The FCC is sticking to its rejection of a big batch of LPFM applications that were submitted by the Weather Alert Radio Network.
WARN wants to create a regional “public safety radio service” network of rural low-power stations focused on early warning and preparedness for extreme weather. It filed 213 applications in last year’s window for construction permits at 105 sites in nine southern and southeastern states and the Virgin Islands.
While the FCC generally prohibits an entity from holding an interest in more than one LPFM station, WARN hoped to take advantage of an exception that allows not-for-profits and governmental entities with a public safety purpose to be granted multiple licenses.
But the FCC dismissed the applications in February. It said WARN was not community-based with respect to the proposed stations and that it had not submitted relevant documentation or requests for waivers regarding its public safety purpose.
WARN then petitioned to have 105 of the applications reinstated. Those are in eight states in the south and southeast.
Now the Media Bureau has rejected that petition.
It said WARN has not proven that it had jurisdiction as a public safety radio service. “We are unpersuaded by WARN’s argument that it demonstrated it had jurisdiction ‘through a mountain of communication, implied contracts, verbal agreements, authorizations and communications by public safety agencies to disseminate critical weather information to the public via its RSS feed system (non-broadcast) and through its proposed LPFM radio network,’ the Media Bureau wrote, quoting the WARN petition. It said WARN had not submitted those materials, and that in any event, a willingness to work or cooperate with WARN is not enough to satisfy the jurisdiction requirement.
“We note that all that these public safety organizations appear to be doing is providing WARN with access to information that is available to all members of the public through other sources. … At a minimum, a non-government entity proposing to use an LPFM station to provide a public safety radio service must provide evidence that a governmental entity has contracted with, designated or authorized the non-governmental entity to provide public safety radio services on its behalf, and that the governmental entity has jurisdiction in the service area of the proposed LPFM station.”
The bureau also said WARN had failed to justify a waiver of the requirement to demonstrate jurisdiction. It dismissed the idea that its ruling is contrary to the public interest. “The information that WARN proposes to broadcast before, during and after extreme weather events is transmitted to the public from other sources.”
As far as WARN’s interactions with FCC staff, the Media Bureau said such communications are not binding and that WARN also had mischaracterized them. In fact, it said, the FCC staff emailed WARN in August of last year indicating that WARN would need to demonstrate jurisdiction in the areas it wished to serve. The commission didn’t accept the argument that WARN had only provided basic information in the applications because it felt the FCC staff “already had an in-depth representation including contacts and phone numbers of state public safety officials as an example” and so it believed that further disclosure of the same information in the application stage would be unnecessary.
WARN also had argued that it could not have known about the need for a waiver of the jurisdiction requirement because this wasn’t mentioned on an FCC FAQ. But that webpage, the Media Bureau wrote, specifically urges potential LPFM applicants to “read and understand all the rules before you apply” and provides a link to the electronic version of the relevant federal regulations.
