scope:

SUMMARY:

The Commission has before it a petition for rulemaking filed by Sander Operating Co. III LLC (Sander), licensee of KGW, requesting the substitution of channel 26 for channel 8 at Portland in the DTV Table of Allotments. The Commission instituted a freeze on the acceptance of rulemaking petitions by full power television stations requesting channel substitutions in May 2011, and Sander asks that the Commission waive the freeze to permit KGW to change from a VHF to a UHF channel to better serve its over-the-air viewers. Sander states that the Commission has recognized that VHF channels have certain propagation characteristics which may cause reception issues for some viewers. While Sander acknowledges that VHF reception issues are not universal, it states that since the 2009 digital transition, when it began operating exclusively on digital channel 8, KGW has received a steady stream of complaints from viewers unable to receive the station's over-the-air signal, despite being able to receive signals from other local stations. Sander believes that waiver of the channel substitution freeze would serve the public interest.