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Last week, we reported on the FCC’s release of a Public Notice announcing the recomputation of new power levels for Pre-Sunrise and Post-Sunset Authority for AM stations.  These computations were done because of the change in Daylight Savings Time that goes into effect this weekend.  We’ve heard from clients, and saw in yesterday’s broadcast…

As we’ve written before, when Congress passed a new law extending Daylight Savings Time, AM stations that adjust power levels at sunrise and sunset would be affected.  Today, the FCC took action to adjust to those differences by announcing changes in Pre-Sunrise (PSRA) and Post-Sunset (PSSA) authority for all AM stations that have such authority.  Effective March 11…

The FCC Order announcing a simplification of the procedures for changing cities of licenses of radio stations, and the modification of procedures for amending the FM Table of Allotments, was published in the Federal Register today.  Thus, the new rules will become effective in 30 days, on January 19.  The freeze on FM allotment changes that has been in place for the last year and a half will be lifted on that date.

Substantial questions remain about how these new rules will be implemented in practice.  Informal conversations with FCC staffers have indicated that further explanations of the procedures may be forthcoming.  Issues in the new rules include the fact that only 4 stations may be changed in any single, interrelated filing, which may hamper some of the larger, more complicated facilities changes that have become common over the last few years – and which allow many stations to improve their facilities through interrelated changes. 

There are also issues with city of license changes for noncommercial FM stations, as the new rules as written limit city of license changes to situations where the 1 mv/m contour of the station when moved would overlap with some part of the 1 mv/m service area of the station as currently licensed.  In other services, the limits are that the move must be mutually exclusive with the present facilities (e.g. the interfering and protected contours of the stations would overlap).  Continue Reading New City of License Change Rules Effective January 19

According to the agenda for its meeting to be held on Friday, November 3, the FCC will finally adopt changes to its rules on FM allotment procedures and on changes in the city of license of broadcast stations.  The FCC issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in this proceeding in June 2005.  This proceeding includes a proposal to make a city of license change a "minor change," which would not require a rulemaking for FM stations, and would not require a window filing for AM stations.  This could speed the processing of such changes, allowing stations to upgrade and otherwise improve their facilities.

The proceeding also deals with a number of other procedural issues, including whether a station should be allowed to change its city of license if it is the only station licensed to a community (generally prohibited under current rules), and whether the proponent of a new FM allotment should be required to file its Form 301 application for a construction permit (and pay the required filing fee) at the same time as it files a Petition seeking the new allotment (intended to encourage only serious applicants for new channels).Continue Reading FCC to Consider FM Allotment Changes