[BC] SCA ON TRANSLATORS

[Tom Taggart]

Here's the text of 73.295:

(a) Subsidiary communication services are those transmitted on a subcarrier within the FM baseband signal, but do not include services which enhance the main program broadcast service, or exclusively relate to station operations (see §73.293). Subsidiary communications include, but are not limited to services such as functional music, specialized foreign language programs, radio reading services, utility load management, market and financial data and news, paging and calling, traffic control signal switching, bilingual television audio, and point to point or multipoint messages.
(b) FM subsidiary communications services that are common carrier in nature are subject to common carrier regulation. Licensees operating such services are required to apply to the FCC for the appropriate authorization and to comply with all policies and rules applicable to the service. Responsibility for making the initial determinations of whether a particular activity is common carriage rests with the FM station licensee. Initial determinations by licensees are subject to FCC examination and may be reviewed at the FCC's discretion.
(c) Subsidiary communications services are of a secondary nature under the authority of the FM station authorization, and the authority to provide such communications services may not be retained or transferred in any manner separate from the station's authorization. The grant or renewal of an FM station permit or license is not furthered or promoted by proposed or past services. The permittee or licensee must establish that the broadcast operation is in the public interest wholly apart from the subsidiary communications services provided.
(d) The station identification, delayed recording and sponsor identification announcements required by §§73.1201, 73.1208, and 73.1212 are not applicable to material transmitted under an SCA.
(e) The licensee or permittee must retain control over all material transmitted in a broadcast mode via the station's facilities, with the right to reject any material that it deems inappropriate or undesirable.
Now, the phrase "but do not include services which enhance the main program broadcast service, or exclusively relate to station operation" would clearly apply  to the stereo subcarrier and pilot (which is covered by other sections)and RDS--which is an enhancement of the main program broadcast service.
RDS on an translator for an AM was brought up, and I still believe that would be a proper mode of operation, especially given the ability of such translators to program when the main AM carrier is off (e.g., daytime AM's).
But RDS is a broadcast service.  The other subcarrier services would be controlled by the above 73.295, and are non-broadcast services. HD transmissions are covered by different rules.
1. Based on 74.1231, a translator relaying an FM broadcast signal could clearly carry any subcarriers also on that signal--but only as subcarriers.  That is, the translator could not transmit SCA programming sent by FM subcarrier as its own, original programing--EXCEPT where it is used to feed the translator for an AM station...
2. An AM station's translator can be fed by a variety of methods as it is a fill-in translator by definition.  Most commonly, an STL would be used to feed the translator. However, one could use an FM subcarrier (including a digital subcarrier like FMextra) to feed the AM programming to the translator for that AM station, including those overnight periods when a daytime AM station is off the air. 
Summary:
A. Translator of FM broadcast station relaying unchanged that primary station's SCA's: OK
B. Translator of an AM broadcast station being fed programming through a subcarrier on an FM station: OK
C. Translator generating RDS signal to accompany programming of an AM broadcast station on that translator:  Probably OK
D. Translator relaying--without change--the HD signal of the primary FM station (including HD-2 channel): OK
E. Translator carrying original programing (on the main carrier), relayed by HD-2 signal from broadcast FM station: OK
E. Translator carrying programming relayed by the non-broadcast SCA of the primary FM station: Not OK