FCC Moving Forward on LPFM

The FCC is soliciting bids for an independent entity to conduct field tests to determine if LPFMs cause interference to existing stations if 3rd-adjacent channel protections were dropped or relaxed, says chairman Michael Powell.
The tests are expected to take more than a year to complete.
It’s not clear what happens if the tests do show interference, he said, whether Congress would become involved or not. According to language Congress passed late last year, the agency needs congressional authority to ever change the channel protections in the LPFM rules. No mention of necessary congressional authority was made in the commission’s recent order incorporating lawmaker’s changes to its LPFM rules.
LPFMs can still be licensed in the meantime, he said.