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Free TV In Jeopardy

Buy Clear TV / youtube.com

The U.S. government is auctioning off chunks of the broadcast spectrum - which could force some local television stations off the air, onto cable.

The same federal government cited in that ubiquitous "Buy Clear TV" commerical is planning to pull the rug out from under at least some of that "free over the air tv" ---

What's behind this initiative? The smartphone in your pocket. Paul Conti, assistant professor of communications at the College of St. Rose, explains cell phone providers want more bandwidth so they can supply data at even faster speeds:    “One of the proposals floating about congress is to take frequencies away from some of the over the air television stations and make them cable-only, and take those frequencies and re-allocate them to wireless providers. That's pure and simple economics. That's capitalism at work, who gets to control that and for how much money."

Who would be most impacted by the decision? People living in low-income neighborhoods. Many rely on over-the-air-tv as they cannot afford to pay cable bills which, according to the FCC,  average upwards of 60 dollars a month for most Americans.

Observers estimate the federal auction has the potential to raise as much as $45 billion, and could affect thousands of broadcast television outlets coast-to-coast.

Public broadcasting advocate and watchdog Voqal companies' John Schwartz: "The FCC is strongly influenced not only by the lobbying power of the big carriers - because obviously that's massive - but also out of the concern that the most important and most valuable use of spectrum now is for wireless broadband and not for broadcast."

There are worries that small independent and public television stations could be targeted.  A spokesman for WMHT says due to the size of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy market, it is not known if the auction would have any impact.

Broadcast Industry insiders say stations that agree to give up their airspace — which would be sold off to wireless carriers — could net as much as 85% of revenue from the FCC auction.

There is hope - The National Association of Broadcasters, which lobbies for the television industry, is challenging the some of the legal merits of the FCC auction plan.

Nevertheless, Gary Epstein who heads the FCC's auction task force, says he's confident the agency will beat the TV stations in court. The final decision may not be handed down until mid-2015.  He writes on the FCC blog: “we now anticipate accepting applications for the auction in the fall of 2015 and starting the auction in early 2016. Despite this brief delay, we remain focused on the path to successfully implementing the incentive auction.”

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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