FCC Grants LPFM Application for Review

The full FCC unanimously granted low-power FM licensee Park Public Radio’s appeal of a Media Bureau decision rejecting the company's modification application in part for being filed a few hours too early, an order released Tuesday said. The item was slated for Wednesday’s open meeting but listed as an “adjudicatory item” on the agenda. The matter concerns Park’s March 3, 2021, application to modify KPPS-LP, St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Its modification would have interfered with another station that was silent for a year and had a license that expired at 3 a.m. the next day, April 1. Another licensee, Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis, filed a conflicting application to modify its translator at 9 a.m. on April 1. The Media Bureau originally rejected the Park application and granted Central Baptist's because the silent station’s license hadn’t yet expired when Park filed and the application had short spacing defects. The full FCC ruled that Central Baptist's and Park’s filings were premature, and should have been filed after the MB issued a public notice announcing cancelation of the silent station’s license. The FCC also ruled that the Media Bureau should have allowed Park to amend its defective application. In the past, the agency has acknowledged that previously filed defective modification applications could, if corrected, prevail over later filed nondefective applications, the order said. The order rescinds the grant to Central Baptist and maintains the dismissal of the Park application but allows Park to refile an amended application.