On Tuesday afternoon, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai addressed the topic of FM-band interference, which ramped up when the Commission opened the floodgates to FM translators. Pai said just this week he circulated a draft order to the other Commissioners that includes new rules to address the interference issue and those rules will be voted on at the Commission’s May meeting.
Pai said the goal is very simple, to get fewer complaints about the interference and to make resolving them easier. “Our most notable proposal was to end interference by allowing translator stations causing it to change to any available same-band channel as a minor change application.”
To help try and resolve some of the woes AM broadcasters are facing, the FCC has granted AM stations 1,707 construction permits for new FM translators. That’s about 37% of all AM stations in the United States. At least 459 have already completed construction and are on the air. However, one of the downsides to all of the new FM signals has been interference with other stations down the dial.
The draft order incorporates many of the proposals supported by NAB, according to Pai, such as streamlining interference remediation procedures, clarifying listener complaint requirements, and making it easier for translators causing interference to change channels. “I believe that it’ll make the interference resolution process less frustrating for full-service stations, translators, listeners, everyone.”
And then you have existing broadcasters who gather listener interference complaints by less-than-proper disclosure. (Look at the battle over K288HH for an example.)
And this, my friends, is what happens when you have lawyers, rather than engineers, making frequency allocation decisions. The FM band has become a blivot. And the listener suffers.
Too late… the horse has left the barn
Anyone surprised by this problem?
The FM band is already, in many markets and locations, at or headed toward the same interference and congestion problems experienced on the AM band…and going from bad to worse…and all caused by irresponsible, FCC-inflicted ‘policy’. This proposal just moves the chairs around on the deck of the Titanic.