A timeshare between two Class B1 noncommercial FM construction permit holders in Wisconsin has been reaffirmed by the FCC, following the denial of an objection filed by one of the parties against the other. The applicants have now been assigned operating hours by the commission after failing to come to an agreement.
Following the 2021 filing window, Optima Enrichment Inc. and Waterloo Christian Radio Corp. were part of a mutually exclusive group. Both organizations are located about 30 miles west of Milwaukee and sought to broadcast on 91.5 FM. After the commission applied its usual tiebreaking procedures and denied an informal objection, it directed the applicants to enter a timeshare agreement, as we reported on in December.
But the commission said the groups did not submit a time-sharing agreement by the Jan. 26 deadline it had set.
The following day, Waterloo Christian filed an objection to Optima’s application. The group argued it should be the sole selectee because its coverage statistics for both area and population exceed those of Optima by more than 10%, earning a point in the commission’s tiebreaking system.
An applicant receives one point for “best technical proposal” if its proposed service area and population are 10% greater than those of the next best area and population proposals, according to the commission’s tiebreaking rules.
David files another petition
Frequent FCC petitioner Albert Adam David, who had filed the unsuccessful objection against the Waterloo Christian application last June, submitted another in March. David asserted that Waterloo Christian’s population and coverage data both do not exceed Optima’s by the required 10%, meaning that the group is not entitled to the tiebreaker point.
Based on his independent study, David calculated the figures to be 5.54% for population and 8.64% for coverage.
This time the commission agreed with David. It found that neither applicant was entitled to the points for best technical proposal, based on its own calculations — 5.1% for population and 8.4% for coverage.
The Media Bureau reaffirmed its tentative selection of the Waterloo Christian and Optima applications.
Two groups assigned operating hours
Since the groups couldn’t agree on a timesharing arrangement, the commission asked each for their preferred daily time slots.
Optima indicated a time slot of 3:00 a.m. to 2:59 p.m., while Waterloo Christian did not respond with their preference. As a result, they’ll get the 3:00 p.m. to 2:59 a.m. slice of the day. The commission said the operating hours will appear on the groups’ respective construction permits.
Waterloo Christian also operates 96.9 WULD(LP) from its headquarters in Waterloo, Wis. Optima Enrichment is a nonprofit organization based in Brookfield that also owns the Milwaukee Breakwater Lighthouse.
The groups will share 91.5 FM, each operating a Class B1 FM signal — Optima Enrichment’s in Delafield, and Waterloo Christian’s in Ixonia.
