FCC Tries to Prevent Stations From Circumventing New Market Definition

In order to prevent groups from trying to manipulate the changes in radio market definitions to their benefit, the FCC has developed a safeguard.
“We will not allow a party to receive the benefit of a change in Arbitron Metro boundaries unless that change has been in place for at least two years,” states the commission in its ownership order. The FCC said this safeguard includes both enlarging a metro and shrinking a metro, to split a owner’s non-compliant station holdings into separate markets.
Also, a station combo that no longer complies with the rules cannot rely on a changed market definition to suddenly bring the combo in compliance.