Colorado congressmen are urging the Federal Communications Commission to allow county commissions to petition the federal agency for a change in TV market.
U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, and Cory Gardner, R-Colorado, and U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, issued a letter Tuesday to Tom Wheeler, chairman of the FCC.
The letter comes as the agency prepares to issue final rules for satellite television markets. The rules were prompted by congressional passage of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act Reauthorization Act, known as STELAR.
The FCC is required to issue the final rules by Sept. 4.
Bennet, Gardner and Tipton urged the FCC to allow county commissions to petition for a television market modification. This would allow county commissioners in La Plata and Montezuma counties to take action. The counties currently are in the Albuquerque TV market, and many residents would prefer to receive Denver TV.
“We believe a county commission is an appropriate body to make this request on behalf of the county residents they are elected to represent,” the congressmen wrote. “Allowing a county commission to make such filings on behalf of the county’s residents would facilitate the ability of a community to voice its own opinion about the local television content that it would prefer to access.”
Brad Blake, a La Plata County commissioner, said he’d be open to petitioning the FCC if counties are granted that power.
“I would definitely be interested,” he said. “There’s been a push for it for a long time. A lot of times, we don’t get the Denver news, or the state news for that matter.”
In their letter, the congressmen cited a comment from Mary Gillam, a 15-year resident of La Plata County. Gillam said she never had seen any of the state’s governors or other elected representatives on television.