WASHINGTON, D.C.—FCC officials are working to find a balance between the interests of small, local radio stations and more powerful Class A AM stations. But Womble Bond Dickinson telecom attorney John Garziglia tells Communications Daily that striking such a balance won’t be easy.

Garziglia was interviewed in a Communications Daily article on a draft FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would relax the skywave and critical hours protection rules that prevent local Class, B, C and D AM stations from interfering with the signals of out-of-market Class A stations. However, the proposed changes apparently don’t relax those rules as much as in a previous proposal, according to Communications Daily. The specifics of the new NPRM have yet to be released.

The proposed changes likely will be contentious. Garziglia tells Communications Daily that when the issue has come up before, “Proposals on relaxing skywave and critical hours protections were met with a lot of pushback.”

Click here to read “Draft Class A NPRM Centers on Interference Protections” in Communications Daily (subscription required).

John Garziglia represents radio and television broadcasters, offering personalized assistance in all areas of communications and telecommunications law including transactional and contract negotiations for broadcast station mergers and acquisitions, the securing of financing, governmental auctions of new frequencies, license renewals, new stations applications, facility changes, facility upgrades, licensing, and compliance with FCC rules, regulations and policies.

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