FCC Announces Dates for NCE Filing Window

April 9, 2007

The FCC just announced that between October 12 and 19, 2007 there will be an application filing window for new FM station and major modification requests. This is a very unusual filing window for full-service noncommercial (NCE) stations.

The application window is for frequencies in the NCE FM band (88.1-91.9 FM), including proposed stations ranging from 100 to 100,000 watts. These stations are different from Low-Power FM (LPFM) licenses or FM translators because they cannot be bumped off the air by new full power stations, and they have interference protections.

Opportunity and Risk

This filing window offers an important opportunity because, most likely, it will be many years before another filing window opens up. Furthermore, most – if not all – of the valuable frequencies that have decent population coverage will probably be taken in this window. That may include options to increase the power and reach of your station(s), which, if not considered at this point, may not be possible in the future.

Furthermore, this filing window presents a risk to public broadcasters that use NCE FM translators, as the construction of some new frequencies may lead to the dismantling of these translators. As such, your organization may want to consider filing for one of the new licenses in order to protect areas currently covered by translators.

We recommend that you check with your engineers regarding possible upgrades to your existing signals. There probably won’t be another chance to upgrade your signal(s) for many years. Filing an application for an upgrade could help you secure your position against new applications that, if approved, may diminish your ability to secure an upgrade in the future.

Available Channels

In 2006, Public Radio Capital participated in funding an overall NCE mapping project as the first step in finding available Full Power FM channels. Covering every region in the country, these maps can help you determine the overall potential for a new station. Visit: http://prometheusradio.org/tech_support/full_power/mapping_project.html

To obtain a password for the map that covers your area, please contact us (contact information is below) or one of the following organizations involved with this project: National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), Prometheus Radio Project, Pacifica Foundation.

Public Radio Capital is currently funding a preliminary NCE channel search of markets 16 through 140, to determine which markets have at least one available NCE channel. These studies will start in the Western part of the United States where there are more opportunities for new channels. We expect this phase of the study up to markets 140 to finish by June. Upon request, we will provide you with the report(s) for your service area.

Now’s the time to act

October may seem a long way off, but there really isn’t much time to prepare for this window. In general, here are the steps to apply for a new (or upgraded) NCE FM station:

• Determine the geographic area(s) you’d like to cover
• Review the overall NCE maps (see the above) for those areas
• Obtain preliminary NCE channel searches for those areas. As indicated above, we are developing such studies for markets 16-140; for other markets, you can typically obtain a preliminary channel search for around $300-$500 from a broadcast engineer.
• If you decide to apply for an available channel, get a qualified broadcast engineer to complete a full engineering exhibit for your application. That will typically cost $2000 – $3000. With your engineer’s assistance, identify a suitable tower site, and get permission from the tower site owner to utilize that site if you get a construction permit.
• Contract with a qualified attorney who practices communications law to help with your application. The FCC tends to reject applications that are not submitted in “letter perfect” form. This work will likely cost you around $1000 – $4000, depending on how much help you need.
• Submit your application, electronically, during the filing window. Your lawyer or broadcast engineer will probably do this for you; but make sure it gets done!

The FCC will be using a fairly complicated point system to choose among multiple applications for the same frequency. In general, it favors local applicants and entities that do not currently own stations.

Don’t wait until the last minute to get started. There aren’t that many qualified broadcast engineers available on a contract basis to help you with this, and there’s a good chance they will be booked up by late summer. Start early!

For more information

Go to: http://www.prometheusradio.org/tech_support/full_power/.