• Contents for this Newsletter

About This Newsletter
Meeting Announcement
Upcoming Meeting Schedule
Meeting Minutes
FCC Adopts New TV Ownership Rules
Chapter 24 Wins Three National Awards!
Technical Club Of Madison To Meet At Madison Community Tower
Annual Picnic Wrap-Up
Amateur Radio News
Telcom Industry News
Charter Communications Successful In Bid To Acquire Bresnan Communications
SBE's Short Circuits
FCC Rulemakings
Employment Opportunity
DTV Compentencey Analysis Available
Local Legals
Chapter 24 Appoints New Webmaster
Chapter Sustaining Members
Return to Chapter 24 Newsletter Page

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The Chapter 24 Newsletter is published monthly by Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers; Madison, Wisconsin. Original hard copy edited by Mike Norton on Pagemaker 5.0. Submissions of interest to the broadcast technical community are welcome. You can make your submissions by e-mail to:

© 1999 by SBE Chapter 24. Views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official positions of the Society, its officers, or its members. SBE Chapter 24 regrets, but is not liable for, any omissions or errors. The Chapter 24 Newsletter is published twelve times per year. Other SBE Chapters are permitted to use excerpts if attributed to the original author, sources, and SBE Chapter 24.

Thank you to WKOW-TV for providing copying and folding facilities for the Chapter 24 newsletter!

Thank you to WISC-TV for maintaining the web server for the Chapter 24 Web page!

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The program this month will cover the SBE certification program, and will be presented by SBE's Certification Chair Terry Baun. Please join us in learning more about the opportunities of SBE Certification.

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Chapter 24 of the Society of Broadcast Engineers met on Wednesday, July 21, 1999 at Mendota County Park, on Highway M in Middleton, Wisconsin.

This meeting was our annual Family Picnic. There were eleven Chapter 24 members, three broadcaster guests and approximately twenty family members present.

Chair Kevin Ruppert called the meeting to order at 7:20 PM. Minutes of the June 1999 meeting were approved as written in the July newsletter. Tom Smith corrected the call letters of the previously reported Mayville, Wisconsin station to WMDC-FM.

New Business was limited to announcements of the August newsletter deadlines and the scheduled meetings for August and September, and a call for volunteers to staff the upcoming SBE national convention being hosted by Chapter 24 in October.

Kevin thanked Denise Maney for organizing this event and then adjourned the Business Meeting at 7:30 PM. A fine picnic and fellowship ensued. A good time was had by all!

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At its August 5th meeting, the FCC adopted new ownership rules, including allowing the ownership of two TV stations in a market if certain conditions are met. The FCC will allow the ownership of two stations in one market under the following rules:

• Allow Grade "B" overlap if each station is located in a different DMA (designated market area).

• Continue to allow the ownership of two stations in the same DMA if their grade "B" signals do not over lap.

• Allow the ownership of two stations in same DMA if eight other independent TV voices would remain. Only one station may be one of the top four ranked stations.

• Allow a waiver for purchase of same market station that is failing or may not be built, and the existing station is the only reasonably available buyer.

In addition, the FCC will allow radio-TV cross-ownership by allowing the following:

• Six radio stations in a market with at least 20 independent voices after the merger.

• Four radio stations in a market with 10 independent voices after the mergers.

• One radio station in any market.

The combination of AM and FM stations must meet existing radio ownership rules. In markets where the TV owner can meet the new duolopy rules for TV, they may also own a second TV station.

The FCC has ruled that it will not accept new local marking agreements if they do not meet the new ownership rules. Many current LMA’s will meet the new duolopy rules, and those that do not will have to terminate in the future. Those LMA’s entered into before November 5, 1996 will have 5 years to operate, and those entered into after that date would have two years. Those grandfathered under the five-year rule will be reviewed at the end of the five years.

In another TV ownership action, the FCC adopted rules that will only count station ownership once in a market even if an owner had a second station in the market. This would prevent a satellite transmitter or duolopy station from causing the homes in a market from being counted twice when figuring audience caps for national ownership limits.

