WASHINGTON — On March 23, the FCC released a Public Notice announcing a new auction for the small group of mutually exclusive applications left from last year’s window for the filing of FM translator applications by Class C and D AM stations and setting the rules and procedures for that auction. The auction begins on May 15.
While only 26 applications are involved in the auction “it shows that the FCC is trying to rapidly clear its decks of all remaining translator applications,” writes David Oxenford, in broadcastlawblog.com. Also on the FCC’s schedule is an auction of mutually exclusive translators left over from its 2003 FM translator window.
“Singleton” applications (translators that are predicted to not cause interference to any other translator application or any existing station) from the window opened late last year for Class A and B AM stations are now scheduled for filing, along with long-form applications for applicants who were able to work out mutually exclusive situations in the first window so that they did not need to go to auction, according to the same post.
Still to be announced for applicants in that Class A and B window is the settlement period for applications that are mutually with other applications. “Expect that announcement soon,” Oxenford writes.
