I know of a few AM stations that have reduced power for various reasons, maybe due to expense. My question is, when an AM reduces power, are they in danger of losing authorization by the FCC to someday return to their original full power?
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Question on AM stations reducing power
- Thread starter shreveville
- Start date
If they don't get an STA or if their STA runs out and the FCC gets tired of their excuses, then yes, they can.
Economic reasons isn't normally a valid FCC technical reason for an STA. "Transmitter failure" or something like that is. With that being said, at some point they want to see some progress. You can drag things out for several years, but at some point the rubber WILL meet the road.
The station I'm thinking of lost their transmitter and has a STA. My question is, after the STA expires, and they went to a lesser powered transmitter, at least get back on the air, would they stand to lose their authorization by the FCC to someday return to their original full power?
They have to either renew the STA or get their license modified for the lower power.
If they operate at less than authorized power without STA for more than a year, they're risking losing their license altogether.
An Act of Congress requires the FCC to revoke the license of a station that remains off the air for more than a year, and the Commission has ruled that operation with unauthorized facilities counts as not operating at all.
If they get the license modified, then other stations can apply for power increases and/or changes to their antenna system. (changes that would have interfered with your station if you were still operating at full power) Or, applications can be filed for completely new stations that would have interfered with your station.
Of course, once those changes are applied for, you can't go back to your old higher power as you'd interfere with the *new* service.
Even if nobody else applies for new service, there's a racheting rule (which Scott Fybush is going to have to explain) which will require your new facilities to cause less interference than the old ones.
In other words, unless you're able to keep your STA valid until you can rebuild the original facilities, you are indeed going to lose authorization to someday return to your original full power.
If they operate at less than authorized power without STA for more than a year, they're risking losing their license altogether.
An Act of Congress requires the FCC to revoke the license of a station that remains off the air for more than a year, and the Commission has ruled that operation with unauthorized facilities counts as not operating at all.
If they get the license modified, then other stations can apply for power increases and/or changes to their antenna system. (changes that would have interfered with your station if you were still operating at full power) Or, applications can be filed for completely new stations that would have interfered with your station.
Of course, once those changes are applied for, you can't go back to your old higher power as you'd interfere with the *new* service.
Even if nobody else applies for new service, there's a racheting rule (which Scott Fybush is going to have to explain) which will require your new facilities to cause less interference than the old ones.
In other words, unless you're able to keep your STA valid until you can rebuild the original facilities, you are indeed going to lose authorization to someday return to your original full power.
w9wi - thanks so much for the detailed explanation. Hadn't thought of the possible interference issue and other station actions. Also thanks to OKCRadioGuy.
The loss of the license is certainly an angle I didn't even think through. If they treat it as if it's not as authorized and there is the risk of losing the license, people should be quite a bit more careful about this than they are. Good points!!!!
shreveville said:
If the transmitter needs to be replaced anyways, depending on the age of the last transmitter the station may see significant energy savings by operating a more efficient solid-state transmitter and may not have to reduce power permanently. It really should be avoided at all costs.
In several instances of AM's reducing power it may because of a couple of reasons.. the land became more valuable than the station, especially so with multitower arrays that used many acres of sometimes prime real estate. Another factor can be a long term lease of the property was up and the owner wanting a tremendous increase in rent. Also some directionals had not been maintained and deteriorated to the point of costing too much to repair. Many 5 kw class B's are able to diplex on a co owned stick and operate at around a kilowatt or so non directional as a class D, with secondary night service at say 50 to a 100 watts or less. Some have also obtained FM translators to help with night time coverage which in many cases is better than a highly directional night array that the COL has grown out of the coverage ares in steep nulls.
Remember in today's broadcast world it's all about the bottom line.
Not all, but many daytimers and regionals are a billing a fraction of what they once did.
Remember in today's broadcast world it's all about the bottom line.
Not all, but many daytimers and regionals are a billing a fraction of what they once did.
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