From FCC Press Release, (www.fcc.gov)

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The Society of Broadcast Engineers has announced the 1998 winners of its annual awards program.

The National SBE has announced that Tom Smith has been selected as the SBE Frequency Coordinator of the Year for 1998. Tom has done an outstanding job with the Madison area frequency coordination efforts over the last few years. His efforts have not gone unnoticed by the SBE. The award is determined by the greatest and most effective effort toward frequency coordination in a market or service area.

The award for Best Technical Article or Program for 1998 goes to another Chapter 24 member. Neal McLain's series entitled Broadband Networks, Part 19 - 26 has been selected for that award. The SBE award is to recognize the article or paper which increases scientific, operational, artistic, or technical knowledge in the broadcast engineering industry.

The Chapter 24 Newsletter has tied with Oregon for the Best Chapter Newsletter of 1998. Readers around the country are familiar with the quality that editor Mike Norton and his many contributors make to the Newsletter every month.

Tom, Neal, and Mike will receive these awards at the SBE National Awards dinner on October 20 at the Madison West Marriott Hotel. The SBE National Convention is being held this year in conjunction with the Madison Broadcaster’s Clinic.

Congratulations to Tom, Neal, Mike, and the rest of Chapter 24!

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The September meeting of the Technical Club of Madison will include a tour of the Madison Community Tower. Guests are welcome.

The Technical Club of Madison was organized in 1921. According to the club’s membership brochure, its purpose is "to provide a forum for discussion of current technical matters. The club is open to all who share an interest in technical topics. Members include engineers, architects, doctors, craftsman, technicians, and those with a general technical interest. Programs are intended to be accessible to those of a general background."

Speakers at the September meeting include SBE Chapter 24 members Leonard ("Chuck") Charles, Neal McLain, and Steve Zimmerman. Chuck will conduct a tour of the grounds, and Steve will conduct a tour of the WKOW-TV/WKOW-DT transmitter suite.

Details of the meeting follow:

DATE: Wednesday, September 8, 1999

LOCATION: Rocky Rococo Pan Style Pizza, 7952 Tree Lane (off West Mineral Point Road near the Beltline), followed by tours at the Madison Community Tower.

SCHEDULE:

6:00 PM: Dinner

6:45 PM: Business Meeting

7:00 PM: Tour of the Madison Community Tower.

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The annual SBE Chapter 24 picnic was another one to remember. The year of the "potato salad."

It was a hot and muggy afternoon. After setting up, Dan’s cool down swim was interrupted by the park ranger saying "Can’t park here." Oops! Kevin and Pat Ruppert arrived a short while later. It was time to play. Kevin and Pat were tossing the flying hoop, when one of Kevin’s fancy flings high into the air landed on the roof of the shelter. Pat was instrumental in figuring out how to retrieve it.

Leonard "Chuck" Charles and Judy (the dessert Queen) came, and the party started to liven up. The more people that starting showing up, the more varieties (5) of potato salad we had to choose from. I promise next year we will have a sign up sheet for who is bringing what.

The return of the Horse Shoe tournament proved to be interesting. Dan and Greg Maney teamed up against Tom Smith and Garett Kipp. It was a brutal match, especially after we figured out the scoring process. Round one went to the Maneys. The challengers were "Chuck" and Kevin. The Maneys again reined victorious.

The Grand prize was a golden authentic horse shoe. This will be a traveling trophy for future tournaments. The second high score (Tom and Garett) received a classic Black Stallion collector’s toy horse. Finally, the low scorers got the booby prize rusty horse shoe award.

Maybe next year the obvious champion Greg Maney will choose a different partner, just to make it fair for everyone, and hopefully there will be many more challengers. Let the games begin, or continue to practice, practice, practice, as the case may be.

There were a few of the regular picnic players that were unable to attend this year, I would just like to express, we all missed you. And for those of you that were not there this year or last we hope you can all attend next year. Thank you to all that came out and had a good time. We’re already planning more games and fun.

