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                            Before the
                Federal Communications Commission
                      Washington, D.C. 20554

In the Matter of:                       )
                                   )
Complaint of American Television, Inc.  )
against Charter Communications, L.L.C.  )    CSR 5366-M
for Carriage of WSTY-LP, Hammond, Louisiana  )
                                 

                  MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

   Adopted:  May 28, 1999               Released:  June 1, 1999

By the Chief, Consumer Protection and Competition Division, Cable Services Bureau:

I.  INTRODUCTION

     1.   American Television, Inc. ("American"), licensee of low power television ("LPTV") station
WSTY-LP, Hammond, Louisiana, filed a complaint pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act, as
amended, 47 U.S.C.  534, and Sections 76.7 and 76.61(a) of the Commission's Rules, 47 C.F.R. 76.7 &
76.61(a), claiming entitlement to mandatory carriage of WSTY-LP in the communities of Hammond,
Tangipahoa, Ponchatoula, Amite City, Roseland, Tickfaw, Independence, Bogalusa and Franklinton, located
in Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes, Louisiana, and Osyka, located in Pike County, Mississippi, and
served by cable systems of Charter Communications, L.L.C. ("Charter").  American also requested an order
instituting a forfeiture proceeding alleging that Charter had refused, in bad faith and without any legitimate
basis, to carry WSTY-LP's signal.  Charter filed an opposition to the complaint, and American filed a reply.

II.  BACKGROUND

     2.   Both the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and the Commission's rules require the
carriage of "qualified" LPTV stations in certain limited circumstances.  An LPTV station that conforms to the
rules established for LPTV stations in Part 74 of the Commission's Rules will be considered "qualified" if:  (1)
it broadcasts at least the minimum number of hours required under 47 C.F.R. Part 73; (2) it adheres to
Commission requirements regarding non-entertainment programming and employment practices, and the
Commission determines that the programming by the LPTV station would address local news and informational
needs which are not being adequately served by full power television broadcast stations because of geographic
distance of such full power stations from the low power station's community of license; (3) it complies with
interference regulations consistent with its secondary status; (4) it is located no more than 35 miles from the
cable system's headend and delivers to the principal headend an over-the-air signal of good quality; (5) the
community of license of the station and the franchise area of the cable system are both located outside the
largest 160 Metropolitan Statistical Areas on June 30, 1990, and the population of such community of license
on that date did not exceed 35,000; and (6) there is no full power television broadcast station licensed to any
community within the county or other political subdivision (of a State) served by the cable system.

III.  MARKET FACTS AND ARGUMENT

     3.   American states that WSTY-LP began operating on or about December 10, 1998.  American
states further that it described WSTY-LP and the station's programming by means of three letters sent to
Charter, which also advised Charter of the station's election of must carry status and made formal demands
for must carry and channel selection.  American asserts that Charter responded by stating that WSTY-LP's
election and request for carriage would not be evaluated until American obtained from the Commission a ruling
that the station's programming addresses local news and informational needs not being served by full powers
stations.

     4.   American asserts that WSTY-LP meets all six elements of LPTV station qualification
requirements set out above.  First, WSTY-LP broadcasts 24 hours each day, exceeding the minimum hours
required of full power stations.  Second, WSTY-LP meets all obligations and requirements applicable to full
power stations and carries programming that addresses important news and informational needs of the growing
communities served by the station.  More particularly, American identified three daily newscasts at noon, 6:30
p.m. and 10:30 p.m. as providing in-depth coverage of local and state government, community events,
churches, business, crime, traffic, and local sports and weather.  American states further that WSTY-LP
complies with relevant interference regulations; the station is located less than 35 miles from Charter's cable
system principal headend and delivers a good quality signal to that headend; WSTY-LP's community of license,
Hammond, Louisiana, had a 1990 population of approximately 15,871; Hammond and WSTY-LP's franchise
area at issue here are both outside of the largest 160 Metropolitan Statistical Areas; and there is no full power
television station licensed to either Tangipahoa or Washington Parish, Louisiana or Pike County, Mississippi,
in which the relevant communities are located.

