Federal Communications Commission DA 17-188
Before the
Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
In the Matter of
City of Bainbridge Island, Washington
Request for Waiver of Section 90.242(b)(4)(iv)
Of the Commission’s Rules
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File No. 0007083089
ORDER
Adopted:  February 22, 2017 Released: February 22, 2017
By the Acting Chief, Policy and Licensing Division, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau:
I. INTRODUCTION
1. On January 5, 2016, the City of Bainbridge Island, Washington (Bainbridge, or the City) 
filed an application and waiver request to modify its Travelers Information Station (TIS) WQVI729 by 
correcting the coordinates of its transmitter site, eliminating use of frequency 1700 kilohertz, and 
expanding its service area.
1
  Bainbridge’s TIS operates on frequency 600 kilohertz in the AM radio band.  
Bainbridge requests a waiver of Section 90.242(b)(4)(iv) of the Commission’s rules, which imposes a 2 
mV/m field strength limit at 1.5 kilometers from TIS transmitters,
2
so that it may expand its 2 mV/m 
service contour up to 2.9 kilometers from the transmitter.
3
  The City plans to maintain the power of the 
station at ten watts, the maximum power level permitted for TIS conventional antennas under the 
Commission’s rules.
4
For the reasons we discuss herein, we grant the request for waiver.
II. BACKGROUND
2. Bainbridge is located to the west of the City of Seattle, Washington across Puget Sound, 
measures 27 square miles, and has a population of 23,000.
5
  Its only connection to the Kitsap County’s 
mainland is a two-lane bridge on the north side of the island.
6
  The City depends on ferry service for 
direct access to both Seattle and King County.
7
  Unloading of vehicles from ferries creates “heavy surge 
[of vehicles] onto the island’s roadways,” most of which are en route to the two-lane bridge to access the
Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas.
8
  The City reports that the surges routinely jam State Road 305, resulting 
                                                     
1
File No. 0007083089 (filed Jan. 5, 2016, as amended Feb. 3, 2016), attached “Attachment 1” and “WQVI-729 
WAIVER REQUEST” (Waiver Request). See also Attachment 1 at 1.  
2
47 CFR § 90.242(b)(4)(iv).  “The field strength of the emission on the operating frequency shall not exceed 2 
mV/m when measured with a standard field strength meter at a distance of 1.50 km (0.93 miles) from the 
transmitting antenna system.”  Id.
3
Attachment 1 at 1.
4
47 CFR § 90.242(b)(4)(iii).
5
File No. 0007083089, attached Letter from Douglas Schulze, City Manager, City of Bainbridge Island, to “Whom 
It May Concern,” dated Oct. 22, 2015 (Letter) at 2.
6
Id.
7
Id.
8
Id.
Federal Communications Commission DA 17-188
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in lengthy traffic delays on the north end of the island.
9
  Bainbridge states that the island is susceptible to 
winter storms, earthquakes, flooding, landslides, pandemics, nuclear contamination, lengthy power 
outages, and terrorism associated with the ferry route.
10
  With limited means of evacuation that are 
vulnerable to disruption, Bainbridge asserts that it is susceptible to complete isolation.
11
  The City uses its 
single-transmitter TIS to “provide critical information to area motorists in an emergency or a time of 
imminent danger” and to “provide ferry service [information], traffic, road construction and other traveler 
information to motorists on a daily basis.”
12
  “[B]ecause this Travelers Information Station would operate 
on a generator and because all automobile radios operate by virtue of the automobile alternator/battery, 
emergency-related communication service to citizens can be maintained” when power outages affect 
other communications.
13
3. Bainbridge argues that “intent of this service is to serve the public interest thru the 
broadcast of daily Traveler Information Service (TIS) allowed content and to protect life and property of 
motorists in on [sic] Bainbridge Island and surrounding areas in times of emergency and imminent 
danger.  On a daily basis, this may include, for example, the broadcast of information related to travel and 
traffic hazards due to ferry schedule disruption and road construction and the resulting detours, directions 
for visitors to make travel more efficient and traffic information for all drivers so they may avoid 
congestion. In an emergency, and especially in an event which would snarl traffic crossing the one bridge 
to the mainland or disrupt electrical service to residents, this station would be critical as a conduit to 
provide all manner of local information to protect life and property.”
14
4. Bainbridge asserts that its TIS with signal limited to 2.0 mV/m at 0.93 miles does not 
meet a critical need to have TIS reach all of the island’s roadways due to the island’s 10-mile north-to-
south length.
15
  The City avers that building multiple synchronized TIS locations would cost more than 
operating a single location due to additional transmitters, antennas, synchronization equipment, and audio 
distribution gear.
16
  Bainbridge further argues that in a multi-transmitter configuration, areas midway 
between transmitters could experience inter-transmitter audio distortions, which affect intelligibility and 
are counterproductive to the communication effort.
17
  Bainbridge maintains that a single TIS transmitter 
with a larger 2.0 mV/m contour would cover the island, avoid the cost and distortion issues, and allow 
continued operation of the station using the propane-fueled generator should power outages occur.
18
5. The City argues that “[a]pplying rule 90.242(b)(4)(iv) to this TIS service will not further 
the underlying purpose of the rule because the interference to broadcasters will not occur with the 
relaxation of the 2.0 mV/m limitation from 1.5 km to 2.9 km.”
19
  Bainbridge further states that 
“[e]nforcement of rule 90.242(b)(4)(iv) would also have the unintended effect of increasing the cost of 
providing the service to the public because a minimum of three TIS stations and the addition of
synchronization equipment would be required, roughly quadrupling the cost of one station, to cover the 
                                                     
