In mid-June, the owner of Class A WRTM-FM 100.5 in Sharon, Miss., submitted a Petition for Rulemaking with the FCC that would establish a new FM radio class in the U.S. Just one week later, the Audio Division of the Media Bureau moved forward by opening a comment and reply comment window, inviting interested parties to chime in on the plan.
The NAB chimed in. So did Cumulus Media, the radio ownership group led by Jeff Andrulonis, and the individual who has sought a “Class C4” designation — a plan that would be erased should a “Class A10” FM get the FCC’s OK.
Commander Communications Corp. filed with the Commission on June 13 a plan that would create a new class of FM radio stations in the U.S.
This new “Class A10” facility would be permitted to have up to 10kw of effective radiated power (ERP) and a tower 100 meters (328.08 feet) in height above average terrain.
Existing stations would be able to amend their facilities to accommodate or embrace the new class.
Comments were due on Monday (7/22); reply comments are due August 21.
CLOUDY CONCERN FROM KAPLAN & CO.
For the NAB, its legal team, led by Rick Kaplan, expressed its concerns that “certain potential broader risks and problems may counsel against advancing the petition” filed by Commander, owner of Class A WRTM-FM 100.5 in Sharon, Miss.
The station has a rim-shot signal covering Jackson, Miss., from the north. Commander is led by President Carl Haynes.
In an eight-page filing to MB Docket No. 24-183, the NAB shared that it “generally supports policy proposals intended to improve radio service and appreciates that allowing Class A stations to increase power up to 10kw may benefit some listeners.”
However, the NAB needs more details regarding the Class A10 proposal before it can fully chime in on its merits or faults.
“The Petition lacks critical information to allow broadcasters to properly assess the potential benefits and harms of this new class of service,” Kaplan and his team wrote.
In lieu of that “critical information,” and with no technical analysis presented by Commander, the NAB weighed Haynes’ proposal against a Class C4 plan that had been lying dormant for years at the Commission. “The A10 Petition appears to improve upon the C4 Petition in some ways and may make it more problematic in others,” Kaplan and the NAB legal team believe.
Indeed, the Class A10 proposal is not a reworking of the Class C4 proposal that Matthew Wesolowski of SSR Communications had been advocating for. His efforts began in earnest in January 2013, when SSR co-drafted a Petition for Rulemaking along with the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council (MMTC) requesting the “Class C4” allocation. In April 2014, due to inaction at the FCC, Wesolowski reached out to the industry for its support of his proposal, which would have directly benefited his company’s WYAB-FM 103.9 in Flora, Miss., a Class C3 FM serving Jackson.
Ajit Pai, then a Commissioner of the FCC, said at the 2016 Radio Show in Nashville that he supported Wesolowski’s plan. He then became Chairman of the Commission, and in February 2018 moved forward with a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking squarely focused on the Class C4 proposal from Wesolowski. Despite those efforts, nothing moved forward at the Commission; the NAB opposed Wesolowski’s plan, on the grounds that it would increase interference on the FM band.
WRTM is presently licensed for 4,600 watts at 374 feet as a Class A. With a “Class A10” proposal, Haynes believes the changes would serve the public interest and benefit listeners “with reliable signals” in times of emergency. How would other stations be potentially impacted by a new Class A10 FM?
Commander offers the following:
Other amendments proposed by Commander can be found here.
For the NAB, one key difference in the A10 plan is that it would not be limited to a geographical zone of the U.S., opening the upgrade ability to nationwide implementation. In the U.S. Northeast and in some California markets where the FM band is typically more crowded, this potentially increases the interference risk to more broadcasters than the C4 proposal.
Indeed, areas including New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, already a hub of Docket 80/90 Class A drop-ins and FM translators, could experience further interference issues due to the wildly varying terrain that makes Radio-Locator.com contour maps a station’s “anticipated” listening area.
