********************************************************    
                         NOTICE
********************************************************

This document was converted from
WordPerfect to ASCII Text format.

Content from the original version of the document such as
headers, footers, footnotes, endnotes, graphics, and page numbers
will not show up in this text version.

All text attributes such as bold, italic, underlining, etc. from the
original document will not show up in this text version.

Features of the original document layout such as
columns, tables, line and letter spacing, pagination, and margins
will not be preserved in the text version.

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 the Matter of:               )
                                )
Radio Perry, Inc.               )       CSR-5277-N
                                )
For Waiver of 76.92(f) of the  )
Commission's Rules              )


                  MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

     Adopted:  May 24, 1999                     Released:  May 27, 1999  

By the Deputy Chief, Cable Services Bureau:

I.  INTRODUCTION

     1.   Radio Perry, Inc., licensee of Station WPGA-TV (ABC, Ch. 58), Perry, Georgia, has filed
a petition for special relief seeking a waiver of the Commission's significantly viewed exception to the network
nonduplication rules (47 C.F.R. 76.92(f)).  Subsequently, WPGA-TV filed a supplement to this petition. 
WPGA-TV's petition is unopposed. 

II.  BACKGROUND

     2.   Upon the request of a local station which has the exclusive rights to distribute a network
program, a cable operator generally may not carry a duplicating network program broadcast by a distant
station.  However, an otherwise distant station is exempt from the application of the network nonduplication
rules if its considered significantly viewed in a relevant community.  Station WPGA-TV seeks a waiver of the
significantly viewed exception to the Commission's network nonduplication rules so that it may assert network
nonduplication protection against Station WSB-TV which is currently considered to be significantly viewed
in Bibb County, Georgia, where Cox's Macon, Georgia cable system is located.

     3.   In KCST-TV, Inc., the Commission held that in order to obtain a waiver of Section 76.92(f)
of the Commission's Rules, which provides for an exemption to the network nonduplication rules for
significantly viewed stations, petitioners would be required to demonstrate for two consecutive years that a
station was no longer significantly viewed, based either on community, or system-specific, noncable viewing
data, to one standard error.  For each year, the data must be obtained as a result of independent professional
surveys taken during two one-week periods which are separated by at least thirty days and are distributed
proportionately among the relevant cable communities and not more than one of the surveys may be taken
between April and September of each year.

III.  SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS

     4.        In support of its petition, WPGA-TV states that it previously requested and was denied similar
relief against WSB-TV when the Bureau found that WPGA-TV had failed to establish that the Nielsen Media
Research audience data it submitted constituted a representative sample of noncable homes in Macon, Georgia,
for the purpose of demonstrating over-the-air viewing in that community.  In the petition herein, WPGA-TV
seeks to prove that WSB-TV is no longer significantly viewed in Macon, Payne City, and the surrounding
unincorporated areas of Bibb County, Georgia.

     5.   WPGA-TV states that it commenced operations on June 20, 1995 and became an affiliate of
the ABC Television Network on January 1, 1996.  Licensed to Perry, Georgia, located in the Macon, Georgia
ADI, WPGA-TV indicates that it competes directly with three other Macon ADI network affiliate stations --
WMAZ-TV (CBS), WMGT-TV (NBC) and WGXA-TV (FOX).  WPGA-TV states that the Cox cable system
serving Macon carries all of its markets' network affiliates.  In addition, WPGA-TV points out that Cox also
carries the non-network programming of four Atlanta, Georgia network affiliates -- WAGA-TV (CBS),
WATL-TV (FOX), WXIA-TV (NBC), and WSB-TV (ABC) -- even though the Atlanta affiliates' Grade B
contours do not encompass any of Bibb County and are located approximately 80 miles from Macon.  WPGA-
TV states that while the other Macon ADI affiliates are afforded nonduplication protection against their
respective Atlanta ADI affiliates, WPGA-TV is not provided with such protection against WSB-TV because
WSB-TV is considered to be significantly viewed in Bibb County.

     6.   WPGA-TV argues that the surveys it commissioned from VideoProbeIndex, Inc. clearly
demonstrate that WSB-TV can no longer be deemed to be significantly viewed in Macon, Payne City and
unincorporated Bibb County.  Specifically, WPGA-TV states that these surveys indicate that WSB-TV's share
of viewing hours and net weekly circulation in each of the locations surveyed consistently equaled 0%.  As
such, WPGA-TV maintains that is it entitled to the same network nonduplication protection that the other
network affiliates in its market enjoy.  WPGA-TV asserts that maintaining WSB-TV's exception in this
instance would not only disserve the public, but force WPGA-TV, as a new local station, to unfairly compete
against network affiliates which already have the advantage of nonduplication protection.
     
IV.  DISCUSSION

     7.   WPGA-TV has provided two sets of system-specific survey results for Macon, Payne City,
and unincorporated Bibb County, Georgia, for each year surveyed.  The first year's surveys were conducted
during the weeks of October 22-28, 1997, and January 14-20, 1998, and the second year's surveys during the
weeks of October 21-27, 1998, and January 13-19, 1999.  Section 76.54(b) and KCST-TV, Inc. both allow that
surveys may be community or system specific.  In the case of system-specific surveys, as in this case, Section
76.54(b) states that "[i]f a cable television system serves more than one community, a single survey may be
taken, provided that the sample includes noncable television homes from each community that are proportional
to the population."  According to the survey, Payne City is surrounded by Macon and has a minute
population, there is no statistical basis for a separate sampling of that community in the system-specific surveys
it provided WPGA-TV and that, statistically and geographically, a random sample of the City of Macon is also
representative of Payne City.  We agree that this is a reasonable assumption and should not invalidate the
survey data provided.  Accordingly, we find that WPGA-TV has demonstrated that WSB-TV does not meet
the criteria for significantly viewed status for the two survey years and has met the test set forth in KCST-TV,
Inc.

     8.   For the above reasons, we find that a grant of a waiver of the significantly viewed exemption
from the network nonduplication rules with regard to the system-specific survey submitted by WPGA-TV for
Macon, Payne City and unincorporated Bibb County, Georgia, will serve the public interest.

V.  ORDERING CLAUSES

     9.   Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, that the petition filed by Radio Perry, Inc. IS GRANTED.

     10.  This action is taken pursuant to authority delegated under Section 0.321 of the Commission's
Rules.

                              FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION


                              William H. Johnson
                              Deputy Chief, Cable Services Bureau