After more than two years, thousands of dollars in legal and technical expense and the loss of thousands of WLUS-FM listeners in Durham, Wake, Orange and parts of Granville County NC, interference from an Arohi Media translator has finally been eliminated.
In a bizarre battle with The FCC, and Arohi owner Ravi Cherukuri, Lakes Media President and WLUS owner Tom Birch tells Radio Ink the translator was finally turned off Thursday.
Birch had actually won this case at The FCC back in September of 2017, but the FCC granted Arohi an “STA” that enabled them to retain their license while they attempted to prove that they could return to the air without interference. Birch says that STA had a deadline of 2/28/2019. “If they could return to the air with 10 watts of power and a directional pattern protecting WLUS, and if there were interference complaints, they could remain on the WLUS frequency (98.3) until 2/28/2019. If there were any interference complaints, they would be required to shut down and returned to their original city of license, Pocomoke City, MD. A third-party engineer identified non-correctable interference and has identified a non-interfering channel to which the translator can move.”
Because if this battle with Arohi’s interfering signal Birch believes he lost at least 12,000 listeners and $100,000 in revenue.
His advice to other broadcasters who run into the same type of issue? Fight. “Hire strong legal counsel, highlight the issue on-air and on social media, and invite affected listeners to submit the downloadable forms on your website to your contact point. Consult legal counsel as to the format of the forms. It’s important that the forms comply with FCC requirements. It’s critical that complainants be credible and that identifiable listeners with *no* connection to the affected station are complainants.
I thought the same battle in Vero Beach when the commission allowed a translator in a portion of our very populated listening area that had documented thousands of Nilsen fans. Just like toms situation, the FCC turned a blind eye towards the commercially licensed broadcaster and Favored the FM translator. The expense was enormous. The commission has allowed these FM translators to interfere with popular mainstay stations for too long.