     5.   American asserts that Charter did not challenge WSTY-LP's eligibility for carriage under the
six statutory requirements, but took the position that no carriage obligation existed unless American files a
must carry complaint and obtains a Commission ruling that the station's programming addresses local news
and information needs not being adequately served by full power stations as required by Section 76.55(d)(2). 
American contends that Charter's position is unacceptable and would require every LPTV station seeking
carriage to file a must carry complaint and bear the costs and burdens associated with that process, dissipate
Commission resources in the process, and delay for months vital cable carriage.  American argues that
Charter's position is not supported by Commission precedent and cannot be reconciled with the purpose of the
must carry rules to ensure a swift and efficient resolution of must carry disputes.  Contending that Charter's
response to its must carry demand constitutes an abuse of the Commission's administrative procedures designed
to delay carriage of a station required by federal law to be carried, American requests initiation of forfeiture
proceedings against Charter pursuant to Section 76.9(a)(2) of the Commission's rules.

     6.   Charter claims in opposition that WSTY-LP fails to qualify for must carry for three reasons. 
First, Charter claims American hasn't established that WSTY-LP consistently broadcasts programming that
addresses local news and informational need not being adequately served by full power stations because of
geographic distance of the stations from the communities at issue.  Specifically, Charter claims WSTY-LP's
programming isn't shown to be directed toward Osyka, Mississippi, and that WSTY-LP's local coverage of the
other communities is limited to local news and events reported in three half hour daily newscasts for which only
an example of news broadcast on a single day was provided.  Charter also asserts that American ignores
Charter's carriage of stations licensed to Baton Rouge and New Orleans that are significantly viewed in the
communities, that provide coverage of news, weather and local events, and that deliver Grade B coverage of
Hammond, Louisiana, WSTY-LP's community of license.

     7.   Next Charter claims that WSTY-LP doesn't meet the children's programming obligations of
full power stations, asserting in essence that none of the programming described in attachments to American's
complaint identifies any children's programming on WSTY-LP's program schedule.  In assessing whether
television stations comply with the Children's Television Act of 1990, Charter contends that the Commission
examines whether a station airs at least three hours per week of core programming or airs a package of
different types of educational and informational programming demonstrating a commitment to educating and
informing children that equivalent to three hours of programming.  Charter asserts that WSTY-LP fails to
meet those requirements.

     8.   Third, Charter states that almost all of the relevant communities located in Tangipahoa and
Washington parishes are served by its headend located in Folsom, Louisiana, which also serves communities
located in St. Tammany Parish.  Charter further states that this cable system also carries full power television
station WUPL, which is licensed to Slidell, Louisiana, in St. Tammany Parish, and thus argues that WSTY-LP
fails to meet the requirement that there be no full power station licensed to any community within the county
or political entity served by the cable system.

     9.   Finally, Charter takes the position that its conduct in responding to American's must carry
demand was proper and within its rights and requests dismissal of American's effort to initiate a forfeiture
proceeding.  Charter notes that the Commission in the Must Carry Order anticipated disagreements about
LPTV station eligibility for carriage without need for levying sanctions and observed that sanctions did not
appear to be allowed under the relevant statutory provision unless the cable operator disobeyed a Commission
order.

IV.  DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

     10.  We grant American's must carry complaint and order carriage of WSTY-LP on Charter's cable
systems serving Hammond, Tangipahoa, Ponchatoula, Amite City, Roseland, Tickfaw, Independence,
Bogalusa, and Franklinton, Louisiana, and Osyka, Mississippi. Preliminarily, we remind Charter and other
cable operators that the Commission stated in the Must Carry Order over six years ago that a case-by-case
determination by the Commission of each LPTV's must carry qualifications was not necessary and would
impose unnecessary burdens and create delays in the implementation of the must carry rules.  In the Must
Carry Order the Commission stated that "[o]nce an LPTV station has made a showing of its must-carry
eligibility to the cable operator, we will initially rely on the cable operator to review the requests and, where
appropriate, voluntarily carry the qualified LPTV station without Commission intervention....The definition
of a qualified LPTV station is rigorous enough, without the additional burden of presenting evidence of
eligibility to the Commission prior to the assertion of must-carry rights."  The Commission clearly indicated
a preference to intervene as little as possible in this area once the must carry rules and procedures were adopted
in 1993.  However, based on the evidence of record before us, we do not believe a forfeiture is warranted in
this matter.

