The full Commission has stood by the dismissals of applications for low-power FM radio station construction permits filed in the FCC’s 2023 LPFM filing window. That negates a plan to put a facility in Athens, Ala., and another in the Alabama city of Selma.
The first matter involves an Application for Review filed by Athens State University challenging the FCC’s dismissal of its application for a new LPFM in the Alabama city.
Why did the Commission reject the application? It violated the minimum distance separation requirements of section 73.807 of the Commission’s rules. No curative amendments were allowed by the FCC.
ASU requested reinstatement of its application, claiming the public interest would be served by allowing applicants to correct clerical errors, particularly for a noncommercial service such as LPFM. The FCC said no, putting the signal contour protects afforded to co-channel stations WAKD-FM in Sheffield, Ala., WZTN-FM in Cornersville, Tenn., and the first-adjacent property WJOU-FM in Huntsville, Ala.
The second matter is tied to Selma Weather and Information Forum, which filed an AFR challenging the Commission’s dismissal of its LPFM construction permit filed in the 2023 window.
Why did the FCC say no to this application? It violated the localism requirements in section 73.853(b) of the Commission’s rules in a significant way — its application identified a transmitting antenna site 560 miles east of the coast of North Carolina, in the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda.
Like ASU, Selma requested reinstatement of its application, claiming the public interest would be served by allowing applicants to correct clerical errors, particularly for a noncommercial service such as LPFM.
Nope, says the FCC.
