• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

FM translator licenses

A

Art Sutton

Guest
In our area we're noticing that a bunch of FM translators are being licensed but have actually never been placed on the air...no construction...nothing...not even there but one of the religious translator operators is going around filing for licenses yet have never built the stations. It's hard to believe someone would misrepresent such a thing to the FCC. Is it happening just here in Georgia or other places too? The modus-operandi seems to be to file for a license just a few days before the CP expires yet we have confirmed in at least 10 cases the translators have not been built and were never put on the air and have no STA to be silent.
 
Art,

I don't know for sure, but I'll bet it's not just limited to Georgia.

Locally I haven't noticed this with the FM translators, as most of them are owned by Florida State University,
which wasted no time in getting them on the air.

But..on the LPFM side..one of them at 96.9 was licensed, then got on the air at the last minute. After
three months it was off the air. That's been over a year ago and they're listed as "licensed." In
reality it has been silent since March of 2006.

LPFM #2 is licensed to a 7th Day Adventist church. They built it..put it on the air just before the CP expired in
late August..and have been running a looped station ID ever since. A few seconds of classical music..then the ID..repeating over and over since the end of August? I could understand this in an emeggency, but they got
their CP back in 2005. Seems to be enough time to think about what you plan to broadcast doesn't it?

A local AM was silent from October 2006 until this past August..they didn't mention their months of silence to the FCC either. Seems someone would have noticed the disconnected telephone..the mail being marked return to sender..Arbitron actually discovered this. No penalty..they just went back on the air and didn't say anything to anybody. I don't bother listening much but I did notice that they don't run any kind of sign on or sign off....they just pop on and pop off somewhere near the correct time!

Art, I've been in radio 24 years..the whole situation with the radio industry..the FCC..seems to have gotten out of control to me. Huge fines for some missing paperwork in a public file, while stations going on and off at will when they feel like it with nary a word seems just ridiculous to me.

I did opt to retire when I saw a satellite receiver was going to take over my job..and that was an operations manager position! Now there's nothing but "button pushing" shifts at odd hours..not appealing! I've been around long enough to remember when you were at WMGA in Moultrie..corresponded with you about some Christian music albums that another station had already gotten by the time I got in touch with you. A few years later I ended up getting them from THAT station when they went to satellite..this was a LONG time ago!
 
Yes, this would not surprise me. While this is truthfully illegal, honestly, who is going to catch it. If the CP expires it is gone (unless, you are one FX owner who filed after the expiration and still had it granted). I had one particular client who had a number of FXs. Towards the end we came reeeeaalll close to one expiring due to some legal issues (read: zoning) and continued tower issues (leg split due to ice) (total of 2 years fighting this). We got online, however, myself, I must be old school as I would not illegally file that license app, I wish other engineers would follow suit.

Oh well! :)
 
If any of you have hard evidence (photos, first hand accounts) Jim Bradshaw at the FCC would like to hear from you. They will investigate and if what you report is true they will cancel the license real quick, with prejudice, and make sure to note if it is a pattern with a particular licensee. If so, they will not grant new permits to that licensee.

They depend upon reports from us out in the field. They don't have the staff to go digging.

"James Bradshaw" <[email protected]>
 
While I hate to name parties that are involved, Horizon Christian Broadcast seems to be one that does this regularly.
I have noticed a number of situations where they filed the License to cover and never appeared to build the station, or built it several months later. I only know one station that they put up on time.
I had been meaning to document this with the EB but I just haven't had the time to mess with it.

Good luck, filing for the license when its not built is a serious offense. As for the LPFM station that has been playing a repeating loop, you should also bring this to the EB's attention. Have you contacted the station owner to ask what's up?
 
ISUcyclone said:
While I hate to name parties that are involved, Horizon Christian Broadcast seems to be one that does this regularly.
I have noticed a number of situations where they filed the License to cover and never appeared to build the station, or built it several months later. I only know one station that they put up on time.
I had been meaning to document this with the EB but I just haven't had the time to mess with it.

Good luck, filing for the license when its not built is a serious offense. As for the LPFM station that has been playing a repeating loop, you should also bring this to the EB's attention. Have you contacted the station owner to ask what's up?
Click to expand...

I also get ticked at trnaslators built to repeat another translator of a NCE...just so they can extend their reach a little farther down the road....HMMMM I thought translators were not to be used to extend a full service FM beyond its 1mV contour...but it can be used to extend a NCE well beyond its service contour.....I hate these loopholes...one went on a freq to the east of me and now blocks a HotAC I used to listen to (its 75 miles to the west)....Oh yeah, the translator is not supposed to cover as far as it does...according to their maps, etc.......YEAH well RF doesnt read...and they knew it!
 
A facility can be built, tested on the air for long enough to obtain transmitter parameters and shut down while the license is being obtained. I see that happen on occasion. If that step doesn't occur before the expiration date of the CP, it will be lost...I've witnessed that first hand on numerous occasions. What I'm not clear on is what the minimum operating schedule for a translator is...anyone care to enlighten me?
 
Licensed and silent is a good example of this.

The form asks if the station is ready for operation. You have one year to turn it on after making it silent from the original build. Is this 5 minutes of being on?
 
BobOnTheJob said:
A facility can be built, tested on the air for long enough to obtain transmitter parameters and shut down while the license is being obtained. I see that happen on occasion. If that step doesn't occur before the expiration date of the CP, it will be lost...I've witnessed that first hand on numerous occasions. What I'm not clear on is what the minimum operating schedule for a translator is...anyone care to enlighten me?
Click to expand...

If you take a translator dark, you have to file a STA with the FCC that you have gone silent...just like a full power station, right? You just can't take it dark and not report that status to the FCC. Also, I understand if it's dark for a year, the license should be revoked.

What's going on in our area is the stations are never built. The licensee just files a license application and is granted a license and there is nothing on the air, no equipment, nothing. I checked on one situation and the owner of the tower wasn't aware his tower had even been used for an application.

Meanwhile the licensee is selling off translator licenses left and right.
 
Like I said, it is pretty easy to let Jim know about any particular situation. How hard is it to drop an e-mail his way?

"James Bradshaw" <[email protected]>

It's not hard at all, and if you don't want your name disclosed as the complaining party, they will honor that request. Abusers need to be removed from the database. There are too many wasted frequencies as it is.
 
Alan...I am aware of the situation with the LPFM that is just playing a loop with a legal ID...and they actually went through an enormous amount of technical difficulty just to get that much on the air...just one of those rare situations where everything including the city govt. was working against them. It will actually have full time programming on within 2 weeks.

I was curious about that 96.9 license also...but don't really know anything about it.

-Chris Hall
www.reelaudio.net
www.rfspec.com
 
That's good to know, Chris!

I know it's been an uphill battle for them. I did some
research for Brad Joyce, who was one of the early driving forces behind the station.
He mentioned that you were helping them build it.

I wish the folks at 107.9 the best. I can receive a pretty decent signal fom it.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom