Stainless to Import Tower Crews From Europe, Seeks FCC Help on Interim Antennas
Stainless expects additional tower crews to “help relieve” repacking scheduling difficulties, especially if the FCC provides extra flexibility for broadcasters to use auxiliary antennas, the tower company said in a letter posted Monday in docket 16-306. Stainless was among tower…
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companies that recently told the FCC the current repacking schedule won’t work because of a shortage of such crews (see 1811130072). Though tower company officials said it would take years to train new crews to work on tall broadcast towers, Stainless said it plans to “roughly double” the number of crews by bringing in experienced ones from Europe. “We expect that these measures will provide additional capacity to support station moves in earlier phases than was previously planned by the commission,” Stainless said. The company is expediting its staffing efforts,” the letter said: To help with near-term repacking deadlines, the agency should “address manufacturer and station timing issues” for interim and auxiliary antennas. The tower companies suggested previously shifting the repacking focus to providing stations with interim antennas, which have decreased power but take less time to construct and install, could speed the process. The additional crews could help stations “move to permanent facilities when necessary,” the firm said.