FCC Staff Working on Response to Local Community Radio Act
Career staffers continue working out how the FCC should implement legislation passed last year intended to put low-power FM stations on equal footing with other types of radio stations, agency and industry officials said. They said officials from the Media Bureau and Office of General Counsel have been figuring out what steps to take to fulfill the requirements of the Local Community Radio Act, signed into law in January by President Barack Obama. A possibility is the release of a rulemaking notice on how the legislation affects an auction of translator stations and another one on other effects of the law, communications lawyers watching the staff work said. No items appear ready to be circulated for a vote, officials inside and outside the commission said.
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An initial vehicle to implement the act still appears to be Auction 83 of translator stations, industry officials said. The auction took place in 2003 and there are many pending applications that low-power FM advocates say if granted would occupy spectrum that could be used by LPFM broadcasters. One of the rulemakings that bureau staff may be working on (CD Jan 11 p8) involves applying the legislation to that auction, FCC and industry officials said. They said that may involve proposing to change a previous FCC order capping at 10 the number of applications from any entity for licenses that will be awarded in the auction.
Some with applications pending say the requests should be granted, while low-power advocates want the commission to ensure that any construction permits given out leave room for LPFMs in the same markets. A bureau spokeswoman declined to comment. The cap of 10 is too high, and “would have a preclusive impact on low power FM stations -- both nationwide and in the vast majority of major metropolitan markets,” said a filing last week by the Prometheus Radio Project. Representatives of the LPFM group discussed with staffers in the Office of General Counsel other solutions to processing translator applications, said the filing posted Thursday to docket 99-25. A recent petition in that docket from the Amherst Alliance, which had advocated for the creation of LPFM stations, said the FCC should allow locally originating shows on translators: “It would provide a chance for translators that are not local now to ‘convert’ to a local orientation."
Prometheus is “open to any option that would ensure channels for low-power FM stations in urban markets” in dealing with the 2003 auction, said Policy Director Brandy Doyle. One option for Auction 83 is for the FCC to process applications for translators a market at a time, striking a “balance between low-power FM stations and translators,” she said. “Although we're very concerned about timely implementation” of the act, “we're just as concerned about ensuring availability of local community radio stations across the country,” Doyle said. “So although we'd like to see this implemented, we'd also like to see it done right. We know it’s a contested issue and we're eager to see the rulemaking.” Translator operators, for their part, appear to “want to have some kind of firm outcome, so they can go on about their business,” she said.
It’s long past time for the FCC to act on the pending translator applications, said Womble Carlyle broadcast lawyer John Garziglia, representing some applicants. “Our emphasis is to try to get these FM translators out the door -- basically clear the band of them -- so the LPFMs can be granted,” he said. “I still hope there’s a way we can find common ground” between LPFM and translators, given “the new law is specific” in promoting both types of stations, Garziglia said: “I hope we can figure out a procedure and present it to the FCC, that if there’s going to be a translator, there’s going to be an LPFM” in the same area. Doing that one market at a time, as Doyle proposed, might take too long, Garziglia said.
NPR wants the FCC to “ensure that there are continued opportunities for public radio stations to acquire new FM translator licenses, so that they may continue to expand service,” a spokeswoman said. “We hope that the commission will act expeditiously to process pending requests.” NPR members had sought translators in Auction 83. Public radio listeners in rural areas and places served by few radio stations “rely on FM translators” for news, information and other non-commercial shows “they can’t get anywhere else,” the spokeswoman said.