.’’ 

Because CDE did not provide any 

further explanation of the basis or 

perceived negative impact of the 

proposal, CDE provides no basis upon 

which we would amend the proposal 

included in the NPRM. Moreover, we 

believe the software driven approach 

provides more detailed information than 

the plane patterns manually plotted on 

paper and CDE’s comment offered 

nothing to refute our conclusion based 

on several years of experience 

processing applications filed in LMS. 

NAB states that with respect to the 

matrix antenna patterns described in 

proposed § 73.625(c)(3)(viii), for which 

a single azimuth and elevation pattern 

is not sufficient to specify the overall 

radiation characteristics of the antenna, 

it believes that a spreadsheet tabulation 

of relative field values is far more useful 

than .pdf attachments. NAB further 

states that because of the varying nature 

of a matrix antenna pattern, hundreds of 

.pdf representations may be needed to 

accurately convey the complete pattern. 

NAB therefore suggests that the 

Commission require only one or two 

representative azimuth and elevation 

patterns be supplied in a .pdf 

attachment and if additional 

visualizations are needed, the tabular 

spreadsheet data can be used in 

spreadsheet software to produce them. 

We agree with NAB’s approach and 

revise the rule accordingly. 

Subscription TV (STV) Rules 

The NPRM proposed to eliminate 

certain obsolete STV rules. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to these proposals. Therefore, 

for the reasons discussed in the NPRM, 

and described below, we adopt the 

proposals. As stated in the NPRM, 

§§ 73.641 through 73.644, 73.4247, 

73.6026, and 74.732(e) contain the rules 

that allowed analog full power, Class A, 

and LPTV stations to offer a 

subscription television service ‘‘for a fee 

or charge.’’ With the elimination of 

analog service, there are no full power 

television stations operating pursuant to 

the STV rules and LMS does not permit 

the filing of applications or requests to 

operate in an STV mode. Sections 

73.642(b) (Subscription TV service) and 

74.732(e) (Eligibility and licensing 

requirements) require that stations 

notify the Commission when they 

commence STV operations, and that full 

power and Class A stations notify the 

Commission when they discontinue 

STV operations or change their 

encoding equipment. The Bureau has 

not received any such filings in at least 

the past 25 years. Accordingly, these 

STV rules and references to them in 

parts 73 and 74 are obsolete and we 

eliminate them. See 47 CFR 73.641 

(Subscription TV definitions); 73.642 

(Subscription TV service); 73.643 

(Subscription TV operating 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7238 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

requirements); 73.644 (Subscription TV 

transmission systems); 73.4247 (STV: 

Competing applications); 73.1201(d) 

(Station identification for subscription 

television stations); 74.701(f) (Low 

power TV station); 73.682(b) 

(Subscription TV technical systems); 

73.6026 (deleting cross-references to 

73.642 through 73.644) (Broadcast 

regulations applicable to Class A 

television stations); and 74.732(e) 

(Eligibility and licensing requirements). 

Special Criteria for Converting Vacant 

Commercial Channels to Reserved 

Status 

The NPRM proposed to amend 

§ 73.622(a) to remove a reference to a 

needs-based test. The comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, and we 

received no specific objection to this 

proposal. Therefore, for the reasons 

discussed in the NPRM, and described 

below, we adopt the proposal. As stated 

in the NPRM, in 2000, the Commission 

adopted a needs-based test in 

§ 73.622(a) for future rulemakings 

allowing noncommercial educational 

(NCE) entities to request that ‘‘nonreserved channels not already in the 

Table of Allotments be added and 

reserved for NCE use.’’ Since the 

Commission adopted this needs based 

test in 2000, the Media Bureau has 

never been asked to apply it to 

television stations. Further, the 

television band has been reallocated and 

repacked from channels 2–69 to 

channels 2–36, significantly decreasing 

the number of available channels. 

Therefore, § 73.622(a) is amended to 

remove this language as we believe that 

it does not serve a practical purpose in 

the current environment. We do not 

intend, however, to eliminate the ability 

of an NCE entity to reserve one of the 

few vacant television channels currently 

in the Table of TV Allotments. We note 

that an NCE entity may still file a 

rulemaking petition to request that the 

Commission reserve the channel for 

noncommercial educational use, 

without being required to rely on the 

special process enumerated in 

§ 73.622(a). 

Other Technical and Miscellaneous 

Updates 

Special Service Authorization. The 

NPRM proposed to remove § 73.3543 as 

obsolete. The comments received were 

generally supportive of the effort to 

update our rules, and we received no 

specific objection to this proposal. 

Therefore, for the reasons discussed in 

the NPRM, and described below, we 

delete the rule. Section 73.3543 

(Application for renewal or 

modification of special service 

authorization) provides that no new 

special service authorizations may be 

issued after 1958, however, renewals or 

modifications will be considered in 

certain circumstances. We are unaware 

of any such authorizations today, and 

thus we conclude the rule is obsolete 

and delete it. 

Broadcast Data Bases. The NPRM 

proposed to revise the Commission’s 

rules to update references to historical 

and current databases and other 

reference material. The comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, and we 

received no specific objection to this 

proposal. Therefore, for the reasons 

discussed in the NPRM, and described 

below, we adopt the proposals. Section 

0.434 (Data bases and lists of authorized 

broadcast stations and pending 

broadcast applications) refers to 

Broadcast Application Processing 

System (BAPS), which is a legacy 

database system that has not been in use 

at the Commission for many years. The 

Media Bureau currently uses LMS for 

application processing, which replaced 

the prior CDBS system, which itself 

replaced BAPS around the year 2000. 

Thus, the reference to BAPS is obsolete 

and we delete it. We additionally 

remove the word ‘‘periodically’’ since 

an updated LMS download is provided 

daily, remove the link to ‘‘ftp.fcc.gov’’ 

since LMS data is not provided there, 

and update the reference to ‘‘mass 

media services’’ to instead specify 

‘‘Media Bureau.’’ We also delete the 

sentences stating that copies of lists of 

stations and applications are available 

for inspection at the Commission’s 

Reference Information Center because 

this information is now made available 

electronically via LMS. We note that the 

NPRM proposed removing references to 

paper copies, viewing paper copies on 

microfiche, and that the paper copies of 

lists can be purchased from the FCC’s 

duplicating contractor in the NPRM at 

para. 46. However, we note, since 

release of the NPRM, the Commission 

revised 47 CFR 0.434 to remove these 

references. See Establishment of the 

Space Bureau and the Office of 

International Affairs and 

Reorganization of the Consumer and 

Governmental Affairs Bureau and the 

Office of the Managing Director, MD 

Docket No. 23–12, FCC 23–1 (Jan. 9, 

2023). Therefore, we do not adopt these 

changes in this Report and Order. 

Distributed Transmission System Rule 

Clarification. The NPRM proposed to 

clarify the language in our distributed 

transmission system (DTS) rule. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to these proposals. Therefore, 

for the reasons stated in the NPRM, we 

adopt the proposals. Since adoption of 

the revised § 73.626 in January 2021, 

questions have arisen about how the 

rules are to be applied. For example, the 

rule text makes several references to the 

term ‘‘reference facility’’ without 

defining that term, and inaccurately 

conflates the reference point with the 

coordinates of the facility which 

produces the authorized service area. To 

make the intent and application of the 

rule less ambiguous, we modify 

language in §§ 73.626(b) and (f)(2), as 

proposed in the NPRM. We define the 

term ‘‘authorized facility’’ (The revised 

§ 73.626(b) states that ‘‘For purposes of 

compliance with this section, a station’s 

‘authorized service area’ is defined as 

the area within its predicted noiselimited service contour determined 

using the facilities authorized for the 

station in a license or construction 

permit for non-DTS, single-transmitterlocation operation (its ‘authorized 

facility’).’’) and then replace all uses of 

the term ‘‘reference facility’’ with the 

term ‘‘authorized facility’’ in the 

appropriate locations. See revised 

§§ 73.626(f)(2)(i) through (iii). We 

further replace the term ‘‘reference 

point’’ with ‘‘site of its authorized 

facility’’ in places where the term 

‘‘reference point’’ is improperly used. 

See revised §§ 73.626(f)(2)(ii) through 

(iii). Finally, we clarify when 

specifically the Table of Distances 

values should be applied. See revised 

§§ 73.626(f)(2)(i) through (ii). We believe 

this clarifying language will better 

reflect the method described in the 2021 

DTS Order and used in processing such 

applications. We remove language from 

§ 73.626(f)(2) which is improperly 

specific to the station’s authorized 

service area, and which incorrectly 

implied that the Table of Distances 

circle is not applicable here. 

Transport Stream ID. The NPRM 

proposed to require that all full-power 

and Class A TV stations broadcast with 

their assigned transport stream ID 

(TSID) or bit stream ID (BSID) in the 

ATSC 3.0 context. The comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, and we 

received no specific objection to these 

proposals. Therefore, for the reasons 

stated in the NPRM, we adopt them. As 

noted in the NPRM, all full-power and 

Class A TV stations are assigned a 

unique TSID, which is required to be 

transmitted in order to provide the 

Program and System Information 

Protocol (PSIP) data required by 

§ 73.682(d) (Broadcast television 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7239 

transmission standard). Consistent with 

that rule, we clarify that all such 

stations must broadcast with their 

assigned TSID during their hours of 

operation. See revised § 73.1201 (Station 

identification). In its Second Periodic 

Review, the Commission stated that 

‘‘broadcasters are required to transmit 

the TSIDs assigned for their stations in 

their digital transmission.’’ We believe 

that it is in the public interest to move 

this requirement into a separate rule for 

ease of reference. Similarly, we adopt 

the same requirement with respect to a 

station’s BSID, which is the ATSC 3.0 

equivalent to TSID, in order to promote 

consistency. 

Class A US-Mexico Border Zone. The 

NPRM proposed to amend § 73.6024(d) 

to require Class A stations within 275 

kilometers of the US-Mexico border to 

specify a full-service emission mask in 

any modification application. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to this proposal. Therefore, for 

the reasons stated in the NPRM, we 

adopt it. As explained in the NPRM, full 

power television stations are required to 

use full service masks to attenuate the 

power level of emissions outside their 

authorized channel of operation in 

specified amounts expressed in decibels 

(dB). Section 74.794, which allows 

LPTV and TV translators to specify use 

of a simple, stringent, or full service 

mask, also applies to Class A television 

stations. The Commission’s rules 

require coordination of applications in 

border regions with the neighboring 

countries’ appropriate regulatory 

officials. Under the Exchange of 

Coordination Letters with IFT Regarding 

DTV Transition and Reconfiguration of 

600 MHz Spectrum, signed between the 

FCC and Mexico’s Instituto Federal de 

Telecomunicaciones (IFT) in July 2015, 

the use of Tables 1 and 6 were approved 

for television station realignment. Class 

A stations approved by Mexico in Table 

6 are grouped with full-service stations. 

There is no allowance for use of a 

simple or stringent emission mask for 

any operation within these Tables; 

however, § 73.6024(d) applies to 

coordination of stations in proximity of 

the US border with Mexico. It is the 

Media Bureau staff’s experience that IFT 

routinely requests that applications 

submitted for coordination of Class A 

stations specify a full-service emission 

mask, and if such applications do not 

initially specify the full-service 

emission mask, IFT asks for it to be 

included in an amendment. This twostep process increases the processing 

burdens on the FCC, IFT, and stations, 

and results in delays in granting 

applications. Therefore, the NPRM 

proposed to amend Section 73.6024(d) 

to require Class A stations within 275 

kilometers of the US-Mexico border to 

specify a full-service emission mask in 

any modification application, and we 

adopt that proposal here. 

Class A Antenna System. The NPRM 

proposed to replace the separate Class A 

antenna pattern documentation 

requirements with a reference to the 

analogous full-power version of the rule 

for consistency. The comments received 

were generally supportive of the effort 

to update our rules, and we received no 

specific objection to this proposal. 

Therefore, for the reasons stated in the 

NPRM, we adopt it. We delete language 

in § 73.6025(a) nearly identical to that in 

§ 73.625(c)(3). These rule sections 

provide similar requirements regarding 

how applicants should describe and 

document antenna patterns submitted in 

their applications. Some sections are 

identical (specifically, § 73.625(c)(3)(iii) 

is identical to § 73.6025(a)(3), 

§ 73.625(c)(3)(iv) is identical to 

§ 73.6025(a)(4), and § 73.625(c)(3)(vi) is 

identical to § 73.6025(a)(5)), but in 

others, there are a few minor 

differences. We conclude that the very 

minor distinctions between the language 

in the two sections are insignificant and 

that no purpose is served by having two 

essentially duplicative rules in part 73. 

Class A licensees are required to comply 

with all part 73 regulations except for 

those that cannot apply for technical or 

other reasons. Class A Report and 

Order, 15 FCC Rcd at 6365, para. 23. 

Section 73.625(c)(3), which requires 

applicants to submit documentation 

regarding the antenna they are 

proposing to install, is clearly a rule 

with which they can comply. We will 

cross-reference § 73.625(c)(3) in 

§ 73.6025(a), eliminating the duplication 

but making clear that the requirements 

in § 73.625(c)(3) continue to apply to 

Class A television stations. We also 

modified §§ 73.625(c)(3)(ii) and 

73.625(c)(3)(v). We also added new 

§§ 73.625(c)(3)(vii) and (viii) to account 

for stations submitting elevation or 

matrix patterns. 

Minimum Video Program 

Requirements. The NPRM proposed to 

update a Class A television rule in order 

to conform the rule with an update 

made elsewhere in the NPRM. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to this proposal. Therefore, for 

the reasons stated in the NPRM, we 

adopt it. As noted above, we delete 

much of § 73.624(b). Section 73.6026 

(Broadcast regulations applicable to 

Class A television stations) lists § 73.624 

as a rule applicable to Class A stations 

and includes a note stating that ‘‘Section 

73.624(b) will apply only to the extent 

that such stations must also transmit at 

least one over-the-air video program 

signal at no direct charge to viewers of 

the digital Class A station.’’ We remove 

that text in § 73.6026 because it 

duplicates language also included in 

73.624(b). We also clarify that this 

change mandates the use of a minimum 

480i video resolution by Class A 

stations. This requirement is consistent 

with full-power and LPTV/translator 

stations (as adopted in the 2023 Part 74 

Report and Order), and we believe it is 

reasonable to also apply it consistently 

to Class A stations for regulatory parity 

between the television services. 

Transmitting Antenna Site. The 

NPRM proposed to replace the term 

‘‘transmitter site’’ in our rules with 

‘‘transmitting antenna site.’’ The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to this proposal. Therefore for 

the reasons stated in the NPRM, we 

adopt it. Section 73.619(a)(1) (we moved 

this rule from § 73.683(c)(1)) refers to 

the estimation of a station’s coverage 

area based on a ‘‘particular transmitter 

site.’’ We note that our application 

forms do not request information about 

the location of a station transmitter but 

about the location of its antenna instead. 

We modify the language in the rule to 

refer to a ‘‘particular transmitting 

antenna site.’’ This is consistent with 

language that has been used in other 

parts of the rules, and with a proposal 

the Commission adopted in the 2023 

Part 74 Report and Order. 

Corrections to Inadvertent Oversights 

from Prior Rulemakings. The NPRM 

proposed to make various corrections to 

the rules as a result of inadvertent 

oversights from prior rulemakings. The 

comments received were generally 

supportive of the effort to update our 

rules, and we received no specific 

objection to this proposal. Therefore, for 

the reasons stated in the NPRM, we 

adopt it. Because the requirements of 

the previous § 73.616(e) (which we 

relocated to § 73.620(d)) pertaining to 

interference protection with respect to 

Class A stations were difficult to 

decipher, we remove paragraphs (1), (2), 

and (3) entirely and streamline the 

remaining paragraph from § 73.616(e) in 

the new § 73.620(d). In doing so, we 

replace the description of the OET 

Bulletin No. 69 in paragraph (1) with a 

cross-reference to paragraphs (a) and (b) 

of the new § 73.620, which specifies the 

same method. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7240 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

As described in the NPRM, the 

Commission previously deleted 

§ 73.623(g) as obsolete because it 

addressed the digital transition. 

Deletion of the section, however, 

inadvertently eliminated from the rules 

the allowance for negotiated agreements 

on interference among applicants and 

licensees. The NPRM proposed to 

restore the allowance that was 

previously contained in § 73.623(g), 

modify the language to delete language 

referring to stations operating on 

channels allotted in § 73.622(b), the 

initial DTV Table, and place it in a new 

§ 73.620(e). This would clarify in our 

rules that stations may continue to 

negotiate agreements on interference 

consistent with past and present 

practice. The comments received were 

generally supportive of the effort to 

update our rules, and we received no 

specific objection to this proposal. 

Therefore, for the reasons stated in the 

NPRM, we adopt it. 

In the 2022 Part 74 Order, the 

Commission revised or removed certain 

paragraphs of § 74.787 to reflect the 

LPTV and translator transition from 

analog to digital operations, removed 

duplicate sections that were contained 

in both the analog and digital portions 

of part 74, and provided accurate 

information about current Commission 

forms. The NPRM proposed to further 

amend the text of the rule by clarifying 

in the now first sentence of paragraph 

(a)(5)(v) that the pre-auction digital 

service area is the noise-limited contour 

of the full power station that was 

protected in the incentive auction 

repacking process and remove reference 

to a 2015 public notice. Because we no 

longer allow applications for new 

applications for digital-to-digital 

replacement television translators 

(DTDRTs), the NPRM noted that the 

Commission believed the reference to 

the public notice data is no longer 

necessary and the inclusion of the 

additional explanation of the preauction digital service area for stations 

that already hold DTDRTs provides a 

clearer definition. The comments 

received were generally supportive of 

the effort to update our rules, and we 

received no specific objection to this 

proposal. Therefore, for the reasons 

stated in the NPRM, we adopt it. 

Additional Proposals Raised by 

Commenters 

We decline to adopt several proposals 

raised by commenters that are outside 

the scope of this proceeding. We 

received several proposals that seek to 

make material changes to our rules, or 

changes outside the scope of this 

proceeding. See OMI Comments 

(asserting that the Commission should 

‘‘consider the most likely azimuth that 

viewers will have their TV antennas 

aimed at when considering interference 

caused to a station,’’ and that the 

Commission accordingly should update 

its TVStudy software program, which is 

used by licensees to prepare 

applications and Commission staff to 

process applications); GBS Comments at 

1–2 (asking the Commission to codify 

OET’s clarification in OET Clarifies 

Emission Mask Measurements for DTV 

Transmitters, Public Notice, 20 FCC Rcd 

8874 (OET 2005), which clarifies the 

emission mask measurement rules and 

provides guidance regarding compliance 

with the DTV full service and low 

power masks to be demonstrated by 

either of two methods, in proposed 

§ 73.611 in this proceeding or a more 

recent version of an industry-accepted 

measurement standard); NAB 

Comments at 9 (requesting that the 

Commission revise proposed § 73.625(d) 

to update a reference to the IEEE 

Standard Definition for circular 

polarization to the current IEEE 

Standard 145, ‘‘IEEE Standard 

Definitions of Terms for Antennas’’ 

(1993)); CDE Supplemental Comments 2 

at 35–36 and Appendices A–C 

(apparently objecting to the use of the 

Commission’s TVStudy software and 

suggesting that the Commission solicit 

input to develop a new offering). In 

declining to take action, we note that 

the NPRM’s scope was limited to 

amendments to the Commission’s rules 

primarily related to full power and Class 

A television service to reflect the 

current operating environment, 

including the end of the transition from 

analog to digital operations. 

Cost Benefit Analysis 

After evaluating the record received 

in response to the NPRM’s request for 

comment on the benefits and costs 

associated with adopting the proposals 

set forth in the NPRM, we conclude that 

to the extent that the revised rules 

impose any costs on Commission 

licensees and regulatees, such costs will 

be minimal and are outweighed by the 

benefits to the public of the revised 

rules. We received no comments on the 

costs imposed on Commission licensees 

and regulatees as a result of our 

proposals. 

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 

Analysis 

The NPRM also sought comment on 

how the proposals set forth in the NPRM 

can advance equity in the provision of 

broadcast services for all people of the 

United States, without discrimination 

on the basis of race, color, religion, 

national origin, sex, or disability. The 

NPRM also sought comment on how our 

proposals may promote or inhibit 

advances in diversity, equity, inclusion, 

and accessibility. We received no 

comments on these topics and no 

objection to adoption of the proposed 

rules based on these concerns. We 

acknowledge the importance of these 

aims, and we believe that the revised 

rules reflect an effort to simplify, 

streamline, and modernize existing 

rules and procedures that will enable 

full power and Class A television 

stations to more easily comply with 

licensing requirements through familiar 

and low cost measures and we do not 

believe they will have negative 

implications related to diversity, equity, 

inclusion, or accessibility. 

Procedural Matters 

Paperwork Reduction Analysis. The 

Report and Order may contain new or 

modified information collection 

requirements subject to the Paperwork 

Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA). All such 

new or modified requirements will be 

submitted to the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) for review under 

§ 3507(d) of the PRA. OMB, the general 

public, and other federal agencies will 

be invited to comment on any new or 

modified information collection 

requirements contained in this 

proceeding. The Commission will 

publish a separate document in the 

Federal Register at a later date seeking 

these comments. In addition, we note 

that, pursuant to the Small Business 

Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, Public 

Law 107–198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4), 

the Commission previously sought 

specific comment on how it might 

further reduce the information 

collection burden for small business 

concerns with fewer than 25 employees. 

We have described impacts that might 

affect small businesses in the FRFA. 

Congressional Review Act. The 

Commission will send a copy of this 

Report and Order to Congress and the 

Government Accountability office, 

pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). 

Regulatory Flexibility Act. The 

Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as 

amended (RFA), requires that an agency 

prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis 

for notice and comment rulemakings, 

unless the agency certifies that ‘‘the rule 

will not, if promulgated, have a 

significant economic impact on a 

substantial number of small entities.’’ 

