| Subject: People’s TV: Fairness for ALL the people of Soap Lake, Ephrata and Moses Lake |
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Anonymous
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Date Posted: Wed, February 04 2004, 0:08:19 PST
Posted on Wednesday, January 28 @ 07:31:27 PST by SwedChef
http://www.sliderule.net/
POSL2004 writes:
"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has an undisputable congressional mandate to ensure that access to Television services is available to all Americans regardless of their social and economic status, their ethnic background. or geographic location.
Delivery of telecommunication services over translator stations is critical to fulfilling this statutory mission in rural areas and will continue to be of critical importance in the digital revolution.
The average full-power television station spends over a million dollars to convert from analog to digital. This is the biggest obstacle in the government-mandated race to convert to digital.
The former PEOPLES TV ASSOCIATON, INC. "analog" translators, if bought today would have easily set the defunct group back between $100,000 and $200,000, especially of the FCC required 100-watt UHF transmitters.
Digital translators are so new that it is nearly impossible to get accurate pricing, but they are likely in the half million dollar range -- to accomplish what the FCC requires. And, the people who want to receive "digital channels" would have to purchase HDTV/digital off-air tuners to feed their VCRs or TV sets, at a present minimum cost of $300-$500 each.
Most readers probably don't fully appreciate the expense of doing something like this -- just to serve several thousand people unable to spend a monthly fee for the local stations. This, however, is not about money; it is about a congressional mandate to provide public telecommunications services to "all Americans regardless of their socioeconomic status, their ethnic background or geographic location."
The FCC needs to swiftly provide licensing of digital translator and on-channel repeaters so that rural Soap Lake, Ephrata and Moses Lake are not left behind in the digital revolution transforming this country’s media landscape. The people of rural America, such as Soap Lake, Ephrata, Moses Lake, must act and demand they not be left behind those who can afford cable and satellite TV.
Pursuant to Congressional directive, the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service awarded $15 million in grants to fund equipment in 2003 -- including digital translators -- designed to facilitate the delivery of digital television signals to rural areas.
Because the needs of rural America are greater than the funding available in 2003, Congress appropriated an additional $14 million for fiscal year 2004 in the current omnibus appropriations bill "to convert analog to digital operation of those television broadcast stations that serve rural areas and are qualified for Community Service Grants by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting under section 396(k) of the Communications Act of 1934, including associated translators, repeaters, and studio-to-transmitter links. Soap Lake, Ephrata, Moses Lake needs to speak up or we’ll be left behind this telecommunications revolution.
Members of the PUBLIC JURY: the fundamental issue at stake is one of fairness to ALL Americans in this digital television revolution.
To join the effort to bring analog and digital translator rebroadcast television back to Soap Lake, Ephrata and Moses Lake: write me at Martin D. Ringhofer, P. O. Box 216, Soap Lake, WA 98851. E-mail: Email: martinringhofer@aol.com
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