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Graham Brock, Inc. |
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Broadcast Technical Consultants |
| Vol. XII, No. 7 |
R. Stuart Graham, Jr. |
| July 2005 |
Jefferson G. Brock |
| FM Auction 62 and a Brief FM Freeze |
| The Commission announced the dates for the
pre-auction filings in Auction 62. The actual bidding
process will not begin until November 1, 2005. The FCC
will open a window from July 27th through August 12th
(at 6:00 pm) for parties to submit their respective Form
175 applications. These forms must indicate the bidding
parties and the channels those parties will be seeking
in the auction. A preferred site reservation can also be
made in this application for those having an actual site
other than the allocation site for the channel. Minimum
payments for the channels selected are due September
30th. A mock auction will be held on October 28th. A
reminder that all of the channels to be auctioned are
listed on the Graham Brock website (www.grahambrock.com),
with a coverage map for each channel, based on the
allocation reference site. Also, the Commission will not
accept any applications for minor changes to existing FM
stations between July 27th and August 12th. A freeze on
Petitions for Rule Makings, or counterproposals
impacting an auction channel, became effective on the
release of the Public Notice announcing the freeze. |
| On June 15th, the FCC issued a Public Notice
listing the mutually exclusive AM applications which
were filed in January 2004. The list indicates the
MX groups for applications for new stations and/or
major change applications for existing stations.
Each group is also categorized into three separate
types. Group 1 consists of applications for new
stations and major changes to existing stations.
Group 2 is for mutually exclusive applications for
new stations in different communities. Group 3 is
for new applications specifying the same community
and frequency. Applicants in Group 1 may submit
engineering solutions to remove themselves from the
MX groups. The other two groups do not have this
option. The Commission set September 16th as the
deadline for filing solutions. It is also the
deadline for the submission of Section 307 analyses.
These analyses must show the area and population to
be served by the proposed facility, the number of
stations already licensed to the community of
license, the number of existing stations providing
protected service to the proposed community, the
population of the proposed community, and any other
relevant information regarding the community. Those
parties with technical solutions, if acceptable,
will avoid the auction process. Those applications
with a Section 307 preference will also avoid the
auction process. The remainder of the applications
will be auctioned at a future date. |
| The FCC recently released a list of 1554 TV
stations’ tentatively selected DTV channels.
These stations, which had analog and digital
channels in the TV core spectrum (Channels 2-51)
or participated in a negotiated channel
arrangement, were to select which channel they
would operate digitally at the conclusion of the
transition process. Many selected their present
digital channels. Stations located in border
zones (Mexico and Canada) are subject to
international coordination. The next round of
selections will be sometime this fall for
stations with a channel in the core spectrum and
one outside the core spectrum. |
| Pending PRM Settlement
Opportunity |
| The Commission is currently soliciting
comments on a Petition for Rule Making to
allow existing stations (AM and FM) to
change community of license by application,
rather than by a Petition. During this time,
they are allowing the parties to certain
pending rule making cases to settle. The FCC
notes there are numerous pending requests
for new allotments which are in conflict
with other changes or counterproposals. They
will now allow settlements between the
parties and have waived the requirement for
parties to settle only for expenses. This
opportunity is only for proceedings which
have had notices issued by the Commission
and for which the comment period closed on
or before June 14th. The FCC hopes this
window, which closes on September 19, 2005,
will reduce some of the back-logged cases. |
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