Accordingly, we have prepared a Final 

Regulatory Flexibility Analysis (FRFA) 

concerning the possible impact of rule 

and/or policy changes contained in this 

Report and Order on small entities. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7241 

As required by the Regulatory 

Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended 

(RFA), an Initial Regulatory Flexibility 

Act Analysis (IRFA) was incorporated 

into the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking 

(NPRM) released in September 2022. 

The Federal Communications 

Commission (Commission) sought 

written public comment on the 

proposals in the NPRM, including 

comment on the IRFA. No comments 

were filed addressing the IRFA. This 

Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis 

(FRFA) conforms to the RFA. 

Need for, and Objectives of, the Report 

and Order 

The Report and Order reflects the 

Commission’s efforts to update its rules 

for full power and Class A television 

stations to reflect the current operating 

environment following the transition 

from analog to digital-only operations 

and the post-incentive auction 

transition to a smaller television band 

with fewer channels. The Report and 

Order largely adopts the rules proposed 

in the NPRM, with certain limited 

exceptions or modifications, in order to 

delete, update, or otherwise revise 

Commission rules for full power and 

Class A stations that no longer have any 

practical effect. As part of this 

comprehensive update, we also 

restructure a portion of our rules 

primarily consisting of the technical 

licensing, operating, and interference 

rules for full power television. Our 

actions in the Report and Order further 

the Commission’s continued efforts to 

ensure that our rules clearly and 

accurately reflect existing requirements 

and are understandable by licensees and 

the public. 

More specifically, we adopt revisions 

to the Commission’s rules in light of the 

fact that all television services have 

ceased analog operations. We delete 

outdated rules that are no longer valid 

given changes in Commission-adopted 

policy, such as the elimination of the 

comparative hearing process to award 

and renew broadcast licenses, and we 

reorganize a portion of the part 73 rules 

to make the rules easier to find and 

more practical for users. Other nonsubstantive, technical revisions we 

make in the Report and Order include 

updating previously-adopted station 

license periods, deleting obsolete rules 

governing the post-incentive auction 

transition period, and correcting or 

updating inter alia, section headings, 

spelling, contact information, and rule 

cross-references, or language 

inadvertently omitted from a rule. We 

also update our rules to reference the 

current designation for form numbers 

(e.g., FCC Form 2100) and to require 

electronic filing in the Commission’s 

Licensing and Management System 

(LMS). Additionally, we consider 

requests and comments on subjects not 

included in the NPRM proposals, the 

costs and benefits of the rules adopted, 

and the potential of the rule changes to 

promote or inhibit advances in 

diversity, equity, inclusion, and 

accessibility. The rules we adopt, and 

actions we take in the Report and Order 

to simplify, streamline, and modernize 

existing rules and procedures should 

reduce compliance costs, and make 

compliance with our licensing 

requirements easier for full power and 

Class A television stations. 

Summary of Significant Issues Raised by 

Public Comments in Response to the 

IRFA 

There were no comments filed that 

specifically addressed the proposed 

rules and policies presented in the 

IRFA. 

Response to Comments by the Chief 

Counsel for Advocacy of the Small 

Business Administration 

Pursuant to the Small Business Jobs 

Act of 2010, the Commission is required 

to respond to any comments filed by the 

Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small 

Business Administration (SBA), and to 

provide a detailed statement of any 

change made to the proposed rules as a 

result of those comments. 

The Chief Counsel did not file any 

comments in response to the proposed 

rules in this proceeding. 

Description and Estimate of the Number 

of Small Entities to Which the Rules 

Will Apply 

The RFA directs agencies to provide 

a description of, and where feasible, an 

estimate of the number of small entities 

that may be affected by the rules 

adopted herein. The RFA generally 

defines the term ‘‘small entity’’ as 

having the same meaning as the terms 

‘‘small business,’’ ‘‘small organization,’’ 

and ‘‘small governmental jurisdiction.’’ 

In addition, the term ‘‘small business’’ 

has the same meaning as the term 

‘‘small business concern’’ under the 

Small Business Act (SBA). A small 

business concern is one which: (1) is 

independently owned and operated; (2) 

is not dominant in its field of operation; 

and (3) satisfies any additional criteria 

established by the SBA. 

The rules adopted in the Report and 

Order will directly affect small 

television broadcast stations. Below, we 

provide a description of such small 

entities, as well as an estimate of the 

number of such small entities, where 

feasible. 

Television Broadcasting. This 

industry is comprised of 

‘‘establishments primarily engaged in 

broadcasting images together with 

sound.’’ These establishments operate 

television broadcast studios and 

facilities for the programming and 

transmission of programs to the public. 

These establishments also produce or 

transmit visual programming to 

affiliated broadcast television stations, 

which in turn broadcast the programs to 

the public on a predetermined schedule. 

Programming may originate in their own 

studio, from an affiliated network, or 

from external sources. The SBA small 

business size standard for this industry 

classifies businesses having $41.5 

million or less in annual receipts as 

small. 2017 U.S. Census Bureau data 

indicate that 744 firms in this industry 

operated for the entire year. Of that 

number, 657 firms had revenue of less 

than $25,000,000. Based on this data we 

estimate that the majority of television 

broadcasters are small entities under the 

SBA small business size standard. 

As of June 30, 2023, there were 1,375 

licensed commercial television stations. 

Of this total, 1,256 stations (or 91.3%) 

had revenues of $41.5 million or less in 

2022, according to Commission staff 

review of the BIA Kelsey Inc. Media 

Access Pro Television Database (BIA) on 

July 17, 2023, and therefore these 

licensees qualify as small entities under 

the SBA definition. In addition, the 

Commission estimates as of June 30, 

2023, there were 383 licensed 

noncommercial educational (NCE) 

television stations, 381 Class A TV 

stations, 1,902 LPTV stations and 3,123 

TV translator stations. The Commission, 

however, does not compile and 

otherwise does not have access to 

financial information for these 

television broadcast stations that would 

permit it to determine how many of 

these stations qualify as small entities 

under the SBA small business size 

standard. Nevertheless, given the SBA’s 

large annual receipts threshold for this 

industry and the nature of these 

television station licensees, we presume 

that all of these entities qualify as small 

entities under the above SBA small 

business size standard. 

Description of Projected Reporting, 

Recordkeeping, and Other Compliance 

Requirements for Small Entities 

In this section, we identify the 

reporting, recordkeeping, and/or other 

compliance requirements adopted in the 

Report and Order. Modified reporting 

requirements were adopted by the 

Commission replacing manual filing 

processes with electronic filing 

requirements. Television stations will 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7242 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

now be required to make certain 

required notifications electronically 

through filings procedures using LMS as 

opposed to the previous manual filing 

process by letter. Similarly, regarding 

§ 73.625(b)(5) which specifies a number 

of paper maps which should be used to 

prepare the profile graphs and to 

determine the location and height above 

sea level of the antenna height, the 

Commission clarifies that it expects 

small and other entities to make the 

required calculations by computer 

rather than manual paper calculations 

using paper maps. Accordingly, the 

multiple references to various sources of 

paper maps to make these types of 

calculations contained in the rules have 

been replaced with a reference to the 

National Elevation Dataset and other 

similar bald earth terrain datasets which 

are used by modern automated software 

currently used by the Commission and 

industry. 

The removal of outdated manual 

processes, forms, and filing 

requirements in favor of using 

automated software, and 

implementation of electronic filing 

requirements for small and other 

entities will result in a modified 

paperwork obligation. Cost and benefit 

information on these and other 

proposals were requested by the 

Commission in the NPRM, however 

commenters did not provide any 

information on the cost impacts of our 

proposals. Therefore, while the 

Commission cannot quantify the cost of 

compliance for small entities, and is not 

in a position to determine whether 

small entities will have to hire 

professionals to comply with our 

decisions in the Report and Order, since 

it is widely accepted that automated 

processes are generally more efficient 

and less burdensome than manual 

processes, the Commission anticipates 

that our actions will lessen the 

administrative burden on small entities. 

Steps Taken To Minimize Significant 

Economic Impact on Small Entities, and 

Significant Alternatives Considered 

The RFA requires an agency to 

provide, ‘‘a description of the steps the 

agency has taken to minimize the 

significant economic impact on small 

entities . . . including a statement of 

the factual, policy, and legal reasons for 

selecting the alternative adopted in the 

final rule and why each one of the other 

significant alternatives to the rule 

considered by the agency which affect 

the impact on small entities was 

rejected.’’ 

The actions taken by the Commission 

in the Report and Order simplifying and 

streamlining our rules, and 

implementing automated and electronic 

filing requirements, should make it 

easier for small and other entities to 

comply with our rules. We consider the 

rules we adopted to be the least costly, 

and minimally burdensome for small 

and other entities impacted by the rules. 

In the absence of evidence to the 

contrary in the record, the Commission 

does not expect the adopted 

requirements to have a significant 

economic impact on small entities. 

Below we discuss actions we take in the 

Report and Order to minimize any 

significant economic impact on small 

entities and alternatives that were 

considered. 

We adopted rule updates and 

reorganizations proposed in the NPRM 

to codify the Commission staff’s current 

practices or to better reflect 

technological advancements in the 

industry. The Commission anticipates 

that these changes generally will lessen 

the economic burdens on small entities 

due to increased administrative 

efficiency. For example, as we discussed 

above in Section E, references to 

outdated paper maps and manual 

calculations relating to § 73.625(b)(5) 

have been replaced by computer 

calculations, and current automated 

software used by the Commission and 

industry. Moreover, for § 73.625(b)(4), 

which describes how to plot certain 

radials on a graph and provides a range 

of options for the number of points of 

elevation to use in each radial, we 

conform the rule to reference the 

TVStudy software currently used for 

preparing and processing applications, 

and specify the use of 10 points per 

kilometer in all circumstances 

consistent with present practice found 

in the TVStudy software used by the 

Commission and licensees to process 

and prepare applications. These rule 

changes will enable small and other 

television stations to more easily 

comply with licensing requirements 

through familiar and low cost measures. 

Moreover, the Commission took steps 

to decrease processing burdens and 

application approval delays for small 

and other entities by adopting the 

proposed amendment to § 73.6024(d) to 

require Class A stations within 275 

kilometers of the US-Mexico border to 

specify a full-service emission mask in 

any modification application. Pursuant 

to the Commission’s rules requiring 

coordination of applications in border 

regions with the neighboring countries’ 

appropriate regulatory officials, in 

coordination with Mexico’s Instituto 

Federal de Telecomunicaciones (IFT) it 

has been the Media Bureau staff’s 

experience that a two-step process takes 

place where the IFT routinely requests 

that applications submitted for 

coordination of Class A stations specify 

a full-service emission mask, and if such 

applications do not initially specify the 

full-service emission mask, IFT asks for 

it to be included in an amendment. The 

amendment we adopted in the Report 

and Order to § 73.6024(d) will result in 

the inclusion of a full-service emission 

mask specification with an application 

modification when initially submitted 

eliminating the need for small and other 

entities to have to subsequently amend 

their application. 

Further, we provided small and other 

applicants flexibility by amending 

§ 73.625(c)(3)(v) to require licensees to 

submit patterns in the form of a .pdf 

attachment to an application filed in 

LMS, and clarifying that similar plots 

are required for elevation or matrix 

patterns submitted in the LMS form. 

Our actions are consistent with modern 

practices and removes the 

administrative burden for small and 

other entities of an outdated manual 

requirement that horizontal plane 

patterns be plotted ‘‘to the largest scale 

possible on unglazed letter-size polar 

coordinate paper.’’ We considered 

CDE’s comments disagreeing with this 

proposal in the NPRM, however, CDE 

did not explain its objection or provide 

any evidence to support an alternative 

decision, and merely stated ‘‘Not Agreed 

For ATSC 3.0 SFN.’’ 

Some commenters raised alternative 

positions which we considered in the 

Report and Order. Regarding the matrix 

antenna patterns described in proposed 

§ 73.625(c)(3)(viii), NAB suggested that 

the Commission require only one or two 

representative azimuth and elevation 

patterns be supplied in a PDF 

attachment, and if additional 

visualizations are needed, the tabular 

spreadsheet data can be used in 

spreadsheet software to produce them. 

The Commission agreed with NAB’s 

suggestion and adopted a revised rule 

consistent with this suggestion. 

We considered the comments of CDE 

which disagreed with our proposal to 

delete obsolete language in 

§ 73.664(c)(3)(iii) concerning the 

certification of equipment. However, 

since CDE did not provide a reason for 

its disagreement, there was no evidence 

in the record, nor a valid reason for the 

Commission to depart from the proposal 

in the NPRM. As we stated in the 

NPRM, the Commission no longer ‘‘type 

accepts’’ equipment, having overhauled 

the process to allow private parties to 

verify such equipment meets the 

Commission’s requirements, and the 

results of such verifications do not need 

to be submitted to the Commission. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7243 

Accordingly, we deleted the obsolete 

language in § 73.664(c)(3)(iii). 

The Commission also considered the 

objection Maranatha Broadcasting 

Company, Inc. (Maranatha), the licensee 

of WDPN–TV, to our proposed 

codification of the Commission’s 2001 

clarification that a station may not 

exceed the effective radiated power 

level assigned in the station’s zone in 

§ 73.622. Maranatha proposed that the 

Commission retain the ‘‘largest station’’ 

rule or ‘‘make clear that any change that 

[the Commission] is making to its rules 

do not preclude power increases above 

zone maximums by low-VHF stations 

necessary to overcome the shortcomings 

of their digital signals and impulse 

noise inference.’’ Due to the propagation 

characteristics of digital VHF signals 

and the deleterious effects of manmade 

noise on the reception of these signals, 

the Commission is aware that significant 

over-the-air reception problems may 

exist within the service area of VHF 

stations. Since the end of the DTV 

transition in June 2009, Commission 

staff has waived the power limits in 

§§ 73.622(f)(5) or (6) of the rules a 

number of times to increase the power 

levels of stations operating on low VHF 

channels above the 10 kW limit set forth 

in the rules. We declined Maranatha’s 

request and adopted the provisions of 

§ 73.622 as proposed in the NPRM 

because we do not believe that codifying 

the 2001 clarification limits our ability 

to continue to grant such waivers, as we 

have for Marantha. We noted in the 

Report and Order that Marantha’s 

station WDPN–TV, on RF channel 2 in 

Zone I, currently operates with an ERP 

of 34 kW, pursuant to such a waiver of 

§ 73.622(f)(6). 

Commenters also raised proposals 

that we declined to adopt because the 

comments proposed to make material 

changes to our rules, or changes outside 

the scope of this proceeding. The scope 

of NPRM was limited to amendments to 

the Commission’s rules primarily 

related to full power and Class A 

television service to reflect the current 

operating environment, and 

particularly, the end of the transition 

from analog to digital operations. 

Report to Congress 

The Commission will send a copy of 

the Report and Order, including this 

FRFA, in a report to be sent to Congress 

pursuant to the Congressional Review 

Act. In addition, the Commission will 

send a copy of the Report and Order, 

including this FRFA, to the Chief 

Counsel for Advocacy of the SBA. The 

Report and Order and FRFA (or 

summaries thereof) will also be 

published in the Federal Register. 

List of Subjects 

47 CFR Part 0 

Authority delegations (Government 

agencies), Organization and functions 

(Government agencies). 

47 CFR Part 27 

Communications common carriers. 

47 CFR Part 73 

Full power TV, Class A TV, 

Incorporation by reference. 

47 CFR Part 74 

Low power TV, TV translator stations. 

Federal Communications Commission. 

Marlene Dortch, 

Secretary, Office of the Secretary. 

Final Regulations 

For the reasons discussed in the 

preamble, the Federal Communications 

Commission amends 47 CFR parts 0, 27, 

73, and 74 to read as follows: 

PART 0—COMMISSION 

ORGANIZATION 

■ 1. The authority citation for part 0 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 47 U.S.C. 151, 154(i), 154(j), 

155, 225, and 409, unless otherwise noted. 

■ 2. Revise § 0.434 to read as follows: 

§ 0.434 Data bases and lists of authorized 

broadcast stations and pending broadcast 

applications. 

The FCC makes available its data 

bases, Consolidated Database System 

(CDBS) and Licensing and Management 

System (LMS), containing information 

about authorized broadcast stations, 

pending applications for such stations, 

and rulemaking proceedings involving 

amendments to the TV and FM Table of 

Allotments. CDBS and LMS contain 

frequencies, station locations, and other 

particulars. CDBS and LMS may be 

viewed at the Commission’s website at 

www.fcc.gov under Media Bureau. 

PART 27—MISCELLANEOUS 

WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 

SERVICE 

■ 3. The authority citation for part 27 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 47 U.S.C. 154, 301, 302a, 303, 

307, 309, 332, 336, 337, 1403, 1404, 1451, 

and 1452, unless otherwise noted. 

§ 27.60 [Removed] 

■ 4. Remove § 27.60. 

§ 27.1310 [Removed] 

■ 5. Remove § 27.1310. 

PART 73—RADIO BROADCAST 

SERVICES 

■ 6. The authority citation for part 73 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 47 U.S.C. 154, 155, 301, 303, 

307, 309, 310, 334, 336, 339. 

■ 7. Section 73.611 is added to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.611 Emission levels and mask filter. 

(a) The power level of emissions on 

frequencies outside the authorized 

channel of operation must be attenuated 

no less than the following amounts 

below the average transmitted power 

within the authorized channel. In the 

first 500 kHz from the channel edge the 

emissions must be attenuated no less 

than 47 dB. More than 6 MHz from the 

channel edge, emissions must be 

attenuated no less than 110 dB. At any 

frequency between 0.5 and 6 MHz from 

the channel edge, emissions must be 

attenuated no less than the value 

determined by the following formula: 

Formula 1 to Paragraph (a) 

Attenuation in dB = ¥11.5(Df + 3.6); 

Where: 

Df = frequency difference in MHz from the 

edge of the channel. 

(b) This attenuation is based on a 

measurement bandwidth of 500 kHz. 

Other measurement bandwidths may be 

used as long as appropriate correction 

factors are applied. Measurements need 

not be made any closer to the band edge 

than one half of the resolution 

bandwidth of the measuring instrument. 

Emissions include sidebands, spurious 

emissions and radio frequency 

harmonics. Attenuation is to be 

measured at the output terminals of the 

transmitter (including any filters that 

may be employed). In the event of 

interference caused to any service, 

greater attenuation may be required. 

■ 8. Section 73.612 is revised to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.612 Protection from interference. 

(a) Permittees and licensees of TV 

broadcast stations are not protected 

from any interference which may be 

caused by the grant of a new station or 

of authority to modify the facilities of an 

existing station in accordance with the 

provisions of subpart E of this part. The 

nature and extent of the protection from 

interference accorded to TV broadcast 

stations is limited solely to the 

protection which results from the 

interference protection requirements set 

forth in subpart E of this part. 

(b) [Reserved] 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7244 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

§ 73.613 [Removed and Reserved] 

■ 9. Remove and reserve § 73.613. 

■ 10. Amend § 73.614 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraph (a), the 

introductory text of (b), paragraphs 

(b)(1) through (3); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(b)(4) and (5); 

■ c. Revising paragraph (b)(6); and 

■ d. Removing paragraph (b)(7). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.614 Power and antenna height 

requirements. 

(a) Minimum requirements. 

Applications will not be accepted for 

filing if they specify less than 100 watts 

horizontally polarized effective radiated 

power (ERP) in any horizontal direction. 

No minimum antenna height above 

average terrain (HAAT) is specified. For 

stations requesting DTS operation 

pursuant to § 73.626, this requirement 

applies to at least one site in the DTS. 

(b) Maximum power. Applications for 

new full power television stations, for 

changes in authorized full power 

television stations, and petitions for 

changes to the Table of TV Allotments, 

will not be accepted for filing if they 

specify a power which exceeds the 

maximum permitted boundaries 

specified in the following formulas: 

(1) A TV station that operates on a 

channel 2–6 allotment will be allowed 

a maximum ERP of 10 kW if its antenna 

HAAT is at or below 305 meters and it 

is located in Zone I or a maximum ERP 

of 45 kW if its antenna HAAT is at or 

below 305 meters and it is located in 

Zone II or Zone III. 

(i) At higher HAAT levels, such TV 

stations will be allowed to operate with 

lower maximum ERP levels in 

accordance with the following table and 

formulas (the allowable maximum ERP 

for intermediate values of HAAT is 

determined using linear interpolation 

based on the units employed in the 

table): 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (b)(1)(i)— 

MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE ERP AND ANTENNA HEIGHT FOR TV STATIONS IN

ZONES II OR III ON CHANNELS 2–6 

Antenna HAAT 

(meters) 

ERP 

(kW) 

610 .................................................... 10 

580 .................................................... 11 

550 .................................................... 12 

520 .................................................... 14 

490 .................................................... 16 

460 .................................................... 19 

425 .................................................... 22 

395 .................................................... 26 

365 .................................................... 31 

335 .................................................... 37 

305 .................................................... 45 

(ii) For TV stations located in Zone I 

that operate on channels 2–6 with an 

HAAT that exceeds 305 meters, the 

allowable maximum ERP expressed in 

decibels above 1 kW (dBk) is 

determined using the following formula, 

with HAAT expressed in meters: 

ERPmax = 92.57¥33.24 * log10(HAAT) 

(iii) For TV stations located in Zone 

II or III that operate on channels 2–6 

with an HAAT that exceeds 610 meters, 

the allowable maximum ERP expressed 

in decibels above 1 kW (dBk) is 

determined using the following formula, 

with HAAT expressed in meters: 

ERPmax = 57.57¥17.08 * log10(HAAT) 

(2) A TV station that operates on a 

channel 7–13 allotment will be allowed 

a maximum ERP of 30 kW if its antenna 

HAAT is at or below 305 meters and it 

is located in Zone I or a maximum ERP 

of 160 kW if its antenna HAAT is at or 

below 305 meters and it is located in 

Zone II or Zone III. 

