For the radio industry, Prometheus Radio Project is the group that the Pai Commission successfully fought in winning Supreme Court approval in a 9-0 to move forward with its media ownership rule reform.
In the eyes of its founders, Prometheus is a 24-year old non-profit organization founded by a small group of radio activists in 1998 whose mission is to support “media democracy” and low-power FM radio. That explains their informal objections to 328 cross-service FM translator applications filed in the FCC’s Auction 99 and 100 windows. All but one of those petitions were dismissed. Now, the final petition in that group has been rendered moot, ending this latest Prometheus clash.
On March 5, 2020, just as COVID-19 was rearing its ugly ahead in North America, Prometheus filed an Application for Review seeking reversal of a Media Bureau order denying its Petition for Reconsideration of a decision that tossed 327 of those 328 translator applications.
Prometheus was joined by like-minded advocacy groups Center for International Media Action and Common Frequency Inc.
As RBR+TVBR previously reported, the Media Bureau left one of those reconsideration petitions up for consideration. It involves Mega-Philadelphia LLC, which in June 2022 filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection and hired broker Roger Rafson to market its WEMG-AM & W289AZ in Camden, N.J., and an FM translator in Millville, N.J.
But, the Media Bureau denied the Mega petition on its merits.
Now, Audio Division Chief Al Shuldiner explains that, as a result of “changed circumstances” he explains, the AFR is dismissed as moot.
Why? The construction permit for Mega-Philadelphia FM translator W293DS, which was granted on June 12, 2018, was to expire on June 12, 2021. But, the Bureau offered a six-month extension, to Dec. 12, 2021.
Mega-Philadelphia, however, never got around to applying for a license for W293DS, even after the Bureau notified the licensee of the impending CP expiration.
As such, the construction permit expired on its own terms, and the matter has been resolved on procedural grounds.
