Introduction
This guide is for those who were principals of LPFM stations and are now operating full-service noncommercial (NCE) FM stations, such as those obtained in the 2011 NCE Filing Window.
This guide is also for principals of existing LPFM stations that are considering obtaining an existing NCE FM station through assignment.
In this guide, we touch on various regulations, policies and other changes that may not apply to LPFM stations, but do apply to full-service NCE FM stations.
The Public Inspection File
Full-service stations are required to maintain a Public Inspection File. Because of rule changes, this file does not need to be maintained at the station offices, but instead is housed by the FCC using the Online Public Inspection File (OPIF) system. All stations need to access OPIF and start their public inspection file. Some of the items, such as contour maps and a copy of the FCC's The Pubic and Broadcasting will be automatically placed in your public file by the FCC. There are some very important things that need to be placed in the file on a periodic basis.
Political File
Stations, including NCE-FM (and for that matter, LPFM) must maintain a political file. This is used primarily for when a candidate for public office requests airtime. The public file must be maintained, even if your station does not provide any airtime. For full information about what goes into the political file, see §73.1943 of the FCC Rules. Political files must be retained in the public file for at least two years.
Reminder: NCE-FM stations, like LPFM stations, cannot receive remuneration (payment) in exchange for acknowledgement or a paid message from any candidate for public office, nor can NCE-FM (or LPFM) stations endorse support or opposition for a specific candidate for public office.
Issues/Program Lists
This is by far, the most important periodic reporting that a full-service station has to do. Each quarter, a document must be placed in the OPIF. Each quarterly report must include a list of programs that have provided the station's most significant treatment of community issues during the preceding three month period. The description of the programs shall include, but shall not be limited to, the time, date, duration, and title of each program in which the issue was treated.
The quarterly issues list must be filed in the OPIF on the 10th day of the month that follows a quarter. This means January 10, April 10, July 10 and October 10.
Stations that fail to file quarterly reports will experience delays in their renewal. Missing reports can also lead to a forfeiture (fine) or a Consent Decree where stations may be required to pay a civil penalty and will have to develop a compliance plan, which may include "checking in" with the FCC, usually on an annual basis to demonstrate that the station is in compliance with the quarterly reporting requirement.
Donor Lists
If an individual, business or any other entity provides support to the station for the sole purpose of sponsoring a specific program that airs on the station, those sponsorships must be made public through the donor list. General station support not directed to a specific program does not need to be reported. Donor lists must be maintained in OPIF for at least two years.
Public Notice Announcements
Stations that need to broadcast over the air public notice messages as described in §73.3580 of the rules must upload a notice about when the public notice announcements were aired.
FCC Investigations and Complaints
Material having a substantial bearing on a matter which is the subject of an FCC investigation or complaint to the FCC of which the applicant, permittee, or licensee has been advised must be uploaded to OPIF.
Third Party Fundraising
If the NCE station engages in third-party fundraising (interrupting programming to raise funds for an IRS §501(c)(3) organization) that is not the station, nor its licensed ownership organization, must provide on a quarterly basis (the same time when issues lists are due) a report on any third-party fundraising. The report shall include the following: the date, time, and duration of the fundraiser; the type of fundraising activity; the name of the non-profit organization benefitted by the fundraiser; a brief description of the specific cause or project, if any, supported by the fundraiser; and, to the extent that the station participated in tallying or receiving any funds for the non-profit group, an approximation of the total funds raised.
Foreign Sponsorship Disclosure
If an NCE station airs programming which was furnished by an agent of a foreign government must post a report. For more information on this report, see §73.1212(j)(7) of the rules.
For more information on the publc inspection file, see §73.3527 of the rules.
Community Accountability
In LPFM, the community of license is just a placeholder, in full-service, it is the reason for the station's existence. The Communications Act takes the community of license very seriously and it is reflected in the various rules and policies relating to it.
Main Studio and Local Telephone Number
Full-service broadcast stations are no longer required to have a staffed main studio. They are sill required though to be reachable by telephone during normal hours. The telephone number must either be one that is a local call (exchange telephone service still exists, for now) or is a toll free number. The installation of an actual landline is not required. There are many companies that provide Direct Inward Dialing (DID) numbers for local telephone exchanges (rate centers) across the country and those calls can be forwarded to a cell phone or any Voice over IP (VoIP) equipment or software.
Station website
While not specifically required by the rules, the FCC pretty much expects every station (or broadcast company of mulitple stations) to have a website. On the website, the FCC does require links placed on the sites main landing page to the following:
- Online Public Inspection File
- Contest rules (if your station conducts on-air contests)
- Online public notices (during times when such notices are needed, such as license renewal).