(i) At higher HAAT levels, such TV 

stations will be allowed to operate with 

lower maximum ERP levels in 

accordance with the following table and 

formulas (the allowable maximum ERP 

for intermediate values of HAAT is 

determined using linear interpolation 

based on the units employed in the 

table): 

TABLE 2 TO PARAGRAPH (b)(2)(i)— 

MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE ERP AND ANTENNA HEIGHT FOR TV STATIONS IN

ZONES II OR III ON CHANNELS 7–13 

Antenna HAAT 

(meters) 

ERP 

(kW) 

610 .................................................... 30 

580 .................................................... 34 

550 .................................................... 40 

520 .................................................... 47 

490 .................................................... 54 

460 .................................................... 64 

425 .................................................... 76 

395 .................................................... 92 

365 .................................................... 110 

335 .................................................... 132 

305 .................................................... 160 

(ii) For TV stations located in Zone I 

that operate on channels 7–13 with an 

HAAT that exceeds 305 meters, the 

allowable maximum ERP expressed in 

decibels above 1 kW (dBk) is 

determined using the following formula, 

with HAAT expressed in meters: 

ERPmax = 97.35¥33.24 * log10(HAAT) 

(iii) For TV stations located in Zone 

II or III that operate on channels 7–13 

with an HAAT that exceeds 610 meters, 

the allowable maximum ERP expressed 

in decibels above 1 kW (dBk) is 

determined using the following formula, 

with HAAT expressed in meters: 

ERPmax = 62.34¥17.08 * log10(HAAT) 

(3) A TV station that operates on a 

channel 14–36 allotment will be 

allowed a maximum ERP of 1000 kW if 

its antenna HAAT is at or below 365 

meters. 

(i) At higher HAAT levels, such TV 

stations will be allowed to operates with 

lower maximum ERP levels in 

accordance with the following table and 

formulas (the allowable maximum ERP 

for intermediate values of HAAT is 

determined using linear interpolation 

based on the units employed in the 

table): 

TABLE 3 TO PARAGRAPH (b)(3)(i)— 

MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE ERP AND ANTENNA HEIGHT FOR TV STATIONS

ON CHANNELS 14–36, ALL ZONES

Antenna HAAT 

(meters) 

ERP 

(kW) 

610 .................................................... 316 

580 .................................................... 350 

550 .................................................... 400 

520 .................................................... 460 

490 .................................................... 540 

460 .................................................... 630 

425 .................................................... 750 

395 .................................................... 900 

365 .................................................... 1000 

(ii) For TV stations located in Zone I, 

II or III that operate on channels 14–36 

with an HAAT that exceeds 610 meters, 

the allowable maximum ERP expressed 

in decibels above 1 kW (dBk) is 

determined using the following formula, 

with HAAT expressed in meters: 

ERPmax = 72.57¥17.08 * log10(HAAT) 

Where: 

ERPmax = Maximum Effective Radiated Power 

measured in decibels above 1 kW (dBk). 

HAAT = Height Above Average Terrain 

measured in meters. 

(4) and (5) [Reserved] 

(6) The effective radiated power in 

any horizontal or vertical direction may 

not exceed the maximum values 

permitted by this section, except that 

licensees and permittees may request an 

increase in either ERP in some 

azimuthal direction or antenna HAAT, 

or both, up to the maximum permissible 

limits on TV power set forth in 

paragraph (b)(1), (2), or (3) of this 

section, as appropriate, up to that 

needed to provide the same geographic 

coverage area as the largest station 

within their market. Such requests must 

be accompanied by a technical showing 

that the increase complies with the 

technical criteria in § 73.620, and 

thereby will not result in new 

interference exceeding the de minimis 

standard set forth in that section, or 

statements agreeing to the change from 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7245 

any co-channel or adjacent channel 

stations that might be affected by 

potential new interference, in 

accordance with § 73.620(e). For the 

purposes of this paragraph: 

(i) The maximum ERP value shall not 

exceed the maximum permitted at any 

height within the relevant zone 

consistent with the values permitted in 

paragraph (b)(1), (2), or (3) of this 

section. The associated maximum 

height for that given ERP may be 

exceeded. 

(ii) Stations in the same Nielsen DMA 

are considered to be in the same market. 

(iii) ‘‘Geographic coverage area’’ is 

defined as the number of square 

kilometers found within a station’s 

F(50,90) contour as calculated in 

§ 73.619. A station taking advantage of 

this provision need not specify coverage 

that is congruent with or encompassed 

by the largest station in the market. 

* * * * * 

§ 73.615 [Removed] 

■ 11. Remove § 73.615. 

■ 12. Section 73.616 is amended by: 

■ a. Revising the section heading; 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(a), (b), and (c); 

■ c. Revising the introductory text to 

paragraph (d) and paragraph (d)(1); and 

■ d. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(d)(2), (e) and (g) to read as follows: 

§ 73.616 References to TV station 

interference protection methodology. 

* * * * * 

(d) Calculation of interference (1) For 

evaluating compliance with the 

requirements of this paragraph, 

interference to populations served is to 

be predicted based on the most recent 

official decennial U.S. Census 

population data as identified by the 

Media Bureau in a Public Notice issued 

not less than 60 days prior to use of the 

data for a specific year in application 

processing and otherwise according to 

the procedure set forth in OET Bulletin 

No. 69: ‘‘Longley-Rice Methodology for 

Evaluating TV Coverage and 

Interference’’ (February 6, 2004) 

(incorporated by reference, see 

§ 73.8000), including population served 

within service areas determined in 

accordance with § 73.619, consideration 

of whether F(50,10) undesired signals 

will exceed the following desired-toundesired (D/U) signal ratios, assumed 

use of a directional receiving antenna, 

and use of the terrain dependent 

Longley-Rice point-to-point propagation 

model. Applicants may request the use 

of a cell size other than the default of 

2.0 km per side, but only requests for 

cell sizes of 1.0 km per side or 0.5 km 

per side will be considered. The 

threshold levels at which interference is 

considered to occur are: 

* * * * * 

■ 13. Add § 73.617 to read as follows: 

§ 73.617 Interference protection of other 

services. 

(a) Protection of land mobile 

operations on channels 14–20. The 

Commission will not accept petitions to 

amend the Table of TV Allotments, 

applications for new TV stations, or 

applications to change the channel or 

location of authorized TV stations that 

would use channels 14–20 where the 

distance between the TV reference 

coordinates as defined in § 73.622(d), 

would be located less than 250 km from 

the city center of a co-channel land 

mobile operation or 176 km from the 

city center of an adjacent channel land 

mobile operation. Such filings that do 

not meet the minimum TV-to-land 

mobile spacing standards will, however, 

be considered where all affected land 

mobile licensees consent to the 

requested action. Land mobile 

operations are authorized on these 

channels in the following markets: 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (a)—LAND MOBILE OPERATIONS TO BE PROTECTED

City Channels Latitude Longitude 

Boston, MA ......................................................................................................................... 14, 16 ............... 42°21′24.4′′ 71°03′23.2′′ 

Chicago, IL .......................................................................................................................... 14, 15 ............... 41°52′28.1′′ 87°38′22.2′′ 

Cleveland, OH .................................................................................................................... 14, 15 ............... 41°29′51.2′′ 81°49′49.5′′ 

Dallas, TX ........................................................................................................................... 16 ..................... 32°47′09.5′′ 96°47′38.0′′ 

Detroit, MI ........................................................................................................................... 15, 16 ............... 42°19′48.1′′ 83°02′56.7′′ 

Houston, TX ........................................................................................................................ 17 ..................... 29°45′26.8′′ 95°21′37.8′′ 

Los Angeles, CA ................................................................................................................. 14, 16, 20 ......... 34°03′15.0′′ 118°14′31.3′′ 

Miami, FL ............................................................................................................................ 14 ..................... 25°46′38.4′′ 80°11′31.2′′ 

New York, NY ..................................................................................................................... 14, 15, 16 ......... 40°45′06.4′′ 73°59′37.5′′ 

Philadelphia, PA ................................................................................................................. 19, 20 ............... 39°56′58.4′′ 75°09′19.6′′ 

Pittsburgh, PA ..................................................................................................................... 14, 18 ............... 40°26′19.2′′ 79°59′59.2′′ 

San Francisco, CA .............................................................................................................. 16, 17 ............... 37°46′38.7′′ 122°24′43.9′′ 

Washington, DC .................................................................................................................. 17, 18 ............... 38°53′51.4′′ 77°00′31.9′′ 

Note 1 to paragraph (a). The Chief, Public 

Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, 

waived the rules to allow channel 15 to be 

used for land mobile operation in Los 

Angeles County, CA (DA 08–2823; adopted 

December 30, 2008). Notwithstanding the 

channels listed in paragraph (a) of this 

section, the waiver requires television 

stations to protect this land mobile operation. 

(b) Protection of land mobile 

operations below channel 14. (1) TV 

broadcast stations operating on Channel 

14 must take special precautions to 

avoid interference to adjacent spectrum 

land mobile radio service facilities. 

Where a TV station is authorized and 

operating prior to the authorization and 

operation of the land mobile facility, a 

Channel 14 station must attenuate its 

emissions within the frequency range 

467 to 470 MHz if necessary to permit 

reasonable use of the adjacent 

frequencies by land mobile licensees. 

(2) The requirements listed below 

apply to permittees authorized to 

construct a new station on TV Channel 

14, and to licensees authorized to 

change the channel of an existing 

station to Channel 14, to increase 

effective radiated power (ERP) 

(including any change in directional 

antenna characteristics that results in an 

increase in ERP in any direction), or to 

change the transmitting location of an 

existing station. 

(i) For the purposes of this paragraph 

(b), a protected land mobile facility is a 

receiver that is intended to receive 

transmissions from licensed land mobile 

stations within the frequency band 

below 470 MHz, and is associated with 

one or more land mobile stations for 

which a license has been issued by the 

Commission, or a proper application has 

been received by the Commission prior 

to the date of the filing of the TV 

construction permit application. 

However, a land mobile facility will not 

be protected if it is proposed in an 

application that is denied or dismissed 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7246 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

and that action is no longer subject to 

Commission review. Further, if the land 

mobile station is not operating when the 

TV facility commences operation and it 

does not commence operation within 

the time permitted by its authorization 

in accordance with part 90 of this 

chapter, it will not be protected. 

(ii) A TV permittee must take steps 

before construction to identify potential 

interference to normal land mobile 

operation that could be caused by TV 

emissions outside the authorized 

channel, land mobile receiver 

desensitization or intermodulation. It 

must install filters and take other 

precautions as necessary, and submit 

evidence that no interference is being 

caused before it will be permitted to 

transmit programming on the new 

facilities pursuant to the provisions of 

§ 73.1615 or § 73.1620. A TV permittee 

must reduce its emissions within the 

land mobile channel of a protected land 

mobile facility that is receiving 

interference caused by the TV emission 

producing a vertically polarized signal 

and a field strength in excess of 17 dBu 

at the land mobile receiver site on the 

land mobile frequency. The TV 

emission should be measured with 

equipment set to a 30 kHz measurement 

bandwidth including the entire 

applicable land mobile channel. A TV 

permittee must correct a desensitization 

problem if its occurrence can be directly 

linked to the start of the TV operation 

and the land mobile station is using 

facilities with typical desensitization 

rejection characteristics. A TV permittee 

must identify the source of an 

intermodulation product that is 

generated when the TV operation 

commences. If the intermodulation 

source is under its control, the TV 

permittee must correct the problem. If 

the intermodulation source is beyond 

the TV permittee’s control, it must 

cooperate in the resolution of the 

problem and should provide whatever 

technical assistance it can. 

(c) Channel 6 protection of FM radio 

stations. Parties requesting new 

allotments on channel 6 be added to the 

Table of TV Allotments must submit an 

engineering study demonstrating that no 

interference would be caused to existing 

FM radio stations on FM channels 200– 

220. 

(d) Blanketing interference. Present 

information is not sufficiently complete 

to establish blanketing interference 

areas for television broadcast stations. 

Blanketing interference is interference 

in an area adjacent to a transmitter in 

which the reception of other stations is 

subject to interference due to the strong 

signal from this station. The 

authorization of station construction in 

areas where blanketing interference is 

found to be excessive will be on the 

basis that the applicant will assume full 

responsibility for the adjustment of 

reasonable complaints arising from 

excessively strong signals of the 

applicant’s station or take other 

corrective action. 

(e) Medical telemetry device 

notification condition. Stations should 

be aware that a condition is placed on 

all TV broadcast station authorizations 

that result in a change in coverage area, 

including all authorizations for new 

stations, which requires TV broadcasters 

to identify and notify hospital and other 

health care facilities within the station’s 

coverage area to avoid interference to 

medical telemetry devices. 

■ 14. Add § 73.618 to read as follows: 

§ 73.618 Antenna location and principal 

community coverage. 

(a) The TV antenna location shall be 

chosen so that, on the basis of the 

effective radiated power (ERP) and 

antenna height above average terrain 

(HAAT) employed, the following 

minimum F(50,90) field strength in dB 

above one uV/m will be provided over 

the entire principal community to be 

served: 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (a)—MINIMUM

FIELD STRENGTH REQUIRED OVER

PRINCIPAL COMMUNITY

dBu 

Channels 2–6 ................................... 35 

Channels 7–13 ................................. 43 

Channels 14–36 ............................... 48 

(b) The location of the antenna must 

be so chosen that there is not a major 

obstruction in the path over the 

principal community to be served. 

(c) For the purposes of this section, 

coverage is to be determined in 

accordance with § 73.619(b). Under 

actual conditions, the true coverage may 

vary from these estimates because the 

terrain over any specific path is 

expected to be different from the 

average terrain on which the field 

strength charts were based. Further, the 

actual extent of service will usually be 

less than indicated by these estimates 

due to interference from other stations. 

Because of these factors, the predicted 

field strength contours give no 

assurance of service to any specific 

percentage of receiver locations within 

the distances indicated. 

■ 15. Add § 73.619 to read as follows: 

§ 73.619 Contours and service areas. 

(a) Purposes of the field strength 

contours. The field strength contours 

will be considered for the following 

purposes only: 

(1) In the estimation of coverage 

resulting from the selection of a 

particular transmitting antenna site by 

an applicant for a TV station. 

(2) In connection with problems of 

coverage arising out of application of 

§ 73.3555. 

(3) In determining compliance with 

§ 73.618(a) concerning the minimum 

field strength to be provided over the 

principal community to be served. 

(b) Determining coverage. (1) In 

predicting the distance to the field 

strength contours, the F (50,50) field 

strength charts (Figures 9, 10 and 10b of 

§ 73.699) and the F (50,10) field strength 

charts (Figures 9a, 10a and 10c of 

§ 73.699) shall be used. To use the 

charts to predict the distance to a given 

F (50,90) contour, the following 

procedure is used: Convert the effective 

radiated power in kilowatts for the 

appropriate azimuth into decibel value 

referenced to 1 kW (dBk). Subtract the 

power value in dBk from the contour 

value in dBu. Note that for power less 

than 1 kW, the difference value will be 

greater than the contour value because 

the power in dBk is negative. Locate the 

difference value obtained on the vertical 

scale at the left edge of the appropriate 

F (50,50) chart for the TV station’s 

channel. Follow the horizontal line for 

that value into the chart to the point of 

intersection with the vertical line above 

the height of the antenna above average 

terrain for the appropriate azimuth 

located on the scale at the bottom of the 

chart. If the point of intersection does 

not fall exactly on a distance curve, 

interpolate between the distance curves 

below and above the intersection point. 

The distance values for the curves are 

located along the right edge of the chart. 

Using the appropriate F (50,10) chart for 

the DTV station’s channel, locate the 

point where the distance coincides with 

the vertical line above the height of the 

antenna above average terrain for the 

appropriate azimuth located on the 

scale at the bottom of the chart. Follow 

a horizontal line from that point to the 

left edge of the chart to determine the 

F (50,10) difference value. Add the 

power value in dBk to this difference 

value to determine the F (50,10) contour 

value in dBu. Subtract the F (50,50) 

contour value in dBu from this F (50,10) 

contour value in dBu. Subtract this 

difference from the F (50,50) contour 

value in dBu to determine the F (50,90) 

contour value in dBu at the pertinent 

distance along the pertinent radial. 

(2)(i) The effective radiated power to 

be used is that radiated at the vertical 

angle corresponding to the depression 

angle between the transmitting antenna 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7247 

center of radiation and the radio horizon 

as determined individually for each 

azimuthal direction concerned. The 

depression angle is based on the 

difference in elevation of the antenna 

center of radiation above the average 

terrain and the radio horizon, assuming 

a smooth spherical earth with a radius 

of 8,495.5 kilometers (5,280 miles) and 

shall be determined by the following 

equation: 

Equation 1 to Paragraph (b)(2)(i) 

A = 0.0277 × √H 

Where: 

A is the depression angle in degrees. 

H is the height in meters of the transmitting 

antenna radiation center above average 

terrain of the 3.2–16.1 kilometers (2–10 

miles) sector of the pertinent radial. 

(ii) This equation is empirically 

derived for the limited purpose 

specified here of determining distance 

to filed strength contours for coverage. 

Its use for any other purpose may be 

inappropriate. 

(3) Applicants for new TV stations or 

changes in the facilities of existing TV 

stations must submit to the FCC a 

showing as to the location of their 

stations’ or proposed stations’ contour. 

This showing is to include a map 

showing this contour, except where 

applicants have previously submitted 

material to the FCC containing such 

information and it is found upon careful 

examination that the contour locations 

indicated therein would not change, on 

any radial, when the locations are 

determined under this section. In the 

latter cases, a statement by a qualified 

engineer to this effect will satisfy this 

requirement and no contour maps need 

be submitted. 

(4) The antenna height to be used 

with these charts is the height of the 

radiation center of the antenna above 

the average terrain along the radial in 

question. In determining the average 

elevation of the terrain, the elevations 

between 3.2–16.1 kilometers (2–10 

miles) from the antenna site are 

employed. Path profiles shall be 

determined for 8 radials beginning at 

the antenna site and extending 16.1 

kilometers (10 miles) therefrom. The 

radials should be determined for each 

45 degrees of azimuth starting with True 

North. 10 points per kilometer of 

elevation (uniformly spaced) should be 

used for each radial. It is not necessary 

to take the curvature of the earth into 

consideration in this procedure, as this 

factor is taken care of in the charts 

showing signal strengths. The average 

elevation of the 12.9 kilometer (8 miles) 

distance between 3.2–16.1 kilometers 

(2–10 miles) from the antenna site 

should then be determined from the 

path profile for each radial. In directions 

where the terrain is such that negative 

antenna heights or heights below 30.5 

meters (100 feet) for the 3.2 to 16.1 

kilometers (2 to 10 mile) sector are 

obtained, an assumed height of 30.5 

meters (100 feet) shall be used for the 

prediction of coverage. Actual 

calculated values should be used for 

computation of height above average 

terrain. 

(5) In the preparation of the path 

profiles previously described, and in 

determining the location and height 

above sea level of the antenna site, the 

elevation or contour intervals shall be 

taken from a high quality bald earth 

terrain map or dataset such as the 

United States Geological Survey 

Topographic Quadrangle Maps or the 

National Elevation Dataset. If a dataset 

is used, the data must be processed for 

intermediate points along each radial 

using linear interpolation techniques. 

(6) It is anticipated that many of these 

calculations may be done using 

computer software and with 

computerized datasets. If software or 

datasets besides those officially adopted 

by the FCC are utilized, the alternate 

software or data must be identified. 

(c) TV Service Areas. (1) The service 

area of a TV station is the geographic 

area within the station’s noise-limited 

F(50,90) contour where its signal 

strength is predicted to exceed the 

noise-limited service level. The noiselimited contour is the area in which the 

predicted F(50,90) field strength of the 

station’s signal, in dB above 1 microvolt 

per meter (dBu) as determined using the 

method in § 73.619(b) exceeds the 

following levels (these are the levels at 

which reception of TV service is limited 

by noise): 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (c)(1)— 

NOISE LIMITED SERVICE LEVELS

dBu 

Channels 2–6 ................................... 28 

Channels 7–13 ................................. 36 

Channels 14–36 ............................... 41 

(2) Within this contour, service is 

considered available at locations where 

the station’s signal strength, as 

predicted using the terrain dependent 

Longley-Rice point-to-point propagation 

model, exceeds the levels in table 1 to 

paragraph (c)(1). Guidance for 

evaluating coverage areas using the 

Longley-Rice methodology is provided 

in OET Bulletin No. 69. For availability 

of OET Bulletin No. 69 (which is 

incorporated by reference elsewhere in 

this part), contact FCC (see § 73.8000 for 

contact information). 

(d) Protected facilities of an allotment. 

The protected facilities of a TV 

allotment shall be the facilities (effective 

radiated power, antenna height and 

antenna directional radiation pattern, if 

any) authorized by a construction 

permit or license, or, where such an 

authorization is not available for 

establishing reference facilities, the 

facilities designated in the FCC order 

creating or modifying the Table of TV 

Allotments. 

■ 16. Add § 73.620 to read as follows: 

§ 73.620 Interference calculation and 

protection of TV broadcast services. 

(a) Due to the frequency spacing that 

exists between Channels 4 and 5, 

between Channels 6 and 7, and between 

Channels 13 and 14, the minimum 

adjacent channel technical criteria 

specified in this section shall not be 

applicable to these pairs of channels 

(see § 73.603(a)). 

(b) Interference is to be predicted 

based on the procedures found in 

§ 73.616(d)(1). 

(c) An application will not be 

accepted if it is predicted to cause 

interference to more than an additional 

0.5 percent of the population served by 

another TV station. For this purpose, the 

population served by the station 

receiving additional interference does 

not include portions of the population 

within the noise-limited service contour 

of that station that are predicted to 

receive interference from the TV 

allotment facilities of the applicant or 

portions of that population receiving 

masking interference from any other 

station. 

(d) A petition to add a new channel 

to the TV Table or any application to 

modify an existing TV station or 

allotment will not be accepted if it is 

predicted to cause more than 0.5 

percent new interference, consistent 

with paragraphs (a) and (b) of this 

section, to a Class A TV station 

authorized pursuant to subpart J of this 

part, within the protected contour 

defined in § 73.6010. 

(e) Negotiated agreements on 

interference. TV stations may operate 

with increased effective radiated power 

(ERP) and/or antenna height above 

average terrain (HAAT) that would 

result in more than 0.5 percent 

additional interference to another TV 

station if that station agrees, in writing, 

to accept the additional interference. 

