Update: On July 6 the FCC postponed the filing window. The new dates are Nov. 4 to 17.
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The author of this commentary is CEO of Common Frequency, a nonprofit “dedicated to innovative new community and college radio … supporting the launch of grassroots stations since 2006.”
On June 17, the FCC released a Public Notice detailing the first ever non-commercial, educational (NCE) FM translator filing window.
NCE FM translators allow rebroadcasts of NCE full-power/LPFM stations to bolster or extend broadcast coverage. Applications for these high-in-demand facilities haven’t been available from the FCC in over 25 years.
The prospect of a late fall filing window was expected by NCE camps of religious, public, low-power, community and college/high school broadcasters. Every previous LPFM/NCE window was scheduled with a summer public notice and a filing window sometime between October and February. Ample public notice, up to a half-year, is standard due to the unique preparatory needs of educational broadcasters.
On June 17, panicked phone calls and emails percolated into Common Frequency from nonplussed NCE licensees stating the FCC announced an Aug. 11 filing window date. It soon became evident what NCE advocates intended to be an orderly and structured window was evolving into a fiasco: advocates not having time to pursue outreach, applicants looking for expedited assistance, and consultants scrambling to allot limited time, with more coordination and/or accommodation sought from the FCC.
NCE/LPFM advocate groups such as National Federation of Community (NFCB), Rec Networks (REC), Native Public Media, Common Frequency Inc. (CFI), Prometheus Radio Project, Community Media Assistance Project, College Broadcasters Inc. (CBI), and Christian Community Broadcasters — advocates that serve or represent a well-rounded segment of independent NCE licensees — aired common needs of educational broadcasters to the commission concerning FM translators to the FCC, anticipating this window. Some of these needs appeared unaddressed.
“Highly unprecedented”
An August filing date is unusual for an NCE filing window.
John Fox, manager of the Pala Band of Mission Indians’ station KPRI, rushed to figure out how to compress engineering surveys and organizational approvals in mere weeks.
“Usually these NCE filing windows occur around November/December to provide nonprofits, colleges and tribes enough time to obtain organizational approvals, hire a contract engineer, and file,” Fox said.
“An August NCE filing window is highly unprecedented. I am unsure why the FCC has deviated from the regular timing for this filing window.”
For educational institutions, the FCC historically had been well aware that campuses chiefly operate on school-year calendars where various staff, students and administrators are not usually active during the summer. The process of obtaining a contract engineering, planning, obtaining reasonable assurance and authority from university or tribal administrations or nonprofit boards collectively takes months.
In a letter to the FCC, CBI President Anabella Poland frets that college radio as a whole will not be able to participate in this window.
“Administrators who hold signing authority are frequently on reduced schedules during the summer, and securing institutional approval for a new broadcast authorization — which carries long-term operational and regulatory obligations — requires deliberate review that summer availability does not accommodate. This process routinely takes several months,” she wrote.
Timothy Lynch, general manager of UC Berkeley’s student radio station, KALX: stated, “We’re lucky to have heard about this filing window. But it is unlikely if we can hire a consultant engineer, and obtain authorization through the University of California, Berkeley campus, the UC Office of the President and the UC Regents on an expedited basis in the middle of the summer.”
Ted Coe, station adviser at UC Santa Barbara’s KCSB, echoed that sentiment.
On June 24, Native Public Media and National Congress of American Indians submitted a letter to the FCC stating the window should be moved to November to “provide Tribal Nations with a realistic opportunity to participate fully in this rare spectrum opportunity …”
Joseph Orazco, the previous general manager of the Hoopa Valley Tribe station KIDE, Hoopa, had been looking for ways to extend the station’s limited coverage for decades.
“I was discouraged to see that after 26 years, the one opportunity to apply for a FM translator is in mere weeks. Finding an engineer, trying to find viable sites in our rugged terrain area, obtaining consent from the Tribal Council with the time given is unrealistic,” he said.
“Last year, FEMA opened an opportunity for tribes to apply for the Next Gen Warning System Grant after it was canceled by Congress for CPB. The opportunity wasn’t announced anywhere except for grant instructions buried on the FEMA website two weeks in advance of a one-week filing window. No tribe could take advantage of this.”
This window also represents the first opportunity for LPFM licensees to apply for FM translators.
The interest in FM translators for LPFM peaked in 2021 with Docket 19-193, an LPFM technical improvements rulemaking, where there was groundswell support via commenters for “LP-250.”
LP-250 is a proposed radio service to retool the 100-watt LPFM service with a 250-watt option to counter growing LPFM interference and signal sustainability problems. The FCC shelved the LP-250 prospect under the docket, recommending that in the interim LPFM stations apply for FM translators to fix their signal issues. However, a filing window for LPFM had never materialized in the two decades LPFM service had existed.
The cocket also intended to remove the outdated analog TV-6 protection rules that stymied FM translators and LPFM. The commission was poised to eliminate this rule within the docket’s circulation draft order. However, objection was interceded by Disney’s lawyers at the 11th hour.
The rule elimination was dropped from the final order, expressly over interference protection misconceptions concerning WPVI(TV) Channel 6 Philadelphia.
In 2023, reform of the NCE translator filing window rules kicked off when the FCC took up REC’s Petition for Rulemaking RM-11952.
RM-11952 intended to discourage the rife trafficking abuses within 2003’s FM translator Action No. 83, among other filing window public interest measures.
Both REC and CFI expressed to the commission that §73.860(b)(1), a redundant measure that requires the 60 dBu contour of the LPFM station to overlap the 60 dBu contour of the commonly-owned FM translator station, was unrealistic given remaining FM translator channel availability, the difficulty in engineering for a number of reasons, and not reflecting practical in-the-field system deployability.
This stipulation makes the application several times more difficult for an LPFM licensee compared to a NCE licensee. Due to regulatory burden, most LPFMs who need LP-250 in urban areas do not have a prospective FM translator solution.
The commission had three years to systematically reform the NCE filing policies and rules via RM-11952, and five years to repeal analog TV-6 protection. NCE FM translator window applicants are now barred from applying in many cities over protection of nonexistent 1970s television sets.
“LPFM translator antenna sites take longer to find and engineer, and the applications will be more technically complex than NCEs because contour overlap is required by §73.860,” stated Paul Bame, director of engineering at Prometheus.
“After a lengthier search process, LPFM applicants will encounter peak-summer-vacation communication delays with site owners and zoning consultants, and the band is already full in many places, so we worry that few LPFMs will actually improve their service with this unprecedented window.”
Some recalled that the FCC provided an open FM translator frequency search tool on its website to aid AM cross-service commercial translator applicants during the AM Revitalization filing windows. That FCC preparatory tool does not appear to be offered to NCEs.
Lisa Ledwith, executive director of rural community radio station KHEN(LP), tried to get a jump on researching FM translator availability early. Consulting with an engineer in April, she lamented that compliance with §73.860(b)(1) is not technically possible.
“We’re been patiently waiting for years to get our signal to work but we can’t find a tower in the right location to comply with §73.860(b)(1).”
The commission’s recent Docket 26-20, outlining the eligibility restrictions for this filing window, did exceptionally pursue public interest measures by instilling a limit of 10 applications per licensee, and requiring licensees to maintain the origination station feed declared on the window application for a set period of time to crack down on horse trading. A select group of applicants turned mass filings from the 2003 FM Translator window (Auction No. 83) into arbitrage ventures. REC, CFI and Prometheus were all concerned about this.
Another overlooked concern for this window is FCC’s LMS, the online filing system for these applications. The system seems to have had server problems and page errors that have picked up since the beginning of the year. The site hangs or logs the user out seemingly on a daily basis, even at low demand times.
In all of the past NCE/LPFM windows, there have been server capacity issues with LMS, in addition to the FCC’s previous CDBS portal. There has not been any indication that these issues will be resolved by the FCC’s contractors.
Lack of outreach
A common grievance echoed by some is the fact that the FCC does not contact NCE/LPFM stations to even alert licensees of these filing window opportunities. The FCC depends on the aforementioned advocacy groups to fulfill these outreach jobs, for which the organizations do not have formal outreach budgets, and with this specific window, inadequate allotted time to pursue outreach.
The short timeframe is an additional burden to consultant engineers, who execute the technical portion of the application and can only handle a finite roster of clients. Longtime, community radio-friendly engineer Michael Brown of Brown Broadcast Services Inc. stated, “Applicants and consultants are strained given this unusually-short amount of time to work with. The 2023 LPFM window had four months (extended from the original three months), from the public notice announcement to the opening day of the window. The 2021 NCE window had 6½ months’ notice. The upcoming Auction No. 114 of commercial FM allotments has been given a nine-month advance notice. This translator window only has 55 days (1.8) months advance notice. A delay of this window would be appropriate and very welcome.”
Technical Consultant Leo Ashcroft of Nexus Broadcast asserted: “The demands of non-commercial broadcasters are unique. The FCC customarily provides several months before a window to accommodate this. The FCC is stretching the capacity of consultants for this window. There is curtailed ability from techs to assist a 25-year backlog of those who need assistance.”
REC’s Founder and Broadcast Technician Michelle Bradley recently announced that REC would be capping the number of FM translator applications to engineers to 40 on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bradley recently pointed out an error in the window public notice. In a rush to release it, the FCC appears to have misdefined the Diversity of Ownership point criteria, stating points can be attained by a FM translator not overlapping the 60 dBu contour of a commonly-owned FM authorization. This conflicts with §73.7003(b), which stipulates a 70 dBu contour overlap.
NCE advocates also pointed out that the point system also has innate biases. The 60 dBu overlap required by §73.860(b)(1) could be seen as punitive in nature for the LPFM claiming Diversity of Ownership NCE points, potentially placing FM translator applications from LPFM licensees at a point system disadvantage.
Fill-in translators also have their own point bias towards incumbent NCE licensees. The FCC hasn’t commented on these issues at this writing.
A comment from CFI on the eligibility restrictions docket for this file window explained that in the LPFM filing window, most technical consultants met their limits while many prospective LPFM applicants couldn’t find engineering assistance. CFI was working until 3 a.m. nightly, including being up 36 hours straight, to enter all the applications in LMS. There is simply not enough time to assist all who need help for these windows.
“We relayed to the commission concerns of NCE broadcasters well in advance: outdated technical rules, deficiencies of preparatory time and technical help, and the difficulty of outreach in previous windows,” said Darrick Servis, CFO of CFI. “We were looking for policies responsive to the needs of educational broadcasters.”
Both CBI and NFCB also conveyed that there are public interest concerns about the exclusionary window timing. College, Tribal, rural and LPFM are especially hit with inability to apply.
CBI’s Poland stated, “A filing window that effectively excludes the very organizations the NCE band was designed to serve does not fulfill the commission’s mandate — it inverts it. “
And NFCB’s CEO A. Rima Dael emphasized, “The question is not who can apply, but whether small, rural, Tribal and locally governed broadcasters have a genuine opportunity to compete for a rare spectrum opportunity that could determine local service, emergency communications, and community access to the airwaves for years to come.”
CFI believes there is a consensus that a window rescheduled for at least mid-November would provide the minimum amount of time for educational institutions to participate, and applicants to fulfill a competent application with consultants.
A more agile TV-6 waiver, and sensible parameters for accepting a waiver concerning §73.860(b)(1), would yield considerable relief to applicants and consultants alike.
CFI would like to hear from applicants and consultants concerning their thoughts via email.