Many stations will place these links in the footer of their site. Content Management System (CMS) software, such as Aiir, Drupal and WordPress have themes that allow you to put content in the footer menu.
Community of license changes
The Communications Act states that (full-service) broadcast licenses must be fairly distributed among the several states and communities.
When an LPFM station had to move, the ability to move was all that mattered. Full-service is different. Full-service stations are required to provide "community coverage". This means for stations on 88.1~91.9, at least 50% of their 60 dBu service contour must be within the corporate limits of the community of license. For stations on 92.1~107.9, the 70 dBu service contour must cover nearly the entire community.
Changing community of license is a complex process in full-service and cannot be done as easy as LPFM. Since the station is licensed to the community, such a change would need to consider the impacts of losing the station from that community. There are policies that make it difficult to move a station to a community with a smaller population, cases where the station seeking a move is the only station licensed to the community and cases where a station is being proposed to be moved from a rural area to an urbanized area.
The FCC has specific policies on how these impact studies must be done and the types of changes that would be considered "a preferential arrangement of allotments". Stations considering a community of license change should contact REC for assistance.
Community of license proposals will be published in the Federal Register and there will be a 30 day comment period that will open up. Community of license changes may take several months to get granted.
License renewal
Full-service broadcast licenses expire on the same date that LPFM licenses expire. The rules for renewals for full-service are similar in some ways as LPFM except that when a renewal is filed, an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) form must be filed with the renewal. For NCE stations with less than 5 full-time employees on the payroll, the EEO form is a very easy process. The EEO form must be filed on the same day as, and prior to the renewal application. This is because you will need the file number of the EEO report for the renewal application.
Timely filing of the renewal application is just as important in NCE as it is in LPFM. It is important to know that because LPFM is a secondary service, the FCC will impose lower forfeitures (fines) to LPFM stations for an untimely renewal filing. The normal amount that has been used in the last renewal cycle for LPFMs was $1,500. Full-service, which is a primary service, will normally get a base forfeiture of $3,000 for an untimely renewal.
Emergency Alert System (EAS)
In LPFM, having an EAS unit was required, but it only needed to be capable of decoding alerts. In full-service, the EAS unit must have both decoding and encoding capability. Those who use the Sage ENDEC or the DASDEC II or older DASDEC III models may already have encoding capability in it. Those with newer DASDEC III units who bought the "entry level" unit should contact Digital Alert Systems to see what is needed to add encoding capability to the DASDEC. Chances are, it may be as simple as purchasing a software key.
Full-service stations are required to receive and forward alerts, including the required monthly test (RMT), the required weekly test (RWT) and the National Periodic Tests (NPT), as well as any national emergencies (which there never has been one).
Full-service stations are also required to generate their own weekly test on weeks that the RMT is not taking place.
Like LPFM stations, full-service stations are required to keep EAS logs. These logs can be retained for at least two years and do not need to be uploaded to OPIF.
Other tidbits and quirks about full-service
Transmitters (type certified vs. type accepted/SDoC)
In LPFM, there is a requirement that transmitters must be models that have been tested in a certified lab and have received a FCC ID code that must be affixed to the transmitter. This is similar to most other radio frequency transmitting equipment from consumer devices to industrial gear. One of the main reasons for this rule in LPFM was because of the significant concern that home built kit equipment, generally used for pirate radio would be used. This concern was prompted by the wording in one of the two petitions for rulemaking back in the late 1990s that created LPFM, RM-9208. The concern remains valid to this day due to the amount of junky transmitters imported from China and sold on Amazon, EBay and other mass marketers.
In full-service broadcast, there is no certification requirement. Instead, the manufacturers only need to make a "Supplier's Declaration of Conformity" (SDoC) where they attest that the transmitter does meet the FCC technical specifications. This is also called "type accepted", "type approved", "FCC compliant", etc. Even in the full-service, the junky transmitters imported from China should not be used. They may be cheap, but they can get you into a boatload of trouble if something goes wrong with them.
Chief Operator
Each full-service broadcast station must designate a person as a "chief operator". For FM stations, this person may be either an employee of the station or engaged to serve on a contract basis for whatever number of hours each week the licensee determines is necessary to keep the station's technical operation in compliance with the FCC rules and terms of the station authorization.
Chief operators are responsible for Inspections and calibrations of the transmission system, required monitors, metering and control systems; and any necessary repairs or adjustments where indicated and review of the station records at least once each week to determine if required entries are being made correctly. Additionally, verification must be made that the station has been operated as required by the rules or the station authorization. Upon completion of the review, the chief operator or his designee must date and sign the log, initiate any corrective action which may be necessary, and advise the station licensee of any condition which is repetitive. Chief operators are also responsible for making the log entries.
