The Community Broadcasters Association, a trade group representing more than 2,600 low power TV stations, yesterday asked the FCC to declare unlawful any analog-to-digital DTV converters that are not able to pass through analog signals.

According to the CBA, any box built without the pass-through feature would violate the All-Channel Receiver Act, a federal law that says that says that all receivers of over-the-air signals must be able to receive all channels.

The CBA sees the pass-through feature as critical to low-power TV stations and translators since many of them will continue broadcasting analog signals long after the Feb. 17, 2009, cut-off of analog by full power stations.

“Converter boxes that block our analog LPTV signals will confuse viewers and significantly decrease LPTV viewership,” says CBA President Ron Bruno.

“Without an analog receiver in the converter box, our industry is facing a dire situation. LPTVs for the most part do not have must-carry rights, so we depend on our over-the-air signal for the majority of our audience.”

Greg Herman, VP for technology for the CBA, says the group intends to hold manufacturers and the FCC accountable for any lost viewers and all lost revenues.

“Our industry does not want to stop the converter box program, but by not correcting this problem the Consumer Electronics Association and FCC have forced us into submitting this filing,” Herman says.

“It will be substantially less expensive to correct this problem now instead of recalling 70 million boxes and paying our industries lost revenues later.”

In light of the FCC's own precedents in applying the law, the CBA petition says, the agency “must mandate that DTV converter boxes not block the reception of analog over-the-air broadcast signals.”

Manufacturers are producing A-to-D converters for the tens of millions of TV sets now in use that are not hooked up to either cable or satellite and rely solely on over-the-air reception.

Most of being made to specifications set forth by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration so that they qualify for the government's $40 discount coupons.

The NTIA specs permit the pass-through feature, but do not make it mandatory, the CBA says.

Some boxes have the feature; some do not, CBA says. In any case, it says, “NTIA's decision as to what equipment it will or will not subsidize with coupons does not relieve any manufacturer of the requirement to comply” with the law.

CBA notes that it is aware of only two companies, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Echostar, that plan to offer DTV converter boxes with the pass-through capability.

“Their foresight is to be applauded, but it is not a reason to excuse other manufacturers from compliance.”