P.O. Box 220 - 100 Airport Drive

Coldwater, MI 49036

• The NAB Convention is now only days away, but there is still time to schedule a meeting with Wayne and Chris Reese, who will be representing Munn & Associates this year. You all know Wayne as our President, but you may not realize the female voice that answers your calls belongs to his wife, Chris. They will be in Las Vegas for the first part of the convention and would be happy to meet you—for a business reason, or just to get acquainted. Give them a call at our office so you can set up a time and place to meet.
• Thanks for your response to the item last month offering to deliver the newsletter by e-mail. We heard from a significant number of people—quite a few of whom wanted to know why we didn’t include our own e-mail address. Although our wacky editor, Thumbs Feebleman, has been known to forget such things, it really wasn’t a "stupid attack!" We are presently in the process of obtaining our own Internet domain name. With it will come new e-mail addresses for several of our staff members who have been using their personal addresses up to this time. Our local electrical utility is currently installing a broadband telecommunications system in our community that will include Internet access. We should have more details for you next month.

• In late February, the Commission announced a significant change in the enforcement of its EEO policies for religious broadcasters. Previously, such stations could only require employees to agree with their particular religious beliefs if they also required those employees to espouse such beliefs on the air. Now the Commission has stated that religious broadcasters may establish religious belief or affiliation as a requirement for all station employees. However, the Commission was quick to point out that the exemption for religious belief does not extend to other issues such as race, color, national origin, or gender. The press release states that "…a ‘religious broadcaster’ is defined as a licensee which is, or is closely affiliated with, a church, synagogue, or other religious entity, including a subsidiary of the religious entity. Specific determinations of whether a licensee is a ‘religious broadcaster’ will be made on a case-by-case analysis."

• A Florida AM Station has learned the importance of making occupied spectrum measurements on a regular basis. After an FCC inspector found the station had failed to make the required measurements, the station promised to comply. When a second inspection revealed the measurements still had not been made, the Commission fined the station $2000. Obviously, it costs less to comply with the rules than to pay the consequences!
• Another pirate operator—this one in Pontiac, MI—has been fined $5000. Earlier releases also reported the criminal prosecution of yet another pirate operator. Many licensed operators believe these events are long overdue.
• However, the "grand winners" were a pair of PCS (Personal Communication System) applicants. The two companies were accused of violating the rules for auction participants. According to the Commission’s "Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture," two employees (one from each firm) who were acquaintances prior to the auction exchanged voice mail messages during the auction. This exchange was followed by a telephone conversation between the employees. Since the two firms were bidding against one another, the Commission felt the content of the conversations violated the auction rules. Furthermore, neither company reported the incident to the FCC within the prescribed time frame. As a result, they were fined $100,000 for each telephone exchange, and $5000 for each day the incident went unreported. This brought the grand total to $1,200,000 each. Obviously, the Commission is taking its anti-collusion rules very seriously. Those who plan to participate in upcoming broadcast spectrum auctions will be wise to make a detailed study of the auction rules.

