On June 5, the Commission released a Notice of Inquiry in the matter of proposals for a new FM radio broadcast class. This would create a Class C4 radio station, in addition to modifying the requirements for designating short-spaced assignments.
The FCC is now ready to receive your comments on the proposal.
Thanks to a petition for rulemaking filed by SSR Communications, the FCC is seeking input on the creation of the new class of FM radio stations.
SSR is the owner of Jackson, Miss.-market Class A Talk WYAB-FM 103.9 in Pocahantas, Miss., and it co-authored the proposal with the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC).
This would allow hundreds of Class A stations to upgrade and follows the circulation in February of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that was four years in the making. In late January 2017 MMTC President Emeritus and Senior Advisor David Honig requested that the FCC move forward with a NPRM on a 2014 plan that would create the new class of FM stations.
As first reported in January 2017 by RBR+TVBR, the new class of FM stations would broadcast at 12Kw from a reference antenna height of above average terrain of 100 meters. The Class C4 proposal would allow nearly 800 Class A stations to jump in power from 6kw to 12kw, and “allow hundreds of stations of all classes to improve their technical facilities without impacting the protected signal contours of neighboring stations.”
The push for an NPRM some two years after the discussion of a Class C4 station first arose received renewed vigor by Pai at the 2016 Radio Show in Nashville.
The C4 Notice of Inquiry set deadlines for filing comments and reply comments at 30 days and 60 days, respectively, after publication of the notice in the Federal Register.
This happened on July 12.
As a result:
- Comments must be submitted no later than Monday, August 13.
- Reply comments must be submitted no later than Monday, September 10.
