Wyoming, Nevada VHF’s movin’ on up to the East Side
Back in June, 2009, we wrote about PMCM TV, LLC, a company which owns two VHF TV stations, one in Ely, Nevada, the other in Jackson, Wyoming. The first business day after the DTV transition took effect, PMCM notified the Commission that PMCM was willing to move its stations to New Jersey and Delaware, and asked that those moves be approved.
A number of folks thought PMCM (which happens to be represented by us here at FHH) was crazy.
Even when it was explained that PMCM was relying on very clear language in the Communications Act (Section 331(a), to be exact), the proposed relocation of the stations was met with, um, considerable, occasionally polite, skepticism.
The nay-sayers presumably felt particularly vindicated when first the Media Bureau and then the full Commission rejected PMCM’s arguments.
But PMCM forged ahead to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where it found its own vindication. In a unanimous decision, the Court has reversed the Commission’s decision and ordered the Commission to approve PMCM’s proposed reallocations.