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• The FCC has announced that effective August 16th, their new Universal Licensing System (ULS) will be implemented for the Amateur Radio Service. The venerable Form 610 will be phased out in February 2000. License applicants not going through volunteer examiners will have to register with the FCC’s ULS either on Form 606 or electronically at http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls/. Once registered, licensees will be able to update their records on line by filing the new FCC Form 605 electronically at any time of day, seven days a week. Form 605 will be used for license renewals, modifications, vanity call sign applications, and changes of address.

• The equipment that will become the first amateur radio station on the International Space Station has completed exhaustive qualification testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The radios, terminal node controller (TNC), power supplies, and connecting harnesses for the initial transportable ARISS ham station have been shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for launch this December during shuttle mission STS-101. The initial ham gear will support amateur operation from the ISS on voice and packet on 2 meters and 70 cm. The equipment package includes one 6 W VHF and one 4 W UHF transceiver, plus an interconnecting box to distribute audio and power, and a 1200-baud packet TNC.

• Wisconsin’s Near Space Sciences high-altitude balloon flight, mentioned here last month, was postponed. It is now scheduled for August 28th. The downlink frequency will be 439.25 MHz in the 70 cm band, which corresponds to cable channel 60. The downlink will be NTSC video with the visual carrier also frequency modulated to carry audio.

(Excerpts from August 1999 "QST" magazine and "The ARRL Letter")

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CHARTER TO BUY BRESNAN

As its press release notes, Charter Communications, Inc. has agreed to purchase Bresnan Communications. Here in Wisconsin, the Bresnan (formerly TCI) cable systems will be merged with the Charter (formerly Marcus) cable systems. Locally, the Bresnan system in Madison will be merged with the Charter systems in the surrounding suburbs.

As recently as a year ago, few Wisconsin residents had ever heard of either Charter or Bresnan. As I noted in this column just last January (when Bresnan was about to acquire TCI's Wisconsin properties), "There's been surprisingly little mention of this [acquisition] in the local media. I've never seen any coverage in the Wisconsin State Journal, and Madison.com's search feature never even heard of Bresnan. The Middleton Times Tribune mentioned it briefly in a story about Middletons's franchise-renewal proceedings."

So where did Bresnan and Charter come from?

Bresnan and Charter are both "Multi-System Operators", or MSOs. An MSO is any company that owns two or more cable television systems. These two MSOs have had vastly different histories:

BRESNAN

There are actually two entities named Bresnan:

• Bresnan Communications, Inc., White Plains, NY. Bresnan Communications was founded in 1984 by William J. Bresnan, an experienced cable executive who had previously served as president of TelePrompTer's cable operation. From an initial base in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Bresnan Communications has grown rapidly and now serves over one million subscribers in the United States and Europe. Many of Bresnan's operations are actually owned by limited partnerships in which Bresnan Communications is the managing general partner.



• Bresnan Communications Company Limited Partnership (BCCLP), White Plains, NY. This partnership is the legal owner of United States cable television systems now operating under the Bresnan name, including the Bresnan systems here in Dane County. When it was originally formed in 1998, BCCLP included three entities: Bresnan Communications (10%), Keystone, Inc., a privately-held investment firm (40%), and TCI (50%). Since its founding, this ownership structure has changed twice: Blackstone Capital Partners III, a New York-based private equity fund, has acquired Keystone's interest, and AT&T has acquired all of TCI's cable holdings including its interest in BCCLP. So, as things stand today, AT&T owns 50% of BCCLP.

TCI has long been a passive investor in various Bresnan ventures. This is not an unusual arrangement for TCI: over the years, it has invested in many other MSOs including InterMedia Partners, Heritage Communications, and Time Warner. Here it Madison, it was a passive investor in Complete Channel TV, Inc. from 1973 to 1986. I've even heard is said that TCI isn't a cable company at all; it's an investment banker that invests in cable companies.

CHARTER

Charter Communications is a much younger company: it was founded about five years ago by several St. Louis-based investors. At the outset, Charter financed acquisitions from internal sources, and announced plans to sell stock to the public through an Initial Public Offering.

