FCC Eyes 1,000-Plus More FM Translators and Perhaps Last LPFM Window

The FCC cleared the way for more than 1,000 FM translator stations to go on-air in two items that also start work on an upcoming opportunity for tribes and community groups to seek new low-power stations on that band. An order and a rulemaking notice released Monday night appeared to largely track with drafts the Media Bureau circulated for a vote (CD Feb 9 p6), which commissioners approved as also expected (CD March 8 p12) before Wednesday’s agency meeting. The items said new rules for a 2003 application window for translators will expand the pool of construction permits issued from Auction 83 by 29 percent to 4,500 and possibly more. The next window for LPFM seekers to get permits for those stations may be the last, the commission said, asking about changes to some ownership rules.

The items implement the 2010 Local Community Radio Act, whose sponsor voiced hopes Tuesday the agency will start licensing new LPFMs. The FCC’s “primary focus” under Section 5 of the act “must be to ensure that translator licensing procedures do not foreclose or unduly limit future LPFM licensing,” the order said (http://xrl.us/bmywds). “More flexible translator licensing standards will make it much easier to license new translator stations in spectrum-limited markets than new LPFM stations.” The order capped at 50 the number of applications an entity can pursue from Auction 83, and one per market, “to minimize the potential for speculative licensing conduct,” the order said.

There are 6,500 still-pending applications from the auction, where applicants will have some chance to change their requests if they're in markets where the commission determined spectrum for new LPFMs is scarce. The Media Bureau was ordered by the agency to issue a public notice making translator seekers identify requests that still can be processed. “Upon completion of this selection/dismissal process, the Bureau will process the remaining applications in ’spectrum available’ markets, starting with the singletons” where requests don’t conflict with others, the order said. “Mutually exclusive applications from this group will then be placed on public notice and afforded a 60-90 day window to resolve their application conflicts via settlement or amendment. Any amendment of an application that precludes any LPFM channel/point combination identified in the grid studies will result in application dismissal.”

The new translator policies give “a straightforward licensing path that will likely result in more than 1000 new construction permits,” the agency said. “The national and per-market caps will require each affected applicant to prioritize its filings and to focus on proposals at locations where it has a bona fide interest in providing service. We believe that these restrictions are necessary to impose on these applicants a level of discipline similar to that which competitive bidding procedures provide in full service station licensing.” The NAB is reviewing the items, a spokesman said.

For LPFMs, the next application window is “a critical, and indeed possibly a last, opportunity to nurture and promote a community radio service that can respond to unmet listener needs and underserved communities in many urban areas,” the FCC said (http://xrl.us/bmywpg). That’s “due to the combined impacts of limited spectrum and the strict technical licensing standards mandated” by the legislation, the commission said later in the item. “It is necessary to dismiss significant numbers of translator applications in spectrum limited markets to fulfill that opportunity."

The rulemaking asked for comment on eliminating a 10-watt class of LPFM service and instead continuing to only issue construction permits for 100-watt low-powers. “This potential revised maximum operating limit would put LPFM stations on similar footing to FM translator stations which may operate with a maximum power of 250 watts.” The FCC also asked about allowing some LPFMs to run at higher power levels: “Should we permit increased power levels anywhere outside the top 100 markets and limit higher powered operations in the top 20 markets to transmitter locations more than thirty kilometers from the center city coordinates, in markets 21-50, to locations more than twenty kilometers from center city coordinates and in markets 51-100, to locations more than ten kilometers from center city coordinates."

The commission proposed changing its rules so tribes can have LPFM licenses. It asked about whether any LPFM operator should be allowed to own an FM translator, “to expand their listenership.” Ownership diversity wouldn’t likely be hurt by such cross-ownership, the rulemaking said. It asked whether licensees considered a native nation should be able to seek more than a single LPFM construction permit “to ensure adequate coverage of tribal lands.”

Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pa., hopes the FCC “quickly” finishes the groundwork for an LPFM auction. The radio act sponsor asked “people to get in touch with the FCC to find out more about the application process.” Community groups “are gearing up to apply,” said LPFM group Prometheus Radio Project of the end of the “first hurdle in implementing” the act. The commission could accept LPFM applications as soon as the fall, the group said. The agency seems to have “used the time since the law’s passage to craft careful and diligent solutions for the implementation challenges the Commission faced,” Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood said.