We all are figuring out that the FCC wants the size of the airwaves used by broadcast television stations to decrease. The FCC says that it’s voluntary and needed for the increasing wireless services of today’s consumers. Television broadcasters say there’s no promise, it’s voluntary and it could be the final “off the air” for some stations around the country.
Dale Zabriskie, with the National Broadcasters Association, says that in the event of the Internet and cell phone reception going down, broadcast television will still be available to the public in case of emergency.
“Flooding, wildfires, all of those things we still need free over the air broadcasting there,” says Zabriskie.
We agree that free over the air broadcasting is the only fault tolerant media we have in extreme weather conditions and national emergencies.
Utah is a state that would be greatly affected by such a FCC sell off. Utah has the smallest percent of penetration of cable in the United States.