CPB urges FCC to preserve public TV coverage in spectrum auction

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution urging the Federal Communications Commission to avoid allowing “white areas” that would lack public television coverage after the upcoming spectrum auction and channel repacking.

Vinnie Curren, CPB’s chief operating officer, told the CPB Board that it has identified “half a dozen major communities” where auctions could occur and where the pubTV station “is operated by an institution whose primary mission was not public broadcasting,” such as a university or government agency. CPB has a “particular concern,” Curren said, that those communities may be at risk of losing an over-the-air public television signal completely. Curren did not identify the stations.

The resolution states that CPB, “as the steward of the federal appropriation, urges the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules and practices with regard to its spectrum incentive auction and repacking process to ensure that no white areas be created and that universal access to free over the air public television service be preserved.”

CPB President Pat Harrison said she and PBS President Paula Kerger have requested one-on-one meetings with FCC Chairman Wheeler to express CPB’s viewpoint, though Wheeler has said he is not taking individual meetings, Harrison said. Representatives from CPB, PBS and the Association of Public Television Stations are also hoping to meet with commissioners, said Michael Levy, CPB’s executive vice president.