The FCC will consider final rules for FM geotargeting when it meets in November.
Earlier this year the commission authorized the use of FM boosters for broadcasting unique content to hyper-localized listening areas for three minutes per hour; but it held off on finalizing the rules and processes.
At present a station must use experimental authority to adopt the technology, which is sold in the marketplace by GeoBroadcast Solutions (GBS) under the ZoneCasting name.
Now Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has announced that the commission will consider final rules for this “tailored content” at its Nov. 21 meeting. The details have not been released, but it seems likely the commission will act, given that the vote this spring was unanimous and that a vote on final rules has come up relatively quickly after that.
GBS has urged the FCC to adopt such rules. It wrote in June that the FCC now has a complete record to resolve any issues.
It has discouraged the FCC from trying to set synchronization parameters that might “lead the commission down an engineering rabbit hole cluttered with unique waiver requests.” It said program-originating FM boosters are already subject to disclosure requirements for EAS participants, so new notification rules are unnecessary. It said program-originating boosters should be treated as “separate facilities for the limited purposes of applying the equal opportunities, reasonable access and lowest unit charge rules to booster originating sales.”
GBS has also asked the commission to be open to expanding the three-minute per hour limitation, at least a bit, and not look upon it as a one-way ratchet.
But the National Association of Broadcasters pushed back on the entire concept in its comments after the springtime vote.
The NAB thinks geotargeting is a bad idea that will hurt small broadcasters, especially Class A FM stations in fringe areas of large markets, and that the use of program-originating boosters is likely to harm listeners due to signal disruption in “transition areas,” which could erode public confidence in FM broadcasting.
A number of stations have started the process of building the necessary booster networks. FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks visited one in October.
[Read more of Radio World’s extensive geo-targeting coverage here]
