Martin: Other Commissioners Opposed Low-Power Must Carry

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin pulled the low-power must-carry item from the agenda for the FCC's Oct 15 meeting in Nashville because his fellow FCC commissioners informed him this week they would not support a notice of proposed rulemaking that included extending must-carry status to more than 500 low-power stations. "I am very upset that the other commissioners had months to consider an item and decided they would submit edits Monday night. All four of them did not want to proceed with an item that would give low-power television the same opportunity that full-power had." He said the commissioners were not willing even to vote no on that item if that is what they wanted. "They just wanted to change it to an NOI," he said, "which would have been meaningless and strip out the controversial parts that would have given low power any opportunity to have carriage rights." FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein took issue with the suggestion the other commissioners were trying to strip out the must-carry question. "The proposal of the four commissioners included a full discussion of giving full-power status to low-power stations so they could get must-carry," he said. "He doesn't even bother showing up, then he attacks us while we are sitting in an official meeting for his failure to move an LPTV item that he stalled since last February," said Commissioner Adelstein pointedly.