A Calvary Chapel church has secured a construction permit for a new noncommercial FM station in populous northern New Jersey, about 30 miles west of New York City.
Calvary Chapel Morris Hills won the CP for a station on 88.9 MHz with 2.5 kW effective radiated power.
This is a case that arises out of the FCC’s filing window for new NCE stations in late 2021.
In this grouping, the FCC identified five mutually exclusive applications for stations in various communities in New Jersey. The others were Casa de Destino, Redeemer Broadcasting Inc., Transmission Communications Network and Cantico Nuevo Ministry Inc.
Working through its standard multi-step selection process, the FCC narrowed it to the applications of Calvary Chapel Morris Hills and Redeemer. A subsequent point system comparison ultimately led the commission to choose Calvary Chapel Morris Hills as tentative selectee.
Redeemer objected, arguing that Calvary Chapel had failed at first to provide required information about Channel 6 protections. But Calvary Chapel later amended its application, and the FCC staff determined that the application complies with the rules.
Calvary Chapel Morris Hills will have to divest its LPFM station WCFT in Dover, N.J. before putting its new station in Bernardsville on the air.
