The processing of the applications for new noncommercial FM stations marches on.  This week, the FCC released a list of groups of Mutually Exclusive applications (commonly known by those who regularly deal with the FCC as "MX groups"), i.e. applications that are linked together in that, because of interference concerns, not all can be granted.  In some cases, all of the applications in an MX group overlap with each other so that only one can be granted.  In other cases, referred to as "daisy chains", you have a situation where Application A precludes Application B from being granted, and Application B prevents Application C from being granted.  While A and C could be granted if not for B, all three end up in a single MX group.  According to the Public Notice released with the list of MX groups, the applications on this list are all situations were there are 13 or fewer applicants in the MX group.  MX groups with a greater number of applications will appear on a subsequent public notice.  MX Groups with 4 or fewer applications were identified back in March.

The Commission has advised all applicants to review the lists to see if they were included in an MX group erroneously or omitted from an MX group in which they should have been included.  If they discover a mistake, the applicant should file, within 30 days, notice with the FCC so that its application can be processed with the group to which it belongs.  Applicants can also try to work out settlements during the 30 day comment period (or notify the FCC at the end of the period that they are still working on a settlement).  Otherwise, at the end of the 30 day period the FCC promises to begin work to resolve the MX cases through the use of the point system (which we explained, here).  So the process marches on, and we should start to see more applications from the noncommercial filing window acted on in the coming months.