PITTSBURGH - Call it TV's version of the Steel Curtain.

The Steelers' strong season is translating into big TV ratings for a team that traditionally has one of the NFL's largest and most loyal followings. But in two of Pennsylvania's largest TV markets, the Black and Gold are repeatedly blacked out - requiring fans to search for bars showing the games or to buy expensive satellite TV packages.

It's not that CBS-affiliated stations WHP in Harrisburg and WSEE in Erie don't want to show the games. The problem is a 30-year-old NFL TV policy that allows franchises to protect their local markets by requiring stations within a 75-mile radius to carry their away games.

That means WSEE in Erie must show all Buffalo Bills away games, even though the Steelers and Cleveland Browns are more popular there. The same goes in Harrisburg, where Baltimore Ravens away games must be shown, even though they appear to have fewer fans in the area than the Eagles, Steelers or Washington Redskins.

"The Steelers fan clubs here are going nuts," said WHP general manager Matt Uhl, who said the Steelers draw an audience four times larger than the Ravens. "We're trying to be responsible to what our local community wants and it's overwhelming, the majority of the people want the Steelers. ... But we're getting the Ravens pushed at us by the NFL."

WHP was blocked from carrying three Steelers games this season because of Ravens conflicts, including Pittsburgh's 24-10 victory Sunday in Cleveland that was largely responsible for CBS' second-highest NFL ratings this season. The NFL's highest-rated Sunday games to date were Patriots-Steelers Oct. 31 on CBS (which carries AFC games) and Eagles-Steelers Nov. 7 on Fox (which carries NFC games).

Steelers fans in Erie miss even more games because WSEE sometimes carries the Browns when it isn't required to show the Bills. Conflicts with Bills games prevented the station from showing Browns-Steelers on Oct. 10, and will also block the Browns-Patriots game Dec. 5 and Browns-Chargers Dec. 19.

That some fans can't see one of the nation's most popular sports teams in its own state has attracted the interest of Pennsylvania lawmakers. On Oct. 19, the state House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution urging the NFL to re-evaluate its broadcast policies.

"Pennsylvanians and fans everywhere should have the right to watch their home games on television," said House Majority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson. "Pennsylvanians take their football very seriously, and the Steelers and Eagles have some of the most loyal fans anywhere. It's time that the NFL changes its arbitrary broadcast rules."

Some other NFL TV rules - especially the blackout of games locally that aren't sold out 72 hours in advance - are unpopular even with their own teams. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who play in a large stadium in a relatively small market, are concerned that rule is preventing them from building a larger fan base in an area overloaded with college football and NASCAR fans.

The Ravens argue they're merely protecting one of their secondary markets, just as the NFL rule is intended to do.

"The Harrisburg market is huge for the Ravens," Ravens senior vice president Kevin Byrne said. "With Philadelphia north of us and Washington, D.C., to our south, we are very limited geographically and have to maximize our territories, which include the Harrisburg area. We have booster clubs there that get very upset when some of our home games aren't shown in that area. We sell season tickets there. (Coach) Brian Billick has been up there twice in the last four years to speak and do media interviews. We need that market and plan to continually embrace it."

Uhl just wishes he didn't get 2,000 phone calls and e-mails every time the station must carry the Ravens rather than the Steelers. A local Steelers fan club collected 20,000 signatures last year and 15,000 more this year on a petition asking the games be shown.

Deep-pocketed fans need not worry; anyone with a DirecTV dish and $229 can buy the NFL Sunday Ticket package that provides coverage of all Sunday games. Steelers fullback Dan Kreider is from the Harrisburg area and his family gets Sunday Ticket to watch his games.

And, in times when the Steelers weren't so good, the NFL rule worked in their favor. During the mid-1980s, eastern Ohio stations were required to carry games involving the losing-record Steelers rather than the more successful Browns.