LPTV Stung by FCC's Must-Carry Retreat

After months of talk that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin would lead the agency in granting valuable must-carry rights to Class A low-power TV stations, owners of those stations expected that an open meeting in Nashville would produce tangible evidence of progress.

Instead, they saw those expectations dashed yesterday as the chairman yanked from the agenda a proposal to launch a Class A must-carry rulemaking -- a key step in making the broadcast entitlement a reality--along with several other items and canceled the Nashville meeting.

Martin had no choice on must carry, having apparently failed to convince any of the other four commissioner to back the plan. He needed two.

Now, instead of the prospect of widespread carriage on cable systems and sharply rising station values, the Class A owners are back to square one: worrying about survival.

"We don't know exactly what's going on at the commission," said Peter Tannenwald, a member of the law firm Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth and counsel to the Community Broadcasters Association, a trade group representing low-power stations.

"Four commissioners said they're not going to vote for the notice of proposed rulemaking. We don't know why. We're trying to figure out what it takes to make them figure out they're being destructive through inaction."

Unlike the 1,700 full-power TV stations, which by law are entitled to carriage on local cable systems simply by asking, the 555 Class A stations must today beg or buy their way on. Non-carriage is a severe handicap since as many of 60 percent of TV homes get all their TV through cable.

Class A stations are low-power stations with a special arrangement with the FCC. In exchange for protection of their channels, they provide minimum amounts of locally produced and children's educational programming. Many are owned by minorities and offer minority-targeted programming. But some in small markets are affiliates of the commercial broadcast networks.

Anticipating an opportunity to voice their support for must carry, the CBA had lined up as many as 100 Class A owners and operators to attend the meeting in Nashville, among the rare few scheduled outside of Washington.

After the item was pulled, most of the broadcasters were able to cancel travel plans. But about 20 were already en route or in town. At a gathering Tuesday night at a Nashville restaurant, they were still fuming.

"People just can't believe that the FCC did this," said CBA President Ron Bruno. "I think that the mood is shock."They all shared a palpable anger over the FCC's action.

Vernon Watson, an African-American who owns and runs WBQP-CA in Pensacola, Fla., put it this way: "I'm just pissed about it. We're being treated like less than second-class citizens. I was born and raised in the Deep South. The experience I had as a black person in the Deep South was I was disrespected. The experience I've had as a Class A owner is the same. This is a perfect example."

Others on hand included Sister Sue Jenkins, an African-American Catholic nun, who owns Class A stations in Indianapolis and Kokomo, Ind.; Eduardo Caballero, who owns Spanish-language stations in Fresno and Sacramento, Calif.; and R.J. Watkins, an African-American, who owns a station in Detroit.

Another LPTV broadcaster, whose station serves a Korean community, expressed his feelings in an e-mail to Tannenwald: "Ownership diversity, minority ownership, localism, community broadcasting are all jokes. They are just words in front of the public. Their real face is for wealthy, big broadcasters. They don't care about community broadcasters. How they treat us this way. I'm sitting at Nashville airport thinking if I should go out or return to NY. I'm quite disappointed and upset about FCC and CBA."

Rick Ehrman, chairman-CEO of L4 Media Group, said everybody was upset.

"I didn't think this would have made the agenda if there wasn't enough support to at least have a vote," he said. "There's so much money being spent by cable operators and other lobbying groups, I think these guys decided to not make a big deal and stir it up too much."

Like Ehrman, others were at a loss to explain why Martin would include the agenda item without having lined up sufficient votes.

"If the reason was not enough votes, that means Martin couldn't bring Copps and Adelstein along," said one executive. "It's ironic. This was an opportunity to expand public-interest broadcasting."

Both Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein are known for advocating for public-interest broadcasting.

Ehrman was among the LPTV owners who were anticipating a financial boost from the grant of must-carry rights. His company just sold its Orlando station, WZXZ, to CaribeVision, a Spanish-language programmer, for $1.8 million. Although he closed the deal last week, Ehrman says that with must-carry status, the station, in a fast-growing Hispanic market, could have fetched $10 million.