FM Translator Interference Rules See Challenges Including From LPFMs
Several petitions for reconsideration and a stay request were filed against aspects of the FCC’s revamped FM translator interference rules. That's according to filings posted in docket 18-119 through Tuesday. The LPFM Coalition, radio consultants Skywaves Consulting, and full-power and LPFM licensees are among those challenging the translator interference rules on the 45 dBu contour limit on interference claims and arguing the rules violate the Local Community Radio Act (LCRA).
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"Roll back the Rulemaking, or at least stay its implementation until it can commence a further rulemaking to remedy the Rulemaking’s many statutory problems,” said the LPFM Coalition. The stay request and the petitions for reconsideration likely face an uphill battle at the agency, several radio attorneys told us. The FM translator interference rules were the culmination of a long process and unanimously approved by the full commission, they noted.
It’s “unlikely” the petitions would lead to the FCC reversing itself on the order, said Garvey Schubert radio attorney Melodie Virtue. She said it’s possible the FCC could issue a clarification. Court proceedings are possible if the FCC rejects the appeals of the rules, one petitioner said.
The agency shouldn’t adjudicate FM translator interference disputes under the new rules until the petitions are resolved, said the LPFM Coalition stay request. The coalition includes stations and organizations such as Common Frequency and Prometheus Radio Project. Granting the stay would be fair to broadcasters and prevent the agency from having to unwind any decisions made under rules that are later repealed, said coalition attorney Michael Richards. The FCC doesn’t often grant stays of its rules, broadcast lawyers noted.
Several challenges focus on the validity of interference complaints. Limiting the valid complaints that can come from a single building to one disenfranchises large numbers of people in high-rise apartment buildings and big college dorms, said the coalition. The rules would allow only one valid complaint “even at a single building like the Pentagon that covers nearly 28.7 acres,” the petition said. “This disenfranchisement would occur in congested areas all over the country where large buildings are more likely to exist, and where less spectrum is available,” the coalition said.
“It’s unacceptable that the FCC would ignore complaints from millions of people of color in urban areas and college students who are more likely to live in large apartment buildings,” said coalition member and WPPM-LP Philadelphia Station Manager Vanessa Graber. The group said that “listeners would become disenfranchised from their constitutional right to request redress when suffering from interference,”
The FCC failed to show sufficient reasoning for the shift in the rules, the coalition said. Full-power licensee Charles Anderson’s petition argues against LPFM stations being required to provide only three interference complaints instead of the six required of other stations. ”Such a small limit invites abuse by overzealous LPFMs,” he said.
The 45 dBu contour limit on the distance a translator can be from a full power and still be considered to be interfering provides too much protection to incumbent stations, Skywaves said. Under the new FM translator rules, “the vast majority of FM stations would be in a position to pursue interference complaints against one or more FM translators,” Skywaves said. “Nearly every FM translator would be placed at risk of such action, should the 45 dBu protection standard stand.” Gather more data on the effect of the contour before it can impose such a shift on translators, Anderson said. “The Commission appears to have yielded to the pressures of Big Radio,” Anderson said.
The agency didn’t adequately explain why new rules allowing interfering translators to relocate more easily don’t require the studies of open channels for LPFM that are required in other relocations, said the coalition and KGIG-LP Salida, California. “By any definition, the FCC appears either inconsistent or self-conflicted,” KGIG said. The rules also violate LCRA provisions that require equality between LPFM and other services, the coalition said.
Most petitions praise other aspects of the translator interference rules, and seek narrow changes. The coalition’s petition suggests the FCC could stay the current rules and issue a further notice on the aspects of the rules challenged by the coalition. “To do otherwise would render the Rulemaking ultra vires, arbitrary and capricious or otherwise contrary to law,” the group said.