Hundreds of Radio Stations Seek Changes on Moving Outlets
The FCC should redo an order making it harder to move radio stations from rural to urban areas, owners of hundreds of outlets said in petitions for reconsideration. A group of 45 station owners and other industry entities asked the agency to adopt what they called a “consistent standard” and update criteria of Tuck studies for such move-in requests (CD March 4 p10). Entravision, owner of 48 stations, said a presumption in the order, making such applications harder to get approved, should only apply when licensees outside an urbanized area seek to move to one and to transmit to much of one. A broadcaster with 10 radio stations that has a move-in request pending said the commission should change the new rules so they don’t apply to applications pending when the order was approved March 3.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Lawyers who filed the petitions acknowledged the FCC may not make widescale changes to the order, but they expressed some hope that commissioners, given more time to review the impact of the ruling, will agree to some tweaks. Entravision said the ruling doesn’t “precisely answer the question” of what cases involving Section 307(b) of the Communications Act are impacted. “That bright line” should exempt from falling under the new rules “any instance where there has been an initial decision as to a Station’s allotment or change of community of license” by March 2, the day before the order was approved 5-0, the company said. Some FCC and industry officials have been confused about how many move-in requests awaiting approval would be affected by new rules on such changes. The commission has said the number is about 10 of the 96 pending when the vote was taken (CD March 7 p15). A bureau spokeswoman declined further comment Monday.
The agency’s estimate “seems really low,” said lawyer Anne Crump of Fletcher Heald, who made a filing for M&M Broadcasters, owner of 10 stations. M&M’s pending application, and another Crump is aware of, don’t seem to amount to one-fifth of all for U.S. stations, she said. The commission is “so gung ho about stopping the perceived evil” of move-ins, “but since there is such a disparity of treatment, it seemed at least worth a shot,” Crump said of her filing. The petitions were posted to docket 09-52 Monday and Friday.
"That the commission candidly doesn’t grant reconsideration most of the time is not a reason not to seek it, if you know your cause is just,” said Executive Director David Honig of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. It was among 45 signers on another petition. “It is also rare for the commission to issue rulemakings that almost no one supports.” The order pointed to support from a citizen named William Clay, noted the petition that Honig’s group signed. Clay also sought reconsideration, saying the order still will allow many channel changes. He’s said he lives in Charlotte, N.C., and has an avid interest in radio.
Large broadcasters that each own several hundred radio stations didn’t sign the petition from the 45 entities because they weren’t asked to, since the request was styled as having come from smaller broadcasters, said lawyer Mark Lipp of Wiley Rein, who made the filing. “They're supportive, as far as I know,” he said of the largest radio station chains. Among the mid-size chains signing the petition are Border Media, Multicultural Radio and Radio One. Entravision’s petition seeks to raise issues that may not have been considered by FCC members during the drafting of the order, said lawyer Barry Friedman of Thompson Hine, who made the request for that company. “We hope they get due consideration, and those changes will make it a better order.”