Such agreements must be submitted 

with the application for authority to 

construct or modify the affected TV 

station. Negotiated agreements under 

this paragraph can include the exchange 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7248 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

of money or other considerations from 

one station to another, including 

payments to and from noncommercial 

television stations assigned to reserved 

channels. Applications submitted 

pursuant to the provisions of this 

paragraph will be granted only if the 

Commission finds that such action is 

consistent with the public interest. 

(f) The interference protection 

requirements contained in this section 

apply to television station operations 

under both the TV transmission 

standard in § 73.682(d) and the Next 

Gen TV transmission standard in 

§ 73.682(f). 

■ 17. Section 73.621 is amended by 

removing and reserving paragraphs (g) 

and (h) and revising paragraph (j). 

§ 73.621 Noncommercial educational TV 

stations. 

* * * * * 

(j) The requirements of this section 

apply to the entire digital bitstream of 

noncommercial educational television 

stations, including the provision of 

ancillary or supplementary services. 

■ 18. Amend § 73.622 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraph (a); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(c); 

■ c. Revising the introductory text to 

paragraph (d); 

■ d. Removing paragraphs (d)(1) and 

(d)(2); 

■ e. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(e) through (i); 

■ f. In the table in paragraph (j), under 

Oklahoma, revising the entry for Tulsa; 

and 

■ g. Adding paragraph (k). 

§ 73.622 Table of TV allotments. 

(a) General. The following table of TV 

allotments contains the television 

channel allotments designated for the 

listed communities in the United States, 

its Territories, and possessions. 

Requests for addition of new TV 

allotments, or requests to change the 

channels allotted to a community, must 

be made in a petition for rule making to 

amend the Table of TV Allotments. A 

request to amend the Table of TV 

Allotments to add an allotment or 

change the channel of an allotment in 

the Table will be evaluated for technical 

acceptability using engineering criteria 

set forth in §§ 73.617, 73.618, and 

73.620. A request to amend the TV table 

to add a new allotment will be 

evaluated for technical acceptability 

using the geographic spacing criteria set 

forth in § 73.622(k) and the engineering 

criteria set forth in §§ 73.614, 73.617, 

73.618, and 73.620(a) and (d). TV 

allotments designated with an asterisk 

are assigned for use by non-commercial 

educational broadcast stations only. 

Rules governing noncommercial 

educational TV stations are contained in 

§ 73.621. 

(b) and (c) [Reserved] 

(d) Reference points and distance 

computations. The reference 

coordinates of a TV allotment shall be 

the coordinates of the authorized 

facility. Where such a transmitter site is 

not available for use as reference 

coordinates, such as a new allotment, 

the coordinates shall be those 

designated in the FCC order modifying 

the Table of TV Allotments. 

(e) through (i) [Reserved] 

(j) Table of TV Allotments. 

Community Channel No. 

* * * * * 

Tulsa .......... 8, * 11, 12, 14, 16, 22, 26, 34. 

* * * * * 

(k) Minimum geographic spacing 

requirements for new TV allotments. No 

petition to add a new channel to the 

Table of TV Allotments will be accepted 

unless it shows compliance with the 

requirements of this paragraph. 

(1) Requests filed pursuant to this 

paragraph must demonstrate 

compliance with the principal 

community coverage requirements of 

§ 73.618. 

(2) Requests filed pursuant to this 

paragraph must meet the following 

requirements for geographic spacing 

with regard to all other TV stations and 

allotments: 

(i) For VHF channels 2–13 in Zone I, 

co-channel allotments must be 

separated by 244.6 km, and no adjacentchannel allotments are permitted 

between 20 km and 110 km. 

(ii) For UHF channels 14–36 in Zone 

I, co-channel allotments must be 

separated by 196.3 km, and no adjacentchannel allotments are permitted 

between 24 km and 110 km. 

(iii) For VHF channels 2–13 in Zones 

II and III, co-channel allotments must be 

separated by 273.6 km, and no adjacentchannel allotments are permitted 

between 23 km and 110 km. 

(iv) For UHF channels 14–36 in Zones 

II and III, co-channel allotments must be 

separated by 223.7 km, and no adjacentchannel allotments are permitted 

between 24 km and 110 km. 

(3) Zones are defined in § 73.609. The 

minimum distance separation between a 

TV station in one zone and TV station 

in another zone shall be that of the zone 

requiring the lower separation. 

(4) Due to the frequency spacing that 

exists between Channels 4 and 5, 

between Channels 6 and 7, and between 

Channels 13 and 14, the minimum 

geographic spacing requirements 

specified in paragraph (k)(2) of this 

section shall not be applicable to these 

pairs of channels (§ 73.603(a)). 

■ 19. Revise § 73.623 to read as follows: 

§ 73.623 TV application processing. 

(a) General. Applications for new TV 

broadcast stations or for changes in 

authorized TV stations filed pursuant to 

this section will not be accepted for 

filing if they fail to comply with the 

requirements of this section and 

§§ 73.614, 73.617, 73.618, and 73.620. 

(b) Availability of channels. 

Applications may be filed to construct 

TV broadcast stations only on the 

channels designated in the Table of TV 

Allotments set forth in § 73.622(j), and 

only in the communities listed therein. 

Applications that fail to comply with 

this requirement, whether or not 

accompanied by a petition to amend the 

TV Table, will not be accepted for filing. 

(c) through (g) [Reserved] 

(h) TV application processing 

priorities are as follows: 

(1) [Reserved] 

(2) TV applications for a construction 

permit or a modified construction 

permit: 

(i) Shall be afforded the interference 

protection set forth in § 73.620: 

(A) through (C) [Reserved] 

(D) By later-filed TV applications; and 

(E) By later-filed rulemaking petitions 

to amend the Table of TV Allotments; 

(ii) Must demonstrate the requisite 

interference protection set forth in 

§ 73.620 to: 

(A) TV licensed stations; 

(B) TV construction permits; 

(C) Earlier-filed TV applications; 

(D) Existing TV allotments; 

(E) Rulemaking petitions to amend the 

Table of TV Allotments for which a 

Notice of Proposed Rule Making has 

been released and the comment 

deadline specified therein has passed 

prior to the filing date of the TV 

application; 

(F) through (J) [Reserved] 

(iii) That do not provide the requisite 

interference protection set forth § 73.620 

to the following applications and 

petitions will be deemed mutually 

exclusive with those applications and 

petitions: 

(A) Other TV applications filed the 

same day; 

(B) Rulemaking petitions to amend 

the Table of TV Allotments for which a 

Notice of Proposed Rule Making had 

been released and the comment 

deadline specified therein had not 

passed prior to the filing date of the TV 

application; and 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7249 

(C) Earlier-filed rulemaking petitions 

to amend the Table of TV Allotments for 

which a Notice of Proposed Rule 

Making had not been released. 

(3) TV applicants and TV rulemaking 

petitioners that are mutually exclusive 

pursuant to this section will be notified 

by Public Notice and provided with a 

90-day period of time to resolve their 

mutual exclusivity via engineering 

amendment or settlement. Those 

applications and petitions that remain 

mutually exclusive upon conclusion of 

the 90-day settlement period will be 

dismissed. 

■ 20. Revise § 73.624 to read as follows: 

§ 73.624 Television broadcast stations. 

(a) Television broadcast stations are 

assigned channels 6 MHz wide. 

(b) Minimum programming 

requirements. The TV service that is 

provided pursuant to this paragraph (b) 

must have a resolution of at least 480i 

(vertical resolution of 480 lines, 

interlaced). 

(1) TV licensees or permittees that 

broadcast in ATSC 1.0 (using the 

transmission standard in 73.682(d)) 

shall transmit at least one free over the 

air video program signal at no direct 

charge to viewers. 

(2) [Reserved] 

(3) TV licensees or permittees that 

choose to broadcast an ATSC 3.0 signal 

(using the Next Gen TV transmission 

standard in § 73.682(f)) shall transmit at 

least one free over the air video 

programming stream on that signal that 

requires at most the signal threshold of 

a comparable received TV signal. TV 

licensees or permittees that choose to 

broadcast an ATSC 3.0 signal (using the 

Next Gen TV transmission standard in 

§ 73.682(f)) shall also simulcast the 

primary video programming stream on 

its ATSC 3.0 signal by broadcasting an 

ATSC 1.0 signal (using the TV 

transmission standard in § 73.682(d)) 

from another broadcast television 

facility within its local market in 

accordance with the local simulcasting 

requirement in § 73.3801 and § 73.6029 

and § 74.782 of this chapter. 

(c) Provided that TV broadcast 

stations comply with paragraph (b) of 

this section, TV broadcast stations are 

permitted to offer services of any nature, 

consistent with the public interest, 

convenience, and necessity, on an 

ancillary or supplementary basis. The 

kinds of services that may be provided 

include, but are not limited to computer 

software distribution, data 

transmissions, teletext, interactive 

materials, aural messages, paging 

services, audio signals, subscription 

video, and any other services that do not 

derogate TV broadcast stations’ 

obligations under paragraph (b) of this 

section. Such services may be provided 

on a broadcast, point-to-point or pointto-multipoint basis, provided, however, 

that any video broadcast signal provided 

at no direct charge to viewers shall not 

be considered ancillary or 

supplementary. 

(1) TV licensees that provide ancillary 

or supplementary services that are 

analogous to other services subject to 

regulation by the Commission must 

comply with the Commission 

regulations that apply to those services, 

provided, however, that no ancillary or 

supplementary service shall have any 

rights to carriage under §§ 614 or 615 of 

the Communications Act of 1934, as 

amended, or be deemed a multichannel 

video programming distributor for 

purposes of section 628 of the 

Communications Act of 1934, as 

amended. 

(2) In all arrangements entered into 

with outside parties affecting service 

operation, the TV licensee or permittee 

must retain control over all material 

transmitted in a broadcast mode via the 

station’s facilities, with the right to 

reject any material in the sole judgement 

of the permittee or licensee. The license 

or permittee is also responsible for all 

aspects of technical operation involving 

such telecommunications services. 

(3) In any application for renewal of 

a broadcast license for a television 

station that provides ancillary or 

supplementary services, a licensee shall 

establish that all of its program services 

are in the public interest. Any violation 

of the Commission’s rules applicable to 

ancillary or supplementary services will 

reflect on the licensee’s qualifications 

for renewal of its license. 

(d) through (f) [Reserved] 

(g) Commercial TV licensees and 

permittees, and low power television, 

TV translator, and Class A licensees and 

permittees, must annually remit a fee of 

5 percent of the gross revenues derived 

from all ancillary and supplementary 

services, as defined by paragraph (c) of 

this section, which are feeable, as 

defined in paragraphs (g)(1)(i) and (ii) of 

this section. Noncommercial TV 

licensees and permittees must annually 

remit a fee of 5 percent of the gross 

revenues derived from all ancillary and 

supplementary services, as defined by 

paragraph (c) of this section, which are 

feeable, as defined in paragraphs 

(g)(1)(i) and (ii) of this section, except 

that such licensees and permittees must 

annually remit a fee of 2.5 percent of the 

gross revenues from such ancillary or 

supplementary services which are 

nonprofit, noncommercial, and 

educational. 

(1)(i) All ancillary or supplementary 

services for which payment of a 

subscription fee or charge is required in 

order to receive the service are feeable. 

The fee required by this provision shall 

be imposed on any and all revenues 

from such services, including revenues 

derived from subscription fees and from 

any commercial advertisements 

transmitted on the service. 

(ii) Any ancillary or supplementary 

service for which no payment is 

required from consumers in order to 

receive the service is feeable if the TV 

licensee directly or indirectly receives 

compensation from a third party in 

return for the transmission of material 

provided by that third party (other than 

commercial advertisements used to 

support broadcasting for which a 

subscription fee is not required). The fee 

required by this provision shall be 

imposed on any and all revenues from 

such services, other than revenues 

received from a third party in return for 

the transmission of commercial 

advertisements used to support 

broadcasting for which a subscription 

fee is not required. 

(2) Payment of fees. (i) Each December 

1, all commercial and noncommercial 

TV licensees and permittees that 

provided feeable ancillary or 

supplementary services as defined in 

this section at any point during the 12- 

month period ending on the preceding 

September 30 will electronically report, 

for the applicable period: 

(A) A brief description of the feeable 

ancillary or supplementary services 

provided; 

(B) Gross revenues received from all 

feeable ancillary and supplementary 

services provided during the applicable 

period; and 

(C) The amount of bitstream used to 

provide feeable ancillary or 

supplementary services during the 

applicable period. Licensees and 

permittees will certify under penalty of 

perjury the accuracy of the information 

reported. Failure to file information 

required by this section may result in 

appropriate sanctions. 

(ii) A commercial or noncommercial 

TV licensee or permittee that has 

provided feeable ancillary or 

supplementary services at any point 

during a 12-month period ending on 

September 30 must additionally file the 

FCC’s standard remittance form (Form 

159) on the subsequent December 1. 

Licensees and permittees will certify the 

amount of gross revenues received from 

feeable ancillary or supplementary 

services for the applicable 12-month 

period and will remit the payment of 

the required fee. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7250 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

(iii) The Commission reserves the 

right to audit each licensee’s or 

permittee’s records which support the 

calculation of the amount specified on 

line 23A of Form 159. Each licensee or 

permittee, therefore, is required to retain 

such records for three years from the 

date of remittance of fees. 

■ 21. Amend § 73.625 by: 

■ a. Revising the section heading; 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(a) and (b); 

■ c. Revising paragraphs (c)(3)(ii) and 

(v); 

■ d. Adding paragraphs (c)(3)(vii) and 

(viii); 

■ e. Revising paragraphs (c)(4)(i) and 

(ii); 

■ f. Adding paragraph (c)(4)(iii); 

■ g. Revising paragraph (c)(5) 

introductory text; and 

■ h. Adding paragraph (d). 

The revisions and additions read as 

follows: 

§ 73.625 TV antenna system. 

(a) through (b) [Reserved] 

(c) * * * 

(3) * * * 

(ii) Relative field azimuth plane 

pattern (patterns for both horizontal and 

vertical polarization should be included 

if elliptical or circular polarization is 

used consistent with paragraph (d) of 

this section) of the proposed directional 

antenna. A value of 1.0 should be used 

for the maximum radiation in the 

horizontal polarization. The plot of the 

pattern should be oriented so that 0 

degrees corresponds to true North. 

Where mechanical beam tilt is intended, 

the amount of tilt in degrees of the 

antenna vertical axis and the orientation 

of the downward tilt with respect to true 

North must be specified, and a 

tabulation of the elevation pattern 

included consistent with paragraph 

(c)(3)(vii) of this section. A horizontal 

plane pattern reflecting the use of 

mechanical beam tilt may be requested 

if required to facilitate international 

coordination. 

* * * * * 

(v) All azimuth plane patterns must 

be plotted in a PDF attachment to the 

application in a size sufficient to be 

easily viewed. 

* * * * * 

(vii) If an elevation pattern is 

submitted in the application form, 

similar tabulations and PDF attachments 

shall be provided for the elevation 

pattern. 

(viii) If a matrix pattern is submitted 

in the application form, similar 

tabulations shall be provided as 

necessary in the form of a spreadsheet 

to accurately represent the pattern. 

(4) * * * 

(i) In cases where it is proposed to use 

a tower of an AM broadcast station as 

a supporting structure for a TV 

broadcast antenna, an appropriate 

application for changes in the radiating 

system of the AM broadcast station must 

be filed by the licensee thereof. A formal 

application (FCC Form 301, or FCC 

Form 340 for a noncommercial 

educational station) will be required if 

the proposal involves substantial change 

in the physical height or radiation 

characteristics of the AM broadcast 

antennas; otherwise an informal 

application will be acceptable. (In case 

of doubt, an informal application (letter) 

together with complete engineering data 

should be submitted.) An application 

may be required for other classes of 

stations when the tower is to be used in 

connection with a TV station. 

(ii) When the proposed TV antenna is 

to be mounted on a tower in the vicinity 

of an AM station directional antenna 

system and it appears that the operation 

of the directional antenna system may 

be affected, an engineering study must 

be filed with the TV application 

concerning the effect of the TV antenna 

on the AM directional radiation pattern. 

Field measurements of the AM stations 

may be required prior to and following 

construction of the TV station antenna, 

and readjustments made as necessary. 

(iii) In any case, where the TV 

licensee or permittee proposes to mount 

its antenna on or near an AM tower, as 

defined in § 1.30002, the TV licensee or 

permittee must comply with § 1.30002 

or § 1.30003, as applicable. 

(5) Applications proposing the use of 

electrical beam tilt must be 

accompanied by the following: 

* * * * * 

(d) It shall be standard to employ 

horizontal polarization. However, 

circular or elliptical polarization may be 

employed if desired, in which case 

clockwise (right hand) rotation, as 

defined in the IEEE Standard Definition 

42A65–3E2, and transmission of the 

horizontal and vertical components in 

time and space quadrature shall be 

used. For either omnidirectional or 

directional antennas the licensed 

effective radiated power of the vertically 

polarized component may not exceed 

the licensed effective radiated power of 

the horizontally polarized component. 

For directional antennas, the maximum 

effective radiated power of the vertically 

polarized component shall not exceed 

the maximum effective radiated power 

of the horizontally polarized component 

in any specified horizontal or vertical 

direction. 

■ 22. Section 73.626 is amended by 

revising the section heading and 

paragraphs (a), (b), (c)(1), (2), (d), (e), 

(f)(2) introductory text, (f)(2)(i) through 

(iii), (f)(4), (5), and (6) to read as follows: 

§ 73.626 TV distributed transmission 

systems. 

(a) Distributed transmission systems. 

A TV station may be authorized to 

operate multiple synchronized 

transmitters on its assigned channel to 

provide service consistent with the 

requirements of this section. Such 

operation is called a distributed 

transmission system (DTS). Except as 

expressly provided in this section, TV 

stations operating a DTS facility must 

comply with all rules applicable to TV 

single-transmitter stations. 

(b) Authorized service area. For 

purposes of compliance with this 

section, a station’s ‘‘authorized service 

area’’ is defined as the area within its 

predicted noise-limited service contour 

determined using the facilities 

authorized for the station in a license or 

construction permit for non-DTS, singletransmitter-location operation (its 

‘‘authorized facility’’). 

(c) * * * 

(1) TV station zones are defined in 

§ 73.609. 

(2) DTS reference point. A station’s 

DTS reference point is established in the 

FCC Order that created or made final 

modifications to the Table of TV 

Allotments, § 73.622(j), and the 

corresponding facilities for the station’s 

channel assignment as set forth in that 

FCC Order. 

(d) Determining DTS coverage. The 

coverage for each DTS transmitter is 

determined based on the F(50,90) field 

strength given in the Table of Distances 

(in paragraph (c) of this section), 

calculated in accordance with 

§ 73.619(b). The combined coverage of a 

DTS station is the logical union of the 

coverage of all DTS transmitters. 

(e) DTS protection from interference. 

A DTS station must be protected from 

interference in accordance with the 

criteria specified in § 73.620. To 

determine compliance with the 

interference protection requirements of 

§ 73.620, the population served by a 

DTS station shall be the population 

within the station’s combined coverage 

contour, excluding the population in 

areas that are outside both the TV 

station’s authorized service area and the 

Table of Distances area (in paragraph (c) 

of this section). Only population that is 

predicted to receive service by the 

method described in § 73.619(c)(2) from 

at least one individual DTS transmitter 

will be considered. 

(f) * * * 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7251 

(2) Each DTS transmitter’s coverage is 

contained within either the TV station’s 

Table of Distances area (pursuant to 

paragraph (c) of this section) or its 

authorized service area, except where 

such extension of coverage meets the 

following criteria: 

(i) In no event shall the F(50,50) 

service contour of any DTS transmitter 

extend beyond that of its authorized 

facility and its Table of Distances 

F(50,50) area; and 

(ii) In no event shall the F(50,10) 

node-interfering contour of any DTS 

transmitter, aside from one located at 

the site of its authorized facility, extend 

beyond the F(50,10) referenceinterfering contour of its authorized 

facility and its Table of Distances 

F(50,10) reference area; and 

(iii) In no event shall the F(50,10) 

reference-interfering contour of a facility 

located at the site of its authorized 

facility extend beyond the F(50,10) 

reference-interfering contour of its 

authorized facility; 

* * * * * 

(4) The coverage from one or more 

DTS transmitter(s) is shown to provide 

principal community coverage as 

required in § 73.618; 

(5) The ‘‘combined field strength’’ of 

all the DTS transmitters in a network 

does not cause interference to another 

station in excess of the criteria specified 

in § 73.620, where the combined field 

strength level is determined by a ‘‘rootsum-square’’ calculation, in which the 

combined field strength level at a given 

location is equal to the square root of 

the sum of the squared field strengths 

from each transmitter in the DTS 

network at that location. 

(6) Each DTS transmitter must be 

located within either the TV station’s 

Table of Distances area or its authorized 

service area. 

* * * * * 

§ 73.641 [Removed] 

■ 23. Remove § 73.641. 

§ 73.642 [Removed] 

■ 24. Remove § 73.642. 

§ 73.643 [Removed] 

■ 25. Remove § 73.643. 

§ 73.644 [Removed] 

■ 26. Remove § 73.644. 

§ 73.646 [Removed] 

■ 27. Remove § 73.646. 

§ 73.653 [Removed] 

■ 28. Remove § 73.653. 

■ 29. Revise § 73.664 to read as follows: 

§ 73.664 Determining operating power. 

(a) Required method. The operating 

power of each TV transmitter shall 

normally be determined by the direct 

method. 

(b) Direct method. The direct method 

of power determination for a TV 

transmitter uses the indications of a 

calibrated transmission line meter 

located at the RF output terminals of the 

transmitter. The indications of the 

calibrated meter are used to observe and 

maintain the authorized operating 

power of the transmitter. This meter 

must be calibrated whenever any 

component in the metering circuit is 

repaired or replaced and as often as 

necessary to ensure operation in 

accordance with the provisions of 

§ 73.1560. The following calibration 

procedures are to be used: 

(1) The transmission line meter is 

calibrated by measuring the average 

power at the output terminals of the 

transmitter, including any filters which 

may be used in normal operation. For 

this determination the average power 

output is measured while operating into 

a dummy load of substantially zero 

reactance and a resistance equal to the 

transmission line characteristic 

impedance. 

