[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 202 (Friday, October 20, 2023)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 72417-72418]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-22861]


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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION

47 CFR Part 73

[MB Docket No. 23-336; RM-11967; DA 23-936; FR ID 177970]


Television Broadcasting Services Wittenberg and Shawano, 
Wisconsin

AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.

ACTION: Proposed rule.

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SUMMARY: The Video Division, Media Bureau (Bureau) has before it a 
petition for rulemaking filed by TV-49, Inc. (Petitioner or TV-49), the 
permittee of an unbuilt television station on channel 31 allotted to 
Wittenberg, Wisconsin. TV-49 requests an amendment of the Table of TV 
Allotments to delete channel 31 at Wittenberg and substitute channel 31 
at Shawano, Wisconsin, consistent with the technical parameters set 
forth in the Petition, as amended. The Petitioner further requests 
modification of its construction permit to specify Shawano as its 
community of license.

DATES: Comments must be filed on or before November 20, 2023 and reply 
comments on or before December 4, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Federal Communications Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
45 L Street NE, Washington, DC 20554. In addition to filing comments 
with the FCC, interested parties should serve counsel for the 
Petitioner as follows: Matthew S. Delnero, Esq., Covington & Burling, 
LLP, 850 Tenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joyce Bernstein, Media Bureau, at 
(202) 418-1647; or Joyce Bernstein, Media Bureau, at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Commission has stated that it will apply 
the modification procedure in section 1.420(i) of the rules, which 
provides that the Commission may, in connection with a rulemaking 
proceeding to amend the Table of TV Allotments, modify a station's 
license or construction permit to specify a new community of license 
without affording other interested parties an opportunity to file 
competing expressions of interest, where the new allotment will be 
mutually exclusive with a station's existing allotment. The Technical 
Exhibit submitted with the Amended Petition demonstrates that the 
proposed allotment of channel 31 at Shawano is mutually exclusive with 
the current allotment at Wittenberg, and is otherwise in compliance 
with all of our technical rules. The Petitioner also emphasizes that 
Wittenberg will not lose any existing service because as a permittee, 
TV-49 has not commenced operations in Wittenberg, and thus no viewers 
have come to rely on any existing service, a factor the Commission has 
found to be mitigating in the context of whether it would remove the 
sole channel allotted to a community. Moreover, the Petitioner states 
that the communities are only thirty miles apart and Wittenberg will 
still be within the noise limited contour of the channel 31 facility 
constructed at Shawano. The Petitioner further asserts that providing 
Shawano, the county seat of Shawano County and a community that is nine 
times larger than Wittenberg, with its first local television service 
is the type of rare circumstance which justifies a waiver of the 
general prohibition on the removal of a community's sole first local 
service. According to the Petitioner, Shawano's Census 2020 population 
is 9,243 people, while Wittenberg's Census 2020 population is 1,015. 
Shawano is governed by a mayor and six alderpersons, who collectively 
comprise its Common Council. The Shawano school district operates five 
public schools, there are also three religiously-affiliated private 
schools in Shawano, and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College also 
operates a Regional Learning Campus in Shawano. Shawano also provides a 
number of municipal services through the Shawano-Bonduel Municipal 
Court, the Shawano Department of Public Works, the Shawano Police 
Department, and the Shawano Municipal Utilities. Petitioner states that 
given the foregoing, it is clear that Shawano has the population and 
public services indicative of a community deserving of its own 
television station. Moreover, the Petitioner asserts that six licensed 
full power television stations currently provide noise-limited service 
to all of Wittenberg and the Petitioner demonstrates that once the 
Station commences operations it will also provide noise-limited service 
to Wittenberg.
    This is a synopsis of the Commission's Notice of Proposed 
Rulemaking, MB Docket No. 23-336; RM-11967; DA 23-936, adopted October 
6, 2023, and released October 6,

[[Page 72418]]

2023. The full text of this document is available for download at 
https://www.fcc.gov/edocs. To request materials in accessible formats 
(braille, large print, computer diskettes, or audio recordings), please 
send an email to [email protected] or call the Consumer & Government 
Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (VOICE), (202) 418-0432 (TTY).
    This document does not contain information collection requirements 
subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13. In 
addition, therefore, it does not contain any proposed information 
collection burden ``for small business concerns with fewer than 25 
employees,'' pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 
2002, Public Law 107-198, see 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4). Provisions of the 
Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, 5 U.S.C. 601-612, do not apply to 
this proceeding.
    Members of the public should note that all ex parte contacts are 
prohibited from the time a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is issued to 
the time the matter is no longer subject to Commission consideration or 
court review, see 47 CFR 1.1208. There are, however, exceptions to this 
prohibition, which can be found in section 1.1204(a) of the 
Commission's rules, 47 CFR 1.1204(a).
    See Sections 1.415 and 1.420 of the Commission's rules for 
information regarding the proper filing procedures for comments, 47 CFR 
1.415 and 1.420.

List of Subjects in 47 CFR Part 73

    Television.

Federal Communications Commission.
Thomas Horan,
Chief of Staff, Media Bureau.

Proposed Rule

    For the reasons discussed in the preamble, the Federal 
Communications Commission proposes to amend 47 CFR part 73 as follows:

PART 73--RADIO BROADCAST SERVICE

0
1. The authority citation for part 73 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 47 U.S.C. 154, 155, 301, 303, 307, 309, 310, 334, 
336, 339.

0
2. In Sec.  73.622, in the table in paragraph (j), under Wisconsin, add 
an entry for ``Shawano'' in alphabetical order, and revise the entry 
for ``Wittenberg'' to read as follows:


Sec.  73.622  Digital television table of allotments.

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    (j) * * *

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                         Community                           Channel No.
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                                * * * * *
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                                Wisconsin
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                                * * * * *
Shawano...................................................            31
 
                                * * * * *
Wittenberg................................................  ............
 
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[FR Doc. 2023-22861 Filed 10-19-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P