After we published FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s NAB 2011 speech on spectrum issues where he mentioned a lot of over-the-air stations do not provide much in the way of local content, we noted that NYC had at least twice as many stations carrying local news there than he estimated. In Los Angeles, Genachowski said only eight out of 23 are doing local news in that mega-market. We estimated with the huge commitment of LA Spanish stations that are headquartered there, there are more like 11-13 doing local news. A reader kindly confirmed that, and gave us the full list of LA-area stations that are local news-worthy: 14.
“In LA, he also erred way low,” noted our reader:
1. KCBS-TV
2. KNBC-TV
3. KTLA-TV The CW
4. KABC-TV
5. KCAL-TV CBS-owned independent
6. KTTV-TV Fox
7. KCOP-TV MyNetwork
8. KSCI-TV Asian Media Group
9. KWHY-TV Telemundo
10. KMEX-TV Univision
11. KFTR-TV Telefutura
12. KVEA-TV Telemundo
13. KRCA-TV Estrella TV
14. KJLA-TV LATV
RBR-TVBR observation: The bottom line here is first the FCC forced all of the TV stations to convert to digital — at a very large cost to some operators. Now, less than two years later, the Commission is considering auctioning away even more of the very spectrum broadcasters were forced to move over to in the transition to DTV. If the FCC is going to keep the pressure on like this, can it at least try to make its case without tripping over — or ignoring — the facts?
