It’s the final countdown for Franken FMs. On July 13 the FCC’s Media Bureau issued a public notice to remind low-power TV operators that July 13, 2021 is the date when they must terminate analog broadcasts and go digital, “regardless of whether their digital facilities are operational.”
Among those LPTV stations still transmitting analog signals are approximately 31 assigned channel 6 which principally operate as radio stations, due to the fact that their audio signal can be received on the far left end of the FM band, at 87.7 FM. Dubbed Franken FMs, it looks like they have a little under a year to figure out their exit strategy.
Of course, these TV stations were never intended to be radio stations, and mostly did not function as radio prior to the digital television transition in 2009. But after the U.S. made the move to DTV, low-power stations were given a longer leash to make the conversion. An initial lease of six years has since turned into 12, but now it seems eviction is likely.
Now, the FCC has acknowledged that this set of TV stations are acting like radio, and even taken up questions about possibly giving them an exception to carry on. The Commission updated the record on that proceeding in December 2019, taking in a round of public comments, but nothing else had been heard of the issue until the recent public notice. However, there is no mention of Franken FMs in this latest notice.
As I noted in December, it seems that few existing Franken FMs broadcast anything particularly unique – most air syndicated programming that can be heard on other legitimate radio stations. One exception is Chicago’s MeTV FM, which also appears to be the only Franken FM to appear in Nielsen radio ratings. In fact, it’s so successful that the format has now been syndicated to four true FM stations around the country.
Recently Chicago media reporter Robert Feder asked the owner of the Chicago LPTV station that airs MeTV FM what the future looks like. Venture Technologies Group CEO Paul Koplin told him that his company has submitted technical studies to the FCC for a hybrid system that would maintain the analog audio signal along side the digital LPTV signal. Venture owns additional channel 6 LPTVs in markets like Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose.
This dual digital-analog scheme was submitted in comments from the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition to the Commission’s updated record proceeding, which Radio World detailed back in March. Most radio groups, including NPR, oppose the idea, noting that letting channel 6 LPTVs carry on as radio stations past the digital deadline amounts to an unfair advantage because the opportunity to have a new radio station at 87.7 FM has not been opened to all possible qualified applicants, as is the case with all other radio licensing windows.
The hybrid digital-analog LPTV idea sure looks like a Hail Mary pass, though not surprising. Putting aside the arguments over fairness and formally authorizing a backdoor practice, hassling over saving fewer than three dozen outlier stations may be more trouble than it’s worth for the FCC. That said, the book is not closed yet.
