It was a 13-month battle but Lakes Media President Tom Birch sounds confident he’s finally won. Birch says he received a letter from the FCC that orders the immediate cessation of Arohi Media’s translator W252DK and dismissal of the pending W252DK license. Birch says the Arohi translator was interfering with Lakes’ WLUS in the Raleigh area causing the station to lose thousands of listeners that took 12 years to build up.
W252DK interference began on August 18, 2016 and Lakes filed its initial complaint on August 22, 2016. During the intervening months, Lakes submitted several filings to the Commission, including dozens of listener complaints, videotapes of the interference, engineering studies, and field-strength readings in support of the complaint. The first FCC action came in the form of a staff letter on February 24, 2017 ordering Arohi to resolve all WLUS listener complaints. Birch says Arohi failed to do so and, on May 9, 2017 the FCC dismissed Arohi’s CP application and ordered W252DK off the air.
However, following Arohi’s filing of a Reconsideration Petition and Emergency Motion claiming that the Commission had not provided Arohi access to three unresolved complaints in the February letter, the Commission rescinded its May 9 letter and returned the Lakes complaint to pending status. As of June 2, W252DK interference resumed and Lakes began submission of new interference complaints that included multiple complainant-recorded videos of the interference.
Birch says this has been an extraordinarily frustrating and expensive experience. “The presence of W252DK interference to WLUS in Durham, Wake, Orange, and southern Granville Counties, NC, was undeniable, but Arohi was able to delay FCC action by objecting to Lakes’ complaints at every step and questioning the validity of WLUS listener complaints on procedural issues. The interference issue should have been resolved by Arohi immediately, complying with Lakes’ August 22, 2016 complaint; instead, Arohi submitted objections containing attacks on Lakes complainants, apparently false video exhibits in which W252DK was powered down at complainant locations and WLUS reception declared ‘loud and clear,’ and questionable assertions that interference to WLUS was emanating from sources other than W252DK.”
Birch says this has been a lose-lose-lose proposition, with Lakes being the biggest loser. “We lost an audience that took us 12 years to build, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in lost advertising, legal and technical fees, and hundreds of hours of my time misappropriated to a matter that should have been concluded over a year ago. Arohi incurred significant legal and technical expenses, and FCC staff time and resources were needlessly expended on a matter that should have been promptly resolved by Arohi adherence to FCC regulations.”
“We are relieved that the FCC has finally, after 13 months, acted and we are now welcoming back the 12,000-plus WLUS listeners lost in these areas due to the interference. It will take months, and possibly years, for us to restore the audience long lost to competing Raleigh DMA Country competitors but we will begin the rebuilding effort, in earnest, now.”