9
Id.
10
Letter at 1.
11
Id.
12
Letter at 2.
13
Attachment 1 at 1.
14
Id.
15
Letter at 2.
16
Id.
17
Id.
18
Id. at 3.
19
Attachment 1 at 1.
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same service area.”
20
The City argues that “[t]he intent of the rule is not to add a cost burden to the 
budgets of local agencies whose responsibility it is to inform the traveling public and protect life and 
property.”
21
6. In support of its request for waiver, Bainbridge states, “it doesn’t appear that the 
proposed operating facilities will result in interference to any other station requiring protection 
consideration.”
22
  Bainbridge asserts that the only station close enough to require evaluation is Station 
CKBD, Vancouver, British Columbia, which is authorized co-channel with Bainbridge at 600 kilohertz.
23
Bainbridge states that the US/Canadian working arrangement does not prohibit interference to Canadian 
facilities outside the boundaries of Canada, and notes that its TIS transmitter is located more than 130 
kilometers from the nearest point of Canadian land.
24
III. DISCUSSION
7. Section 1.925(b)(3) of the Commission’s rules provides that: “the Commission may grant 
a request for waiver if it is shown that: (i) The underlying purpose of the rule(s) would not be served or 
would be frustrated by application to the instant case, and that a grant of the requested waiver would be in 
the public interest; or (ii) In view of unique or unusual factual circumstances of the instant case, 
application of the rule(s) would be inequitable, unduly burdensome or contrary to the public interest, or 
the applicant has no reasonable alternative.”
25
  An applicant seeking a waiver faces a high hurdle and 
must plead with particularity the facts and circumstances that warrant a waiver.
26
  Based on the 
information before us, we are persuaded that Bainbridge has demonstrated that a waiver of Section 
90.242(b)(4)(iv) is warranted.
8. When the Commission adopted the TIS rules, it stated that TIS “is intended to serve a 3 
km zone with generally repetitive information pertinent to travelers.”
27
  In limiting the TIS coverage zone, 
the Commission primarily was motivated to minimize the potential for TIS to cause interference to 
broadcast stations.
28
  The Commission therefore adopted rules to limit the measured field strength at 1.5 
kilometers from the transmitting site, limit the maximum antenna height, and limit the transmitter output 
power to ten watts.
29
  The Commission stated that “considering the likelihood of interference to broadcast 
                                                     
20
Attachment 1 at 1-2.
21
Attachment 1 at 2.
22
Waiver Request at 1.
23
Id.
24
Id. at 1-2.  See Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of 
Canada Relating to the AM Broadcasting Service in the Medium Frequency Band, Ottawa, 1984 (available at 
https://transition.fcc.gov/ib/sand/agree/can_broad_agree.html).
25
47 CFR § 1.925(b)(3).
26
WAIT Radio v. FCC, 413 F.2d 1153, 1157 (D.C. Cir. 1969) (WAIT Radio), aff’d, 459 F.2d 1203 (1973), cert. 
denied, 409 U.S. 1027 (1972) (citing Rio Grande Family Radio Fellowship, Inc. v. FCC, 406 F.2d 664 (D.C. Cir. 
1968)); Birach Broad. Corp., Memorandum Opinion and Order, 18 FCC Rcd 1414, 1415 (2003).
27
Amendment of Parts 2 and 89 of the Rules to Provide for the Use of Frequencies 530, 1606, and 1612 kHz by 
Stations in the Local Government Radio Services for the Transmission of Certain Kinds of Information to the 
Traveling Public, Docket No. 20509, Report and Order, 67 F.C.C.2d 917, 925 para. 27 (1977) (TIS Report and 
Order).
28
Id. at 924 para. 25.
29
Id. at 926 para. 31.
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stations, these steps should prevent interference situations from developing without unduly burdening TIS 
applicants.”
30
9. In accordance with our TIS spacing rules,
31
Bainbridge’s TIS transmitter is not located 
within 130 kilometers of the predicted daytime 0.5 mV/m contour of any co-channel AM station or within 
15 km of the predicted daytime 0.5 mV/m contour of any first adjacent channel AM station.  We find that 
the City’s proposal to expand its contour from 1.5 km to 2.9 km, while continuing to abide by applicable 
transmitter height and power limits, would protect broadcast operations from potential harmful 
interference, consistent with the underlying purpose of Section 90.242(b)(4)(iv).  Therefore, we find that 
the underlying purpose of the rule would not be served or would be frustrated by application to the 
present case.
10. We further find that the proposed expansion of Bainbridge’s TIS service area while 
keeping output power at ten watts will enable the City to better inform travelers of road and travel 
conditions throughout the island and to alert citizens more effectively in the event of emergencies 
stemming from hazards to which Bainbridge is susceptible.  Based on the record before us, we find that a 
grant of Bainbridge’s request for waiver would serve the public interest.  Therefore, we conclude that 
Bainbridge satisfies the Commission’s waiver criteria.
IV. ORDERING CLAUSES
11. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, pursuant to Sections 4(i) and 303(r) of the 
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, 47 U.S.C. §§ 154(i), 303(r), and Section 1.925 of the 
Commission’s rules, 47 CFR § 1.925, that the Request for Waiver of the City of Bainbridge Island, 
Washington, filed on January 5, 2016, IS GRANTED.
12. IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, that application File No. 0007083089, filed by the City of
Bainbridge Island, Washington, SHALL BE PROCESSED in accordance with this Order and the 
Commission’s rules. 
13. This action is taken under delegated authority pursuant to Sections 0.191 and 0.392 of the 
Commission’s rules, 47 CFR §§ 0.191, 0.392.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Michael J. Wilhelm
Acting Chief, Policy and Licensing Division
Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau
                                                     
30
Id. at 924 para. 25.
31
47 CFR § 90.242(a)(2).