It never made it the IPO stage. Early in 1999, Charter was purchased by Vulcan Ventures, Inc., an investment firm owned by Paul G. Allen, one of the original founders of Microsoft Corporation. Although no longer employed at Microsoft, Mr. Allen remains Microsoft's second-largest stockholder after Bill Gates. He has used his stock proceeds to fund many internet-related ventures, and began purchasing cable television companies in 1998.

Within the past year, Vulcan has announced plans to purchase twelve MSOs. Besides Charter, Vulcan has signed purchase agreements with Marcus Cable, InterMedia Partners, and, most recently, Bresnan. All of Vulcan's cable properties are managed by Charter Communications and operate under the Charter name; assuming all pending agreements actually close, Charter will be the nation's fourth largest cable operator, serving more than six million subscribers. Like all of Mr. Allen's companies, Charter bears the moniker "a wired-world company."

WHY IS BRESNAN SELLING?

So why are the owners of BCCLP selling out?

There are two reasons. First of all, AT&T (which, you recall, owns 50% of BCCLP) wants to purchase MediaOne, another MSO. But AT&T, of course, already owns what used to be TCI. If AT&T acquires MediaOne without selling any other properties, it will exceed the federal government's 30% threshold, a rule that says no single company can provide cable television service to more than 30% of the country's cable subscribers. So, if AT&T wants to buy MediaOne, it has to sell something else. It chose to sell its interest

That decision, in and of itself, doesn't necessarily mean that all of the owners of BCCLP would have to sell. It certainly would have been possible for AT&T to sell its 50% interest, leaving the partnership intact.

But the other owners -- Bresnan Communications and Blackstone -- also chose to sell. The reason seems obvious: the price Charter was willing to pay (about $4,500 per subscriber) was simply too good a deal to pass up.

MEDIAONE

And who is MediaOne?

AT&T figures in this story, too. As part of its breakup in 1984, AT&T agreed to spin off its local telephone operations to its stockholders. The spin-offs included the seven "Regional Bell Operating Companies" (the so-called "Baby Bells") and two independent telephone companies, Cincinnati Bell (greater Cincinnati area) and Southern New England Telephone (Connecticut).

Most of these newly-independent telephone companies tried to diversify into other businesses. Some of them tried to get into the video-distribution business, each pursuing a different business model:

• Pacific Bell built MMDS (multichannel multipoint distribution system) operations in California.



• Bell Atlantic obtained FCC certification to operate "open video systems," a form of business authorized by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which permits a telephone company to provide video-distribution facilities to unaffiliated parties without a local cable TV franchise.



• Ameritech and SNET entered the cable television business in direct competition with incumbent cable television operators by obtaining local franchises and building new facilities.



• U S West bought its way into the cable television business by buying out existing companies.

One of U S West's purchases was Continental Cablevision, a Boston-based MSO with properties an several states. After the purchase was completed, U S West renamed the company MediaOne and moved its headquarters to Denver, home of U S West's own headquarters.

In due time, U S West lost interest in the cable business, and spun MediaOne off to its stockholders. MediaOne is now an independent publicly-owned MSO -- exactly what it was before U S West bought it. Apparently, MediaOne's stockholders now think its time to sell, because they've signed a sales agreement with AT&T.

Before U S West bought it, Continental Cablevision managed its properties through regional offices in several cities, one of which was located in St. Louis. After U S West bought Continental, it closed most of these offices. A few of the suddenly-displaced Continental employees, faced with the choice of moving to Denver or finding new jobs in St. Louis, decided to stay in St. Louis and strike out on their own. They founded a new cable television company: Charter Communications.

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(Editor’s Note: Following is the press release announcing the acquisition agreement between Charter Communications, Inc. and Bresnan Communications. Under this agreement, Charter plans to acquire all cable television systems owned by Bresnan. This information was forwarded to the Newsletter by Neal McLain. See McLain’s related article above.)

