NAB Warns Tower Changes Will Affect Rollout

NAB WARNS TOWER CHANGES WILL AFFECT ROLLOUT
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
The National Association of Broadcasters warns that changes to tower heights, sites or lights that are driven by concerns over bird collisions could delay the DTV transition, impede the rollout of broadband, jeopardize homeland security, contribute to global warming and even possibly cause planes to crash. [OK, the NAB did not mention global warming.] Broadcasters say it is all for "little, if any, impact on the future ecological viability of migratory birds." NAB and the wireless phone industry argue in comments to the FCC that migratory bird collisions with towers are only a fraction of other "human-caused aviation mortality" which includes "window collisions, vehicle collisions, transmission lines, wind energy facilities, pesticides and oil pollution, hunting and domestic cat predation." Estimates vary from 4 million to as many as 50 million tower-related bird deaths annually. Most estimates fall on the lower end of that scale.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6436115.html