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New LPFM in Llano (outside of Palmdale)

F

Frequency1

The FCC has granted a new LPFM to Brothers United Communications Corp. on 101.5. They licensee address is in Springfield, CA (east of Stockton). This about 280 miles NW of the transmitter site, their studio is showing as Black Butte near to Mt Shasta. All three of the directors are showing as in Anaheim. Sounds like a bad application that should never have been granted. This is another application filed by Dan J Alpert Legal Counsel THE LAW OFFICE OF DAN J. ALPERT
 
I'm confused. The headline and post do not correlate.
 
The new LPFM is for Llano outside of Palmdale. Everything about it looks bad. The licensee address is over 200 miles from the transmitter site that is along Hwy 138, the studios is over 400 miles away and the people on the application are over 45 miles away from the transmitter site.
This is under § 73.853 Licensing requirements and service.
(1) The applicant, its local chapter or branch is physically headquartered or has a campus within 16.1 km (10 miles) of the proposed site for the transmitting antenna for applicants in the top 50 urban markets, and 32.1 km (20 miles) for applicants outside of the top 50 urban markets;
(2) It has 75% of its board members residing within 16.1 km (10 miles) of the proposed site for the transmitting antenna for applicants in the top 50 urban markets, and 32.1 km (20 miles) for applicants outside of the top 50 urban markets; or
 
It appears the applicant is not qualified for a LPFM from the above posts. Noted is board members are more than 20 miles from the station's tower site and the applicant is not local either. Even so, the FCC approved it.
 
When I first saw this thread in the “latest posts” listing I thought it was about the Llano in Texas, and wondered “but where is Palmdale?”🤔🤣

Then I realized it’s the LA board.😳
 
Frequency1 said:
K.M. you have spent too much time in Santa Barbara with the sea air. You need to come up to Mt. Wilson for the BBQ in September and the clear air.
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I haven't been in Santa Barbara since my days of the 23 share in 1988. I live in the SFV now, due west of Mount Wilson, near Van Nuys Airport.

But I wouldn't want to drive up that road to Wilson, so I will thank you for the invite but politely decline.
 
I think I get it now.

The LPFM is in the Antelopeless Valley but the studios are to be located in Stockton?

And the directors of the non-profit are in Orange County?

Correct me if I still don't understand ...

How come Michi didn't see this and object to the application?
 
K.M. Richards said:
But I wouldn't want to drive up that road to Wilson, so I will thank you for the invite but politely decline.
Click to expand...
On two separate occasions between when we had "real" engineers at KTNQ-KLVE-KSCA I bore the temporary title of "Chief Operator" for those stations. I felt the obligation to visit the sites on Mt. Wilson every week at least.

I was offered a big station 4-wheel drive vehicle the size of a Yukon. It was so frightening to drive those curvy roads in a tall and not-very-stable-and-responsive piece of Detroit crap that I opted to use my own "little" SUV instead.

And I was not unfamiliar with winding roads up to transmitters; years before I had built an FM at around 13,000 feet AMSL on a zig-zag road with about seven 300° flip backs along the slope of the mountain.

What scared me with Wilson is that the road had lots of areas where any rain that fell ran right across the road and then down the slope, often leaving moisten soil (often called "mud") on the road. Idiot LA drivers out for an adventure did not know how to mountain drive, many accelerating while holding down the brake with the other foot. When the brakes burnt out, Darwin took over and improved the species by eliminating idiots.
 
This is problem with the current LPFM process around the designation of headquarters. The address shown on the application in the Applicant Information section can be a mailing address. One of the things I will be looking at in the postmortem of this window is why the FCC Form 318 does not have a fielded area for the headquarters address, especially since the applicant needs to certify on that. The other problem is that the Media Bureau is too highly dependent on self-certification and the agency does not follow up to check to assure that the addresses used are actually local addresses. I have seen screenshots of what the "back room" sees when they review LPFM applications and while it does offer functionality to check similar names, it does not provide anything to check addresses to assure that they are local. This application is a good reason why the FCC needs to add headquarters addresses to the Form 318 for LPFM as well as to the Form 301 for full-service claims of the established community presence point. If this information is placed on the application in a fielded manner, the FCC could put something in the backend of LMS to make those measurements. They also need to do it with the board members.

Why didn't I file an objection? I can't be everywhere. For this window, REC did develop a program that checked the window applications for duplicate information regarding names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, etc. The outcome of those findings would show in the REC Window Tool as being on the Application of Concern List. This application did not hit the ACL because it did not violate any of the rules installed in the ACL program. For us to do full geocoding (where we determine a physical location from the address entered), it would have cost money as there are limits on API usage at Google and other providers. We were not budgeted for a substantial run of geocodes. Having the headquarters on the application as fields would make things easier if we had done geocoding. Michi's Rule #9: Pick your Battles. The objections that came out of our shop focused on the various "cartels" who filed applications in multiple places with different board members but with a true shadow controller. We just had a victory on the largest groups we filed against just this week. There were 8 dismissals with a ninth one taking place after the FCC releases the points public notice.

If this one went MX, there would have been a better chance it would have been directly on REC's radar.
 
DavidEduardo said:
On two separate occasions between when we had "real" engineers at KTNQ-KLVE-KSCA I bore the temporary title of "Chief Operator" for those stations. I felt the obligation to visit the sites on Mt. Wilson every week at least.

I was offered a big station 4-wheel drive vehicle the size of a Yukon. It was so frightening to drive those curvy roads in a tall and not-very-stable-and-responsive piece of Detroit crap that I opted to use my own "little" SUV instead.

And I was not unfamiliar with winding roads up to transmitters; years before I had built an FM at around 13,000 feet AMSL on a zig-zag road with about seven 300° flip backs along the slope of the mountain.

What scared me with Wilson is that the road had lots of areas where any rain that fell ran right across the road and then down the slope, often leaving moisten soil (often called "mud") on the road. Idiot LA drivers out for an adventure did not know how to mountain drive, many accelerating while holding down the brake with the other foot. When the brakes burnt out, Darwin took over and improved the species by eliminating idiots.
Click to expand...

K.M. Richards said:
No, I am (just ask Michi). I just kept misreading the situation. See my post #10.
Click to expand...
No Issue :)
 
Frequency1 said:
Lets see if this LPFM ever gets on the air? I do not think they can out a tower at this site.
Click to expand...

Well, if they do somehow manage to, Michi can always file a complaint when they apply for their license to cover ...
 
Frequency1 said:
I know of engineers out there that will check them out if they do file a LTC.
Click to expand...
We need more people complaining and calling out these stations. I know many who feel they are unable to report because it goes against some kind of company policy or something. This is why most of the complaints come from the small broadcasters because they don't have a corporate overlord hierarchy to answer to.
 
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