Natural Disasters Become Battlegrounds In Spectrum Fight

While the government seeks to parcel out valuable spectrum to new technologies, TV and radio stations point to disasters like Sandy as proof that broadcasters are as important as ever.

“In times of emergency there is no more reliable source of information than that coming from local broadcasters,” National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith said in a statement on Monday.

That’s a message that broadcasters have taken to Capitol Hill in an effort to fight back against what they see as encroachment by wireless telecommunication providers. Warning of a “spectrum crunch” caused by growing demand for bandwidth, wireless companies have pushed for more spectrum to be reallocated from legacy industries, including broadcast radio and TV.