[BC] Another Fine Mess They've Gotten Us Into...

[Tom Taggart]

Week or so ago, the Commission adopted rules making it easier for both AM and FM stations to change the city of license.  The rules become effective so many days after publication in the Federal Register. Probably sometime in January or February of next year.  Watch the flood gates open!

For AM stations a city of license change is now a minor change, hence eliminating the window requirements.

For FM stations, a two-step procedure was collapsed into a single step, again, a minor change. Under the old rules a station would request a change in the table of allocations to specify the new COL.  Once that was approved, the station could then file their 301 for the new site.  This provided two periods of time when opponents could file objections to the move. 

Now the procedure is a minor change application, a request for the change in the allocation table is filed with the 301. Since this is now a minor change application, only informal objections can be filed, not petitions to deny. Presumably the only successful objections would be on  engineering issues, or cross-ownership concerns (e.g. the move-in would put that group over the limits, perhaps based on another station with "significant presence" in the market). 

Of course, for AM stations the new site must meet engineering requirements.  For FM stations there must be a site that meets the minimum separations.  I assume you could propose a short-spaced site in the 301 using a DA or contour protection.

Also, moves into metro areas from rural markets usually require a showing that the new COL would be getting a first service, and that the old community still had a radio "voice," which can be a non-com or AM daytimer. The suburban issues raised by the move-in would also require a "Tuck" showing that the new COL is sufficiently independent of the metro city. (Faye and the late Richard, thank you. Ignore snarky references to pads and the nether regions of bureaucrats).  And there are public notice requirements, a minor nuisance. 

OK, the Commission speculated that this would not create much activity, since FM allocations particularly are more or less fixed, or saturated. Little room for moves.

Maybe not. I've known for years that I can move my one station into the metro with a change of COL, but the legal maneuvering required, along with a reduction in power and construction expense didn't justify that move in the past. The new rules don't inspire me to move. Even as a suburban station with dismal ratings, we still average between 5th and 3rd in local billing in our (rated)market; potential regional and national business is just too sporadic to justify the move.

But then I happened to look at a competitor. I discovered that both of his two stations can move out of their unrated market into metro counties of rated markets.  Since I suspect he would like to sell and retire, I wouldn't be surprised to see him file for these upgrades. We are "in the country" but still not that rural. Our stations are within 120 miles of three top fifty markets in the eastern half of the country.

There are any number of medium-sized group owners that can arrange for a couple of their stations to wiggle this way or that so a big brother station in the group can leap-frog into a better market.  Believe it was Regent (?) or Cumulus that engineered a cross-country move of a rural Class C into Oklahoma City as an "A".  With the procedure condensed into a minor change 301 app., watch for a flood of applications once these new rules come into play.  If for no other reason the fear that if station "A" doesn't move, they will be frozen out by a move by station "B".

Not to mention improvements in place at metro AM's by changing the city of license from the metro city to the suburb where they want to throw a nighttime city-grade signal. 

And more endless backlogs at the Media Bureau as they try to sort all this out. 
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