FCC Adopts Changes To Comparative Processing And Licensing Rules For NCE FMs, LPFMs

Rule Changes

The FCC has adopted changes to the comparative processing and licensing rules for noncommercial educational FMs and low power FMs.

The Commission issued a Report and Order that adopts several rule changes from its earlier Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, including:

• Elimination of the requirement that noncommercial educational applicants amend their governing documents to pledge to maintain localism and diversity to get "established local applicant" and "diversity of ownership" points
• Changing divestiture policies to recognize station divestitures for comparative purposes
• Expansion of the tie-breaker process to in part avoid the need for mandatory time-sharing arrangements
• Establishment of a mandatory time-sharing process for mutually exclusive noncommercial educational applicants that can't come up with a voluntary arrangement themselves
• Clarification of the “holding period” rule making noncommercial educational permittees keep for an extended period the characteristics for which they received comparative preferences and points
• Allowing LPFM applicants to talk about aggregating points and time-sharing before tentative winners are selected in the process
• Dropping some tolling notification requirements
• Extending the construction period from 18 months to three years
• Allowing assignment or transfer of LPFM permits after an 18-month holding period and eliminating the three-year holding period on assigning LPFM licenses
   

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