ST. LOUIS, MO, JUNE 30, 1999 - Charter Communications, Inc. and Bresnan Communications today announced a definitive agreement under which Charter will acquire Bresnan Communications Company Limited Partnership. The Bresnan acquisition will bring approximately 690,000 customers to Charter, a Wired World company owned by Paul G. Allen. Bresnan’s cable television customers are located largely in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Bresnan is a partnership which includes William J. Bresnan and affiliates (approximately 10%), AT&T Broadband & Internet Services (50%) and affiliates of Blackstone Capital Partners III, a New York based private equity fund (approximately 40%). Bresnan is the managing general partner. The existing partners of Bresnan Communications Company will receive cash and a small interest in Charter.

Upon closing, anticipated in early 2000, Charter will serve approximately 6.2 million customers as the fourth largest cable operator in the United States. The transaction provides for both cash and equity consideration and is valued at approximately $3.1 billion. Bresnan was represented by Goldman Sachs & Co., Waller Capital Corp., and Daniels & Associates.

Bresnan Communications was founded in 1984 by cable industry pioneer William J. Bresnan, previously president of one of the largest cable operators in the U.S. Under his leadership, Bresnan grew from 28,000 subscribers to a company that is expected to be among the country’s top 12 cable operators by the closing of this transaction.

"Bill Bresnan and his team have been great partners. We are proud of them and what they have achieved," noted Mark T. Gallogly, a Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group. "This is Blackstone’s second partnership with AT&T Broadband. It has been a pleasure to work with them, and we appreciate the tremendous support they have provided us. We believe Charter’s vision will successfully take these properties to the next level of interactivity."

Bresnan has an established track record in applying leading-edge technology. By year-end 1998, the company had rebuilt and upgraded the large majority of its systems, and launched high-speed Internet service to markets encompassing nearly half of its homes passed. In partnership with Blackstone, Bresnan acquired in February 1999 more than 400,000 TCI (now AT&T Broadband & Internet Services) subscribers and launched a major capital improvement program to continue to upgrade its new cable operations, and interconnect the majority of its systems via fiber optic cable. By the end of 1999, the company anticipates that nearly 85% of its subscribers will be served by hybrid fiber-coaxial systems.

Company President William J. Bresnan said, "Bresnan’s customers will be well served by Charter, which has an excellent reputation in the cable industry. As one of Paul Allen’s Wired World companies, Charter has significant technological capabilities as well as content and financial resources, all of which enable it to provide advanced telecommunications services to its customers."

ABOUT CHARTER

Charter, a Wired World company, is among the country’s leading broadband communications companies. Following the close of all pending transactions, Charter will serve more than 6.2 million customers. Charter was ranked as the eighth fastest growing company in the United States by Inc. magazine on its 1998 Inc. 500 list. J.D. Power & Associates’ survey of cable customers ranked Charter among the top three companies based on quality of service in 1998. Charter offers an array of services including cable television under the Charter brand; high speed Internet access via Charter Pipeline; advanced digital video programming services under the Charter Digital Cable brand, and Charter Paging (TM). Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, Charter was acquired by Paul G. Allen in 1998. More information about Charter can be accessed on the Internet at www.chartercom.com.

ABOUT BRESNAN

Bresnan Communications is a telecommunications and cable television company headquartered in New York. The Company owns and operates cable systems in some 540 communities in the United States, currently serving approximately 656,000 customers (prior to certain pending acquisitions) located primarily in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. An affiliated company, Bresnan Communications Poland, participates in Poland’s telecommunications sector through the construction and operation of broadband networks providing cable television, telephony and high-speed data services to approximately 350,000 customers in the country. More information on Bresnan is available at www.bresnan.com.

ABOUT BLACKSTONE

The Blackstone Group is a private investment bank based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 by its Chairman, Peter G. Peterson, and its President and CEO, Stephen A. Schwarzman. Blackstone is a leader in private equity investing, and is currently in the process of investing its Blackstone Capital Partners III fund, which represents approximately $4 billion of equity capital.

Blackstone has made numerous investments in cable and communications businesses, often in a corporate partnership format with large communications corporations, as well as with regional operators. The Blackstone Group is also engaged in five other business areas including Mergers and Acquisitions Advisory, Restructuring and Reorganization Advisory, Private Equity Real Estate Investing, Mezzanine Finance, and Liquid Alternative Asset Investing.

