SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Local Television Serv-
ice and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2018’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Section 307(b) of the Communications Act 
of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 307(b)) provides that the Fed-
eral Communications Commission ‘‘shall make such 
distribution of licenses, frequencies, hours of oper-
ation, and of power among the several States and 
communities as to provide a fair, efficient, and equi-
table distribution of radio service to each of the 
same’’. 
(2) In 1982, Congress added section 331(a) to 
such Act (47 U.S.C. 331(a)) with the clear intent of 
providing high quality, competitive, commercial very 
high frequency (VHF) television service identifiable 
as such to the public in States without VHF tele-
vision service. Such section was adopted, in part, to 
address the need for focused local news and emer-
gency information in States without dedicated VHF 
television service, and as important, without an in- 
State Nielsen designated market area with the usual 
accompaniment of stations affiliated with the major 
networks and oriented toward local news. 
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(3) Key reasons for ensuring that a VHF sta-
tion’s virtual major channel number matches its 
radio frequency channel number when allocated pur-
suant to such section 331(a) include the following: 
(A) More comprehensive deployment of the 
Emergency Alert System. 
(B) Increased public awareness through 
ongoing, over-the-air education of crisis man-
agement by Federal, State, and local officials. 
(C) Augmented public emergency pre-
paredness. 
(D) Enhanced focus and in-State coordina-
tion of communications to facilitate improved 
public responsiveness to calls for action from 
alerts issued through the Emergency Alert Sys-
tem, whether local, State, or national in origi-
nation. 
(E) Continuing comprehensive local news 
reports and dissemination of pertinent emer-
gency management information within a State 
to which a VHF station relocates during and 
following such alerts. 
(F) Ensuring viewers will know to select 
the proper VHF antenna for over-the-air recep-
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tion of such participating Emergency Alert Sys-
tem station. 
(G) Having a common universal numerical 
VHF tuning address throughout the viewing 
area ensures an easily remembered channel 
number for accessing the VHF station and 
Emergency Alert System information. 
(4) The right to obtain and retain a matching 
virtual major channel number and radio frequency 
channel number is crucial to providing high-quality 
VHF television service as described in the preceding 
paragraphs of this section. 
SEC. 3. COMMON VIRTUAL MAJOR CHANNEL NUMBER AND 
RADIO FREQUENCY CHANNEL NUMBER FOR 
CERTAIN VHF TELEVISION STATIONS. 
Section 331(a) of the Communications Act of 1934 
(47 U.S.C. 331(a)) is amended— 
(1) by striking ‘‘It shall be the policy’’ and in-
serting the following: 
‘‘(1) POLICY.—It shall be the policy’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(2) COMMON VIRTUAL MAJOR CHANNEL NUM-
BER AND RADIO FREQUENCY CHANNEL NUMBER.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 45 
days after the submission of a request to the 
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Commission by the licensee of a station retain-
ing a channel which has been reallocated and 
relocated to a community in a State under 
paragraph (1) with main facilities in such 
State, the Commission shall, subject to sub-
paragraph (C) but notwithstanding any other 
provision of law and its rules, issue an order 
providing that the channel numbers described 
subparagraph (B) shall be considered to be the 
same as the number of the radio frequency 
channel of the station as specified in the Digital 
Television Table of Allotments. 
‘‘(B) CHANNEL
NUMBERS
DESCRIBED.— 
The channel numbers described in this subpara-
graph are the following: 
‘‘(i) The number of the very high fre-
quency channel on which the station is 
broadcast over the air for purposes of sec-
tion 614(b)(6) and the associated regula-
tions of the Commission. 
‘‘(ii) The virtual major channel num-
ber specified in the Program and System 
Information Protocol of the station, as de-
termined under the ATSC standard enti-
tled ‘Program and System Information 
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Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and 
Cable’ (or any successor standard) with 
which the rules of the Commission require 
the transmission of digital broadcast tele-
vision signals to comply. 
‘‘(C) REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO LOCAL 
NEWS, INFORMATION, OR PUBLIC AFFAIRS PRO-
GRAMMING.— 
‘‘(i) INITIAL
CERTIFICATION.—Sub-
paragraph (A) shall apply with respect to 
a station only if the licensee of such sta-
tion includes in the request submitted 
under such subparagraph a certification 
that, beginning not later than 90 days 
after the date of such request, such station 
will provide at least one hour daily of 
news, information, or public affairs pro-
gramming focused on, or of general inter-
est to, local audiences in the State to 
which the channel of such station has been 
reallocated under paragraph (1). 
‘‘(ii) INITIATION AND CONTINUATION 
OF
PROGRAMMING; ANNUAL
RECERTIFI-
CATION.—Subparagraph (A) shall cease to 
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apply with respect to a station if the li-
censee of such station fails to— 
‘‘(I) initiate the programming de-
scribed in clause (i) within the 90-day 
timeframe described in such clause; 
‘‘(II) produce and air the pro-
gramming described in clause (i) on a 
continuing basis; or 
‘‘(III) recertify on an annual 
basis that such station is providing 
the programming described in clause 
(i). 
‘‘(iii) AVAILABILITY TO OTHER TELE-
VISION
STATIONS
AND
SERVICES.—Sub-
paragraph (A) shall cease to apply with re-
spect to a station if the licensee of such 
station fails to— 
‘‘(I) make available, on a reason-
able basis, the programming described 
in clause (i) to other television broad-
cast stations and other television dis-
tribution services (such as cable or 
satellite television systems), for dis-
tribution outside the Nielsen des-
ignated market area of the station the 
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channel of which has been reallocated 
under paragraph (1) but within the 
State to which such channel has been 
so reallocated; or 
‘‘(II) after the programming de-
scribed in clause (i) has aired, make 
such programming available through 
streaming on the internet.’’. 
Æ 
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