     11.  Turning to the merits of American's complaint, we are satisfied that WSTY-LP meets all six
statutory requirements for must carry on Charter's cable systems at issue.  Charter does not dispute American's
representations that WSTY-LP broadcasts for 24 hours each day, which is in excess of that required of full
power stations; that WSTY-LP complies with the relevant interference regulations; that WSTY-LP is located
less than 35 miles from the principal headend of Charter's cable system and delivers a good quality signal to
that headend; that WSTY-LP's community of license, Hammond, Louisiana, had a 1990 population of less than
35,000; or that both Hammond and Charter's franchise area are located outside of the largest 160 Metropolitan
Statistical Areas.

     12.  With respect to the two remaining qualifying requirements, we find that American provided
adequate information to establish that WSTY-LP meets all obligations and requirements of the rules applicable
to full power stations and that WSTY-LP's programming addresses local news and informational needs not
addressed by full power stations because of their distance from the communities service by Charter.  We find
that American addressed Charter's criticism of lack of children's programming on WSTY-LP by showing in
its reply that the station carries "The New Howdy Doody Show" and "Children's Room" for one hour every
week day, and that in January of 1999 arrangements for presentation of additional children's programming
including "Gerbert" and "ImagineLand" would be in place.  Under Section 76.671 of the Commission's rules,
television licensees are required to provide some children's programming but the Commission does not
substitute its judgment in the place of broadcasters to determine how they should provide such programming.

     13.  The programming information provided to Charter with American's must carry request and
to the Commission describes a well developed programming format that addresses important news and local
informational needs of the communities served by Charter.   While both WSTY-LP and the full power stations
from Baton Rouge and New Orleans carry stories addressing local issues, the record shows that WSTY-LP
carries more stories directed to the communities served by Charter.  Indeed, Charter failed to provide
descriptions of the programming of the full power station showing that any of their programming is specifically
directed toward those communities.  Once an LPTV station meets its burden of proof by proffering evidence
of its local programming, we have held that the cable operator's undocumented, general assertions that the cable
system's subscribers are adequately supplied local programming by other stations are insufficient to warrant
a finding that the low power station is not meeting its local programming responsibilities.  Charter merely
made general assertions that the Baton Rouge and New Orleans stations provide adequate local news without
supporting evidence that those stations' programming is directed to the communities at issue.  In the absence
of such evidence from Charter, we accept American's evidence that WSTY-LP is meeting the local news and
informational needs of the communities at issue.

     14.  Finally, the fact that Charter's principal headend for the system serving communities in
Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes is in St. Tammany Parish where full power station WUPL is located is
irrelevant.   The Commission specifically addressed this question in adopting the implementing rules for the
mandatory signal carriage requirements of the Communications Act of 1934, as   For the exclusion to be
applicable, a full power station must be co-located in the same county as the subject low power station. 
WSTY-LP's city of  license--Hammond, Louisiana--is in Tangipahoa Parish.  No full power station is licensed
to Tangipahoa Parish.  Thus, American has demonstrated WSTY-LP's right to mandatory carriage on Charter's
cable system.

V.  ORDERING CLAUSES

     15.  Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act of 1934,
as amended, 47 U.S.C.  534, that the complaint filed by American Television, Inc. in File No. CSR 5366-M
IS GRANTED and Charter Communications, L.L.C. shall commence carriage of television station WSTY-LP
on its cable systems serving the communities of Hammond, Tangipahoa, Ponchatoula, Amite City, Roseland,
Tickfaw, Independence, Bogalusa and Franklinton, located in Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes, Louisiana,
and Osyka, located in Pike County, Mississippi, within sixty (60) days from the release date of this Order.

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

                              FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION



                              Deborah E. Klein, Chief
                              Consumer Protection and Competition Division
                              Cable Services Bureau