The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, home to the Panthers, will not be proceeding with the creation of a low-power FM radio station.
That’s because Al Shuldiner, the Chief of the Audio Division within the FCC’s Media Bureau, has rejected a petition for reconsideration of an earlier ruling that dismissed the school’s construction permit application.
UW Milwaukee filed an application with the Commission during its 2023 LPFM filing window. On January 25, 2024, Shuldiner’s office dismissed the application on the grounds that it failed to meet the minimum distance spacing requirements.
At issue: Moody Radio’s WMBI-FM 90.1 in Chicago, a 100kw Class B facility that would not have the required co-channel protections afforded by FCC rules; and WMTH-FM 90.5 in Park Ridge, Ill., a tiny Class D with a mere 8 watts serving Des Plaines and Niles on the northside of Chicagoland. Even with its infinitesimal signal, second-adjacent channel protections are an issue of concern for the UW Milwaukee LPFM plan.
As such, the Media Bureau said no to the school.
In response, UW Milwaukee sought reinstatement of the application and a waiver of section
73.870(c) of the FCC’s rules in order to amend the application and change the proposed station coordinates to the coordinates it had intended to use.
Say what? Indeed, UW Milwaukee explained that while the Application Tech Box listed inaccurate coordinates, the Second Adjacent Waiver Request attached to the application includes the correct coordinates. The school also noted that the Commission dismissed similar LPFM applications in previous processing rounds due to section 73.807 location typographical errors, but the applicants corrected those coordinates, and the Commission reinstated the applications.
That’s not happening here, as Shuldiner determined that UW Milwaukee “has not demonstrated any legal error in the Bureau’s dismissal of the application, nor has it
cited any precedent that warrants reinstatement.”
What about those typographical errors? It is a learning lesson to proofread all that is submitted to the Commission for its consideration and approval.
