© 2001 - Munn-Reese, Inc.
All Rights Reserved - Unauthorized Reproduction is Prohibited
News from the Offices of
Munn-Reese, Inc.
Broadcast Engineering Consultants
100 Airport Drive – PO Box 220
Coldwater, MI 49036-0220
Wayne S. Reese, President
|
Telephone: 517-278-7339 |
Internet: www.munn-reese.com |
Fax: 517-278-6973 |
January 2001
Munn-Reese Matters
Did you miss us? We really had good intentions of publishing at least one more newsletter in 2000, but our wacky editor, Thumbs Feebleman, got caught up in all the holiday preparations—and then he got buried in the Michigan winter! Although we’re late, we bring you belated holiday greetings and best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year. Yes, we still have snow—lots of it. Yes, we still have cold—the upper 20’s and lower 30’s now seem balmy! And yes, Thumbs is still complaining—constantly!
Have you seen our newsletter on the Internet? Up until now, we have published it on our own web site. However, it has come to our attention that at least one other party has been publishing our newsletter without mentioning our firm. We have not authorized anyone else to publish our newsletter, and we are not affiliated in any way with those who do so.
Commission Matters
In late December, the FCC announced the first 255 applicants to qualify for LPFM construction permits. These applicants will be eligible for grants after the required 30 day period during which petitions to deny can be filed. In addition to not being mutually exclusive with any other LPFM application, successful applicants had to meet two other qualifications. In accordance with the Commerce, Justice State Appropriations Bill that was passed by Congress, successful applications had to fully protect full service FM and FM translator stations operating on third adjacent channels. Also, applicants had to certify that they had not engaged in unlicensed (read that "pirate") operations. Those on the list, which can be obtained from the FCC web site, were taken from the first two LPFM application windows. An additional Public Notice will be released later dealing with the applications that were mutually exclusive with others.
As might be expected, Chairman William Kennard, who has championed the LPFM service, was pleased with the announcement. He said, "The licensing of these first low power radio stations will benefit our communities and enhance the diversity of our society. I predict that as these first stations go on the air, we will see more and more applications from schools, churches and community-based organizations. And these new LPFM stations will not create any harmful interference problem for existing radio service. It has been a privilege to be part of this effort to bring new voices to the airwaves, and new public services to local communities all around the nation."
Meanwhile, the FCC has announced the third LPFM filing window will open on January 16 and close on January 22, 2001. During this window, applications will be received for LP100 transmitter sites in the following states and territories: American Samoa, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Applications must be filed on FCC Form 318, and for this window, all applications must be filed electronically. If applications are filed outside the window dates, they will be returned, and no opportunity will be provided to amend incomplete and/or defective applications after the window closes. All applications filed within the window will receive the same priority—mutually exclusive applications filed early in the window will not take precedence over applications filed later in the window. None of the applications will be made available to the public until after the window has closed.
The Commission has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comments on how radio markets are treated for ownership purposes. The possibilities fall into two broad categories. The first would be to use some alternate method to define the radio market, such as the definitions used by Arbitron. The Commission notes that about 80% of the nation’s population lives within the 850 counties included in the Arbitron markets. However, this alternative does not answer the question of how to define radio markets in the remaining 2250 counties that are less densely populated. Comments are also sought on how FCC decisions might be affected when private sector firms like Arbitron choose to change their market definitions.
A second possibility under consideration is to retain the same basic contour overlap methodology for defining radio markets but alter the way in which stations are counted within the market. Among the possible changes being suggested are counting against the ownership limit any commonly owned stations that enter the market, regardless of whether or not they define the market. Or, commonly owned stations could be excluded from the total station count unless they are one of the defining stations. Another counting alternative is to only count stations that cover some selected percentage of the defined market, or perhaps only those stations whose contours intersect the area where the commonly owned stations overlap each other.
All five of the Commissioners concurred in the issuance of the NPRM, and all five of them issued separate statements. Here are brief excerpts of some of the more interesting comments. From Chairman Kennard, "The Notice on the Definition of Radio Markets is a critical step in bringing the Commission’s rules in line with the commercial realities of the radio marketplace. As I stated when the Commission recently issued the first Biennial Review of the broadcast ownership rules, the Commission’s current methodology for defining radio markets and counting the number of stations in a market has the potential to produce unanticipated and anti-competitive results in particular cases." From Commissioner Susan Ness, "The Commission’s current method of defining local radio markets suffers from a number of flaws that can and should be remedied in this proceeding. That said, I fear that the final rules we issue may be the gilded padlock on the proverbial barn door, with the horse of consolidation galloping over the horizon." From Commissioner Gloria Tristani, "While today’s Notice represents progress, it is only a small step on a long road. It has come so late, and at such great cost, that it is appropriate to reflect for a moment on the damage that the Commission’s delay has inflicted on the listening public. On August 14, 1998—almost two and a half years ago—Commissioner Ness and I issued a statement raising the two identical issues that today’s item implies could only recently be discerned…" From Commissioner Michael Powell, "To the extent that this NPRM addresses what may be an arbitrary distinction between counting methods, I support its issuance. I do, however, caution the Commission to avoid using the rulemaking process as a means to circumvent specific statutory provisions and effectuate a different result than Congress intended." From Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, "I concur in this rulemaking for the limited aim of rationalizing our arguably arbitrary and capricious methodology of counting radio stations for purposes of section 202(b)(1). … My purpose is not, as this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking unfortunately suggests, to change our definition of ‘markets’ in order to cut back on the concentration levels that Congress expressly set in the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Nor is the NPRM correct in its suggestion that Congress could not have known or understood the accepted administrative meaning of that term, and thus the actual import of its revision of the radio limits, when it changed the radio market limits in the Communications Act."
