It’s been six months since PMCM TV LLC filed notice with the FCC that it wanted to move two small VHF DTV stations from Nevada and Wyoming to the New York City and Philadelphia markets. It now looks like the Commission is about to act.
New Jersey-based PMCM, whose owners, as Press Communications, are long-established New Jersey radio station owners, had enlisted members of the New Jersey congressional delegation to press their case. They filed under a federal law designed to grant an automatic move-in for any VHF television station willing to move to a state without a commercial VHF. As a result of the DTV transition, New Jersey was once again without a commercial station on VHF, so PMCM proposed to deliver one it had bought in Ely, NV to fill the gap in the Garden State, specifically Middletown Township NJ, part of the New York DMA.
Likewise, PMCM proposed to relocate another recently acquired VHF from Jackson, WY to another VHF-free state, Delaware. That station would be licensed to Wilmington, in the Philadelphia DMA.
In letters to various New Jersey congressmen, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski thanked them for their interest in the proposal to give their state a new TV station.
“The PMCM TV proposal to relocate KVNV from Nevada to New Jersey is under review in the Commission’s Media Bureau. The Bureau staff has observed that the Engineering Statement that accompanied the PMCM TV application indicates that the KVNV tower site and transmitter would be located in New York City. Given the limited availability of broadcast spectrum in the New Jersey/New York City area, the Bureau currently is conducting technical studies to satisfy the requirements of Section 331. The Bureau anticipates that it will complete its analysis of the PMCM TV proposal in the near future,” Genachowski said in each of the letters.
Stay tuned. It looks like some action is coming soon.
