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FM Translator Dismissals Begin

Broadcasters had January filing window to guide FCC in processing pending Auction 83 applications

The FCC’s Media Bureau is dismissing about 3,000 FM translator proposals pending from Auction 83.

The move was not unexpected as the commission balances the spectrum needs of FM translators with future low-power FMs.

The FCC needed a way to process some 6,000 pending FM translator applications remaining from 2003.

Broadcasters who had pending applications had a filing window from Jan. 10–25 to show the commission which applications they wanted to pursue and how those would fit under the new caps. The commission had increased the national cap for pending FM translator applications that one company could pursue from 50 to 70, as long as no more than 50 are in the top 150 radio markets. The Media Bureau relaxed the local cap on one application per entity up to three applications one company could pursue in rural markets.

The Media Bureau is releasing the dismissal list as well as the list of FM translator applications that the broadcasters asked the agency to focus on in order to fall within the caps.

The commission said some companies failed to submit either a selection list or show that its pending FM translator applications fall within the caps; those were dismissed too.

Dismissed translator applications are officially called “tech box” proposals from Form 349. The commission gave each proposal a file number from the Consolidated Database System. Each of the dismissed applications will contain a CDBS comment something like “Dismissed Feb. 5, 2013 per DA 13-XX.”

To facilitate access to these filings, the Media Bureau said it’s tried to associate all submissions from each applicant with the applicant’s last filed tech box proposal, regardless of status. Generally, an applicant’s last filed tech box will be the first listed file number that comes up during a CDBS Public Access search.

See footnote 4 for instructions on how to retrieve the lists from CDBS.

Also, the agency marked as “defective” a number of applications that either omitted necessary information or that exceeded the caps. The Media Bureau will dismiss those soon.

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