The Final Rule on City of License Changes
On November 3, 2006, the Commission voted to ease
restrictions on principal city changes for AM and FM stations, and to make
other changes to the FM allocation process. This is the first major change
to the allocations rules in many years.
The new rules will become
effective January 19, 2007.
- City of License changes will be allowed as "minor
changes" under the following circumstances:
- The proposed new facility is mutually exclusive
with the existing facility, and the station being moved is not the
only station operating in the principal community.
- A 60-day period will be required following
publication of the proposed change in the Federal Register before
the FCC can approve the proposed change.
- Proposed new allocations will be accepted only with a
valid, paid-for Construction Permit Application, eliminating gratuitous
allocations proposals. This long-overdue rule change will place a
financial burden on anyone proposing a new allocation.
- Allocation filings will be done electronically,
eliminating an archaic rule that required paper filings in allocation
matters.
- The FM Table of Allocations will henceforth contain
only unbuilt allocations.
So what does all this mean?
First, let me brag a bit:
- For those who read my Newsletters 1,
2, and
3, there are few surprises. Of all
the changes and consequences contained in those three newsletters, only
one - Turn in the allocation When You Turn in the License
- did not prevail in the end.
- The major change that my attorney friends almost universally
dismissed was adopted: Abandoning the Table of Allocations
has been accomplished for all existing stations. The Table will contain
only new allocations that have not been auctioned successfully. That
appears to make CDBS the only "official" source that must be studied for
facility changes, a situation long-sought by AFCCE and others.
Now for the analysis:
- Over 150 BPH- and BPMH- applications were filed on Day One (January
19,2007), compared with 35 the day before and 15 on the next business
day (a Monday). So without delving into each application, it appears
that perhaps 120 stations filed applications under the new rules.
- The simplified procedure to change the city of license still
requires a section 307b analysis to show that the resulting situation
represents a preferential distribution of allotments. If you are the
last station in town, you cannot leave, barring exceptional
circumstances.1 You cannot
create significant white or gray area, especially in any populated
place.2 Generally, you should
have more people in the gain area than the loss area, although in a
downgrade situation, this may be impossible. because you may have no
gain area. A Tuck analysis must be performed if you cover more
than half of an urbanized area.
- So while the new procedure is simplified, it is still not
simple.
Notes:
- 1 - Under the Woodstock decision, however, if you have a CP
for the last station in town, you may leave. The logic is that you are
not providing service now, so the community won't lose service if you
leave. The moment you turn on the transmitter, this tactic goes up in
smoke.
- 2 - White area is area that is left with no service, and gray area
is area that is left with one service. Service in a 307b analysis is
calculated under a peculiar set of rules that has little to do with
actual coverage. All FM stations are assumed to have perfectly circular
coverage, and to be at the maximum ERP and HAAT for their class - except
that Class C (and by extension Class C0) are assumed to be 100kW at 300m
unless they are actually higher.
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