Commission Denies EMF Translator Move

12-11-14

The FCC has upheld a decision by the enforcement bureau to deny EMF's request to move an FM translator from Sherburne to Oneonta in upstate New York. EMF wanted to rebroadcast WKVU-FM which is in Utica. The station's proposed facilities do not overlap the 60 dBu contour of its existing facilities, so the application is considered a major change under FCC rules. And you may have noticed, WKVU is an FM station. EMF filed a waiver based on the bureau's 2011 Mattoon case in which the Commission decided that waiver was in the public interest. For the EMF waiver, the FCC says, "it's not even close." (Matton is a reference to Mattoon, IL, where Bud Walters was approved for a waiver to move an FM translator to serve as a fill-in for WCRA-AM, Effingham, Illinois).

In Mattoon, the Bureau found that waiver was in the public interest because the translator modification applicant did not have a history of filing serial minor modification applications, the proposed site was mutually exclusive with the licensed facility, the proposed move was not in an LPFM spectrum-limited market, and the translator would rebroadcast an AM station as an AM fill-in translator. EMF concedes that its proposal would not be used to rebroadcast an AM station.

EMF argued "the public interest of the grant of the application would be in many ways like the benefits enjoyed by the Cromwell, saving resources of the applicant and the Commission in processing multiple applications, and resulting in the 'efficient use of limited spectrum.'" The Commission rejected EMF's "untethered reading of the Mattoon waiver criteria, which explicitly included the requirement to rebroadcast an AM station," adding "we agree with the Bureau that the AM/FM distinction was crucial to the outcome in Mattoon which was expressly based, in part, on the public-interest goal of AM revitalization. The Commission's 2009 deregulatory rule change to permit AM/FM translator rebroadcasting has been an "unqualified success."

Read the entire FCC Opinion and Order HERE

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Commission Could Be at Full Strength Soon

4-30-2012

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa has agreed to lift the hold he's had on President's Obama's two FCC nominees, Republican Ajit Pai and Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel. Grassley refused to advance the nominees until he received documents regarding the FCC handling of the wireless buildout of the company LightSquare. Apparently Grassley is receiving the documents now. Since November the commission has been conducting business with only three commissioners, Chairman Julius Genachowski, Mignon Clyburn and Robert McDowell. The soonest the Senate could vote on the nominees would be May 7th.

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Commission Moves Ahead To Implement Local Community Radio Act

July 12, 2011

Tuesday the FCC took initial steps to implement the Local Community Radio Act. In its Third Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, the commission is seeking comment on a proposed processing policy for pending Auction No. 83 FM translator applications based on the spectrum available for LPFM in specific markets. 

This approach would permit the commission to immediately lift the freeze on the processing of translator applications and resume the licensing of FM translator stations in most smaller markets and rural communities, while requiring the dismissal of pending translator applications in markets where little spectrum remains for new LPFM stations.  The Commission also seeks comment on the goal of opening an LPFM window no later than summer 2012.

In 2007, the FCC concluded that processing the 6,500 pending FM translator applications filed in Auction No. 83 would frustrate the development of the LPFM radio service.  Accordingly, it established a going-forward limit of ten pending applications per applicant, but then imposed a freeze to permit consideration of petitions for reconsideration of that limit.  Congress subsequently passed the LCRA, which includes licensing directives to balance the competing demands of LPFM and FM translator station applicants for limited FM spectrum.  In particular, Section 5 of the LCRA requires the FCC to ensure that licenses are available for LPFM and FM translator stations; licensing decisions are based on community needs; and translator and LPFM stations remain equal in status.  The Third Further Notice seeks comment on each of these standards, concludes that the existing ten-application cap is inconsistent with those standards, and proposes adopting instead a translator application processing policy based on the availability of spectrum for LPFM stations in specific markets. 

The Third Further Notice also asks whether the Commission should take additional steps to prevent trafficking in FM translator construction permits and whether to permit FM translator applications pending as of May 1, 2009, to rebroadcast AM stations in the same manner as FM translator stations authorized prior to that date.  All other LCRA implementation issues will be considered in a subsequent Notice of Proposed Rule Making.

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