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If you need the complete document, download the WordPerfect version or Adobe Acrobat version, if available. ***************************************************************** Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D.C. 20554 In re: ) ) SAH Acquisition Corporation II, Licensee of) Television Station WOAC ) Canton, Ohio ) ) vs. ) CSR-5275-M ) Adelphia Cablevision Associates, L.P. a/k/a) Adelphia Cable Communications ) ) Request for Mandatory Carriage ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Adopted: November 10, 1998 Released: November 10, 1998 By the Acting Chief, Cable Services Bureau: INTRODUCTION 1. SAH Acquisition Corporation II, licensee of television broadcast station WOAC-TV, located in Canton, Ohio ("WOAC-TV" or "the Station"), has filed a must-carry complaint with the Commission pursuant to Sections 76.7(a)(2) and 76.61(a)(3) of the Commission's rules, claiming that Adelphia Cable Communications ("Adelphia") has failed to commence carriage of WOAC-TV on its systems serving several Ohio communities from its Lorain and Vermilion headends, as required by Section 614 of the Communications Act. Adelphia filed an Opposition to the Complaint and WOAC-TV filed a Reply. BACKGROUND 2. Pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act and implementing rules adopted by the Commission in Implementation of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act: Broadcast Signal Carriage Issues ("Must Carry Order"), commercial television broadcast stations are entitled to assert mandatory carriage rights on cable television systems located within the station's market. A station's market for this purpose is its "area of dominant influence," or ADI, as defined by the Arbitron audience research organization. An ADI is a geographic market designation that defines each television market exclusive of others, based on measured viewing patterns. SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS 3. WOAC-TV asserts that it is entitled to mandatory carriage on Adelphia's Lorain and Vermilion systems because it is a qualified local commercial station as defined under the Commission's must-carry rules. WOAC explains that it is licensed to Canton, Ohio, and states that it and Adelphia are both located within the Cleveland Ohio ADI. WOAC-TV explains that it is currently engaged in negotiations with Adelphia in which it is offering to measure its own signal quality at each headend and is offering, if needed, to install at its own expense the necessary signal boosting equipment. According to WOAC-TV, it is filing this complaint solely for the purpose of preserving its must carry rights and "has every expectation given Adelphia's cooperative attitude that this matter can be resolved without Commission action." 4. WOAC-TV states that by letters dated March 27, 1998, it informed the manager of each of Adelphia's headends that it had acquired the license for the station from Whitehead Media of Ohio, Inc. The station states that those letters, which were received by the operator on April 1, 1998, explained that WOAC- TV is a qualified signal under the Commission's rules and requested carriage on the two Adelphia cable systems at issue. According to WOAC-TV, Adelphia answered in a letter dated April 14, 1998, that based on earlier testing, it did not believe the headends received a sufficient signal, but would be willing to test the signal again once improvements were made. WOAC-TV states that this letter did not clearly make a commitment to carry the station nor did it clearly deny WOAC-TV's request. WOAC-TV explains that it was contacting Adelphia to state its intentions to conduct tests to show that additional equipment will boost its signal strength to the appropriate level. WOAC-TV states that while these signal tests have not been completed, the timeframe in which to file a complaint to preserve its must carry rights will soon expire; thus, it filed the instant complaint thirty days after Adelphia failed to explicitly deny its initial request for carriage. 5. In Opposition, Adelphia argues that it responded in a timely manner to deny WOAC-TV's request for carriage by stating that a good quality signal was not received at the headends, and because the complaint was filed more than 60 days after the denial, it should not be accepted by the Commission. Adelphia states that WOAC-TV acknowledged receipt of its April 14, 1998 letter, and thus admits that it was on notice of the reason it was denied carriage; however, the station did not file its complaint until June 30, 1998, well after the 60 days allowed under the statute. Adelphia argues that its offer to consider additional signal strength measurements does not negate its denial of carriage and such an offer does not extend the time frame for the station to file a complaint. 6. Adelphia also argues that because WOAC-TV has not provided a good quality signal to the headends, and because Adelphia has not violated any regulation by not making arrangements to carry the station, the complaint is not valid. Adelphia asserts that the station should not be allowed to offer its own delay in arranging for signal strength tests as a means for extending its statutory rights and the Commission's rules do not provide an avenue for a station to preserve its rights to file a complaint on the chance that an operator might not meet its future obligations. 7. In Reply, WOAC-TV argues that its complaint was timely filed because Adelphia's April 14th, 1998 letter was not a rejection letter but rather an invitation to do further testing. According to the station, the real triggering event was Adelphia's failure to properly respond within thirty days, by May 1, 1998, to the station's April 1, 1998 demand for carriage. WOAC-TV further argues that the April 14, 1998 Adelphia letter could not be seen as a rejection letter because there were never any signal strength tests performed at the Vermilion headend; such testing data is required by the Commission's rules. Moreover, the information supplied in connection with the tests performed at the Lorain headend also failed to comply with the Commission's rules because such data, as tower height and antenna description, was not supplied. Finally, WOAC-TV alleges that Adelphia will not permit the station to conduct signal quality tests during the pendency of this proceeding. DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS 8. We grant WOAC-TV's complaint as we find that the station has adhered to the Commission's procedural deadlines. First, we do not consider Adelphia's April 14, 1998 response to WOAC-TV's must carry request to be a denial letter, and therefore the triggering event for the must carry complaint process to commence, because the operator's response was clearly an invitation to the station to conduct further signal testing. Instead, the triggering event was Adelphia's decision not to affirmatively deny WOAC-TV's request for carriage, within thirty days of receipt of the must carry request, as required by the Commission's rules. WOAC-TV then properly filed its complaint with the Commission within sixty days of Adelphia's inaction. A full power television station has the right to cure its signal strength deficiency. WOAC-TV may properly assert its right to be carried on Adelphia's cable systems once it provides a good quality signal to the headends in question. ORDERING CLAUSES 9. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, that the complaint for carriage (CSR-5275-M), filed June 30, 1998, by SAH Acquisition Corporation II, licensee of station WOAC-TV in Canton, Ohio, IS GRANTED. Adelphia Cable Communications IS ORDERED to commence carriage of WOAC-TV on its Lorain and Vermilion cable systems within sixty (60) days from the date that the station delivers a good quality signal. 10. This action is taken pursuant to authority delegated by  0.321 of the Commission's rules. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Meryl S. Icove Acting Chief, Cable Services Bureau