• The Commission has several proceedings that are currently open for public comment. Recently a Notice of Inquiry was opened into the broadcast ownership rules. This review is required by the 1996 Telecommunications Act to determine if the current rules are still in the public interest given the level of competition at the time of the review. According to the press release, those rules which are found to be no longer necessary will be the subject of a subsequent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to modify or eliminate the rules in question. Each of the Commissioners issued separate statements regarding the Notice of Inquiry:
• Chairman William Kennard said, "In assessing the public interest, we must stay focused on the two key aspects of the public interest: promoting competition and promoting diversity." … "Both competition and diversity are all the more important today because we recently have experienced the most dramatic increase in consolidation in the broadcast industry in our history. We need to understand how this consolidation has affected our competition and diversity goals."
• Regarding local radio ownership, Commissioner Susan Ness said, "I note the Commission’s finding that control by the top four radio group owners over total radio advertising dollars in markets across the country has gone from 80 percent in 1996 to a whopping 90 percent in 1997. In just one year, the other stations in those markets—and that could be dozens of stations—have seen their combined market share cut in half!" "This stark fact must have consequences that need to be spelled out in this proceeding. How are smaller stations able to compete? How are they able to take a risk on new services or talent? How are they able to continue providing community and charitable support, which rarely contributes to the bottom line? Are our ownership rules inadvertently causing the financial suffocation of small entrepreneurial broadcasters? What is the impact on the number of minority and female-owned outlets?"
• Commissioner Michael Powell supports Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth’s statement and issued a philosophical statement dealing primarily with the issue of diversity. "While competitive concerns are traditionally evaluated using well-established analytical standards, diversity is a much more visceral matter—bathed in difficult subjective judgments and debated in amorphous terms. It has always been difficult to articulate clearly the government’s interest in ‘diversity,’ and it has become even more difficult to do so in light of current judicial precedents. Yet we must do so, if we are to affirm any of our ownership rules based on such an interest, and we must do so with adequate rigor and clarity in order for such rules to withstand judicial scrutiny."
• Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth issued a long, complex, and philosophical statement which urged an examination of a number of the traditional foundations for the Commission’s rules. In expressing support for Commissioner Powell’s statement, he said, "…I believe that a reevaluation of our traditional regulatory goal of ‘diversity’ is a critical part of this biennial review." Regarding the First Amendment, he said, "I would like to make clear my belief that the first Amendment is no source of affirmative authority to regulate mass media ownership, as parts of this item might be construed to suggest." In addressing the statute requiring this review, he suggested the possibility that "…Congress wanted the Commission to consider the very real possibility that competitive forces have eliminated or decreased the need for ownership regulation and that our rules should keep pace, as near as possible, with the times. He also includes a long section questioning the validity of the "spectrum scarcity" rationale, which he believes is the theoretical basis for most of the rules under review.
• Commissioner Gloria Tristani also addressed the issues of competition and diversity. "I write separately to state my belief that our twin interests of competition and diversity must be analyzed separately and subject to different standards of proof. Competition focuses on issues of market power. Market power can be constrained by competition even where there are only a handful of competitors in a market, and even though such competition does not reach all segments of society." … "Diversity, in my mind, is different. Diversity promotes democratic values by ensuring that people are exposed to a range of views on issues of public concern. Unlike our interest in competition, I believe that our interest in promoting a diversity of voices and viewpoints can be satisfied only through a large number of separately-owned competitors in a market. Similarly, unlike our interest in competition, I do not believe that our interest in diversity can be satisfied if large segments of society do not have access to such diversity."
• A Petition for Rulemaking, RM-9242, has been filed that seeks to add three new classes of low power FM Broadcast stations. The first class of stations would serve as primary stations and would be allowed powers of 50 watts to 3.0 kW at up to 100 meters HAAT. The second class would provide secondary service using powers between 1 and 50 watts using an HAAT of up to 46 meters (150 feet). The third class of station would provide secondary service for special events. Licenses would be granted for up to 10 days using a maximum power of 20 watts at up to 30 meters (100 feet) HAAT. Operation would only be allowed in the commercial portion of the FM band. Owners would be required to live within 50 miles of their stations, and licensees could own no more than three such stations nationwide. Comments are due on this proposal by April 27.
• The National Audubon Society has petitioned the Commission to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) detailing the effects of the NPRM regarding the preemption of local zoning and land use requirements for digital television towers. The Commission is seeking comments as to "whether the proposal contained in the NPRM would have a significant environmental effect such that an EIS should be prepared; and second, what would be the environmental effect of the proposal." Comments should be filed by April 14 and should reference FCC Docket No. 97-296 and MM Docket No. 97-182.
• In early March, the FCC adopted a Second Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on whether the Commission should adopt rules to prohibit cable systems from overriding a broadcaster’s state and local EAS messages. Current rules permit voluntary agreements between cable operators and broadcasters regarding such messages. The Commission is seeking comments to: 1) determine any additional costs and equipment that would be required for a cable system to perform selective channel overrides; 2) to determine whether the broadcaster or the cable operator should be responsible for those costs; and 3) the affect of this proposal on local franchise provisions.

