There’s a vacant Class C FM radio station on the table of allotments for a city due south of Houston, nestled along the Texas Gulf Coast. If it’s of interest to an operator willing to build out a facility on that signal, you’re out of luck, however.
Why? The FCC’s Media Bureau, on action from its Audio Bureau, wants to delete it.
There’s a good reason for the proposal offered by Audio Bureau Assistant Chief Nazifa Sawez.
A Class C FM at 103.3 MHz in Freeport, Tex., does not comply with the minimum distance separation requirements.
There was once a radio station operating as a Class C FM from that town: KJOJ-FM. It was once part of Liberman Broadcasting, and for many years served as a simulcast partner with KTJM-FM in the adjacent Port Arthur-Beaumont, Tex., market, as a way to bring regional Mexican programming to the greater Houston area.
KJOJ signed on the air as KGLF-FM, and in its formative years was a station owned by Ragan Henry-led US Radio. In 1996, Clear Channel Communications acquired KJOJ. Four years later, in order to meet local ownership limits, KJOJ was designed for divestment. The buyer? El Dorado Communications. In July 2001, it ended up in Liberman’s hands.
Fast-forward to December 14, 2020, when a catastrophic tower collapse silenced KJOJ. The station went silent under Special Temporary Authority, but never returned to the air as Liberman Broadcasting underwent a restructuring and bankruptcy, emerging as Estrella Media and without Liberman family involvement.
On June 12, 2022, the KJOJ license was cancelled and the call letters were deleted.
Now, Sawez is sharing that, thanks to a “recent staff engineering analysis,” the vacant FM at 103.3 MHz in Freeport is short-spaced by 182 kilometers (or 113 miles) to a vacant Class C2 FM at 103.3 MHz in Wharton, Tex.
The minimum distance separation requirement is 249 kilometers, or 154.7 miles.
A staff engineering analysis indicated that there are no alternate channels available that would comply with the minimum distance separation requirement. As such, a Notice of Deletion of FM Channel was released on Tuesday, with a comment window established.
Comments are due March 13; Reply Comments should be submitted no later than March 30.
Wharton is located some 65 miles from Freeport, and is to the southwest of Houston via U.S. Highway 59.
