The FCC’s Media Bureau has issued a public notice with the expressed intent of providing “clarification and additional guidance” as it pertains to eligibility restrictions and the comparative selection criteria in its filing window for new noncommercial educational reserved band FM translator station applications.
Why? The notice comes in response to “recent inquiries” to Bureau staff.
The notice is tied to the first-ever filing window for new noncommercial educational reserved-band FM translator station construction permit applications.
The Bureau announced the window on June 17, and has provided interested parties with an overview of the procedures, filing requirements, and comparative selection process that will apply to the window.
The Bureau subsequently announced revised dates for the upcoming window.
Now, it is clarifying that for purposes of determining “diversity of ownership” points, the principal community contour for full service commercial FM stations, NCE FM stations, and LPFM stations is the 3/16 mV/m (70 dBu) contour.
This gives additional clarity into how one can qualify for the two points for “diversity of ownership.” Earning the qualification means an applicant must certify that the 60 dBu contour of the proposed NCE FM translator station does not overlap with the principal community contour of any existing full-service AM, FM or LPFM radio station; or the 60 dBu contour of any existing non-fill-in FM translator station, in which the applicant, or any party to the application, holds an attributable interest.
The FCC also clarifies what “localism” means: it is based on the “community to be served.”
Specifically, to qualify as a “local” applicant and merit the three established local applicant points, the FM translator applicant must propose to provide at least a 60 dBu signal strength to some portion of the proposed community of license.
If the proposed translator does not provide at least a 60 dBu service to some portion of the identified community of license, the applicant does not qualify as “local” and cannot claim points as an established local applicant.
“Because there is no community of license coverage requirement for the FM translator service, we recently received requests to clarify how to determine if an FM translator applicant qualifies for localism points,” the Bureau explains.
THE FULL NOTICE CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
