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



In the Matter of:

African-American Broadcasting
Company of Bellevue, Inc.

v.

Northland Cable TV

Request for Mandatory Carriage of
Television Station KWOG(TV),
Bellevue, Washington
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CSR-5716-M



                  MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

     Adopted:  September 26, 2001       Released:  October 4, 2001

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

     I.   introduction
1.     African-American Broadcasting Company of Bellevue, Inc. ("African-American"), licensee
of television broadcast station KWOG(TV) (Ch. 51), Bellevue, Washington ("KWOG" or the "Station")
filed the above-captioned must carry complaint against Northland Cable TV ("Northland"), for failing to
carry KWOG on its cable systems serving Bayview/Camano Island, Washington.  No opposition to the
complaint was received.
     II.  background
3.     Pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act and implementing rules adopted by the
Commission in Implementation of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of
1992, Broadcast Signal Carriage Issues ("Must Carry Order"), commercial television broadcast stations
are entitled to assert mandatory carriage rights on cable systems located within the station's market.   A
station's market for this purpose is its "designated market area," or DMA, as defined by Nielsen Media
Research.   A DMA is a geographic market designation that defines each television market exclusive of
others, based on measured viewing patterns.
4.     Pursuant to the Commission's must carry rules, cable operators have the burden of showing
that a commercial station that is located in the same television market is not entitled to carriage.  One
method of doing so is for a cable operator to establish that a subject television signal, which would
otherwise be entitled to carriage, does not provide a good quality signal to a cable system's principal
headend.  Should a station fail to provide the required over-the-air signal quality to a cable system's
principal headend, it still may obtain carriage rights because under the Commission's rules a television
station may provide a cable operator, at the station's expense, with specialized equipment to improve the
station's signal to an acceptable quality at a cable system's principal headend.
     V.   discussion
6.     In support of its complaint, KWOG states that it is a full power television station licensed to
Bellevue, Washington, which is in the Seattle-Tacoma DMA.  It states further that Northland operates a
cable television system, which is also in the Seattle-Tacoma DMA.  KWOG asserts that it formally
requested Northland to commence carriage of its signal on the cable system at issue.  KWOG claims that
Northland did not respond to its requests for mandatory carriage in violation of the Commission's rules,
which require cable operators to respond in writing to requests for carriage within 30 days of receipt of
such requests.  KWOG requests that Northland commence carriage of its signal on channel 51 of the
cable system in question. 
7.     Section 76.55(e) of the Commission's rules provides that commercial television broadcast
stations, such as KWOG, are entitled to carriage on cable systems located in the same DMA.  As noted
above, cable operators have the burden of showing that a commercial television station that it located in
the same television market is not entitled to carriage.  We find that Northland has failed to meet its
burden.  Northland did not respond within 30 days to KWOG's letter requesting carriage as required by
the Commission's rules nor did it file an opposition to KWOG's must carry complaint.  Thus, we find
that KWOG is entitled to mandatory carriage on the Northland cable system at issue.
8.     With respect to KWOG's channel positioning request, we find that it has properly requested
carriage on channel 51 of Northland's cable system, the same channel number on which it is broadcast
over-the-air.  Pursuant to the Commission's rules, cable operators must comply with the channel
requirements absent a compelling technical reason.  Based on the foregoing, we grant KWOG's
complaint.
     IX.  ordering clauses
10.    Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to Section 614 of the Communications Act of
1934, as amended (47 U.S.C.  534), that the must carry complaint filed by African-American
Broadcasting Company of Bellevue, Inc., licensee of television broadcast station KWOG(TV), Bellevue,
Washington, against Northland Cable TV IS GRANTED.
11.    IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Northland SHALL COMMENCE CARRIAGE of the
KWOG signal on channel 51 of its cable system serving Bayview/Camano Island, Washington, within
sixty (60) days from the date of the release of this Order.
12.    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