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
EEO regulations apply to stations of all sizes. For stations with less than 5 full-time employees on the payroll (which would likely be most graduated LPFM stations), the process mainly involves the filing of a short EEO report at the time of renewal. For employment units with 5 or more full-time employees, there are substantial requirements for developing a program, recruiting methods and providing extensive demographic reporting. These regulations have been the subject of controversy, especially among religious broadcasters. Some of the EEO regulations have been struck down in the courts. There is a very significant amount of interest, especially as shown in the Delete Delete Delete proceeding of 2025 to eliminate the EEO requirements.
Ownership Reports
Full-service stations are required to file ownership reports. These reports simply disclose the current officers/board members as well as disclosure of any kind of contracts, such as affiliation agreements.
Biennial Ownership Reports for NCE stations are normally due on December 1 or each odd-numbered year (2025, 2027, 2029, etc.).
Non-biennial Ownership Reports must be filed when certain triggering incidents take place, such as:
- Within 30 days after the grant of an original construction permit;
- At the time of filing the post-construction license to cover application; and
- Within 30 days of consummating an assignment of license or transfer of control.
Licensees with more than one station only needs to file one ownership report that covers all of the stations. Ownership reports are done by owner (through their FRN) and not the individual stations.
Transfer of Control
In LPFM, whenever there has been at least a 50% turnover in the board (either one time or gradual) since the last time the FCC was notified of the board, a pro forma transfer of control application must be filed.
In full-service, the process is a little more complex as a non-pro forma transfer of control is used. The process will take longer and a public notice is required. Transfer of controls in full-service should be filed at least 45 days before the expected action at the station. An ownership report does not suffice as a transfer of control application.
Site Moves
Minor moves for the NCE reserved band (88.1~91.9) normally require that the proposed site is mutually exclusive with the existing facility. The new facility must retain 50% 60 dBu community coverage within the corporate limits of the designated community of license. As we had previously mentioned, modifications involving a change in community of license are much more complex and will take more time.
"Raleigh" Waivers
In LPFM, stations must meet a certain distance to other facilities on co-, first- and second-adjacent channels where the second-adjacent channel can be waived if a showing of no interference can be demonstrated. Second- and third-adjacent waivers in full-service, as we know them in LPFM, do not exist.
In reserved band (88.1~91.9) NCE full service, protections are based on contours, similar to how FM translators protect other stations. However, unlike translators (and for that matter, LPFM), full-service must not only protect other stations (like with LPFM and translators), but they must also be fully protected (meaning that another station's interfering contour cannot overlap your station's service contour.
For NCE stations in the reserved band that have been well established on the air who may desire a power increase but can't do it because the interfering contour of a second- or third- adjacent channel (100 dBu) would overlap your station's 60 dBu service contour. There is a way, called a Raleigh Waiver, where your station can request an increase in facilities which would result in an overlap of your station's 60 dBu service contour into another station's 100 dBu interfering contour. As long as it can be shown that the result will be a notable increase in the population served by your station (60 dBu) and that the population that is overlapped in the 100 dBu interfering contour is de minimis, the FCC may grant a waiver of the second- or third-adjacent protection.
In the case of a Raleigh Waiver, since it is an introduction of a service contour into an existing interfering contour, it can be seen as the station requesting the waiver as "consenting" to the potential interference. Raleigh Waivers do not work the other way (e.g. increasing your station's 100 dBu interfering contour introduce overlap to an existing station's 60 dBu service contour.
Raleigh waivers are only available in second- and third-adjacent channel situations and not for co- or first-adjacent channel situations.
Music Licensing
While this is not an FCC issue, it is something that full-service stations need to know about. The performing rights organizations (PROs) such as ASCAP, BMI and SESAC, have LPFM specific rate schedules. Full-service will have different schedules. These schedules may be based on population within the 60 dBu service contour and what the ratio of music to talk the station is programming. Please inquire with the PROs for details. There is no LPFM-specific royalty schedule for SoundExchange (for stations that are streaming).
Conclusion
So, there you have it! These are the many rule and procedure differences between LPFM and full-service radio that the principals of new or recently acquired full-service NCE stations need to know.
Your station is in the big leagues now. Compliance is just as important, if not more important, due to the primary nature of the service.
As always, if you have any questions about the quirks of full-service, please do not hesitate to contact REC.
Congratulations on your "big" radio station!
