The second window for AM licensees to file for an FM translator is about to be shut.
On July 26, a window for any class of AM radio station in the U.S. opened in which it could apply for a translator of up to 250 watts, as part of the AM revitalization act.
The window closes today (Oct. 31) at 5:59 p.m. Eastern sharp.
This differs from the first window, which saw only Class C or Class D AMs gain the ability to apply for an FM translator.
That window opened January 29 and closed July 28 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
If you still haven’t submitted an application and wish to do so, here’s how to act in haste with no time to waste:
- An AM station may apply for one and only one translator … assuming you did not do this in the first window.
- File Form 349 proposing a minor modification to the translator in question. To be sure that the application is identifiable as a “modification window” application, you will need to specify, in Exhibit 1, that it is a “250-mile window application,” Anne Goodwin Crump of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth notes at the law firm’s CommLawBlog.
Crump advises applicants avoid the following:
- modification of a reserved channel (i.e., Channels 201-220) translator
- as the primary station to be rebroadcast on the translator, an AM station that has already been listed as the primary in a prior Modification Window application (regardless of the window during which it was filed)
- use of a translator to rebroadcast a Class A or B station if the application is filed during the first modification window
