Over 1,000 AM Stations Filed in FM Translator Window, Pai Says
More than 1,000 AM stations took advantage of the FCC’s application window for new FM translators, which closed Wednesday, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a news release Thursday. “These translators will enable many of these AM stations to broadcast…
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local programming to their communities at night for the first time.” The most recent window was only for class C and D AM stations that hadn’t taken advantage of earlier windows (see 1707280059). The FCC said a second window for all AM stations that hadn’t applied in previous translator windows will open later this year. With this window closed, the agency will now determine which applications are mutually exclusive, blogged Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford. After the FCC releases a list of mutually exclusive applications, applicants resolve their conflicts, but such discussion is prohibited under auction rules until then, he said. Mutually exclusive applications that can’t be resolved will go through an auction process, Oxenford said. “One would think that this will happen principally in spectrum-congested markets where there are multiple AM stations eligible for the auction, but few available channels for translators.”