Accord May Resolve Impasse on Translators, Low-Power Stations
An impasse over FCC treatment of two types of FM stations whose representatives have been at odds was resolved late Thursday by the groups most active at the commission on the issue. That may resolve a standoff between owners of the two kinds of stations, because others are expected to support the agreement between the Educational Media Foundation, with hundreds of FM translators, and the Prometheus Radio Project, a low-power FM (LPFM) group, communications lawyers said. It may also get the commission to act on whether to cap at 10 the translator applications it will process from any filer in a 2003 window for which several thousands of requests remain pending, they said.
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Commission officials said they're studying the memorandum of understanding (MOU), which they had been expecting, and it’s too soon to say whether the proposal will be adopted by the FCC. A March draft order upholding a Media Bureau cap of 10 in Auction No. 83 (CD March 31 p6) continues circulating and hasn’t been changed recently, FCC officials said Friday. The deal proposes to scrap the cap of 10 while processing pending FM translator applications and giving low-power station seekers the opportunity to make requests of their own. Low-power applications would have priority over the translator applications. The question now is how the proposal affects the draft order, commission officials said. After station requests are made in an LPFM window, the FCC could resume processing all remaining translator requests, the proposal says.
The commission can act without issuing another rulemaking on the relationship between the stations, which is the subject of a previous notice, Prometheus and the foundation said, http://xrl.us/bhrd9j. “LPFM stations should not be given any priority over existing translators and the existing listening habits of the audience of FM translators should not be disturbed,” said the MOU filed with the FCC. “The parties also urge the Commission to look at other issues in the future to firmly establish the priorities between LPFM and translator stations.” There should be regular filing windows for both types of broadcasters and a system that gives priority to stations providing local service over translators that carry the programming of broadcasters elsewhere, the groups said.
The deal helps the LPFM community by giving them a chance to apply for frequencies they never got an opportunity to seek because translators had requested them, said Media Access Project Vice President Parul Desai, representing the foundation. “This could be a win-win for both parties in that LPFMs get pushed to the front of the line and then the remaining translator applications can get granted without their being a cap on it,” she said. “This really helps to resolve the concerns that we've had since the 2003 filing where the LPFMs got held up because of congressional action.” HR-1147 -- a bill that would give the FCC permission to issue more low-power licenses by eliminating some interference protections for other FM stations three notches away on the dial -- passed the House in December and awaits Senate action. A lawyer for the foundation declined to comment.
The FCC has granted about 3,500 construction permits from the 2003 translator window, with another 3,200 dismissed mostly at applicants’ request and 6,500 requests pending, a commission official said. Edgewater Broadcasting and RadioAssist Ministries, under common ownership, have the most applications pending (1,574), followed by the foundation with 518, the official said. The three have had a total of 1,317 construction permits granted. The MOU “goes a long way to at least getting the log jam moving again,” said lawyer Dawn Sciarrino of Sciarrino & Shubert, representing Edgewater and RadioAssist. “They welcome anything that will get this docket resolved.”