(2) If electrical devices are used to 

determine the output power, such 

devices must permit determination of 

this power to within an accuracy of ±5% 

of the power indicated by the full scale 

reading of the electrical indicating 

instrument of the device. If temperature 

and coolant flow indicating devices are 

used to determine the power output, 

such devices must permit determination 

of this power to within an accuracy of 

±4% of measured average power output. 

During this measurement the input 

voltage and current to the final radio 

frequency amplifier stage and the 

transmission line meter are to be read 

and compared with similar readings 

taken with the dummy load replaced by 

the antenna. These readings must be in 

substantial agreement. 

(3) The meter must be calibrated with 

the transmitter operating at 80%, 100%, 

and 110% of the authorized power as 

often as may be necessary to maintain 

its accuracy and ensure correct 

transmitter operating power. In cases 

where the transmitter is incapable of 

operating at 110% of the authorized 

power output, the calibration may be 

made at a power output between 100% 

and 110% of the authorized power 

output. However, where this is done, 

the output meter must be marked at the 

point of calibration of maximum power 

output, and the station will be deemed 

to be in violation of this rule if that 

power is exceeded. The upper and 

lower limits of permissible power 

deviation as determined by the 

prescribed calibration, must be shown 

upon the meter either by means of 

adjustable red markers incorporated in 

the meter or by red marks placed upon 

the meter scale or glass face. These 

markings must be checked and changed, 

if necessary, each time the meter is 

calibrated. 

(c) Indirect method. The operating 

power is determined by the indirect 

method by applying an appropriate 

factor to the input power to the final 

radio-frequency amplifier stage of the 

transmitter using the following formula: 

Formula 1 to introductory text of 

paragraph (c) 

Transmitter output power = Ep × Ip × F 

Where: 

Ep = DC input voltage of the final radiofrequency amplifier stage. 

Ip = DC input current of the final radiofrequency amplifier stage. 

F = Efficiency factor. 

(1) If the above formula is not 

appropriate for the design of the 

transmitter final amplifier, use a 

formula specified by the transmitter 

manufacturer with other appropriate 

operating parameters. 

(2) The value of the efficiency factor, 

F established for the authorized 

transmitter output power is to be used 

for maintaining the operating power, 

even though there may be some 

variation in F over the power operating 

range of the transmitter. 

(3) The value of F is to be determined 

and a record kept thereof by one of the 

following procedures listed in order of 

preference: 

(i) Using the most recent 

measurement data for calibration of the 

transmission line meter according to the 

procedures described in paragraph (b) of 

this section or the most recent 

measurements made by the licensee 

establishing the value of F. In the case 

of composite transmitters or those in 

which the final amplifier stages have 

been modified pursuant to FCC 

approval, the licensee must furnish the 

FCC and also retain with the station 

records the measurement data used as a 

basis for determining the value of F. 

(ii) Using measurement data shown 

on the transmitter manufacturer’s test 

data supplied to the licensee, provided 

that measurements were made at the 

authorized channel and transmitter 

output power. 

(iii) Using the transmitter 

manufacturer’s measurement data. 

§ 73.665 [Removed] 

■ 30. Remove § 73.665. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7252 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

§ 73.667 [Removed] 

■ 31. Remove § 73.667. 

§ 73.669 [Removed] 

■ 32. Remove § 73.669. 

■ 33. Revise § 73.681 to read as follows: 

§ 73.681 Definitions. 

Antenna electrical beam tilt. The 

shaping of the radiation pattern in the 

vertical plane of a transmitting antenna 

by electrical means so that maximum 

radiation occurs at an angle below the 

horizontal plane. 

Antenna height above average terrain. 

The average of the antenna heights 

above the terrain from approximately 

3.2 (2 miles) to 16.1 kilometers (10 

miles) from the antenna for the eight 

directions spaced evenly for each 45 

degrees of azimuth starting with True 

North. (In general, a different antenna 

height will be determined in each 

direction from the antenna. The average 

of these various heights is considered 

the antenna height above the average 

terrain. Where circular or elliptical 

polarization is employed, the antenna 

height above average terrain shall be 

based upon the height of the radiation 

center of the antenna which transmits 

the horizontal component of radiation. 

Antenna mechanical beam tilt. The 

intentional installation of a transmitting 

antenna so that its axis is not vertical, 

in order to change the normal angle of 

maximum radiation in the vertical 

plane. 

Antenna power gain. The square of 

the ratio of the root-mean-square free 

space field strength produced at 1 

kilometer in the horizontal plane, in 

millivolts per meter for one kW antenna 

input power to 221.4 mV/m. This ratio 

should be expressed in decibels (dB). (If 

specified for a particular direction, 

antenna power gain is based on the field 

strength in that direction only.) 

Aspect ratio. The ratio of picture 

width to picture height as transmitted. 

Auxiliary facility. An auxiliary facility 

is an antenna separate a from the main 

facility’s antenna, permanently installed 

on the same tower or at a different 

location, from which a station may 

broadcast for short periods without 

prior Commission authorization or 

notice to the Commission while the 

main facility is not in operation (e.g., 

where tower work necessitates turning 

off the main antenna or where lightning 

has caused damage to the main antenna 

or transmission system) (See § 73.1675). 

Effective radiated power. The product 

of the antenna input power and the 

antenna power gain. This product 

should be expressed in kW and in dB 

above 1 kW (dBk). (If specified for a 

particular direction, effective radiated 

power is based on the antenna power 

gain in that direction only. The licensed 

effective radiated power is based on the 

maximum antenna power gain. When a 

station is authorized to use a directional 

antenna or an antenna beam tilt, the 

direction of the maximum effective 

radiated power will be specified.) 

Where circular or elliptical polarization 

is employed, the term effective radiated 

power is applied separately to the 

horizontally and vertically polarized 

components of radiation. For 

assignment purposes, only the effective 

radiated power authorized for the 

horizontally polarized component will 

be considered. 

Equivalent isotropically radiated 

power (EIRP). The term ‘‘equivalent 

isotropically radiated power’’ (also 

known as ‘‘effective radiated power 

above isotropic’’) means the product of 

the antenna input power and the 

antenna gain in a given direction 

relative to an isotropic antenna. 

Free space field strength. The field 

strength that would exist at a point in 

the absence of waves reflected from the 

earth or other reflecting objects. 

Interlaced scanning. A scanning 

process in which successively scanned 

lines are spaced an integral number of 

line widths, and in which the adjacent 

lines are scanned during successive 

cycles of the field frequency. 

Polarization. The direction of the 

electric field as radiated from the 

transmitting antenna. 

Standard television signal. A signal 

which conforms to the television 

transmission standards. 

Synchronization. The maintenance of 

one operation in step with another. 

Television broadcast band. The 

frequencies in the band extending from 

54 to 608 megahertz which are 

assignable to television broadcast 

stations. These frequencies are 54 to 72 

megahertz (channels 2 through 4), 76 to 

88 megahertz (channels 5 and 6), 174 to 

216 megahertz (channels 7 through 13), 

and 470 to 608 megahertz (channels 14 

through 36). 

Television broadcast station. A station 

in the television broadcast band 

transmitting simultaneous visual and 

aural signals intended to be received by 

the general public. 

Television channel. A band of 

frequencies 6 MHz wide in the 

television broadcast band and 

designated either by number or by the 

extreme lower and upper frequencies. 

Television transmission standards. 

The standards which determine the 

characteristics of a television signal as 

radiated by a television broadcast 

station. 

Television transmitter. The radio 

transmitter or transmitters for the 

transmission of both visual and aural 

signals. 

Vestigial sideband transmission. A 

system of transmission wherein one of 

the generated sidebands is partially 

attenuated at the transmitter and 

radiated only in part. 

■ 34. Amend § 73.682 by: 

■ a. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(a) through (c); 

■ b. Revising paragraph (d); 

■ c. Adding paragraph (e)(7); and 

■ d. Removing the Note to § 73.682. 

The revisions and addition read as 

follows: 

§ 73.682 TV transmission standards. 

(a) through (c) [Reserved] 

(d) Broadcast television transmission 

standards. 

(1) Transmission of broadcast 

television signals shall comply with the 

standards (incorporated by reference, 

see § 73.8000) for such transmissions set 

forth in: 

(i) ATSC A/52; 

(ii) ATSC A/53, Parts 1–4 and 6: 2007 

and ATSC A/53 Part 5:2010; and 

(iii) ATSC A/65C. 

(2) Although not incorporated by 

reference, licensees may also consult: 

(i) ATSC A/54A: ‘‘Recommended 

Practice: Guide to Use of the ATSC 

Digital Television Standard, including 

Corrigendum No. 1,’’ (December 4, 2003, 

Corrigendum No. 1 dated December 20, 

2006, and 

(ii) ATSC A/69: ‘‘Recommended 

Practice PSIP Implementation 

Guidelines for Broadcasters,’’ (June 25, 

2002). 

(3) For availability of this material, 

contact ATSC (see § 73.8000 for contact 

information). 

(e) * * * 

(7) For additional information 

regarding this requirement, see 

Implementation of the Commercial 

Advertisement Loudness Mitigation 

(CALM) Act, FCC 11–182. 

* * * * * 

■ 35. Amend § 73.683 by: 

■ a. Revising the section heading and 

paragraph (a); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(b) and (c); and 

■ c. Revising paragraph (d). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.683 Presumptive determination of 

field strength at individual locations. 

(a) See § 73.619(c). For purposes of 

the cross-reference from § 90.307(b), the 

Grade B contour is defined as the 

F(50,50) contour at 64 dBu. 

* * * * * 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7253 

(d) For purposes of determining the 

eligibility of individual households for 

satellite retransmission of distant 

network signals under the copyright law 

provisions of 17 U.S.C. 119(d)(10)(A), 

field strength shall be determined by the 

Individual Location Longley-Rice (ILLR) 

propagation prediction model. Such 

eligibility determinations shall consider 

only the signals of network stations 

located in the subscriber’s Designated 

Market Area. Guidance for use of the 

ILLR model in predicting the field 

strength of television signals for such 

determinations is provided in OET 

Bulletin No. 73. For availability of OET 

Bulletin No. 73, contact FCC (see 

§ 73.8000 for contact information). 

* * * * * 

§ 73.684 [Removed] 

■ 36. Remove § 73.684. 

§ 73.685 [Removed] 

■ 37. Remove § 73.685. 

■ 38. Amend § 73.686 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraph (c)(1)(i); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(d); and 

■ c. Revising paragraph (e) introductory 

text. 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.686 Field strength measurements. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(i) The population (P) of the 

community, and its suburbs, if any, is 

determined by reference to the most 

recent official decennial U.S. Census 

population data as identified by the 

Media Bureau in a Public Notice. (See 

§ 73.620(b)). 

* * * * * 

(d) [Reserved] 

(e) Collection of field strength data to 

determine television signal intensity at 

an individual location—cluster 

measurements— 

* * * * * 

■ 39. Amend § 73.687 by: 

■ a. Removing and reserving paragraphs 

(a) and (b); 

■ b. Revising paragraph (c) introductory 

text; 

■ c. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(c)(1); and 

■ d. Removing paragraph (e). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.687 Transmission system 

requirements. 

* * * * * 

(c) Requirements applicable to 

transmitters are as follows: 

* * * * * 

■ 40. Section 73.688 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: 

§ 73.688 Indicating instruments. 

(a) Each TV broadcast station shall be 

equipped with indicating instruments 

which conform with the specifications 

described in § 73.1215 for measuring the 

operating parameters of the last radio 

stage of the transmitter, and with such 

other instruments as are necessary for 

the proper adjustment, operation, and 

maintenance of the transmitting system. 

* * * * * 

§ 73.691 [Removed] 

■ 41. Remove § 73.691. 

§ 73.698 [Removed] 

■ 42. Remove § 73.698. 

§ 73.699 [Amended] 

■ 43. Section 73.699 is amended by 

removing Figures 5, 5(a), 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 

16, and 17. 

■ 44. Section 73.1001 is amended to 

revise paragraph (c) to read as follows: 

§ 73.1001 Scope. 

* * * * * 

(c) Certain provisions of subpart H of 

this part apply to International 

Broadcast Stations (subpart F, part 73), 

LPFM (subpart G, part 73), and Low 

Power TV and TV Translator Stations 

(subpart G, part 74) where t 

he rules for those services so provide. 

* * * * * 

■ 45. Revise § 73.1015 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1015 Truthful written statements and 

responses to Commission inquiries and 

correspondence. 

The Commission or its representatives 

may, in writing, require from any 

applicant, permittee, or licensee written 

statements of fact relevant to a 

determination whether an application 

should be granted or denied, or to a 

determination whether a license should 

be revoked, or to any other matter 

within the jurisdiction of the 

Commission, or, in the case of a 

proceeding to amend the Table of FM 

Allotments or Table of TV Allotments, 

require from any person filing an 

expression of interest, written 

statements of fact relevant to that 

allotment proceeding. Any such 

statements of fact are subject to the 

provisions of § 1.17 of this chapter. 

■ 46. Section 73.1020 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (ii), 

(2)(i) and (ii), (3)(i) and (ii), (4)(i) and 

(ii), (5)(i) and (ii), (6)(i) and (ii), (7)(i) 

and (ii), (8)(i) and (ii), (9)(i) and (ii), 

(10)(i) and (ii), (11)(i) and (ii), (12)(i) and 

(ii), (13)(i) and (ii), (14)(i) and (ii), (15)(i) 

and (ii), (16)(i) and (ii), (17)(i) and (ii), 

(18)(i) and (ii) and (b) to read as follows: 

§ 73.1020 Station license period. 

(a) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, October 1, 2027. 

(ii) Television stations, October 1, 

2028. 

(2) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, December 1, 2027. 

(ii) Television stations, December 1, 

2028. 

(3) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, February 1, 2028. 

(ii) Television stations, February 1, 

2029. 

(4) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, April 1, 2028. 

(ii) Television stations, April 1, 2029. 

(5) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, June 1, 2028. 

(ii) Television stations, June 1, 2029. 

(6) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, August 1, 2028. 

(ii) Television stations, August 1, 

2029. 

(7) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, October 1, 2028. 

(ii) Television stations, October 1, 

2029. 

(8) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, December 1, 2028. 

(ii) Television stations, December 1, 

2029. 

(9) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, February 1, 2029. 

(ii) Television stations, February 1, 

2030. 

(10) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, April 1, 2029. 

(ii) Television stations, April 1, 2030. 

(11) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, June 1, 2029. 

(ii) Television stations, June 1, 2030. 

(12) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, August 1, 2029. 

(ii) Television stations, August 1, 

2030. 

(13) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, October 1, 2029. 

(ii) Television stations, October 1, 

2030. 

(14) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, December 1, 2029. 

(ii) Television stations, December 1, 

2030. 

(15) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, February 1, 2030. 

(ii) Television stations, February 1, 

2031. 

(16) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, April 1, 2030. 

(ii) Television stations, April 1, 2031. 

(17) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, June 1, 2030. 

(ii) Television stations, June 1, 2031. 

(18) * * * 

(i) Radio stations, August 1, 2030. 

(ii) Television stations, August 1, 

2031. 

(b) For the deadline for filing petitions 

to deny renewal applications, see 

§ 73.3516(e). 

* * * * * 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7254 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

■ 47. Section 73.1030 is amended by 

revising the first sentence in paragraphs 

(a)(1) and (b)(2) to read as follows: 

§ 73.1030 Notifications concerning 

interference to radio astronomy, research 

and receiving installations. 

(a) * * * 

(1) Radio astronomy and radio 

research installations. In order to 

minimize harmful interference at the 

National Radio Astronomy Observatory 

site located at Green, Pocahontas 

County, West Virginia, and at the Naval 

Radio Research Observatory at Sugar 

Grove, Pendleton County, West Virginia, 

a licensee proposing to operate a shortterm broadcast auxiliary station 

pursuant to § 74.24 of this chapter, and 

any applicant for authority to construct 

a new broadcast station, or for authority 

to make changes in the frequency, 

power, antenna height, or antenna 

directivity of an existing station within 

the area bounded by 39°15′ N on the 

north, 78°30′ W on the east, 37°30′ N on 

the south, and 80°30′ W on the west, 

shall notify the Interference Office, 

National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 

P.O. Box 2, Green Bank, West Virginia 

24944. Telephone: (304) 456–2011; 

Email: nrqz@nrao.edu. * * * 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(2) Applicants concerned are urged to 

communicate with the Radio Frequency 

Management Coordinator, Institute for 

Telecommunication Sciences, 325 

Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305; 

telephone (303) 497–4220, email 

frequencymanager@ntia.gov, in advance 

of filing their applications with the 

Commission. 

* * * * * 

■ 48. Amend § 73.1201 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraph (b)(1); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(d); and 

■ c. Adding paragraph (e) 

The revisions and addition read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1201 Station identification. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(1) Official station identification shall 

consist of the station’s call letters 

immediately followed by the 

community or communities specified in 

its license as the station’s location; 

Provided, That the name of the licensee, 

the station’s frequency, the station’s 

channel number, as stated on the 

station’s license, and/or the station’s 

network affiliation may be inserted 

between the call letters and station 

location. TV stations, or DAB Stations, 

choosing to include the station’s 

channel number in the station 

identification must use the station’s 

major channel number and may 

distinguish multicast program streams. 

For example, a TV station with major 

channel number 26 may use 26.1 to 

identify an HDTV program service and 

26.2 to identify an SDTV program 

service. A TV station that is devoting 

one of its multicast streams to transmit 

the programming of another television 

licensee must identify itself and may 

also identify the licensee that it is 

transmitting. If a TV station in this 

situation chooses to identify the station 

that is the source of the programming it 

is transmitting, it must use the following 

format: Station WYYY, community of 

license (call sign and community of 

license of the station whose multicast 

stream is transmitting the 

programming), bringing you WXXX, 

community of license (call sign and 

community of license of the licensee 

providing the programming). The 

transmitting station may insert between 

its call letters and its community of 

license the following information: the 

frequency of the transmitting station, 

the channel number of the transmitting 

station, the name of the licensee of the 

transmitting station and the licensee 

providing the programming, and/or the 

name of the network of either station. 

Where a multicast station is carrying the 

programming of another station and is 

identifying that station as the source of 

the programming, using the format 

described above, the identification may 

not include the frequency or channel 

number of the program source. A radio 

station operating in DAB hybrid mode 

or extended hybrid mode shall identify 

its digital signal, including any free 

multicast audio programming streams, 

in a manner that appropriately alerts its 

audience to the fact that it is listening 

to a digital audio broadcast. No other 

insertion between the station’s call 

letters and the community or 

communities specified in its license is 

permissible. 

* * * * * 

(d) [Reserved] 

(e) Transport Stream ID (TSID) values 

are identification numbers assigned to 

stations by the FCC and stored in the 

Commission’s online database. Two 

sequential values are assigned to each 

station. 

(1) All TV and Class A TV stations 

shall transmit their assigned oddnumbered TSID. 

(2) In ATSC 3.0, a similar value is 

used called a Bit Stream ID (BSID). 

Stations operating in ATSC 3.0 mode 

shall utilize their assigned evennumbered TSID as their BSID, 

consistent with paragraph (e)(1) of this 

section. 

■ 49. Section 73.1207 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b)(2) to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1207 Rebroadcasts. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(2) Permission must be obtained from 

the originating station to rebroadcast 

any subsidiary communications 

transmitted by means of a multiplex 

subcarrier. 

* * * * * 

■ 50. Section 73.1216 is amended by 

adding paragraphs (a)(1) through (3) and 

(d), and removing Notes 1, 2, and 3 to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.1216 Licensee-conducted contests. 

(a) * * * 

(1) A contest is a scheme in which a 

prize is offered or awarded, based upon 

chance, diligence, knowledge or skill, to 

members of the public; 

(2) Material terms include those 

factors which define the operation of the 

contest and which affect participation 

therein. Although the material terms 

may vary widely depending upon the 

exact nature of the contest, they will 

generally include: How to enter or 

participate; eligibility restrictions; entry 

deadline dates; whether prizes can be 

won; when prizes can be won; the 

extent, nature and value of prizes; basis 

for valuation of prizes; time and means 

of selection of winners; and/or tiebreaking procedures. 

(3) In general, the time and manner of 

disclosure of the material terms of a 

contest are within the licensee’s 

discretion. However, the obligation to 

disclose the material terms arises at the 

time the audience is first told how to 

enter or participate and continues 

thereafter. 

* * * * * 

(d) This section is not applicable to 

licensee-conducted contests not 

broadcast or advertised to the general 

public or to a substantial segment 

thereof, to contests in which the general 

public is not requested or permitted to 

participate, to the commercial 

advertisement of non-licenseeconducted contests, or to a contest 

conducted by a non-broadcast division 

of the licensee or by a non-broadcast 

company related to the licensee. 

■ 51. Revise § 73.1217 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1217 Broadcast hoaxes. 

(a) No licensee or permittee of any 

broadcast station shall broadcast false 

information concerning a crime or a 

catastrophe if: 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7255 

(1) The licensee knows this 

information is false; 

(2) It is foreseeable that broadcast of 

the information will cause substantial 

public harm, and 

(3) Broadcast of the information does 

in fact directly cause substantial public 

harm. 

(b) Any programming accompanied by 

a disclaimer will be presumed not to 

pose foreseeable harm if the disclaimer 

clearly characterizes the program as a 

fiction and is presented in a way that is 

reasonable under the circumstances. 

(c) For purposes of this rule, ‘‘public 

harm’’ must begin immediately, and 

cause direct and actual damage to 

property or to the health or safety of the 

general public, or diversion of law 

enforcement or other public health and 

safety authorities from their duties. The 

public harm will be deemed foreseeable 

if the licensee could expect with a 

significant degree of certainty that 

public harm would occur. A ‘‘crime’’ is 

any act or omission that makes the 

offender subject to criminal punishment 

by law. A ‘‘catastrophe’’ is a disaster or 

imminent disaster involving violent or 

sudden event affecting the public. 