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RETURN ELECTION BALLOTS BY SEPTEMBER 2

Voting members are urged to return their election ballots for this year’s SBE National Election for national officers and members of the Board of Directors by 5:00 PM EST (Indiana Time) September 2. Ballots were mailed to all voting members in good standing in late July. Voting members include Members, Fellow, Senior, Life, Sustaining and Honorary Members. Associate, Student and Youth Members are not eligible to vote. Ballots will be opened and counted beginning approximately at 6:30 PM that evening. A volunteer Board of Tellers from Chapter 25 in Indianapolis will tabulate the results.

A brief background of each candidate was provided with the ballot along with the voting record of current members of the Board over the last year. This same information is also available for viewing on the SBE Web Site, www.sbe.org.

COORDINATORS STILL NEEDED FOR NFL GAMES

A few cities still are in need of a Game Day Event Coordinator to handle frequency coordination at National Football League home games. SBE and the NFL recently announced a cooperative effort to coordinate frequency use for all regular season and post-season NFL games beginning with the 1999 season.

The Game Day Event Coordinator will be equipped by the NFL with a laptop computer, scanner, press box space and a telephone. The NFL will also provide database software and contact information for each team’s personnel and local and network media. Event coordinators will work as volunteers. They will be offered up to $150 reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses. The NFL will also provide each event coordinator with a booklet of standard event operating procedures authored by SBE. A parking pass and two All Area Passes will be provided the Game Day Event Coordinator for each game.

The Game Day Event Coordinator will work to coordinate frequencies with local and visiting team radio stations, television networks, equipment suppliers and other users of spectrum within the stadium and its surrounding environment. Problems that cannot be resolved by mutual consent will be reported to the NFL and a cooperative effort will be made to find amicable solutions.

As of August 4, Game Day Event Coordinators were still needed in Detroit, Cincinnati and New Orleans. If you are qualified and interested, contact SBE National Frequency Coordination Chairman, Rick Edwards at Rick@cityscape-siting.com or (954) 757-5757.

SBE CERTIFICATION EXAM OPPORTUNITIES ANNOUNCED FOR Y2K

The Certification Committee has released dates for Certification Exam opportunities in 2000. Four exam periods will be held in chapters along with an exam period during the NAB Convention, April 11 in Las Vegas. Check out the upcoming Certification exam dates below. One may be right for you.

For more information about SBE Certification, see your Chapter Certification Chair or contact Linda Godby-Emerick, Certification Director at the SBE National Office at (317) 253-1640 or lgodby@sbe.org.

CHAPTERS CAN HOST ENNES WORKSHOPS

Ennes Workshops have been providing educational opportunities to broadcast engineers across the U.S. for more than eight years. Typically held over one day, they bring together 50 to 100 engineers to hear presentations on the latest technology, presented in a manner that the working broadcast engineer can use.

If your chapter would be interested in hosting a future Ennes Workshop, or have questions about hosting a workshop, contact John Poray, SBE Executive Director, at jporay@sbe.org.

SUBSCRIBE TO SBE@BROADCAST.NET AND PLUG INTO INFORMATION

SBE members who want to get help and advice on technical matters may want to subscribe to sbe@broadcast.net. Hosted at no charge by SBE member, Dave Biondi and his company, Broadcast.Net, this list has more than 300 SBE members subscribing to it who can serve as a tremendous resource of information to you.

To subscribe, send a message to majordomo@broadcast.net in the To: field of the message header. In the body of the message, type, SUBSCRIBE SBE and then send the message. You will receive an acknowledgment message that you are a part of the list in a short period of time.

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FINAL RULES

DA 99-1348; Report No. AUC-99-25-A (Auction No. 25)

Auction of AM, FM, TV, LPTV and FM and TV Translator Construction Permits for September 28, 1999; Minimum Opening Bids and Other Procedural Issues

On July 9, 1999, the FCC released a public notice concerning the auctions of construction permits for all outstanding mutually exclusive applications for all broadcast services. This notice sets the rules for the filing of applications, payment procedures, and for the operation of the auction.

