FCC Denies Move of Two Stations to New Jersey, Delaware

The Federal Communications Commission won't be moving stations across the country to provide more local television to New Jersey or Delaware. The FCC has voted to uphold a 2009 Media Bureau decision denying the move of TV station channel licenses from Wyoming and Nevada to New Jersey and Delaware, which at the time of the initial request had no VHF stations.

When PMCM TV, owner of KJWY TV Jackson (WY), and KVNV TV Ely (NV), filed for the move, New Jersey and Delaware were the only states without a VHF station. That was after WOR-TV Secaucus went digital and moved to a UHF channel. The stations asked to be "reallocated" across the country, but the FCC concluded that "reallocation" meant moving stations from one community to another because they were interfering with a nearby station on the same channel. Although the FCC has a statutory mandate to try and make sure there is at least one VHF in every state, including moving stations willing to relocate, that was back when a VHF station had superior transmission characteristics to a UHF, something that has been reversed in the digital age.