A new LPFM station on 88.1 FM has been granted a construction permit by the FCC in Big Rapids, Mich., following the commission’s dismissal of two groups’ objections to the station.
Big Rapids Wireless filed the application for an LPFM during the 2023 window. After its application was accepted, Mentor Partners filed an objection in February of this year.
Mentor owns five FM signals licensed to Big Rapids. In its objection, the group pointed to a document Big Rapids Wireless added to its LPFM application in February — after the LPFM application window closed — showing its incorporation in the state of Michigan. Mentor contended it was an impermissible amendment to its application.
Mentor also alleged the applicant’s provided headquarters address was a residence, not a business, and none of the persons listed at the residence appear on the application. It claimed two of Big Rapids Wireless’ board members do not reside at their listed addresses and said that a third member is more than 20 miles from the proposed transmitter site.
Mentor used a combination of screenshots from Google Earth, Google Maps, realtor.com and whitepages.com as its evidence.
Big Rapids Wireless responded to Mentor’s claims, saying they were poorly sourced.
The nonprofit said its address information is indeed correct, and that its headquarters is located at the same address listed on its annual report to the Michigan Secretary of State.
FCC rules require an LPFM’s headquarters to be within 20 miles of the proposed transmitting antenna site. Seventy-five percent of its board members must also reside within the same proximity.
The commission denied Mentor’s objections and it took the opportunity to express caution on usage of online sources as evidence.
It recommended making efforts to verify such claims, including “making a site visit to the relevant location, obtaining a statement from an individual with personal knowledge of the facts alleged or, at the very least, corroborating the information using another reliable online source, preferably a government or other official source.”
The commission said it found Big Rapids’ application amendment permissible.
Big Rapids also withstood a petition to deny from religious broadcaster Smile FM, a network heard on 30 FM signals across Michigan.
Smile FM has a pending 91.5 FM translator application in Green Twp., Mich. (located five miles from Big Rapids), stemming back to the year 2000 and in pending status since 2010. There hasn’t been a non-commercial FM translator window opened by the commission since 2000.
Smile FM intended to feed the translator an over-the-air signal from 88.3 WSMZ(FM), licensed to Crystal Valley, Mich. Since the proposed translator site is just over one mile away from the 88.1 LPFM’s listed tower, Smile FM argued the LPFM would encroach on its translator’s input frequency.
But Big Rapids Wireless contended that, since the translator is not on the air, any interference is theoretical. It pointed to FCC rules that say input stations are afforded protection from predicted interference only if they are a third-adjacent frequency to a proposed LPFM station.
Smile FM responded saying that, because of the likelihood of interference, the new LPFM will eventually need to cease broadcasting, disenfranchising its listeners and causing “public outrage.” The religious broadcaster also requested the commission immediately process its translator, which, in its words, has been “pending for unconscionable period of time.”
But the commission also dismissed Smile FM’s objection, stating in its ruling, “Whether the station may or may not cause such interference to the Smile FM translator in the future is not a consideration at the initial application stage.”
Additionally, it dismissed Smile FM’s request for immediate translator processing, deeming it “impermissibly raised in a reply pleading.”
As a result, Big Rapids Wireless’ 88.1 LPFM CP has been granted. Calling the station Big Rapids Public Radio, it seeks to provide educational programming to the Mecosta County, Mich., area, with an emphasis on the LGBTQ+ community. It said it will provide broadcast opportunities to students attending Ferris State University, which does not have a broadcast station.
