TV dies in Tohatchi
Stations catching static on the rez

Residents who have become accustomed to television signals repeated from Deeza Bluff near Tohatchi, N.M. may be without television until monetary agreements between television stations and the Navajo Nation can be reached. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

By Karen Francis
Staff writer

Towers on top of Deeza Bluff near Tohatchi, N.M. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Indepenent]

TOHATCHI — While the Navajo Nation and Albuquerque television stations bicker over how to get television access to the Tohatchi community, it’s the elders who are being affected.

“Some of our elderly people, they don’t have satellite. They only get the local channels. They can’t access for news or stuff like that,” Navajo Nation Council Delegate Peterson Yazzie, Naschitti/Tohatchi, said.

It’s been months since the translator that serves the Tohatchi community has been down and the stations don’t seem to be any closer to getting their channels back on air for people who use antennas and so-called “rabbit ears” in that area.

For decades, the Albuquerque television stations have been accessible for those residents because of a tower on Deeza Bluff.

However, a 25-year agreement between the Navajo tribe and the Albuquerque television stations to bring television to the reservation authorized sometime in the 1970s expired within the last couple years and Navajo officials have not found any reauthorization resolution.

Ray Etcitty, chief legislative counsel for the Navajo Nation, has been poring over past resolutions and documents trying to find out the status of the agreement. He said that it may be necessary for the television stations to obtain permission from the Council’s Resources Committee for a lease arrangement if he’s not able to find a resolution that extends the agreement.

“The biggest concern is they want to be able to still provide free service,” Etcitty said.

Daniel Brown, director of engineering for KOAT, said that the station began having problems with the tower on Deeza Bluff last year and had to take it down. The equipment was then taken to a temporary location until it was shut down earlier this year because of technical problems

When the station engineers returned to put the tower back up, they were informed that they needed to get a permit before building on site.

“They have effectively blocked us from making repairs,” Brown said.

Since then, the Albuquerque channels have not been accessible for those who do not have cable or satellite as the stations and the Navajo Nation quarrel over how to get the stations back on-air.

The problem, the Navajo Nation Telecommunications Regulatory Commission says, is that the Albuquerque stations don’t want to follow Navajo Nation procedures.

Brown said he did not know where to get the permit that the tribe is asking for, but NNTRC executive director Ernest Franklin said that he has told the station engineers that they need to apply for a permit with the Land Administration and that to do so, they must conduct certain studies, which he says they are unwilling to do.

“It’s just a matter of procedure. You’re using Navajo Nation resources to provide service,” Franklin said. “You can’t use the facility if you don’t follow procedures. All we’ve heard from them is ‘We don’t want to do this.’”

“They don’t want to recognize Navajo Nation sovereignty,” he added.

In addition to obtaining a land lease, the companies need to pay $12,000 a year in fees to broadcast from the tower at the Deeza Bluff location.

All cellular phone companies pay that fee, Franklin said.
However, Brown said that the stations cannot afford to pay that price to provide a service that is essentially free for residents.

Franklin said that he has offered to stand by their sides to go before the Resources Committee and request a waiver of the $12,000 but the station engineers have not taken him up on that.

“I will testify that these guys are doing nonprofit work,” he said, adding that there are still other upfront costs that the stations would have to pay for to get the tower back up again.

Franklin said it would cost between $50,000 and $70,000 to get the site running again, and that the television stations want the Navajo Nation to come up with that money.

“If they want the Navajo Nation to do that, they need to get an appropriation,” he said.

In the meantime, Brown said that community members continue to call up every once in awhile and the engineers used to tell them that they would get the stations back on air.

“But at this point, we’re being blocked from doing it,” Brown said. “There’s really nothing we can do.”

Brown added that the problem is unique to the reservation.

“We have 71 translator sites and if we had this much trouble at all of them, I don’t know how we would stay in business,” he said.

Since the station was not able to obtain permission for its tower to remain on the land, the replacement tower that the station intended to put up was located elsewhere and is no longer available for that site. Such equipment costs tens of thousands of dollars.

However, Brown said that one option the stations are considering is seeking an alternate location that is not on tribal land.

“If we are able to secure lease in an alternate location, we will try to get back on,” Brown said.