House Protest Stalls License of Digital Station

Bids to advance new kinds of broadcast technology ran afoul of some Capitol Hill lawmakers opposed to a federal effort to set a digital TV standard and a separate plan to let a Canadian firm launch a new nationwide radio station in the United States.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday was scheduled to issue a license for CD Radio Inc. to operate a digital radio station whose satellite signals could reach listeners across the United States.

But the FCC failed to take up the proposal after Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, objected to the plan because CD Radio would have paid 15% less than market value for the license.

The FCC has previously given discounted licenses for new broadcast services under rules that award a so-called pioneer’s preference to companies that invent new communications technologies.

Separately, the FCC took a preliminary step toward approving a plan to adopt a digital TV standard. But the move immediately came under attack Thursday afternoon when U.S. Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) released a draft copy of a so-called spectrum bill that, if adopted, would bar the FCC from setting a final standard.

The measure also calls for the FCC to auction broadcasters’ current analog TV channels 10 years after they receive new digital channels.