• After receiving many requests for reconsideration, the Commission issued Memorandum Opinion and Orders on Reconsideration of the Fifth and Sixth Report and Orders. The new releases reaffirm the bulk of the Commission’s established DTV rules and procedures. The reconsideration of the Fifth R&O did state that NTSC (analog) TV applicants who were granted an initial construction permit are not eligible for a companion DTV channel. However, such stations will be allowed to begin with either NTSC or DTV facilities on their assigned channel. In either case they will be required to switch to DTV service by the end of the transition period—which Congress has set at the year 2006. In the companion reconsideration of the Sixth R&O, the Commission established a core spectrum for DTV of Channels 2-51. In addition, a number of changes were made in the DTV Table of Allotments—some to minimize the impact on LPTV facilities, some to eliminate adjacent-channel DTV problems, and a few to address specific requests. Several modifications were made to the DTV rules to clarify issues raised by petitioners and to address the findings of some additional research on the potential for interference between adjacent-channel DTV operations.
• As directed by Congress in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, the Commission has found the now familiar, voluntary rating system for television programs acceptable. This also allowed the Commission to adopt a companion item which will require TV manufacturers to install features to block programming of a common rating—commonly known as the V-Chip. Half of all sets with picture sizes of 13" or greater will be required to have the circuitry, which decodes the rating information transmitted on line 21 of the Vertical Blanking Interval, by July 1999. All sets of this size will be required to include the circuitry by January 1, 2000. So if your old computer doesn’t work New Year’s Day 2000, maybe your new TV will!
• The Commission has announced that it is now strictly enforcing its rule stating that only one payment instrument will be accepted when filing a single application. The only exception will be for cases where a money order is used, and the amount of the fee exceeds the maximum allowed value of the money order.

• We are continuing to list the upcoming FM allocation window openings that we find in the releases received from the Commission. As we have stated in the past, this is not necessarily an exhaustive list, and not all of the listings have become effective as of this date. We are beginning to hear rumors that the new auction rules might be ready as soon as May. Obviously, Congress cannot collect any auction money from broadcasters until the rules are in place, so we are hopeful the matter is receiving a high priority at the Commission. Now may be a good time to determine if any of the listed windows would fit into your business plans.
• Spring was ushered in at our offices with a storm that combined rain, ice, and snow. Despite this, we remain hopeful that spring will eventually bring nicer weather to our part of the Midwest. Spring is a time that fills most of us with hope and anticipation of good things to come—in our yards, our minds, our families, and our businesses. We appreciate our many friends and clients who entrust their technical consulting work to us. Thank you for your support, and we join you in hoping for a joyous and beautiful spring in all aspects of our lives and businesses. Many of us will be celebrating Easter before the next newsletter arrives, so we want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a blessed and joyous Easter holiday.

FUTURE WINDOW OPENINGS
ST	CITY	CHAN
AL	Saint Florian	274A
AZ	Payson	257A
	Salome	241A
	Yarnell	258A
CA	Boonville	241A
	Coarsegold	233A
	Westley	238A
FL	Satellite Beach	253A
HI	Haiku	293C
	Kaunakakai	272C
IL	Cochester	244A
IN	Farmersburg	242A
IA	Patterson	290A
KS	Lindsborg	269C3
KY	Brodhead	270A
MS	New Albany	268A
	New Augusta	269A
MO	Gideon	280A
MT	Eureka	228C3
NY	Windsor	294A
OK	Guymon	258C1
SD	Ipswich	300A
	Murdo	285A
	Presho	262A
	Roscoe	287A
TX	George West	228C3
	Goldsmith	234A
	Wellington	278C3
	Yorktown	242A
UT	Monroe	257C2
WA	Chewelah	*274C3
	Ocean Shores	228A
	Westport	267A
	Winthrop	248A
WV	Kenova	250A
WI	Soldiers Grove	290A
	Two Rivers	246A
WY	Mills	288A
	Moorcraft	228A
* - Channel Reserved for Non-Commercial Use