The FCC is trying to untangle competing applications filed by a low-power FM station and a translator in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minn.
In the latest twist, the commission has reversed a Media Bureau decision by granting an application for review from the LPFM and rescinding the grant of the translator modification, at least for now.
Both of these licensees are trying to take advantage of the fact that another LPFM — KQEP on 97.9 MHz in St. Paul — had been silent and was about to lose its license.
Park Public Radio is licensed to operate low-power station KPPS in St. Louis Park on 97.5 MHz. But in anticipation of the opening left by KQEP, in 2021 Park applied for a new KPPS transmitter site and to shift frequency to 97.7.
The Media Bureau staff originally dismissed that application, in part because Park had filed it approximately six hours before KQEP’s license had actually expired, but also because of problems with first-adjacent short-spacing. (The timing would matter if the final decision were to come down to “first come, first served” considerations.)
Instead the bureau granted a mutually exclusive application to Central Baptist Theological Seminary of Minneapolis to modify the location and community of license for its translator K250BY, which supports an AM station and is heard on 97.9 in Plymouth.
Park Public Radio asked for reconsideration of that outcome, but the bureau at first upheld its finding. Park then filed an application for review while Central Baptist opposed it.
Now the FCC is taking a step back. Its summary of the issues involved is lengthy but will please anyone who likes reading about short spacings, filing dates, FCC precedents and the challenges of trying to move FM signals around in a crowded RF marketplace. You can read it here.
In sum the FCC still rejected many of Park’s arguments including its belief that the rules permit an LPFM to retain grandfathered short-spacing when switching to a closer channel. The FCC said a waiver of first-adjacent spacing requirements would be inappropriate in this case.
But it found that the Media Bureau had erred in dismissing Park’s modification application.
“Park was entitled to consideration under our nunc pro tunc policy, which allows curative amendments within 30 days of the dismissal of a defective application.” It said Park had attempted to amend to address the K250BY short-spacing but was prevented from doing so by technical issues with the FCC’s filing system.
“We direct the bureau to allow Park to file a single amendment to the Park Modification Application within 30 days of the issuance of this order. If, upon staff review, the Park Modification Application is rule-compliant and reinstated nunc pro tunc, it will be processed as though it were filed without defect on its original filing date of March 31, 2021.”
It rescinded the grant of Central Baptist’s translator modification and returned it to “pending” status, so that the two applications will be restored to the “first-come, first-served” processing queue.
But while victory in this round seems to go to the LPFM, it’s probably wise to wait and see, given the many arguments and turns that this case has taken to date.
As the FCC wrote in a footnote: “In light of our actions taken herein, we direct the bureau, when it processes the Park Application, to review and consider all remaining issues going to technical or legal grantability, including any matters that were raised in the initial Petition to Deny.” So the final outcome in this case has yet to be written.
