Dan:

Welcome to the wonderful world of politics. This problem is caused because congressional deadbeats put a provision in the law to protect the local network affiliates advertising revenues. The theory is that you will not watch the networks locally if you are on the satellite, so they loose revenue.

Answer to this is to gripe at your local friendly congressional delegation and senators, who will merrily ignore you.

I know of NO waivers that are granted at all. This all came up in the last few months because some dealers were selling the full packages of network coverage, and got into a court pissing contest with the local stations who sued and won an injunction against him. Result is a Federal Court decision giving the local TV bosses the right to tell you to kiss off.

The case actually now requires the providers to check the class A coverage area of a network affiliate based on your zipcode, and deny service if you cannot provide a waiver, which is never provided. If you are inside the "A" line you are screwed.

Doug