Since our last newsletter, the Commission has extended two important deadlines. When the FCC released the list of mutually exclusive AM applications filed during the Auction No. 32 filing window, it established a December 29, 2000 deadline for those stations needing to file either settlement agreements or Section 307(b) analyses. After numerous applicants requested an extension of time to reach settlements or prepare submissions, the Commission extended this AM filing deadline to February 28, 2001.
The second deadline extension involves Class A TV applicants. When the Commission released the original Order, it established a December 11, 2000 deadline for most qualifying stations to file applications. Since the release of that Order, the Commission has received several petitions for reconsideration of the Order. An Order on Reconsideration will be released in the future, and when it is released, it will almost certainly contain clarifications and rule changes that would impact Class A license applications. Therefore, the Commission has delayed the deadline for these applications until 90 days after the Order on Reconsideration is released.
Miscellaneous Matters
Is your station planning to send a news team to Washington, DC to cover the Inauguration activities? Are you planning to take any RF gear? You will want to know that the FCC has appointed Washington Executive Broadcast Engineers Frequency Coordinators, Inc. (WFC) as the official frequency coordinators for the Inaugural events. All use of broadcast auxiliary frequencies will need to be arranged through WFC for the period extending from January 8 through January 23, 2001. The designated area includes a 100 km radius of Washington for terrestrial stations and a 150 km radius for airborne operations. The Public Notice even includes a set of geographical coordinates for determining the radii! Similar actions have been taken for large events in the past. In a masterful understatement, the Public Notice refers to these events. "These actions were taken as a result of our concern that uncoordinated use of auxiliary broadcast stations on a special temporary authority basis might result in spectrum congestion and excessive interference causing less complete broadcast coverage. We believe that the potential for a similar situation exists during the 2001 Presidential Inaugural to be held in Washington, DC." Just thinking about the task facing WFC almost gives Thumbs a warm feeling about winter!!
Near the end of each month, the Enforcement Bureau releases a List of Actions Taken. The latest list includes only two Notices of Apparent Liability (NAL or fines), but 100 Notices of Violations (NOV). One NAL was issued to an individual in New York for unlicensed operation, and the other was issued for an Antenna Structure Registration violation in Mississippi that also included an AM fencing requirement violation. Many of the NOVs include multiple violations listing a host of familiar infractions. In some cases, such as EAS violations, it is entirely possible that the employees at the implementation level do not fully understand their responsibilities. In other cases involving remote transmitter sites, the "out of sight, out of mind" syndrome may be the cause. Especially, in a time when most stations are using contract engineers that are responsible for multiple transmitter sites, no full time employees may even be aware of conditions at the transmitter site. Regardless of whether the cause is related to sloppy operation or a desire to fatten the bottom line by neglecting maintenance, the truth is that the Commission still expects licensees to follow the rules that are left.
In late November, the Commission issued a Public Notice regarding the electronic filing of three forms, mostly related to the Broadcast EEO programs: FCC Forms 396, 396-A, and 397. Online versions of these forms have been available for several months. Presently, paper versions of the forms can also be filed. However, the Public Notice announced that the paper filing of Form 396-A will end on February 4, 2001. Paper versions of Forms 396 and 397 will be accepted until May 26, 2001. The electronic versions are filed through CDBS on the Mass Media Bureaus web page using any recent version of Netscape or Internet Explorer.
The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) has made a change in the software for Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) since our last newsletter. The software allows users to hold an application in the user account before filing it. This feature is sometimes necessary when in the process of making a filing, the user discovers that he or she does not have a necessary piece of information. The application can be saved and then reopened later for completion. In some cases, these applications were apparently accumulating. WTB announced that effective November 21, 2000, such applications would be auto-deleted if they had not been modified in the last 30 days. This does not apply to applications that have actually been filed—only to those that were temporarily saved in the user’s account, but had not yet been filed.
With all the windows and auctions do you ever find yourself just wondering how many stations there are? Apparently, the Commission does! On December 1, the FCC released a list of broadcast station totals as of September 30, 2000. The list shows 12,717 radio stations—4,685 AM, 5,892 commercial FM, and 2,140 educational FM. The 1,663 full service television stations are made up of 721 commercial UHF, 567 commercial VHF, 250 educational UHF, and 125 educational VHF stations. As of September 30, there were only 13 Class A TV stations—all UHF—but look for that to change rapidly. There were 3,243 FM translator and booster stations, 2,675 UHF translators, and 2,113 VHF translators—a total of 8,031 translators. There were also 2,366 LPTV stations, 1,756 UHF and 610 VHF.
Upcoming Matters
After years of waiting, applicants will finally be able to request new commercial FM construction permits next month. Auction No. 37 is scheduled to start February 21, 2001. A large list of the vacant FM allotments has been published by the FCC. You can find a copy of it on our web site. We encourage you to consider making a relatively small investment in an allocation study before you make a major commitment in an auction. This will allow you to evaluate the potential of the allocation so that you can make wise use of your auction bids.
As we enter the New Year, we are entering another era of change. With the new administration, the membership of the Commission is likely to change—especially since the Oval Office is changing political parties. As mentioned above, many of the vacant FM allotments will finally become available. Change is just part of the broadcast landscape. Much of the change is cyclical, but each new cycle adds a twist or two. Please know that we are here for the long haul. Mr. Munn began our firm almost 50 years ago, and we’ve been developing strategies and solutions for broadcasters ever since. We plan to continue, and we hope you will join us on our journey. Thanks for letting Munn-Reese, Inc. serve your technical consulting needs.
© 2001 - Munn-Reese, Inc.
All Rights Reserved - Unauthorized Reproduction is Prohibited