■ 52. Section 73.1250 is amended by 

revising paragraph (e) to read as follows: 

§ 73.1250 Broadcasting emergency 

information. 

* * * * * 

(e) Immediately upon cessation of an 

emergency during which broadcast 

facilities were used for the transmission 

of point-to-point messages under 

paragraph (b) of this section, or when 

daytime facilities were used during 

nighttime hours by an AM station in 

accordance with paragraph (f) of this 

section, a report in letter form shall be 

forwarded to the FCC’s main office 

indicated in § 0.401(a) of this chapter 

setting forth the nature of the 

emergency, the dates and hours of the 

broadcasting of emergency information, 

and a brief description of the material 

carried during the emergency. A 

certification of compliance with the 

noncommercialization provision of 

paragraph (f) of this section must 

accompany the report where daytime 

facilities are used during nighttime 

hours by an AM station, together with 

a detailed showing, under the 

provisions of that paragraph, that no 

other broadcast service existed or was 

adequate. 

* * * * * 

■ 53. Section 73.1350 is amended by 

removing and reserving paragraph (f)(3) 

and revising paragraph (h) to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1350 Transmission system operation. 

* * * * * 

(f) * * * 

(3) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

(h) Whenever a transmission system 

control point is established at a location 

other than the main studio or 

transmitter, a letter of notification of 

that location must be sent to the FCC via 

a Change of Control Point Notice in 

LMS within 3 days of the initial use of 

that point. The letter should include a 

list of all control points in use, for 

clarity. This notification is not required 

if responsible station personnel can be 

contacted at the transmitter or studio 

site during hours of operation. 

* * * * * 

■ 54. Section 73.1540 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: 

§ 73.1540 Carrier frequency 

measurements. 

(a) The carrier frequency of each AM 

and FM station shall be measured or 

determined as often as necessary to 

ensure that they are maintained within 

the prescribed tolerances. 

* * * * * 

§ 73.1545 [Amended] 

■ 55. Section 73.1545 is amended by 

removing and reserving paragraph (c) 

and removing paragraph (e) and the 

Note to paragraph (e). 

■ 56. Amend § 73.1560 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraphs (a)(1) and 

(c)(1); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(c)(2); and 

■ c. Revising paragraph (d). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.1560 Operating power and mode 

tolerances. 

(a) * * * 

(1) Except for AM stations using 

modulation dependent carrier level 

(MDCL) control technology, or as 

provided for in paragraph (d) of this 

section, the antenna input power of an 

AM station, as determined by the 

procedures specified in § 73.51, must be 

maintained as near as practicable to the 

authorized antenna input power and 

may not be less than 90 percent nor 

greater than 105 percent of the 

authorized power. AM stations may, 

without prior Commission authority, 

commence MDCL control technology 

use, provided that within 10 days after 

commencing such operation, the 

licensee submits an electronic 

notification of commencement of MDCL 

control operation using FCC Form 2100 

Schedule 338. The transmitter of an AM 

station operating using MDCL control 

technology, regardless of the MDCL 

control technology employed, must 

achieve full licensed power at some 

audio input level or when the MDCL 

control technology is disabled. MDCL 

control operation must be disabled 

before field strength measurements on 

the station are taken. 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(1) Except as provided in paragraph 

(d) of this section, the output power of 

a TV or Class A TV transmitter, as 

determined by the procedures specified 

in § 73.664, must be maintained as near 

as is practicable to the authorized 

transmitter output power and may not 

be less than 80% nor more than 110% 

of the authorized power. 

(2) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

(d) Reduced power operation. In the 

event it becomes technically impossible 

to operate at authorized power, a 

broadcast station may operate at 

reduced power for a period of not more 

than 30 days without specific authority 

from the FCC. If operation at reduced 

power will exceed 10 consecutive days, 

notification must be made to the FCC in 

a Reduced Power Notification via LMS, 

not later than the 10th day of the lower 

power operation. In the event that 

normal power is restored within the 30 

day period, the licensee must notify the 

FCC of the date that normal operation 

was restored. If causes beyond the 

control of the licensee prevent 

restoration of the authorized power 

within 30 days, a request for Special 

Temporary Authority (see § 73.1635) 

must be made to the FCC via LMS for 

additional time as may be necessary. 

■ 57. Section 73.1570 is amended by 

revising the section heading to read as 

follows and removing and reserving 

paragraph (b)(3). 

§ 73.1570 Modulation levels: AM and FM. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(3) [Reserved] * * * * * 

§ 73.1590 [Amended] 

■ 58. Section 73.1590 is amended by 

removing and reserving paragraphs 

(a)(5), (c)(1), and (c)(3). 

■ 59. Section 73.1615 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (b)(3) and (c)(1) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.1615 Operating during modification of 

facilities. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(3) Operate in a nondirectional mode 

during the presently licensed hours of 

directional operation with power 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7256 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

reduced to 25% or less of the nominal 

licensed power, or whatever higher 

power, not exceeding licensed power, 

will ensure that the radiated field 

strength specified by the license is not 

exceeded at any given azimuth for the 

corresponding hours of directional 

operation, or 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(1) Should it be necessary to continue 

the procedures in either paragraph (a) or 

(b) of this section beyond 30 days, a 

Silent STA application or an 

Engineering STA application must be 

filed via LMS. 

* * * * * 

■ 60. Section 73.1620 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a)(1) through (3) 

and removing paragraphs (f) and (g) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.1620 Program tests. 

(a) * * * 

(1) The permittee of a nondirectional 

AM or FM station, or a nondirectional 

or directional TV or Class A TV station, 

may begin program tests upon 

notification to the FCC in a ‘‘Program 

Test Authority’’ filing via LMS provided 

that within 10 days thereafter, an 

application for a license is filed with the 

FCC in Washington, DC. Television, 

Class A, TV translator, and low power 

television broadcast stations authorized 

on channel 14 must comply with 

§ 73.617(b)(2)(ii). 

(2) The permittee of an FM station 

with a directional antenna system must 

file an application for license on FCC 

Form 2100 Schedule 302–FM in LMS 

requesting authority to commence 

program test operations at full power. 

This license application must be filed at 

least 10 days prior to the date on which 

full power operations are desired to 

commence. The application for license 

must contain any exhibits called for by 

conditions on the construction permit. 

The staff will review the license 

application and the request for program 

test authority and issue a letter notifying 

the applicant whether full power 

operation has been approved. Upon 

filing of the license application and 

related exhibits, and while awaiting 

approval of full power operation, the 

FM permittee may operate the 

directional antenna at one half (50%) of 

the authorized effective radiated power. 

Alternatively, the permittee may 

continue operation with its existing 

licensed facilities pending the issuance 

of program test authority at the full 

effective radiated power by the staff. 

(3) FM licensees replacing a 

directional antenna pursuant to 

§ 73.1690(c)(2) without changes which 

require a construction permit (see 

§ 73.1690(b)) may immediately 

commence program test operations with 

the new antenna at one half (50%) of the 

authorized ERP upon installation. If the 

directional antenna replacement is an 

EXACT duplicate of the antenna being 

replaced (i.e., same manufacturer, 

antenna model number, and measured 

composite pattern), program tests may 

commence with the new antenna at the 

full authorized power upon installation. 

The licensee must file a modification of 

license application on FCC Form 2100 

Schedule 302–FM within 10 days of 

commencing operations with the newly 

installed antenna, and the license 

application must contain all of the 

exhibits required by § 73.1690(c)(2). 

After review of the modification-oflicense application to cover the antenna 

change, the Commission will issue a 

letter notifying the applicant whether 

program test operation at the full 

authorized power has been approved for 

the replacement directional antenna. 

* * * * * 

■ 61. Section 73.1635 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a)(2), (3), and (5) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.1635 Special temporary 

authorizations (STA). 

(a) * * * 

(2) The request is to be filed 

electronically in LMS using the 

‘‘Engineering STA Application’’ and 

shall fully describe the proposed 

operation and the necessity for the 

requested STA. Such letter requests 

shall be signed by the licensee or the 

licensee’s representative. 

(3) A request for a STA necessitated 

by unforeseen equipment damage or 

failure may be made without regard to 

the procedural requirements of this 

section (e.g., via email or telephone). 

Any request made pursuant to this 

paragraph shall be followed by a written 

confirmation request conforming to the 

requirements of paragraph (a)(2) of this 

section. Confirmation requests shall be 

submitted within 24 hours. (See also 

§ 73.1680 Emergency Antennas). 

* * * * * 

(5) Certain rules specify special 

considerations and procedures in 

situations requiring an STA or permit 

temporary operation at variance without 

prior authorization from the FCC when 

notification is filed as prescribed in the 

particular rules. See § 73.62, Directional 

antenna system tolerances; § 73.157, 

Antenna testing during daytime; 

§ 73.158, Directional antenna 

monitoring points; § 73.1250, 

Broadcasting emergency information; 

§ 73.1350, Transmission system 

operation; § 73.1560, Operating power 

and mode tolerances; § 73.1570, 

Modulation levels: AM, and FM; 

§ 73.1615, Operation during 

modification of facilities; § 73.1680, 

Emergency antennas; and § 73.1740, 

Minimum operating schedule. 

* * * * * 

■ 62. Section 73.1675 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a)(1)(iii) and (b) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.1675 Auxiliary antennas. 

(a) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(iii) TV stations: The noise limited 

contour as defined in § 73.619(c). 

* * * * * 

(b) An application for a construction 

permit to install a new auxiliary 

antenna, or to make changes in an 

existing auxiliary antenna for which 

prior FCC authorization is required (see 

§ 73.1690), must be filed electronically 

in LMS using FCC Form 2100 (see 

§ 73.3500 for Schedules) for AM, FM, 

and TV stations, or on FCC Form 2100, 

Schedule 340 for noncommercial 

educational FM stations. 

* * * * * 

■ 63. Section 73.1690 is amended by 

revising the introductory text of 

paragraph (b) and paragraphs (b)(3) and 

(c)(3) to read as follows: 

§ 73.1690 Modification of transmission 

systems. 

* * * * * 

(b) The following changes may be 

made only after the grant of a 

construction permit application on FCC 

Form 2100 (see § 73.3500 for Schedules) 

for AM, FM, and TV stations or Form 

2100, Schedule 340 for noncommercial 

educational stations: 

* * * * * 

(3) Any change which would require 

an increase along any azimuth in the 

composite directional antenna pattern of 

an FM station from the composite 

directional antenna pattern authorized 

(see § 73.316), or any increase from the 

authorized directional antenna pattern 

for a TV broadcast (see § 73.625) or 

Class A TV station (see § 73.6025). 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(3) A directional TV on Channels 2 

through 13 or 22 through 36 or a 

directional Class A TV on Channels 2 

through 13 or 22 through 36, or a 

directional TV or Class A TV station on 

Channels 15 through 21 which is in 

excess of 341 km (212 miles) from a 

cochannel land mobile operation or in 

excess of 225 km (140 miles) from a 

first-adjacent channel land mobile 

operation (see § 74.709(a) and (b) of this 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7257 

chapter for tables of urban areas and 

reference coordinates of potentially 

affected land mobile operations), may 

replace a directional TV or Class A TV 

antenna by a license modification 

application, if the proposed horizontal 

theoretical directional antenna pattern 

does not exceed the licensed horizontal 

directional antenna pattern at any 

azimuth and where no change in 

effective radiated power will result. The 

modification of license application on 

Form 2100 (see § 73.3500 for Schedules) 

must contain all of the data set forth in 

§ 73.625(c)(3) or § 73.6025(a), as 

applicable. 

* * * * * 

■ 64. Section 73.1740 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a)(4) to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1740 Minimum operating schedule. 

(a) * * * 

(4) In the event that causes beyond the 

control of a licensee make it impossible 

to adhere to the operating schedule of 

this section or to continue operating, the 

station may limit or discontinue 

operation for a period of not more than 

30 days without further authority from 

the FCC. A ‘‘Reduced Power’’ or 

‘‘Suspension of Operation’’ Notification 

must be made via LMS not later than the 

10th day of limited or discontinued 

operation. During such period, the 

licensee shall continue to adhere to the 

requirements in the station license 

pertaining to the lighting of antenna 

structures. In the event normal 

operation is restored prior to the 

expiration of the 30 day period, the 

licensee will so notify the FCC of this 

date. If the causes beyond the control of 

the licensee make it impossible to 

comply within the allowed period, 

informal written request shall be made 

to the FCC no later than the 30th day for 

such additional time as may be deemed 

necessary. 

* * * * * 

■ 65. Revise § 73.1750 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.1750 Discontinuance of operation. 

The licensee of each station shall 

provide notification to the FCC in a 

‘‘Cancellation Application’’ via LMS of 

the permanent discontinuance of 

operation at least two days before 

operation is discontinued. Immediately 

after discontinuance of operation, the 

licensee shall forward the station 

license and other instruments of 

authorization to the FCC, Attention: 

Audio Division (radio) or Video 

Division (television), Media Bureau, for 

cancellation. The license of any station 

that fails to transmit broadcast signals 

for any consecutive 12 month period 

expires as a matter of law at the end of 

that period, notwithstanding any 

provision, term, or condition of the 

license to the contrary. If a licensee 

surrenders its license pursuant to an 

interference reduction agreement, and 

its surrender is contingent on the grant 

of another application, the licensee 

must identify in its notification the 

contingencies involved. 

■ 66. Section 73.2080 is amended by 

revising the introductory text of 

paragraph (c)(6) and paragraphs (f)(1) 

through (5) to read as follows: 

§ 73.2080 Equal employment opportunities 

(EEO). 

* * * * * 

(c) * * * 

(6) Annually, on the anniversary of 

the date a station is due to file its 

renewal application, the station shall 

place in its public file, maintained 

pursuant to § 73.3526 or § 73.3527, and 

on its website, if it has one, an EEO 

public file report containing the 

following information (although if any 

broadcast licensee acquires a station 

pursuant to FCC Form 2100 Schedule 

314 or FCC Form 2100 Schedule 315 

during the twelve months covered by 

the EEO public file report, its EEO 

public file report shall cover the period 

starting with the date it acquired the 

station): 

* * * * * 

(f) * * * 

(1) All broadcast stations, including 

those that are part of an employment 

unit with fewer than five full-time 

employees, shall file a Broadcast Equal 

Employment Opportunity Program 

Report (Form 2100 Schedule 396) with 

their renewal application. Form 2100 

Schedule 396 is filed on the date the 

station is due to file its application for 

renewal of license. If a broadcast 

licensee acquires a station pursuant to 

FCC Form 2100 Schedule 314 or FCC 

Form 2100 Schedule 315 during the 

period that is to form the basis for the 

Form 2100 Schedule 396, information 

provided on its Form 2100 Schedule 

396 should cover the licensee’s EEO 

recruitment activity during the period 

starting with the date it acquired the 

station. Stations are required to 

maintain a copy of their Form 2100 

Schedule 396 in the station’s public file 

in accordance with the provisions of 

§§ 73.3526 and 73.3527. 

(2) The Commission will conduct a 

mid-term review of the employment 

practices of each broadcast television 

station that is part of an employment 

unit of five or more full-time employees 

and each radio station that is part of an 

employment unit of eleven or more fulltime employees, four years following 

the station’s most recent license 

expiration date as specified in 

§ 73.1020. If a broadcast licensee 

acquires a station pursuant to FCC Form 

2100 Schedule 314 or FCC Form 2100 

Schedule 315 during the period that is 

to form the basis for the mid-term 

review, that review will cover the 

licensee’s EEO recruitment activity 

during the period starting with the date 

it acquired the station. 

(3) If a station is subject to a time 

brokerage agreement, the licensee shall 

file Forms 2100 Schedule 396 and EEO 

public file reports concerning only its 

own recruitment activity. If a licensee is 

a broker of another station or stations, 

the licensee-broker shall include its 

recruitment activity for the brokered 

station(s) in determining the bases of 

Forms 2100 Schedule 396 and the EEO 

public file reports for its own station. If 

a licensee-broker owns more than one 

station, it shall include its recruitment 

activity for the brokered station in the 

Forms 2100 Schedule 396 and EEO 

public file reports filed for its own 

station that is most closely affiliated 

with, and in the same market as, the 

brokered station. If a licensee-broker 

does not own a station in the same 

market as the brokered station, then it 

shall include its recruitment activity for 

the brokered station in the Forms 2100 

Schedule 396 and EEO public file 

reports filed for its own station that is 

geographically closest to the brokered 

station. 

(4) Broadcast stations subject to this 

section shall maintain records of their 

recruitment activity necessary to 

demonstrate that they are in compliance 

with the EEO rule. Stations shall ensure 

that they maintain records sufficient to 

verify the accuracy of information 

provided in Form 2100 Schedule 396 

and EEO public file reports. To 

determine compliance with the EEO 

rule, the Commission may conduct 

inquiries of licensees at random or if it 

has evidence of a possible violation of 

the EEO rule. In addition, the 

Commission will conduct random 

audits. Specifically, each year 

approximately five percent of all 

licensees in the television and radio 

services will be randomly selected for 

audit, ensuring that, even though the 

number of radio licensees is 

significantly larger than television 

licensees, both services are represented 

in the audit process. Upon request, 

stations shall make records available to 

the Commission for its review. 

(5) The public may file complaints 

throughout the license term based on 

the contents of a station’s public file. 

Provisions concerning filing, 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7258 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

withdrawing, or non-filing of informal 

objections or petitions to deny license 

renewal, assignment, or transfer 

applications are delineated in 

§§ 73.3584 and 73.3587–3589 of the 

Commission’s rules. 

* * * * * 

■ 67. Revise § 73.3500 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3500 Application and report forms. 

(a) Following are the FCC broadcast 

application and report forms, listed by 

number. 

TABLE 1 TO PARAGRAPH (a) 

Form No. Title 

175 ................................. Application to Participate in an FCC Auction. 

2100 Schedule A ........... Application for Authority to Construct or Make Changes in a TV Commercial Broadcast/Noncommercial Educational 

Broadcast Station. 

2100 Schedule 301–AM Application for AM Station Construction Permit. 

2100 Schedule 301–FM Application for Commercial FM Station Construction Permit. 

2100 Schedule 302–AM Application for AM Broadcast Station License. 

2100 Schedule E ........... Application for Class A Television Broadcasting Station Construction Permit. 

2100 Schedule 302–FM Application for FM Station License. 

2100 Schedule B ........... Application for Television Broadcast Station License. 

2100 Schedule F ............ Application for Class A Television Broadcast Station License. 

2100 Schedule 303–S ... Application for Renewal of License for Commercial or Noncommercial AM, FM, TV, Class A TV, FM Translator, TV 

Translator, LPTV, or LPFM Station. 

308 ................................. Application for Permit to Deliver Programs to Foreign Broadcast Stations. 

309 ................................. Application for Authority to Construct or Make Changes in an International or Experimental Broadcast Station. 

310 ................................. Application for an International or Experimental Broadcast Station License. 

311 ................................. Application for Renewal of an International or Experimental Broadcast Station License. 

2100 Schedule 314 ........ Application for Consent to Assignment of Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License. 

2100 Schedule 315 ........ Application for Consent to Transfer of Control of Entity Holding Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License. 

2100 Schedule 316 ........ Application for Consent to Assign Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License or Transfer Control of Entity 

Holding Broadcast Station Construction Permit or License. 

2100 Schedule 318 ........ Application for Low Power FM Station Construction Permit. 

2100 Schedule 319 ........ Application for Low Power FM Station License. 

323 ................................. Ownership Report for Commercial Broadcast Stations. 

323–E ............................. Ownership Report for Noncommercial Educational Broadcast Stations. 

2100 Schedule 340 ........ Application for Noncommercial Educational FM Station Construction Permit. 

2100 Schedule 345 ........ Application for Consent to Assign Construction Permit or License for TV or FM Translator or Low Power TV Station, 

or to Transfer Control of Entity Holding TV or FM Translator or Low Power TV Station. 

2100 Schedule C ........... Application for Authority to Construct or Make Changes in a Low Power TV or TV Translator Station. 

2100 Schedule D ........... Application for a Low Power TV or TV Translator Station License. 

2100 Schedule 349 ........ Application for FM Translator or FM Booster Station Construction Permit. 

2100 Schedule 350 ........ Application for FM Translator or FM Booster Station License. 

395–B ............................. Annual Employment Report and instructions. 

2100 Schedule 396 ........ Broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity Program Report. 

2100 Schedule 396–A ... Broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity Model Program Report. 

2100 Schedule H ........... Children’s Television Programming Report. 

601 ................................. FCC Application for Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Radio Service Authorization. 

603 ................................. FCC Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Application for Assignments of Authorization and Transfers of Control. 

(b) Any application on Form 2100 

must be filed electronically. 

■ 68. Section 73.3516 is amended by 

revising the introductory text of 

paragraph of (e) and paragraph (e)(1) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.3516 Specification of facilities. 

* * * * * 

(e) A petition to deny an application 

for renewal of license of an existing 

broadcast station will be considered as 

timely filed if it is tendered for filing by 

the end of the first day of the last full 

calendar month of the expiring license 

term. 

(1) If the license renewal application 

is not timely filed as prescribed in 

§ 73.3539, the deadline for filing 

petitions to deny thereto is the 90th day 

after the FCC gives public notice that it 

has accepted the late-filed renewal 

application for filing. 

* * * * * 

■ 69. Section 73.3519 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: 

§ 73.3519 Repetitious applications. 

(a) Where the FCC has denied an 

application for a new station or for any 

modification of services or facilities, or 

dismissed such application with 

prejudice, no like application involving 

service of the same kind for 

substantially the same area by 

substantially the same applicant, or his 

successor or assignee, or on behalf or for 

the benefit of the original parties in 

interest, may be filed within 12 months 

from the effective date of the FCC’s 

action. 

* * * * * 

■ 70. Revise § 73.3521 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3521 Mutually exclusive applications 

for low power television and television 

translator stations. 

