Stephens County Looking for Help With Orphan County Filing

Stephens County is looking for outside help with its petition to the Federal Communications Commission to move satellite TV customers to metro Atlanta TV stations.

County Administrator Phyllis Ayers said Wednesday the process is becoming too much for her office to handle.

“At the last Board of Commissioners meeting we had decided to reach out for assistance and for additional assistance,” Ayers explained. “I had contacted the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia, and also our county attorney is working with the Elbert County attorney. So, there are multiple people working, trying to find some assistance so that it can be done as quickly as possible.”

Ayers said that with the other projects she is working on for the county, she doesn’t have time to work on the FCC filing paperwork considering the amount of work there is to do.

She says she will be meeting with the Georgia Mountain Regional Commission next week to see if they can help.

“I reached out to them and they will come and meet with me next Wednesday and I will go over the two years of data that we have and the documents that we have. I’ve already forwarded some of those documents to the GMRC. If the GMRC can help us, then we will use them as an outlet. If not, then they may have the ability to find someone for us,” Ayers said.

FCC rules state that because Stephens, Franklin, Hart and Elbert counties are closer to Greenville, SC than to Atlanta, GA they are in the Greenville broadcast market and can only receive Greenville TV stations.

That also means they are considered “orphan counties” because their citizens with satellite TV service are not receiving Georgia local news, weather, and sports from their home state TV stations.

Ayers said she recently learned that the Greenville TV stations are fighting to keep the Northeast Georgia counties in their viewing market.

“The only that we’e heard from the FCC is that the Greenville stations have filed a petition against us,” she said. “The Board of Commissioners have committed to this. We’re not pulling out of the process. We’re just trying to get it done as soon as possible.”

In early May, Franklin County submitted their petition filing to the FCC, but Ayers said she was told recently by Franklin County Manager Beth Thomas that they have not heard anything yet from them. Franklin County is the only county of the four to have submitted their petition to the FCC.