II

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1427

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

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

NOVEMBER 7, 1997

Mr. FORD introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to

the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to require the

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

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Community Broad5 casters Protection Act of 1997’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—
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1 (1) Since the creation of low-power television li2 censes by the Federal Communications Commission,

3 a small number of license holders have operated

4 their stations in a manner beneficial to the public

5 good providing broadcasting to their communities

6 that would not otherwise be available.

7 (2) These low-power broadcasters have operated

8 their stations in a manner consistent with the pro9 gramming objectives and hours of operation of full10 power broadcasters providing worthwhile services to

11 their respective communities while under severe li12 cense limitations compared to their full-power coun13 terparts.

14 (3) License limitations, particularly the tem15 porary nature of the license, have blocked many low16 power broadcasters from having access to capital,

17 and have severely hampered their ability to continue

18 to provide quality broadcasting, programming, or

19 improvements.

20 (4) The passage of the Telecommunications Act

21 of 1996 has added to the uncertainty of the future

22 status of these stations by the lack of specific provi23 sions regarding the permanency of their licenses, or

24 their treatment during the transition to high defini25 tion, digital television.
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1 SEC. 3. PRESERVATION OF LOW-POWER COMMUNITY TELE2 VISION BROADCASTING.

3 (a) AMENDMENT.—Section 336 of the Communica4 tions Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 336) is amended—

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

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

7 (2) by inserting after subsection (e) the follow8 ing new subsection:

9 ‘‘(f) PRESERVATION OF LOW-POWER COMMUNITY

10 TELEVISION BROADCASTING.—

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

12 30 days after the date of enactment of the Commu13 nity Broadcasters Protection Act of 1997, the Com14 mission shall prescribe regulations to establish a

15 class A television license to be available to licensees

16 of qualifying low-power television stations. Such li17 cense shall be subject to the same license terms, and

18 renewal standards as the licenses for full-power tele19 vision stations except as provided in this section, and

20 each class A licensee shall be accorded primary sta21 tus as a television broadcaster as long as the station

22 continues to meet the requirements for a qualifying

23 low-power station in subsection (2). Within 30 days

24 after such regulations are adopted, the Commission

25 shall send a notice to the licensees of all low-power

26 television licenses of the terms of this section. The
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1 Commission shall, within 30 days after receipt of an

2 application that is acceptable for filing, award such

3 a class A television station license to any licensee of

4 a qualifying low-power television station.

5 ‘‘(2) QUALIFYING LOW-POWER TELEVISION STA6 TIONS.—For purposes of this subsection, a station is

7 a qualifying low-power television station if—

8 ‘‘(A) within 24 months after the date of

9 enactment of the Community Broadcasters Pro10 tection Act of 1997 and for 6 months prior to

11 the filing of its Class A license application—

12 ‘‘(i) such station broadcast a mini13 mum of 18 hours per day;

14 ‘‘(ii) such station broadcast an aver15 age of at least 3 hours per week of pro16 gramming that was produced within the

17 market area served by such station, or the

18 market area served by a group of com19 monly controlled stations that carry com20 mon local or specialized programming not

21 otherwise available to their communities;

22 and

23 ‘‘(iii) such station was in compliance

24 with the Commission’s requirements appli25 cable to low-power television stations; and
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1 ‘‘(B) from and after the date of its appli2 cation for a Class A license, the station is in

3 compliance with the Commission’s operating

4 rules for full power television stations; or

5 ‘‘(C) the Commission determines that the

6 public interest, convenience, and necessity

7 would be served by treating the station as a

8 qualifying low-power television station for pur9 poses of this section, or for other reasons deter10 mined by the Commission.

11 ‘‘(3) COMMON OWNERSHIP.—No low-power tele12 vision station shall be disqualified for a class A li13 cense based on common ownership with any other

14 medium of mass communication.

15 ‘‘(4) ISSUANCE OF LICENSES FOR ADVANCED

16 TELEVISION SERVICES TO QUALIFYING LOW-POWER

17 TELEVISION STATIONS.—The Commission is not re18 quired to issue any additional licenses for advanced

19 television services to the licensees of the class A tele20 vision stations but shall approve such license appli21 cations proposing facilities that will not cause inter22 ference to any other broadcast facility authorized on

23 the date of filing of the Class A advanced television

24 application. Such a licensee may, at the option of li25 censee, elect to convert to the provision of advanced
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1 television services on its analog channel, but shall

2 not be required to convert to digital operation until

3 the Commission requires the use of digital or other

4 advanced technologies by all full-power television

5 stations.

6 ‘‘(5) PRESERVATION OF CLASS A STATIONS.—

7 Except as expressly permitted by this paragraph, no

8 licensee of a class A television station shall be re9 quired to cease operations, nor shall the license of

10 such a licensee be rescinded or otherwise terminated,

11 for the purposes of implementing any amendments

12 to the table of allotments adopted before the date of

13 enactment of the Community Broadcasters Protec14 tion Act of 1997 to provide additional licenses for

15 advanced television services. The Commission may

16 order such a cessation, rescission, or termination

17 only after compliance with the following require18 ments:

19 ‘‘(A) The Commission shall revise such

20 table of allotments to preserve each class A sta21 tion unless the preservation of such station (i)

22 would render impossible the assignment of an

23 additional license for advanced television serv24 ices to a full-power station, (ii) would require

25 the Commission to revoke or rescind a construc-
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1 tion permit issued to such full-power station, or

2 (iii) would cause a significant delay or increase

3 in cost of the construction of a digital television

4 facility by a network-affiliated analog station li5 censee in the top 30 markets.

6 ‘‘(B) If the Commission cannot revise the

7 table of allotments to preserve a class A station

8 as required by subparagraph (A), the Commis9 sion shall, to the maximum extent possible, re10 vise the table of allotments to preserve the class

11 A station in the same community of license,

12 using the same facilities, by assigning to such

13 station a different frequency.

14 ‘‘(C) If the Commission cannot revise the

15 table of allotments to preserve a class A station

16 as required by subparagraph (A) or (B), the

17 Commission shall seek to provide such licensee

18 with a class A license in a community of license

19 that is adjacent to the station’s previous com20 munity of license.

21 ‘‘(D) If the Commission cannot preserve a

22 class A station as required by subparagraph

23 (A), (B), or (C), the Commission shall award

24 such licensee the license for another station in

25 another community of license acceptable to the
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1 licensee, to the extent that the license for such

2 other station is available. Such a licensee shall

3 be preferred in the award of such other station

4 license over any other applicant (other than an5 other licensee of a class A television station that

6 is required to relinquish its existing license).’’

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