When there is a pending application 

for a new low power television or 

television translator station, or for major 

changes in an existing station, no other 

application which would be directly 

mutually exclusive with the pending 

application may be filed by the same 

applicant or by any applicant in which 

any individual in common with the 

pending application has any interest, 

direct or indirect, except that interests 

or less than 1% will not be considered. 

§ 73.3523 [Removed] 

■ 71. Remove § 73.3523. 

■ 72. Section 73.3525 is amended by 

revising the introductory text of 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7259 

paragraph (a), paragraph (b), and 

removing the Note to read as follows: 

§ 73.3525 Agreements for removing 

application conflicts. 

(a) Whenever applicants for a 

construction permit for a broadcast 

station enter into an agreement to 

procure the removal of a conflict 

between applications pending before the 

FCC by withdrawal or amendment of an 

application or by its dismissal pursuant 

to § 73.3568, all parties thereto shall, 

within 5 days after entering into the 

agreement, file with the FCC a joint 

request for approval of such agreement. 

The joint request shall be accompanied 

by a copy of the agreement, including 

any ancillary agreements, and an 

affidavit of each party to the agreement 

setting forth: 

* * * * * 

(b) Except where a joint request is 

filed pursuant to paragraph (a) of this 

section, any applicant filing an 

amendment pursuant to § 73.3522(b)(1) 

and (c), or a request for dismissal 

pursuant to § 73.3568(b)(1) and (c), 

which would remove a conflict with 

another pending application; or a 

petition for leave to amend pursuant to 

§ 73.3522(b)(2) which would permit a 

grant of the amended application or an 

application previously in conflict with 

the amended application; or a request 

for dismissal pursuant to 

§ 73.3568(b)(2), shall file with it an 

affidavit as to whether or not 

consideration (including an agreement 

for merger of interests) has been 

promised to or received by such 

applicant, directly or indirectly, in 

connection with the amendment, 

petition or request. Although § 74.780 of 

this chapter makes this section generally 

applicable to low power TV and TV 

translators stations, paragraph (b) of this 

section shall not be applicable to such 

stations. 

* * * * * 

■ 73. Amend § 73.3533 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(4) 

through (7); 

■ b. Adding paragraph (a)(8); and 

■ c. Revising paragraph (b). 

The revisions and addition read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3533 Application for construction 

permit or modification of construction 

permit. 

(a) * * * 

(1) FCC Form 2100, Schedule A (TV); 

FCC Form 2100, Schedule 301–FM 

(FM), FCC Form 2100, Schedule 301– 

AM (AM), ‘‘Application for Authority to 

Construct or Make Changes in an 

Existing Commercial Broadcast 

Station.’’ 

* * * * * 

(4) FCC Form 2100, Schedule A (TV); 

FCC Form 2100, Schedule 340 (FM), 

‘‘Application for Authority to Construct 

or Make Changes in a Noncommercial 

Educational Broadcast Station.’’ 

(5) FCC Form 2100, Schedule C, 

‘‘Application for Authority to Construct 

or Make Changes in a Low Power TV or 

TV Translator Station.’’ 

(6) FCC Form 2100, Schedule 349, 

‘‘Application for Authority to Construct 

or Make Changes in an FM Translator or 

FM Booster Station.’’ 

(7) FCC Form 2100, Schedule 318, 

‘‘Application for Construction Permit 

for a Low Power FM Broadcast Station.’’ 

(8) FCC Form 2100, Schedule E, 

‘‘Application for Authority to Make 

Changes in a Class A TV Station.’’ 

(b) The filing of an application for 

modification of construction permit 

does not extend the expiration date of 

the construction permit. 

* * * * * 

■ 74. Section 73.3536 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (b)(1)(i) through 

(iii), (b)(4) through (6), and (c) to read 

as follows: 

§ 73.3536 Application for license to cover 

construction permit. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(1) 

(i) Form 2100, Schedule 302–AM for 

AM stations, ‘‘Application for AM 

Station License.’’ 

(ii) Form 2100, Schedule 302–FM for 

FM stations, ‘‘Application for FM 

Station License.’’ 

(iii) Form 2100, Schedule B for 

television stations, ‘‘Application for TV 

Station Broadcast License.’’ 

* * * * * 

(4) FCC Form 2100, Schedule D, 

‘‘Application for a Low Power TV or TV 

Translator Station License.’’ 

(5) FCC Form 2100, Schedule 350, 

‘‘Application for an FM Translator or 

FM Booster Station License.’’ 

(6) FCC Form 2100, Schedule 319, 

‘‘Application for a Low Power FM 

Broadcast Station License.’’ 

(c) Eligible low power television 

stations which have been granted a 

certificate of eligibility may file FCC 

Form 2100, Schedule F, ‘‘Application 

for Class A Television Broadcast Station 

License.’’ 

■ 75. Section 73.3540 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (c) through (e) and 

the introductory text of paragraph (f) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.3540 Application for voluntary 

assignment or transfer of control. 

* * * * * 

(c) Application for consent to the 

assignment of construction permit or 

license must be filed on FCC Form 2100 

Schedule 314 ‘‘Assignment of License or 

Construction Permit’’ or FCC Form 2100 

Schedule 316 (See paragraph (f) of this 

section). For International Broadcast 

Stations, the application shall be filed 

electronically in the International 

Communications Filing System (ICFS). 

(d) Application for consent to the 

transfer of control of an entity holding 

a construction permit or license must be 

filed on FCC Form 2100 Schedule 315 

‘‘Transfer of Control’’ or FCC Form 2100 

Schedule 316 (see paragraph (f) of this 

section). For International Broadcast 

Stations, applications shall be filed 

electronically in ICFS. 

(e) Application for consent to the 

assignment of construction permit or 

license or to the transfer of control of an 

entity licensee or permittee for an FM or 

TV translator station, a low power TV 

station and any associated auxiliary 

station, such as translator microwave 

relay stations and UHF translator 

booster stations, only must be filed on 

FCC Form 2100 Schedule 345 

‘‘Application for Consent to Assign 

Construction Permit or License for TV 

or FM Translator or Low Power TV 

Station or to Transfer Control of Entity 

Holding TV or FM Translator, or a Low 

Power TV Station.’’ 

(f) The following assignment or 

transfer applications may be filed on 

FCC Form 2100 Schedule 316: 

* * * * * 

■ 76. Section 73.3541 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b) to read as follows: 

§ 73.3541 Application for involuntary 

assignment of license or transfer of control. 

* * * * * 

(b) Within 30 days after the 

occurrence of such death or legal 

disability, an application on FCC Form 

2100 Schedule 316 shall be filed 

requesting consent to involuntary 

assignment of such permit or license or 

for involuntary transfer of control of the 

entity holding such permit or license, to 

a person or entity legally qualified to 

succeed to the foregoing interests under 

the laws of the place having jurisdiction 

over the estate involved. 

§ 73.3543 [Removed] 

■ 77. Remove § 73.3543. 

■ 78. Section 73.3544 is amended by 

revising the introductory text of 

paragraph (b) and paragraph (c) to read 

as follows: 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7260 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

§ 73.3544 Application to obtain a modified 

station license. 

* * * * * 

(b) An electronic filing via LMS of an 

Administrative Update, see § 73.3511(b), 

may be filed with the FCC, to cover the 

following changes: 

* * * * * 

(c) A change in the name of the 

licensee where no change in ownership 

or control is involved may be 

accomplished by electronically filing 

via LMS an Administrative Update. 

■ 79. Revise § 73.3549 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3549 Requests for extension of time 

to operate without required monitors, 

indicating instruments, and EAS encoders 

and decoders. 

Requests for extension of authority to 

operate without required monitors, 

transmission system indicating 

instruments, or encoders and decoders 

for monitoring and generating the EAS 

codes and Attention Signal should be 

made to the FCC by electronically filing 

an STA via LMS. Such requests must 

contain information as to when and 

what steps were taken to repair or 

replace the defective equipment and a 

brief description of the alternative 

procedures being used while the 

equipment is out of service. 

■ 80. Section 73.3550 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a), (b), (f), (i) 

through (k), and (m) to read as follows: 

§ 73.3550 Requests for new or modified 

call sign assignments. 

(a) All requests for new or modified 

call sign assignments for radio and 

television broadcast stations shall be 

made via LMS with the FCC. Licensees 

and permittees may utilize LMS to 

determine the availability and licensing 

status of any call sign; to select an initial 

call sign for a new station; to change a 

station’s currently assigned call sign; to 

modify an existing call sign by adding 

or deleting an ‘‘-FM,’’ ‘‘-TV,’’ or ‘‘-DT’’ 

suffix; to exchange call signs with 

another licensee or permittee in the 

same service; or to reserve a different 

call sign for a station being transferred 

or assigned. 

(b) No request for an initial call sign 

assignment will be accepted from a 

permittee for a new radio or full-service 

television station until the FCC has 

granted a construction permit. Each 

such permittee shall request the 

assignment of its station’s initial call 

sign expeditiously following the grant of 

its construction permit. All initial 

construction permits for low power TV 

stations will be issued with a low power 

TV call sign in accordance with 

§ 74.791(a) of this chapter. 

* * * * * 

(f) Only four-letter call signs (plus an 

LP, FM, TV, DT, or CA suffix, if used) 

will be assigned. The four letter call sign 

for LPFM stations will be followed by 

the suffix ‘‘-LP.’’ However, subject to the 

other provisions of this section, a call 

sign of a station may be conformed to 

a commonly owned station holding a 

three-letter call assignment (plus FM, 

TV, DT, CA or LP suffixes, if used). 

* * * * * 

(i) The provisions of this section shall 

not apply to International broadcast 

stations or to stations authorized under 

part 74 of this chapter (except as 

provided in § 74.791 of this chapter). 

(j) A change in call sign assignment 

will be made effective on the date 

specified in the Call Sign Request 

Authorization generated by LMS 

acknowledging the assignment of the 

requested new call sign and authorizing 

the change. Unless the requested change 

in call sign assignment is subject to a 

pending transfer or assignment 

application, the requester is required to 

include in its on-line call sign request 

a specific effective date to take place 

within 45 days of the submission of its 

electronic call sign request. 

Postponement of the effective date will 

be granted only in response to a timely 

request and for only the most 

compelling reasons. 

(k) Four-letter combinations 

commencing with ‘‘W’’ or ‘‘K’’ which 

are assigned as call signs to ships or to 

other radio services are not available for 

assignment to broadcast stations, with 

or without the ‘‘-FM,’’ ‘‘-TV,’’ or ‘‘-DT’’ 

suffix. 

* * * * * 

(m) Where a requested call sign, 

without the ‘‘-FM,’’ ‘‘-TV,’’ ‘‘-CA,’’ 

‘‘-DT,’’ or ‘‘-LP’’ suffix, would conform 

to the call sign of any other noncommonly owned station(s) operating in 

a different service, an applicant utilizing 

the on-line reservation and 

authorization system will be required to 

certify that consent to use the secondary 

call sign has been obtained from the 

holder of the primary call sign. 

■ 81. Section 73.3555 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b)(1)(i) to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3555 Multiple ownership. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(1) * * * 

(i) The digital noise limited service 

contours of the stations (computed in 

accordance with § 73.619(c)) do not 

overlap; or 

* * * * * 

■ 82. Amend § 73.3572 by: 

■ a. Revising the section heading and 

paragraph (a)(2) introductory text and 

(a)(3); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(a)(4); 

■ c. Revising paragraphs (c) and (f); and 

■ d. Removing paragraphs (g) and (h). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.3572 Processing of TV broadcast, 

Class A TV broadcast, low power TV, and 

TV translators applications. 

(a) * * * 

(2) In the case of Class A TV stations 

authorized under subpart J of this part 

and low power TV and TV translator 

stations authorized under part 74 of this 

chapter, a major change is any change 

in: 

* * * * * 

(3) Other changes will be considered 

minor, including changes made to 

implement a channel sharing 

arrangement, provided they comply 

with the other provisions of this section. 

* * * * * 

(c) Amendments to Class A TV, low 

power TV and TV translator stations, or 

non-reserved television applications, 

which would require a new file number 

pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section, 

are subject to competitive bidding 

procedures and will be dismissed if 

filed outside a specified filing period. 

See 47 CFR 73.5002(a). When an 

amendment to an application for a 

reserved television allotment would 

require a new file number pursuant to 

paragraph (b) of this section, the 

applicant will have the opportunity to 

withdraw the amendment at any time 

prior to designation for a hearing if 

applicable; and may be afforded, subject 

to the discretion of the Administrative 

Law Judge, an opportunity to withdraw 

the amendment after designation for a 

hearing. 

* * * * * 

(f) Applications for minor 

modification of Class A TV, low power 

TV and TV translator stations may be 

filed at any time, unless restricted by 

the FCC, and will be processed on a 

‘‘first-come/first-served’’ basis, with the 

first acceptable application cutting off 

the filing rights of subsequent, 

competing applicants. Provided, 

however, that applications for minor 

modifications of Class A TV and those 

of TV broadcast stations may become 

mutually exclusive until grant of a 

pending Class A TV or TV broadcast 

minor modification application. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7261 

■ 83. Section 73.3578 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b) to read as follows: 

§ 73.3578 Amendments to applications for 

renewal, assignment or transfer of control. 

* * * * * 

(b) Any amendment to an application 

for assignment of construction permit or 

license, or consent to the transfer of 

control of an entity holding such a 

construction permit or license, shall be 

considered to be a minor amendment, 

except that any amendment which seeks 

a change in the ownership interest of 

the proposed assignee or transferee 

which would result in a change in 

control, or any amendment which 

would require the filing of FCC Form 

2100 Schedules 314, 315, or 345 (see 

§ 73.3500), if the changes sought were 

made in an original application for 

assignment or transfer of control, shall 

be considered to be a major amendment. 

However, the FCC may, within 15 days 

after the acceptance for filing of any 

other amendment, advise the applicant 

that the amendment is considered to be 

a major amendment and therefore is 

subject to the provisions of § 73.3580. 

■ 84. Section 73.3584 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a) and (c) to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3584 Procedure for filing petitions to 

deny. 

(a) For mutually exclusive 

applications subject to selection by 

competitive bidding (non-reserved 

channels) or fair distribution/point 

system (reserved channels), petitions to 

deny may be filed only against the 

winning bidders or tentative selectee(s), 

and such petitions will be governed by 

§§ 73.5006 and 73.7004, respectively. 

For all other applications the following 

rules will govern. Except in the case of 

applications for new low power TV and 

TV translator stations, for major changes 

in the existing facilities of such stations, 

or for applications for a change in 

output channel tendered by displaced 

low power TV and TV translator 

stations pursuant to § 73.3572(a)(1), any 

party in interest may file with the 

Commission a Petition to Deny any 

application (whether as originally filed 

or if amended so as to require a new file 

number pursuant to § 73.3571(j), 

§ 73.3572(b), § 73.3573(b), § 73.3574(b) 

or § 73.3578) for which local notice 

pursuant to § 73.3580 is required, 

provided such petitions are filed prior 

to the day such applications are granted 

or designated for hearing; but where the 

FCC issues a public notice pursuant to 

the provisions of § 73.3571(c), 

§ 73.3572(c) or § 73.3573(d), establishing 

a ‘‘cut-off’’ date, such petitions must be 

filed by the date specified. In the case 

of applications for transfers and 

assignments of construction permits or 

station licenses, Petitions to Deny must 

be filed not later than 30 days after 

issuance of a public notice of the 

acceptance for filing of the applications. 

In the case of applications for renewal 

of license, Petitions to Deny may be 

filed at any time up to the deadline 

established in § 73.3516(e). Requests for 

extension of time to file Petitions to 

Deny applications for new broadcast 

stations or major changes in the 

facilities of existing stations or 

applications for renewal of license will 

not be granted unless all parties 

concerned, including the applicant, 

consent to such requests, or unless a 

compelling showing can be made that 

unusual circumstances make the filing 

of a timely petition impossible and the 

granting of an extension warranted. 

* * * * * 

(c) In the case of applications for new 

low power TV and TV translator 

stations, for major changes in the 

existing facilities of such stations, or for 

applications for a change in output 

channel tendered by displaced low 

power TV and TV translator stations 

pursuant to § 73.3572(a)(1), any party in 

interest may file with the FCC a Petition 

to Deny any application (whether as 

originally filed or if amended so as to 

require a new file number pursuant to 

§ 73.3572(b)) for which local notice 

pursuant to § 73.3580 is required, 

provided such petitions are filed within 

30 days of the FCC Public Notice 

proposing the application for grant 

(applicants may file oppositions within 

15 days after the Petition to Deny is 

filed); but where the FCC selects a 

tentative permittee pursuant to Section 

1.1601 et seq., Petitions to Deny shall be 

accepted only if directed against the 

tentative selectee and filed after 

issuance of and within 15 days of FCC 

Public Notice announcing the tentative 

selectee. The applicant may file an 

opposition within 15 days after the 

Petition to Deny is filed. In cases in 

which the minimum diversity 

preference provided for in § 1.1623(f)(1) 

has been applied, an ‘‘objection to 

diversity claim’’ and opposition thereto, 

may be filed against any applicant 

receiving a diversity preference, within 

the same time period provided herein 

for Petitions and Oppositions. In all 

pleadings, allegations of fact or denials 

thereof shall be supported by 

appropriate certification. However, the 

FCC may announce, by the Public 

Notice announcing the acceptance of the 

last-filed mutually exclusive 

application, that a notice of Petition to 

Deny will be required to be filed no later 

than 30 days after issuance of the Public 

Notice. 

* * * * * 

■ 85. Revise § 73.3587 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.3587 Procedure for filing informal 

objections. 

Before FCC action on any application 

for an instrument of authorization, any 

person may file informal objections to 

the grant in LMS. Such objections may 

be submitted in letter form (without 

extra copies) and shall be signed. The 

limitation on pleadings and time for 

filing pleadings provided for in § 1.45 of 

this chapter shall not be applicable to 

any objections duly filed under this 

section. 

■ 86. Amend § 73.3598 by: 

■ a. Revising the introductory text of 

paragraph (a); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(b)(3); and 

■ c. Revising paragraph (c). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.3598 Period of construction. 

(a) Except as provided in the last two 

sentences of this paragraph (a), each 

original construction permit for the 

construction of a new TV, AM, FM or 

International Broadcast; low power TV; 

low power FM; TV translator; FM 

translator; or FM booster station, or to 

make changes in such existing stations, 

shall specify a period of three years 

from the date of issuance of the original 

construction permit within which 

construction shall be completed and 

application for license filed. An eligible 

entity that acquires an issued and 

outstanding construction permit for a 

station in any of the services listed in 

this paragraph (a) shall have the time 

remaining on the construction permit or 

eighteen months from the 

consummation of the assignment or 

transfer of control, whichever is longer, 

within which to complete construction 

and file an application for license. For 

purposes of the preceding sentence, an 

‘‘eligible entity’’ shall include any entity 

that qualifies as a small business under 

the Small Business Administration’s 

size standards for its industry grouping, 

as set forth in 13 CFR parts 121 through 

201, at the time the transaction is 

approved by the FCC, and holds: 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(3) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

(c) A permittee must notify the 

Commission as promptly as possible 

and, in any event, within 30 days, of 

any pertinent event covered by 

paragraph (b) of this section, and 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7262 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

provide supporting documentation. All 

notifications must be filed in LMS and 

must be placed in the station’s local 

public file. For authorizations to 

construct stations in the Low Power FM 

service, on FM channels reserved for 

noncommercial educational use, and for 

noncommercial educational full power 

television stations, the Commission will 

identify and grant an initial period of 

tolling when the grant of a construction 

permit is encumbered by administrative 

or judicial review under the 

Commission’s direct purview (e.g., 

petitions for reconsideration and 

applications for review of the grant of a 

construction permit pending before the 

Commission and any judicial appeal of 

any Commission action thereon), a 

request for international coordination 

under paragraph (b)(4) of this section, or 

failure of a condition under paragraph 

(b)(5) of this section. When a permit is 

encumbered by administrative or 

judicial review outside of the 

Commission’s direct purview (e.g., 

local, state, or non-FCC Federal 

requirements), the permittee is required 

to notify the Commission of such tolling 

events. 

* * * * * 

■ 87. Section 73.3700 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a)(2), removing and 

reserving paragraphs (a)(6) and (7), 

removing paragraph (a)(17), removing 

and reserving paragraphs (b)(1) through 

(4), removing paragraph (c)(6), and 

removing and reserving paragraphs (d) 

and (g)(1) through (3) to read as follows: 

§ 73.3700 Post-incentive auction licensing 

and operation. 

(a) * * * 

(2) Channel reassignment public 

notice. For purposes of this section, 

Channel Reassignment Public Notice 

means the public notice released upon 

the completion of the broadcast 

television spectrum incentive auction 

conducted under section 6403 of the 

Spectrum Act specifying the new 

channel assignments and technical 

parameters of any broadcast television 

stations that are reassigned to new 

channels. Incentive Auction Closing and 

Channel Reassignment Public Notice: 

The Broadcast Television Incentive 

Auction Closes; Reverse Auction and 

Forward Auction Results Announced; 

Final Television Band Channel 

Assignments Announced; Post-Auction 

Deadlines Announced, GN Docket No. 

12–268, Public Notice, 32 FCC Rcd 2786 

(WTB/MB 2017). 

* * * * * 

(a)(6) through (7) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

(b)(1) through (4) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

(d) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

(g) * * * 

(1) through (3) [Reserved] 

* * * * * 

■ 88. Revise § 73.4000 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4000 Listing of FCC policies. 

The following sections list, solely for 

the purpose of reference and 

convenience, certain Policies of the 

FCC. The present listing of FCC policies 

and citations thereto should not be 

relied upon as an all-inclusive list. 

Failure to include a policy in this list 

does not affect its validity. In addition, 

documents listed may be revised by 

subsequent decisions and the inclusion 

of a document on this list does not 

necessarily reflect that it is currently 

valid. Each section bears the title of one 

Policy and the citations which will 

direct the user to the specific 

document(s) pertaining to that Policy. 

■ 89. Revise § 73.4017 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4017 Application processing: 

Commercial FM stations. 

