Pinal County Supervisor meets with Local Citizens, some progress reported
15 August 2022: Pinal County Supervisor Jeff McClure met with many local citizens at a lunchtime meeting in the Oracle Community Center. I asked him to discuss the latest update on the County's effort to get the FCC "Designated Market Area" regulation changed to allow southern Pinal County citizens to view Tucson TV stations, just 30 miles away, instead of being forced to only receive the Phoenix TV stations, 120 miles away. He stated that the County had a meeting with a representative from Dish TV and learned that there is no technical reason that would prevent satellite TV customers in southern Pinal County from receiving the Tucson TV stations. The Supervisors also learned that several other locations around the United States had similar concerns that have been addressed successfully. The county has received copies of letters that had been used to enact change in those TV market areas. The County Attorney is now using these letters as a template for Pinal County. There is still much more work that the County needs to do on this critical issue, but this progress is good news and demonstrates significantly more commitment by the Pinal County Board of Supervisors than was evident in the past. Many thanks to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors for continuing to pursue a solution and stop the Federal Government from putting local lives at risk and harming businesses in Pinal and Pima counties.
Supervisor McClure will be holding "Townhall Meetings" in southern Pinal County communities in the coming months so there will be many opportunities for local citizens to receive updates on this issue and make concerns known.
If you are a southern Pinal County resident who cannot receive the Tucson TV stations or a business owner and have not yet contacted the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, please let them know that an immediate solution is needed on this critical issue. Here is contact information for the Board:
Supervisor Jeffrey McClure: bosdistrict4@pinal.gov
Supervisor Mike Goodman: mike.goodman@pinal.gov
Supervisor Stephen Miller: Stephen.Miller@pinal.gov
Supervisor Jeff Serdy: jeff.serdy@pinal.gov
Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh: kevin.cavanaugh@pinal.gov
Pinal County Manager Leo Lew: countymanager@pinal.gov
Pinal County Clerk of the Board Natasha Kennedy: Natasha.Kennedy@pinalcountyaz.gov
Please cc me (mweasner@mac.com) on any FCC Petition emails you send. Thank you.
Pinal County Supervisor update to Local Citizens
Main Flawed Satellite TV Regulation page