OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

Vol. VIII, No. 10 - October 2001

Auction is Delayed

As expected, the FCC issued a Public Notice postponing the upcoming auction of 360 vacant FM channels. This is the third delay in the Commission's new process of awarding permits for new broadcast services when there is more than one interested party. The auction was deferred due to a recent case involving commercial and non-commercial parties vying for the same commercial channel. The U.S. Court of Appeals recently ruled that non-commercial entities were exempt from auctions. There have been no comments on any re-scheduling. The Commission is now faced with developing new rules to address these issues for commercial and non-commercial broadcasters.

A Settlement Opportunity

There are more than a dozen new channels around the country for which there have been several mutually exclusive applications filed. In each of these cases, one or more of the applicants has filed as a non-commercial entity. Due to the U.S. Court decision, the Commission presently does not have a way to award a permit for these facilities. Therefore, the FCC has established a window for these applicants to attempt to settle their respective mutual exclusivity and allow the issuance of a permit. The FCC has also waived the reimbursement for expenses cap until November 30, 2001. As such, the applicants, if sufficiently motivated, should be able to settle these outstanding matters without having to wait for the FCC to make rule changes.

More Class C0's

When the FCC created the new C0 class for FM stations earlier this year, it was uncertain as to how may parties would file applications seeking to force under-built Class C stations to downgrade to Class C0. In the intervening months, the Commission has received many upgrade and relocation applications that require the forced downgrade of Class C stations. The Class C stations are given the opportunity to bring the affected Class C up to the new minimums at 100.0 kW, 451 meters or 1,480 feet HAAT. This requires an application to be filed with the Commission within 180 days. Others have submitted filings to relocate or voluntarily downgrade to C0 in order to allow another station to make an improvement such as increase to maximum for its respective class, delete a directional or class upgrade. It is possible that the station limiting your facility to a lower power has made a change.

Another Number

The FCC has issued a notice that all parties who file applications after December 3, 2001, will be required to have a FRN (Federal Registration Number). This number is not a facility identification number that identifies a specific radio or television station. The FRN identifies the organization or company holding a license or licenses. Entities with numerous subsidiaries will have to have individual FRN's for each employer identification number. A ten digit Federal Registration Number can be obtained by accessing the FCC's CORES system at www.fcc.gov.

EAS Test Resumed

Following the September 11^th attack, the FCC issued a Public Notice allowing stations to eliminate the weekly testing of the EAS system. The FCC agreed that the tests may alarm the public unnecessarily. As of October 2, 2001, the Commission has informed stations that EAS tests were to resume on the normal schedules.