See §§ 73.5000 through 73.5009. 

■ 90. Revise § 73.4055 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4055 Cigarette advertising. 

See 15 U.S.C. 1335; 15 U.S.C. 4402(c). 

■ 91. Section 73.4060 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: 

§ 73.4060 Citizens agreements. 

(a) See Report and Order, Docket 

20495, FCC 75–1359, adopted December 

10, 1975. 57 F.C.C. 2d 42; 40 FR 459730, 

December 30, 1975. 

* * * * * 

§ 73.4082 [Removed and Reserved] 

■ 92. Remove and reserve § 73.4082. 

■ 93. Revise § 73.4100 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4100 Financial qualifications; new AM 

and FM stations. 

See Public Notice, FCC 78–556, dated 

August 2, 1978. 69 FCC 2d 407; 43 FR 

34841, August 7, 1978. See also 

Revision of Application for Construction 

Permit for Commercial Broadcast 

Station (FCC Form 301), Memorandum 

Opinion and Order, 50 R.R.2d 381, para. 

6 (1981) and Certification of Financial 

Qualification by Applicants for 

Broadcast Station Construction Permits, 

Public Notice, 2 FCC Rcd 2122 (1987), 

52 FR 17333 (May 7, 1987). 

■ 94. Revise § 73.4101 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4101 Financial qualifications, TV 

stations. 

See Public Notice, FCC 79–299, dated 

May 11, 1979. 72 F.C.C. 2d 784; 44 FR 

29160, May 18, 1979. See also Revision 

of Application for Construction Permit 

for Commercial Broadcast Station (FCC 

Form 301), Memorandum Opinion and 

Order, 50 R.R.2d 381, para. 6 (1981) and 

Certification of Financial Qualification 

by Applicants for Broadcast Station 

Construction Permits, Public Notice, 2 

FCC Rcd 2122 (1987), 52 FR 17333 (May 

7, 1987). 

§ 73.4107 [Removed and Reserved] 

■ 95. Remove and reserve § 73.4107. 

§ 73.4108 [Removed and Reserved] 

■ 96. Remove and reserve § 73.4108. 

■ 97. Revise § 73.4210 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4210 Procedure Manual: ‘‘The Public 

and Broadcasting’’. 

See The Public and Broadcasting, a 

copy of which is available at: https://

www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-andbroadcasting. 

§ 73.4247 [Removed and Reserved] 

■ 98. Remove and reserve § 73.4247. 

■ 99. Section 73.4267 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (a) and (b) and 

removing paragraph (c) to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.4267 Time brokerage. 

(a) See Report and Order, MM Docket 

Nos. 94–150, 92–51, 87–154, FCC 99– 

207, adopted August 5, 1999, 64 FR 

50622 (Sept. 17, 1999). 

(b) See § 73.3555, Note 2(j). 

■ 100. Section 73.5000 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: 

§ 73.5000 Services subject to competitive 

bidding. 

(a) Mutually exclusive applications 

for new facilities and for major changes 

to existing facilities in the following 

broadcast services are subject to 

competitive bidding: AM; FM; FM 

translator; television; low-power 

television; television translator; and 

Class A television. Mutually exclusive 

applications for minor modifications of 

Class A television and television 

broadcast are also subject to competitive 

bidding. The general competitive 

bidding procedures set forth in part 1, 

subpart Q of this chapter will apply 

unless otherwise provided in part 73 or 

part 74 of this chapter. 

* * * * * 

■ 101. Section 73.5005 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a) to read as follows: 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7263 

§ 73.5005 Filing of long-form applications. 

(a) Within thirty (30) days following 

the close of bidding and notification to 

the winning bidders, unless a longer 

period is specified by public notice, 

each winning bidder must submit an 

appropriate long-form application (FCC 

Form 2100) for each construction permit 

or license for which it was the high 

bidder. Long-form applications filed by 

winning bidders shall include the 

exhibits required by § 1.2107(d) of this 

chapter (concerning any bidding 

consortia or joint bidding 

arrangements); § 1.2110(j) of this chapter 

(concerning designated entity status, if 

applicable); and § 1.2112 of this chapter 

(concerning disclosure of ownership 

and real party in interest information, 

and, if applicable, disclosure of gross 

revenue information for small business 

applicants). 

* * * * * 

■ 102. Section 73.5006 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b) to read as follows: 

§ 73.5006 Filing of petitions to deny 

against long-form applications. 

* * * * * 

(b) Within ten (10) days following the 

issuance of a public notice announcing 

that a long-form application for an AM, 

FM or television construction permit 

has been accepted for filing, petitions to 

deny that application may be filed in 

LMS. Within fifteen (15) days following 

the issuance of a public notice 

announcing that a long-form application 

for a low-power television, television 

translator or FM translator construction 

permit has been accepted for filing, 

petitions to deny that application may 

be filed. Any such petitions must 

contain allegations of fact supported by 

affidavit of a person or persons with 

personal knowledge thereof. 

* * * * * 

■ 103. Section 73.5007 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (b)(2)(iii), (3)(iv), 

and (v) to read as follows: 

§ 73.5007 Designated entity provisions. 

* * * * * 

(b) * * * 

(2) * * * 

(iii) Television broadcast station—the 

noise limited contour (see § 73.619(c)); 

* * * * * 

(3) * * * 

(iv) Television broadcast station—the 

noise limited contour (see § 73.619(c)). 

(v) Low power television or television 

translator station—predicted, protected 

contour (see § 74.792(a) of this chapter). 

* * * * * 

■ 104. Amend § 73.6000 by revising the 

definition for ‘‘Locally-produced 

programming’’ to read as follows: 

§ 73.6000 Definitions. 

* * * * * 

Locally produced programming is 

programming produced within the 

predicted noise-limited contour (see 

§ 73.619(c)) of a Class A station 

broadcasting the program or within the 

contiguous predicted noise-limited 

contours of any of the Class A stations 

in a commonly owned group. 

* * * * * 

■ 105. Section 73.6010 is amended by 

removing and reserving paragraph (b) 

and revising paragraphs (c) and (d) to 

read as follows: 

§ 73.6010 Class A TV station protected 

contour. 

* * * * * 

(b) [Reserved] 

(c) A Class A TV station will be 

protected from interference within the 

following predicted signal contours: 

(1) 43 dBu for stations on Channels 2 

through 6; 

(2) 48 dBu for stations on Channels 7 

through 13; and 

(3) 51 dBu for stations on Channels 14 

through 36. 

(d) The Class A TV station protected 

contour is calculated from the effective 

radiated power and antenna height 

above average terrain, using the F(50,90) 

signal propagation method specified in 

§ 73.619(b)(1). 

* * * * * 

§ 73.6012 [Removed] 

■ 106. Remove § 73.6012. 

§ 73.6013 [Removed] 

■ 107. Remove § 73.6013. 

§ 73.6014 [Removed] 

■ 108. Remove § 73.6014. 

■ 109. Revise § 73.6017 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.6017 Class A TV station protection of 

Class A TV stations. 

An application to change the facilities 

of a Class A TV station will not be 

accepted if it fails to protect authorized 

Class A stations in accordance with the 

requirements of § 74.793 (b) through (d) 

and § 74.793(g) of this chapter. This 

protection must be afforded to 

applications for changes in other 

authorized Class A stations filed prior to 

the date the Class A application is filed. 

■ 110. Revise § 73.6018 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.6018 Class A TV station protection of 

TV stations. 

Class A TV stations must protect the 

TV service that would be provided by 

the facilities specified in the Table of 

TV Allotments in § 73.622(j), by 

authorized TV stations, and by 

applications that propose to expand TV 

stations’ allotted or authorized coverage 

contour in any direction. Protection of 

these allotments, stations, and 

applications must be based on meeting 

the requirements of § 74.793 (b) through 

(e) of this chapter. An application to 

change the facilities of a Class A TV 

station will not be accepted if it fails to 

protect these TV allotments, stations, 

and applications in accordance with 

this section. 

■ 111. Revise § 73.6019 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.6019 Class A TV station protection of 

low power TV and TV translator stations. 

An application to change the facilities 

of a Class A TV station will not be 

accepted if it fails to protect authorized 

low power TV and TV translator 

stations in accordance with the 

requirements of § 74.793(b) through (d) 

and (h) of this chapter. This protection 

must be afforded to applications for 

changes filed prior to the date the Class 

A station application is filed. 

■ 112. Revise § 73.6020 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.6020 Protection of stations in the land 

mobile radio service. 

An application to change the facilities 

of an existing Class A TV station will 

not be accepted if it fails to protect 

stations in the land mobile radio service 

pursuant to the requirements specified 

in § 74.709 of this chapter. 

■ 113. Revise § 73.6022 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.6022 Negotiated interference. 

(a) Notwithstanding the technical 

criteria in this subpart J of this part, 

subpart E of this part, and subpart G of 

part 74 of this chapter regarding 

interference protection to and from 

Class A TV stations, Class A TV stations 

may negotiate agreements with parties 

of authorized and proposed TV, LPTV, 

TV translator, Class A TV stations or 

other affected parties to resolve 

interference concerns; provided, 

however, other relevant requirements 

are met with respect to the parties to the 

agreement. A written and signed 

agreement must be submitted with each 

application or other request for action 

by the Commission. Negotiated 

agreements under this paragraph can 

include the exchange of money or other 

considerations from one entity to 

another. Applications submitted 

pursuant to the provisions of this 

paragraph (a) will be granted only if the 

Commission finds that such action is 

consistent with the public interest. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
7264 Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 

(b) [Reserved] 

■ 114. Revise § 73.6023 (a) through (c) 

to read as follows: 

§ 73.6023 Distributed transmission 

systems. 

(a) Station licensees may operate a 

commonly owned group of Class A 

stations with contiguous predicted TV 

noise-limited contours (pursuant to 

§ 73.619(c)) on a common television 

channel in a distributed transmission 

system. 

(b) A Class A TV station may be 

authorized to operate multiple 

synchronized transmitters on its 

assigned channel to provide service 

consistent with the requirements of this 

section. Such operation is called a 

distributed transmission system (DTS). 

Except as expressly provided in this 

section, Class A stations operating a 

DTS facility must comply with all rules 

in this part applicable to Class A singletransmitter stations. 

(c) For purposes of compliance with 

this section, a Class A station’s 

‘‘authorized facility’’ is the facility 

authorized for the station in a license or 

construction permit for non-DTS, singletransmitter-location operation. A Class 

A station’s ‘‘authorized service area’’ is 

defined as the area within its protected 

contour (described by § 73.6010(c)) as 

determined using the authorized 

facility. 

* * * * * 

■ 115. Section 73.6024 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b), removing and 

reserving paragraph (c), and revising 

paragraph (d) to read as follows: 

§ 73.6024 Transmission standards and 

system requirements. 

* * * * * 

(b) A Class A TV station may continue 

to operate with the transmitter operated 

under its previous LPTV license, 

provided such operation does not cause 

any condition of uncorrectable 

interference due to radiation of radio 

frequency energy outside of the assigned 

channel. Such operation must continue 

to meet the requirements of § 74.750 of 

this chapter. 

(c) [Reserved] 

(d) A Class A station must meet the 

emission requirements of § 74.794 of 

this chapter. Stations within 275 

kilometers of the US-Mexico border 

shall specify the full-service emission 

mask. 

■ 116. Amend § 73.6025 by: 

■ a. Revising paragraph (a); 

■ b. Removing and reserving paragraph 

(b); and 

■ c. Revising paragraph (d). 

The revisions read as follows: 

§ 73.6025 Antenna system and station 

location. 

(a) Applications for modified Class A 

TV facilities proposing the use of 

directional antenna systems must 

include all appropriate documentation 

specified in § 73.625(c)(3). 

* * * * * 

(d) Class A TV stations are subject to 

the provisions in § 73.617(d) regarding 

blanketing interference. 

■ 117. Revise § 73.6026 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.6026 Broadcast regulations 

applicable to Class A television stations. 

The following rules are applicable to 

Class A television stations: 

(a) Section 73.603 Numerical 

designation of television channels. 

(b) Section 73.624(b), (c), and (g) 

Television broadcast stations. 

(c) Section 73.658 Affiliation 

agreements and network program 

practice; territorial exclusivity in nonnetwork program arrangements. 

(d) Section 73.664 Determining 

operating power. 

(e) Section 73.670 Commercial limits 

in children’s programs. 

(f) Section 73.671 Educational and 

informational programming for 

children. 

(g) Section 73.673 Public information 

initiatives regarding educational and 

informational programming for 

children. 

(h) Section 73.688 Indicating 

instruments. 

(i) Section 73.1030 Notifications 

concerning interference to radio 

astronomy, research and receiving 

installations. 

(j) Section 73.3615(a) and (g) 

Ownership reports. 

§ 73.6027 [Removed] 

■ 118. Remove § 73.6027. 

■ 119. Revise § 73.8000 to read as 

follows: 

§ 73.8000 Incorporation by reference. 

Certain material is incorporated by 

reference into this part with the 

approval of the Director of the Federal 

Register under 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 

CFR part 51. To enforce any edition 

other than that specified in this section, 

the Federal Communications 

Commission (FCC) must publish a 

document in the Federal Register and 

the material must be available to the 

public. All approved incorporation by 

reference (IBR) material is available for 

inspection at the FCC and at the 

National Archives and Records 

Administration (NARA). Contact the 

FCC at: Federal Communications 

Commission’s Reference Information 

Center, located at the address of the 

FCC’s main office indicated in 47 CFR 

0.401(a). For information on the 

availability of this material at NARA, 

visit www.archives.gov/federal-register/ 

cfr/ibr-locations or email fr.inspection@

nara.gov. The material may be obtained 

from the following sources: 

(a) Advanced Television Systems 

Committee (ATSC), 1300 I Street NW, 

Suite 400E, Washington, DC 20005; 

website: www.atsc.org/standards.html. 

(1) ATSC A/52: ‘‘ATSC Standard 

Digital Audio Compression (AC–3),’’ 

1995, IBR approved for § 73.682. 

(2) ATSC A/53 Parts 1–4 and 6: 2007 

‘‘ATSC Digital Television Standard,’’ 

(January 3, 2007) and ATSC A/53 Part 

5: 2010 ‘‘ATSC Digital Television 

Standard: Part 5—AC–3 Audio System 

Characteristic,’’ (July 6, 2010); IBR 

approved for § 73.682. as listed below: 

(i) A/53, Part 1:2007, ‘‘Digital 

Television System’’ (January 3, 2007). 

(ii) A/53, Part 2:2007, ‘‘RF/ 

Transmission System Characteristics’’ 

(January 3, 2007). 

(iii) A/53, Part 3:2007, ‘‘Service 

Multiplex and Transport Subsystem 

Characteristics’’ (January 3, 2007). 

(iv) A/53, Part 4:2007, ‘‘MPEG–2 

Video System Characteristics’’ (January 

3, 2007), except for § 6.1.2 of A/53 Part 

4: 2007, and the phrase ‘‘see Table 6.2’’ 

in section 6.1.1 Table 6.1 and section 

6.1.3 Table 6.3. 

(v) A/53, Part 5: 2010, ‘‘AC–3 Audio 

System Characteristics’’ (July 6, 2010). 

(vi) A/53, Part 6:2007, ‘‘Enhanced 

AC–3 Audio System Characteristics’’ 

(January 3, 2007). 

(3) ATSC A/65C: ‘‘ATSC Program and 

System Information Protocol for 

Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable, 

Revision C With Amendment No. 1 

dated May 9, 2006,’’ (January 2, 2006), 

IBR approved for §§ 73.682. 

(4) ATSC A/85:2013 ‘‘ATSC 

Recommended Practice: Techniques for 

Establishing and Maintaining Audio 

Loudness for Digital Television,’’ 

(March 12, 2013) (‘‘ATSC A/85 RP’’), 

IBR approved for § 73.682. 

(5) ATSC A/321:2016, ‘‘System 

Discovery and Signaling’’ (March 23, 

2016), IBR approved for § 73.682. 

(6) ATSC A/322:2017 ‘‘Physical Layer 

Protocol’’ (June 6, 2017), IBR approved 

for § 73.682. 

(b) Federal Communications 

Commission (FCC), Reference 

Information Center, located at the 

address of the FCC’s main office 

indicated in 47 CFR 0.401(a), or at the 

FCC’s Office of Engineering and 

Technology (OET) website: 

www.fcc.gov/oet/info/documents/ 

bulletins/. 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3
Federal Register / Vol. 89, No. 22 / Thursday, February 1, 2024 / Rules and Regulations 7265 

(1) OET Bulletin No. 69: ‘‘LongleyRice Methodology for Evaluating TV 

Coverage and Interference’’ (February 6, 

2004), IBR approved for § 73.616. 

(2) [Reserved] 

PART 74—EXPERIMENTAL RADIO, 

AUXILIARY, SPECIAL BROADCAST 

AND OTHER PROGRAM 

DISTRIBUTIONAL SERVICES 

■ 120. The authority for part 74 

continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 47 U.S.C. 154, 302a, 303, 307, 

309, 310, 325, 336 and 554. 

■ 121. Section 74.701 is amended by 

revising paragraph (f) to read as follows: 

§ 74.701 Definitions. 

* * * * * 

(f) Low power TV station. A station 

authorized under the provisions of this 

subpart G of this part that may 

retransmit the programs and signals of 

a TV broadcast station and that may 

originate programming in any amount 

greater than 30 seconds per hour. 

* * * * * 

■ 122. Section 74.732 is amended by 

revising paragraph (e) to read as follows: 

§ 74.732 Eligibility and licensing 

requirements. 

* * * * * 

(e) A proposal to change the primary 

TV station being retransmitted or an 

application of a licensed translator 

station to include low power TV station 

operation, i.e., program origination will 

be subject only to a notification 

requirement. 

* * * * * 

■ 123. Section 74.787 is amended by 

revising paragraph (a)(5)(v) to read as 

follows: 

§ 74.787 Licensing. 

(a) * * * 

(5) * * * 

(v) Pre-auction digital service area is 

the geographic area within the full 

power station’s noise-limited contour 

that was protected in the incentive 

auction repacking process. The service 

area of the digital-to-digital replacement 

translator shall be limited to only the 

demonstrated loss area within the full 

power station’s pre-auction digital 

service area, provided that an applicant 

for a digital-to-digital replacement 

television translator may propose a de 

minimis expansion of its full power preauction digital service area upon 

demonstrating that the expansion is 

necessary to replace a loss In its preauction digital service area. 

* * * * * 

■ 124. Section 74.792 is amended by 

revising paragraph (b) to read as follows: 

§ 74.792 Low power TV and TV translator 

station protected contour. 

* * * * * 

(b) The low power TV or TV translator 

protected contour is calculated from the 

authorized effective radiated power and 

antenna height above average terrain, 

using the F(50,90) signal propagation 

method specified in § 73.619(b)(1) of 

this chapter. 

■ 125. Section 74.793 is amended by 

revising paragraphs (b), (e), (g), and (h) 

to read as follows: 

§ 74.793 Low power TV and TV translator 

station protection of broadcast stations. 

* * * * * 

(b) Except as provided in this section, 

interference prediction analysis is based 

on the interference thresholds (D/U 

signal strength ratios) and other criteria 

and methods specified in § 73.620 of 

this chapter. 

* * * * * 

(e) Protection to the authorized 

facilities of TV broadcast stations shall 

be based on not causing predicted 

interference to the population within 

the service area defined and described 

in § 73.619(c) of this chapter, except that 

a low power TV or TV translator station 

must not cause a loss of service to 0.5 

percent or more of the population 

predicted to receive service from the 

authorized TV facilities. 

* * * * * 

(g) Protection to the authorized 

facilities of Class A TV stations shall be 

based on not causing predicted 

interference to the population within 

the service area defined and described 

in § 73.6010 of this chapter, 

respectively, except that a low power 

TV or TV translator station must not 

cause a loss of service to 0.5 percent or 

more of the population predicted to 

receive service from the authorized 

Class A TV facilities. 

(h) Protection to the authorized 

facilities of low power TV and TV 

translator stations shall be based on not 

causing predicted interference to the 

population within the service area 

defined and described in § 74.792, 

except that a low power TV or TV 

translator station must not cause a loss 

of service to 2.0 percent or more of the 

population predicted to receive service 

from the authorized low power TV or 

TV translator station. 

■ 126. Section 74.794 is amended by 

revising the section heading and 

paragraph (b) to read as follows: 

§ 74.794 Emissions. 

* * * * * 

(b) In addition to meeting the 

emission attenuation requirements of 

the simple or stringent mask (including 

attenuation of radio frequency 

harmonics), low power TV and TV 

translator stations authorized to operate 

on TV channels 22–24, (518–536 MHz), 

32–36 (578–608 MHz), 38 (614–620 

MHz), and 65–69 (776–806 MHz) must 

provide specific ‘‘out of band’’ 

protection to Radio Navigation Satellite 

Services in the bands: L5 (1164–1215 

MHz); L2 (1215–1240 MHz) and L1 

(1559–1610 MHz). 

(1) An FCC-certificated transmitter 

specifically certified for use on one or 

more of the above channels must 

include filtering with an attenuation of 

not less than 85 dB in the GPS bands, 

which will have the effect of reducing 

harmonics in the GPS bands from what 

is produced by the transmitter, and this 

attenuation must be demonstrated as 

part of the certification application to 

the Commission. 

(2) For an installation on one of the 

above channels with a transmitter not 

specifically FCC-certificated for the 

channel, a low pass filter or equivalent 

device rated by its manufacturer to have 

an attenuation of at least 85 dB in the 

GPS bands, which will have the effect 

of reducing harmonics in the GPS bands 

from what is produced by the 

transmitter, and must be installed in a 

manner that will prevent the harmonic 

emission content from reaching the 

antenna. A description of the low pass 

filter or equivalent device with the 

manufacturer’s rating or a report of 

measurements by a qualified individual 

shall be retained with the station 

license. Field measurements of the 

second or third harmonic output of a 

transmitter so equipped are not 

required. 

[FR Doc. 2023–24626 Filed 1–31–24; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6712–01–P 


ddrumheller on DSK120RN23PROD with RULES3