Here’s a situation that once again shows us that all too often it seems that the FCC, given a chance to do something right, just has to go 180 degrees the wrong way.In the Colorado Springs market, a big signal coming in from Pueblo collides with a local translator on first adjacent frequencies. After listener complaints are logged and sent to the FCC, there’s a bit of back and forth between the licensees, but they come to a mutually acceptable solution and propose that to the FCC. The offending translator seeks displacement and everyone is happy. But.

The FCC has now decided that there weren’t written complaints filed (which there were), and the FCC decides that the process to solve the problem has not been properly followed (which it was).

So the FCC decides to toss the proposed displacement request until every little i gets dotted and t gets crossed…again. The translator now has to reduce power from 250 watts as a fill-in to 30 watts as a non fill-in, then if that does not rectify the problem, the parties will have to go through the mitigation process again. They did that once and that’s how they arrived at the mutually acceptable solution.

Really? Can’t we all just get along?

That’s 30 for now…for what it’s worth.