The NAB’s FCC filing continues, “In adopting final rules for
[satellite digital audio radio service] repeaters, it is also necessary
that the commission be mindful of the SDARS licensees’ record of
misbehavior in this area.”

In XM’s case, that “misbehavior” includes, says the NAB, 19
unauthorized repeaters, 142 repeaters in unauthorized locations, at
least 221 repeaters operating at power levels exceeding authorized
levels, and unauthorized extra antennas or too-tall antennas at a
number of repeater stations — all of which, the NAB says, XM has
admitted.

Meanwhile, Sirius, according to the NAB filing, has acknowledged
having 11 repeaters in locations that “differ slightly from the
[Special Temporary Authority] — more than half of them within two
miles of their reported sites.” But, the filing continues, “Closer
examination reveals that of the 11 repeaters in question, eight are
located at least 1.4 miles away from their authorized locations, four
are places at least five miles from their reported locations, and one
in Lansing, MI, was deployed 67 miles away from its FCC-authorized location.” (NAB’s emphasis.)

In light of these “historical failures to comply” with repeater and
other rules — and “the expected negative consumer impact of their
pending merger” –the NAB says it is important that the FCC impose
requirements on XM and Sirius “as needed, with appropriate enforcement
mechanisms.”

The NAB notes that, back in 1997, the FCC said repeaters must be
“complementary” to satellite service “in order to prevent an SDARS
licensee’s network of terrestrial repeaters from transforming into an
independent terrestrial network” and ruled that satellite radio
transmission of local programming “would be inconsistent with the
allocation of this spectrum.” Says the NAB, “The conclusion was sound
then, and remains so today.”

The NAB is asking the FCC to codify language suggested by XM and
the NAB that reads, “SDARS repeaters are restricted to the simultaneous
retransmission of the complete programming, and only that programming,
transmitted by the satellite directly to the SDARS subscribers’
receivers, and may not be used to distribute any information not also
transmitted to all subscribers’ receivers.”

Along with the language, the NAB would also like the FCC to “assure
the public that it will carefully monitor and enforce the SDARS
licensees’ compliance with this and all final repeater rules,
especially given their historical pattern and practice of violating the
terms and conditions of the STAs governing their terrestrial
repeaters.”

In the same filing, the NAB expresses its opposition to allowing
Sirius to feed some of its repeaters by way of third-party satellites
and to letting it add repeaters in Alaska and Hawaii, where, the NAB
acknowledges, it is “virtually impossible” to receive a Sirius signal.
Allowing those repeaters would, says the NAB, “contradict the
commission’s long-established purpose for terrestrial repeaters as
‘gap-fillers’” for a national satellite service.

[Via Radioink.com]

What a joke….