Then, there is the cost of an upgrade. “Given that the average revenue (not profit) for commercial Class A stations is only about $400,000, or just $200,000 when noncommercial stations are included (according to BIA Advisory Services data), it would appear that relatively few Class A stations would be able to afford to upgrade to A10,” the NAB argues.
Kaplan and his team also reiterated statements made in a 2018 filing by the NAB noting that its members believe the FM band is already congested; Alpha Media at the time noted interference problems generating listener complaints, while Beasley Media Group expressed concerns about the “rising noise floor” on the FM band.
What should the FCC do? The NAB suggests a Notice of Inquiry be the next step for the Commission.
WESOLOWSKI CHIMES IN
For 11 years, Matthew Wesolowski sought the FCC’s approval in creating a Class C4 FM. While that effort is all but dead thanks to the Commander proposal under consideration, Wesolowski is hardly in opposition of the plan from a crosstown FM.
Rather, he is asking the Commission to create a new Class A10 FM allotment type “without delay.”
While his own WYAB-FM would not benefit from the Class A10 plan and could even be subjected to a downgrade from its current Class C3 status, Wesolowski says his SSR Communications “nonetheless supports the concept as a more efficient use of broadcast spectrum than the current Commission scheme affords and its opportunity for select FM Class A licensees to obtain more reliable signals inside of and just beyond their existing service areas.”
Also writing to express support of the Class A10 proposal is Colonial Radio Group head Jeff Andrulonis. In a short statement, he said, “As Radio faces new competition on many fronts, having the ability to increase power to 10kw will be beneficial for small licensees like Colonial Radio Group.”
Perhaps more importantly than the business reasons to support the Class A10 proposal are the diversity reasons, he added. “Small licensees are small businesses and many of them are minority-owned. This diversity of viewpoint provides an independent voice in their communities, in some cases the only independent voice remaining. The power increase under consideration would allow more listeners to hear these independent voices, which can only serve to strengthen our democracy.”
CUMULUS WANTS ‘A10’ BOUNCED
As Cumulus Media Chief Technology Officer Conrad Trautmann sees it, the Class A10 proposal must be set aside, with the Commission closing the proceeding following the comment period’s conclusion.
Why? “[The] Creation of Class A10 [FMs] would impose a disproportionate burden on the most vulnerable broadcasters,” Trautmann says on behalf of the audio content creation and distribution giant.
In particular, Cumulus believes the Class A10 plan is a “potential harm” to FM translators, which “have been a boon for many AM radio stations, if not the difference between staying on the air and going out of business.”
FM translators, by statute, are not considered in the same vein as a fully licensed FM radio station and are not protected.
Interestingly, the comments from Trautmann, reflecting the Pai Commission’s “AM revitalization” efforts, run counter to considerable efforts on behalf of iHeartMedia and the NAB to keep AM radio accessible in all U.S. vehicles. If a FM translator were to disappear for an AM, theoretically new promotional efforts geared toward saving AM radio would bring renewed attention to the source signal. For FM translators relaying an HD multicast, greater education and expansion of HD Radio could be a beneficial result.
That’s not how Trautmann and Cumulus Media see it. In the company’s view, creating Class A10 would be contrary to efforts to “create greater investment certainty.”
Trautmann states, “As secondary services, FM translators and LPFM stations are particularly susceptible to service degradation by full-power stations. An existing translator or LPFM would be required to accept interference caused by a neighboring station that converts to Class A10. Likewise, if a newly converted Class A10 station experiences interference from an existing translator or LPFM station, the translator or LPFM station would be required to modify its parameters or cease operations entirely.”
He cites a REC Networks filing among the comments in which the low-power broadcast group studied co-channel and first-adjacent FM translators, as well as LPFMs, in relation to Class A 10-eligible stations. REC found that 12.7% of FM translator and 10.6% of LPFM facilities could suffer new or increased interfering contour overlap.
“The burden to this sizable number of stations is potentially destructive to the continued existence of these stations,” Trautmann said.
