Two Class Operations Downgraded to LPTV Status

By Doug Lung
published

The FCC adopted an Order modifying the status of KGLR-LP from Class A to LPTV status. KGLR-LP is located in Lubbock, Texas and is licensed to Lubbock Television Co. The FCC previously notified the licensee that it had apparently failed to make required FCC Form 398 (Children's Television Programming Report filings. The station failed to respond to the FCC Media Bureau's letters concerning this, or to file the required Children's Television Programming Reports.


Class A station KFLZ-CA in San Antonio, Texas was demoted to LPTV station in an Order adopted last week. KFLZ-CA also failed to file FCC Form 398, the Children's Television Programming Report. In this case, it failed to file reports for all four quarters in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. The FCC sent the licensee, B Communications Joint Venture, letters requesting additional information. B Communications failed to respond to the two letters from the Media Bureau's Video Division and did not file Form 398 for any quarter in 2011. The Order stated, “We find that it has not fulfilled its obligations as a Class A licensee and that the modification of its Class A license to a low-power television license therefore serves the public interest.”

Class A TV stations are protected under the law allowing incentive auctions while LPTV stations retain their secondary status and, thus, are likely to be displaced if the FCC needs their channel for a full-power station displaced in its repacking. 

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.