Various sources have indicated the FCC may be close to enacting rules that would create low power FM stations. In fact, the Commission may vote on the matter as early as January 20, 2000. The only information being tossed about is that the LPFM facilities will be limited to 100 watts and will only be allowed non-commercial operation. There has been no information as to 1) whether these facilities will be allowed in the commercial band with non-commercial programming, 2) the final outcome of the need to protect 2nd and 3rd adjacent stations, or 3) the status of these new stations (primary, secondary or tertiary). Prior to the holiday break, Congress was considering a bill to prevent the implementation of any low power service. Congress reconvenes on January 24th, after the Commission's meeting.
As we reported last month, the FCC announced a window for filing new and major change AM applications from January 24th through 28th. As of December 24, 1999, the FCC froze the submission of any minor change applications for AM stations to allow the database to be updated prior to the completion of the major change filings. Not even corrections of geographic coordinates can be submitted. On January 31, 2000, applicants may once again submit applications for minor changes for AM stations, although it may be wise to allow all of the major change and new applications to be added to the database before filing a new minor change application.
As midnight approached in every time zone (no we didn't stay up and watch.......well, not all of them), we awaited tales of computer failures, power outages, telephone system overloads, etc. No immediate problems were reported and the lights stayed on. Over a week later, we did hear of a few problems with radio station traffic systems that thought it was 1900 on some reports, some systems thought it was Monday, January 1st (rather than Saturday) and some systems thought it was 19100. All in all, things proceeded without too many problems. The best story was a video store which assessed a customer approximately $15,000 for a late fee on a tape he had rented only the night before. Got any stories? Please drop us a note or email. We'd love to hear them!
New AM stations are possible in many areas, but finding them is the tough part. Unlike their FM and TV counterparts, AM frequencies are not listed in a Table of Allotments, but are proposed based on specific protection for interference criteria, in some cases very site specific. It's not just a matter of a minimum distance between stations, because power, frequency, tower height and ground conductivity all play a role. While it is too late to start from scratch on locating a new full- time AM station for this upcoming window, more windows are expected in the future. If you have an interest in a new AM station, a full-band search is a good idea.
On December 31, 1999, the FCC shut down its VAX computer system where the AM, FM and TV databases resided. The replacement system, Consolidated Database System (CDBS), has a problem the new database format is not compatible with the software presently in use. To complicate matters, the last VAX database did not include all of the AM minor change applications before the system was shut down. Unfortunately, the various software companies were only made aware of this between Christmas and New Year's, leaving no time to write conversion programs or modify software. As detailed above, this makes the upcoming new and major change window for AM stations very interesting. The Commission's staff is now working on a conversion program to provide separate database information in a more user friendly format.