Draft FCC Order Would Let LPFMs Locate Two Notches from Full Powers if No Interference Caused
Future low-power FM stations could be two notches away on the radio dial from full-power outlets, if LPFMs make certain interference showings similar to what other types of radio stations must make now. That’s under a draft FCC order tentatively set for a vote at the Nov. 30 commissioner meeting (CD Nov 12 p1), said agency, industry and public-interest group officials. They said the second-adjacent frequency spacing waiver would let LPFMs be two notches away if they won’t create interference in a populated area also reached by the full power.
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The draft Media Bureau order would allow each applicant for FM translator stations from a 2007 filing window to get as many as three per market, up from a previous cap of one in an earlier-released order, officials inside and outside the commission said. The caps and LPFM interference rules address the Local Community Radio Act, agency and industry officials said. Some said it may be the last major rulemaking under the LCRA and before the commission begins licensing possibly more than a thousand new LPFMs starting as soon as next year. Commission and bureau spokespeople had no comment.
Getting a second-adjacent waiver for LPFMs would be similar to how FM translators now get approval to locate two notches away from a full-power station that, unlike low-power and translators, is protected from interference, agency and public-interest officials said. They said an LPFM that sought a construction permit under the waiver could make a showing that may use a methodology that has a ratio of desired to undesired signal strength. One question as commissioners and their staff review the order, and are lobbied on it, is what if anything an LPFM can do to remedy any interference and before getting a construction permit to be two notches away from a full-power outlet, public-interest and industry officials said.
The draft order is another step toward holding a filing period for would-be LPFM operators to seek stations, which the FCC wants to have happen sometime next year, public-interest and industry officials said. They said the commission appears to hope to act on the approximately 6,000 still-pending applications for translators from Auction 83 (http://xrl.us/bnzos4) in early 2013, and to then open a filing window for LPFMs. That filing window could lead to a 100-200 percent increase in the number of licensed U.S. LPFMs, depending on what types of second-adjacent waivers are allowed and how applicants can technically address any interference before getting a permit, said Policy Director Brandy Doyle of low-power group Prometheus Radio Project. There were 822 LPFMs on Sept. 30, FCC figures show (http://xrl.us/bnzorv).
The issue of how easy it will be to get second-adjacent waivers or remedy potential interference will be a major issue in the proceeding for LPFM seekers, which contend LCRA encourages such frequency allotments, and owners of translators and full-power stations that claim they're not intended to be so easy to get, officials on both sides said. “The waiver criteria is just as important as the interference criteria, and what remedies must be taken” to prevent interference, said full-power and translator radio lawyer David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker. A top issue for full-power radio is “what the remedy is if there is interference caused by an LPFM,” he said. NAB and NPR told FCC officials late last month that they want second-adjacent waivers to not be frequently granted, while LPFM proponents pushed for them this month, filings in docket 99-25 show (http://xrl.us/bnzotg).
LCRA Section 3 allows such waivers only “under certain circumstances,” General Counsel Jane Mago, Chief Technology Officer Kevin Gage and other NAB executives told bureau officials, a filing said (http://xrl.us/bnzotk). “Such waivers should be considered only in truly exceptional circumstances, given the legislative history of the LCRA, and other provisions in the Act.” Such waivers worry NPR, executives of the public-radio programmer with members holding full-power and FM translator stations told an aide to Commissioner Robert McDowell. The waivers should be given under “limited circumstances as Congress intended so that newly constructed LPFM stations are not forced to ameliorate interference problems, including by terminating service,” the programmer said (http://xrl.us/bnvt3q).
LPFM proponents said they continue to want the agency to require some locally originated content from new low-powers. The draft may not include such a requirement, and likely also doesn’t contain a date-certain by when the LPFM filing window should open, officials watching the proceeding said. But a 2013 application window is feasible, after some had hoped that would have occurred this year, Doyle said. “We hope that with the translators out of the way, there won’t be any further delays.” Applicants shouldn’t seek LPFMs if they won’t air original programming, said Cheryl Leanza, a communications lawyer representing the United Church of Christ. The agency should ensure those who get the new stations “are going to be the ones that create something new in the market,” she said. “We don’t need local community radio to create carbon copies of things we already can find” on other stations and online, she continued. The “civil rights community” has a “strong” interest in LPFM and wants such a local requirement, Leanza and officials of the Asian-American Justice Center, National Council of La Raza and Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights told an aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and the bureau’s Peter Doyle, head of the Audio Division (http://xrl.us/bnzovk).