This notice also set the final up front payments that each bidder must submit before the auction. The FCC adjusted the amount of a number of up front payments. These were mainly TV permits where the proposed station was located on the edge of a larger market, and where the FCC computed the opening bids as if the station would serve all of the market. These changes were in reaction to comments from the Rulemaking notice that closed on the first of June.

This notice was published in the Federal Register on July 23, 1999 on pages 39,995-40,004. The full text is on the Wireless Bureau’s Web page and runs over 80 pages.

ET Docket No. 98-42, FCC99-135

The FCC has amended its rules concerning RF lighting devices. The FCC relaxed line-conducted emissions for a class of RF lamp that operates in the 2.2-2.8 MHz band. This band is allocated to a number of services including aviation, maritime, private land mobile, government and standard frequency and time stations. They will require that the lamps be labeled that they should not be used near maritime safety communications equipment and other critical navigation and communications equipment.

This notice was adopted on June 9, 1999 and released on June 16, 1999. These rules will become effective on October 13, 1999. Published in the FEDERAL REGISTER on July 12, 1999 on pages 37,417-37,419.

PROPOSED RULES

ET Docket No. 99-255; FCC 99-182

The FCC has proposed to set allocated frequencies in either two or three bands, for use by medical telemetry devices. Currently these devices share spectrum in the high band and UHF TV bands under part 15 of the rules, and in the 450-470 MHz land mobile band under part 90.

The FCC proposes to allocate 608-614 MHz (TV channel 37), 1395-1400 MHz and 1429-1432 MHz or 608-614 MHz and 1391-1400 MHz. The frequencies 608-614 MHz have been set aside for use by space radio telescopes. The America Hospital Association requested the allocation to reduce the risk of interference to the medical telemetry equipment.

This notice was adopted on July 14, 1999.

From the FEDERAL REGISTER (www.access.gpo.gov)

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Job Opening: Chief Engineer

KWWW/KWWX/KXAA/KYSN/KZPH, Wenatchee, Washington, seeks a full-time Chief Engineer. This person will keep four FM’s and one AM on the air. Enjoy life along the roaring Columbia River in scenic North Central Washington State. Job requires the ability to install, maintain and repair all types of equipment, including high power grounded grid transmitters, an AM transmitter, digital workstations, various computers and studio equipment. Previous experiences a must. On-call 24/7, weekends and evening work required.

Sunbrook Communications, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Fisher Broadcasting, is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage members of minority groups and women to apply for this position.

Fax Resume to: Chris Ackerman, General Manager @ (509) 663-1150.

Or email to: Kysnsales@nwi.net

Job Posted: July 15, 1999

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Steve Bauder, chief engineer for WHWC-TV/FM, Menomonie, WI, has completed a research paper in conjunction with the National SBE. His thesis report is available at the National SBE web site and contains information about the competencies which are required of DTV broadcast engineers.

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WTTN (AM), Watertown, WI

Good Karma Broadcasting LLC (Craig Karmazin) wishes to purchase WTTN from Watertown Radio Inc. (Charles Mills) for $525,000. Good Karma Broadcasting owns WBEV (AM) and WXRO (FM) in Beaver Dam, and WTLX in Columbus. Charles Mills also owns WKTT (FM) in Cleveland, WI. WTTN operates on 1580 Khz with 1 KW day and 7.8 watts night. Announced on July 20, 1999.

From Broadcasting and Cable and FCC Daily Notices (www.fcc.gov).

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After much discussion and careful consideration, the Board of Officers of SBE Chapter 24 has appointed Leonard Charles as the new Webmaster. Charles, who has been active for many years in Chapter 24, has been temporary Web master since the beginning of this year.

The selection of Charles was not an easy one, due to the slate of qualified candidates. The Board decided that this appointment was in the best interest of the Chapter, due to the location of the web site server and due to the fact that Chapter 24 will be host to the SBE National Convention later this year. It was decided that a change in the web site would not be a good move at this time.

The Board of Officers would also like to thank Chris Cain for his work in creating the Chapter 24 web site, and for his work on it over the last few years.

Please take a look at www.sbe24.org to see some of the new and exciting features!

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