Four non-profits have been battling each other for the right to run one low-power FM in San Francisco. Here are the winners and why.
The four entities are: SF Indiefest (SFI), The San Francisco Public Press (SFPP), Outsound, and San Francisco Community Radio, Inc. Their conflicting applications for an LPFM were filed in the 2013 window.
Using a complicated point process to break the ties, the FCC tentatively selected the four on a time-share basis, giving the groups time to figure out time-sharing deals and/or change their applications by figuring out engineering or other solutions.
Several objected to Outsound’s main studio, an apartment, saying it wasn’t publically accessible. The FCC agreed and kicked out Outsound.
Another applicant argued SFI is not eligible to hold an FCC license because a party to its application, Jeff Ross, DJ’d for a pirate station. SFI said Radio Valencia was an Internet, not a pirate, operation.
When the FCC tried to question Ross, he invoked the Fifth Amendment but also denied he was ever involved with an unlicensed station. The commission said his refusal to cooperate with an FCC investigation was grounds to deny a license, so it has.
There were allegations that SFPP really didn’t have a viable tower site. The agency rejected this argument, saying it was based on speculation.
There were several back-and-forth allegations about inappropriate board members f the various applicants; the allegations were dismissed for lack of evidence.
Barring anything else happening, The San Francisco Public Press and San Francisco Community Radio, Inc. will get the CP and run the station on a time-share basis. All the other applications and complaint have been dismissed.
