Imagine: You are sitting in your College Park home watching the last five minutes of ABC’s political thriller “Scandal.”
Olivia Pope is about to do something amazing. You are on the edge of your seat when …
A 10:55 p.m. flight from Des Moines rumbles overhead, knocking out all of your reception.
Guess you’ll have to wait until next week to see what happened.
It is scenarios like this that brought College Park Vice Mayor Joe Carn to Atlanta recently. In a rare visit to speak to the city council’s transportation committee, Carn complained that hundreds of College Park residents who do not have cable or a dish are constantly getting their television reception disrupted by incoming and outgoing airplanes from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Hartsfield-Jackson is located in parts of Clayton County and College Park, which is in South Fulton. However, it is owned and operated by the city of Atlanta.
“We are not making any direct accusations,” Carn said. “But, since the FCC switched to digital, and as flights have increased at Hartsfield-Jackson, residents closest to the runways have constantly complained that their reception constantly goes out.”
Carn estimates that about 300 College Park residents are affected by the disruptions, which can come as frequently as every 90 seconds for some, considering that Hartsfield-Jackson is the busiest airport in the world.
“It happens every day, throughout the day,” said Sandra Allen, who lives on Camp Creek Parkway. She is one of dozens of College Park residents who signed a petition requesting that broadcast television problems be investigated by the appropriate agencies.
The disruptions picked up in the summer of 2009, when most television stations nationwide were required to begin broadcasting only in a digital format. Anyone who had an analog television set, but did not have cable or satellite, had to get a digital-to-analog converter box to watch digital programming.
“We want relief,” Carn said. “I don’t think that is too much to ask for.”
What that relief would be is the question. Carn is suggesting the airport provide a stronger antenna device or simply pay for basic cable for everyone affected.
“But I am not demanding anything,” he said.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport general manager Louis Miller said he’s never run into this problem before.
“We are looking into it,” Miller said. “We are going to work with the FAA and find out what the options are.”
Councilman C.T. Martin, the head of the transportation committee, said there was little that the council could do for the people of College Park.
“You would think that in 2013 there would be some technology that deals with this,” Martin said. “Hopefully, there can be a new law or federal money that would enable them to get some assistance.”
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