19-3

The Federal Communications Commission has denied a Petition for Reconsideration filed in MB Docket 19-3 (the NCE/LPFM administrative rulemaking proceeding) on procedural grounds, upholding the long-standing “one winner per group” policy when resolving mutually exclusive (MX)/competing applications where multiple applications could not be granted due to contour overlap (NCE) or distance separation (LPFM) requirements.  

The Petition, filed by Discount Legal called for the Commission to re-look at “secondary grants”, which are situations of where, after eliminating less than qualified applications or applications that did not meet FCC requirements would create a “stray” applicant that would otherwise be grantable if the unqualified applicants are removed. 

Several changes to the FCC Rules from the recent LPFM Technical Change Order (MB Docket 19-193) were published today in the Federal Register.  Many of the rules will take effect on July 13, 2020.  Some rules, which require a change to FCC forms or other changes to information collection need to go through another step with the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB) before they are effective.  The various rules that will go into effect on July 13 include:

Sharing of EAS decoders.

In an early vote prior to the December 12 open meeting, the Federal Communications Commission has adopted a Report and Order on MB Docket 19-3.  A majority of the items in this docket spell out the ground rules for future filing windows for new noncommercial educational (NCE) and low power FM (LPFM) broadcast stations.  The FCC has officially addressed the timeline for future filing windows.  REC is promoting a timeline that calls for the window for new NCE FM stations to take place in mid to late 2020 (following Auction 106 and the conclusion of the TV repack) and