REC Networks has filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the Federal Communications Commission to propose various rule changes related to future FM translator stations. While we wait for what will likely be an LPFM filing window as early as 2023, the next logical step for secondary services will be an opportunity for new and major change FM translator stations for general applicants. The last opportunities for new FM translators were in 2017 and 2018, but those windows were limited to certain AM broadcast stations and each station was limited to only one application in the window series. The last general FM translator filing window was in 2003 for new FM translators in the non-reserved band (92.1~107.9 MHz) with hopes that many of these applications would go to auction. This window would be later known as The Great Translator Invasion because it was highlighted by over 13,000 applications being filed, including a large number of applications filed by a couple of entities, both of which were commonly owned. Those applications were filed as noncommercial so filing fees were not normally paid and once the applications were granted, they were immediately sold. The commonly owned entities profited in the millions as a result of the sale of their unbuilt authorizations. In the aftermath of that window, the FCC temporarily stopped granting the applications and eventually imposed an application cap of 10 ungranted application that each applicant could prosecute. This 10-cap was challenged. In 2011 with the enactment of the Local Community Radio Act, the FCC would resume processing, but with a cap of 70 applications (50 in the top-150 markets) and a cap of up to three per market. As a result of the LCRA, the FCC put in additional controls to prevent the preclusion of future LPFM opportunities in the core areas of the Top-150 markets plus several smaller markets that had at least 4 pending translator applications. By the time the auction came 12 years later, only a small number of mutually exclusive applications remained and the auction netted just over a half million dollars and some construction permits were never bidded on.
In the reserved band (88.1~91.9), the FCC has not held a filing window for new FM translators since the turn of the century and since the FCC had put in the modern point system for determining mutually exclusive noncommercial applications as such applications are statutorily banned from being settled through auction. In 2012, LPFM stations were permitted also hold authorizations for FM translators and while there are less than a dozen commonly owned translators that LPFM licensees obtained through assignments of license, LPFM licensees have never had a translator filing window for either band. There are also approximately 50+ FM translators that are rebroadcasting LPFM stations that are not commonly owned by the LPFM licensee. For LPFM licensees, they are limited to two commonly owned translators, are very restricted on the placement of those translators and must feed their translator programming over the air.
The REC petition addresses these issues in order to spark discussion both inside and outside of the FCC to prepare for future FM translator windows, in which the soonest could be as early as 2025 or 2026.
Full REC press release:
REC files Petition for Rulemaking to call for reforms in future translator filing windows
Main points: The petition would...
A copy of the Petition can be found at:
https://recnet.net/fcc/2022_translator_prm.pdf
In the reserved band (88.1~91.9), the FCC has not held a filing window for new FM translators since the turn of the century and since the FCC had put in the modern point system for determining mutually exclusive noncommercial applications as such applications are statutorily banned from being settled through auction. In 2012, LPFM stations were permitted also hold authorizations for FM translators and while there are less than a dozen commonly owned translators that LPFM licensees obtained through assignments of license, LPFM licensees have never had a translator filing window for either band. There are also approximately 50+ FM translators that are rebroadcasting LPFM stations that are not commonly owned by the LPFM licensee. For LPFM licensees, they are limited to two commonly owned translators, are very restricted on the placement of those translators and must feed their translator programming over the air.
The REC petition addresses these issues in order to spark discussion both inside and outside of the FCC to prepare for future FM translator windows, in which the soonest could be as early as 2025 or 2026.
Full REC press release:
REC files Petition for Rulemaking to call for reforms in future translator filing windows
Main points: The petition would...
- Add all new FM translators to existing anti-trafficking rules to prevent the sale of unbuilt original construction permits for a profit.
- Impose a national application cap for new and major change FM translators in the next non-reserved band (92.1~107.9) translator window at 70 (with no more than 50 in the top-150 markets) and in the reserved band (88.1~91.9), a national cap at 18 (no more then 13 in the top-150 markets). No per-market caps (like what was done post-2003).
- FM translators originally licensed as noncommercial may not rebroadcast a commercial station while operating in the non-reserved band for the first four years of licensed operations. (A practice that is done by some of the major religious broadcasters who will remain nameless)
- Implement the Local Community Radio Act section 5(2) on future FM translator filing windows to assure continued LPFM availability in core market areas by simplifying the process used by the FCC following the 2003 Great Translator Invasion (Auction 83) window with a similar plan that looks at the disparity between LPFM and translator coverage in the core market areas.
- To address the expanded use of fill-in translators for purposes other than their original purpose ("filling in gaps" in underserved areas) for purposes such as translators for AM stations and for HD simulcasting: In only the reserved band and only for new or major change translators, redefine a "fill-in" translator to be one that serves an area where there were only one or two educational services (including the primary station it is rebroadcasting) and to require cross-ownership. Other new translators can rebroadcast their primary stations within the service contour but would not be afforded the same selection priority (in the reserved band, fill-in translators have priority over all other translators in the event of mutual exclusivity) and flexibility on HAAT. This proposal does not change anything about fill-in translators in the non-reserved (92.1~107.9) band and does not impact existing translators unless they make a major change in the reserved band during a filing window.
- Recommend that the next translator filing window be one for the reserved band as this band has not had a translator filing opportunity since the 1990s. After a reserved band window, then the FCC should hold a general FM translator filing window in the non-reserved band with the various rules proposed here. (The FCC has been on record suggesting that an LPFM window is next, and REC is predicting that will be in 2023 after the FCC finishes up or gets close to finishing the point system decisions in the 2021 NCE window.)
- For FM translators commonly owned by LPFM stations, change the maximum distance for station siting to 25 miles from the headquarters, campus or 75% of the board, consistent with the established local applicant provision in the translator MX rules.
- For FM translators commonly owned by LPFM stations, remove the requirement that the LPFM service contour and the translator service contour have some form of overlap.
- For FM boosters commonly owned by LPFM stations, remove the distance limitation and allow the service contour of the primary station to properly confine the location of the booster pursuant to the Part 74 rule.
- Remove other Part 73 rules for FM boosters commonly owned by LPFM stations that are redundant with existing Part 74 rules.
A copy of the Petition can be found at:
https://recnet.net/fcc/2022_translator_prm.pdf