NAB members are “at...

reflects arguments NAB members made in a series of meetings with commissioners Ajit Pai and Mike O'Rielly and various staffers. It lists the trade group’s leading concerns as the FCC takes up incentive auction rules. “Congress took a significant and purposeful step when it specified the manner by which the Commission should determine the coverage areas and populations served by each broadcast television licensee,” NAB said. The Spectrum Act says explicitly the “coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee” is to be “determined using the methodology described in OET Bulletin 69,” NAB said. “For the better part of two decades, the FCC has applied OET-69 routinely and consistently. So when Congress enshrined its use in the Spectrum Act, Congress was directing the Commission not to change its computation methods. Congress attempted to remove any uncertainty as to how those numbers would be derived.” NAB also raised concerns about wireless mics commonly used by broadcasters. “The Commission’s failure to include any exclusive spectrum for wireless microphones will not only harm the public interest generally (by limited the ability to provide breaking news), but will specifically threaten the public’s safety,” NAB said. NAB also asked the FCC to make sure enough money is available in the TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund to pay the costs some broadcasters will face as a result of auction-related repacking. “The auction should not move forward unless the staff first determines its repacking headroom under the $1.75 billion budget and takes every step it can to minimize repacking in the context of a successful incentive auction,” NAB said.