LPFM Bill Passes Congress

This past weekend, both houses of Congress passed a new bill that allows for new LPFM stations.  The bill directs the FCC to eliminate certain rules that previously prevented many of those interested in LPFM stations from applying for new stations because of potential interference to other stations.  While we won’t get into the technical details here, CBI has the resources to help on a path to determine if your unlicensed station can finally join other stations on the airwaves!Many of those interested in LPFM stations have been hampered or prohibited from apply for a frequency for almost 10 years due to highly technical issues that were clouded by political arguments from those interested in preserving the status quo and those seeking to advance the ability of local interests to gain access to the airwaves.  The Congressional action removes the technical barriers, but also includes language that is vague in some respects.  Our read of the house bill language suggests that there will be a window coming that will allow those previously excluded from applying to now apply because the technical hurdles have been erased, however, we don’t expect the filing window to open any time soon because of issues related to previously filed applications on the newly available frequencies.

In short, if your station is seeking a broadcast frequency and LPFM is avenue you are pursuing, you need to make plans now to file some time next year or even the following year and make sure that those plans and thoughts are passed along to the next generation of students, otherwise, the opportunity that is coming will be lost to your station due to a lack of continuity.

For those who are a bit more legal and technical savvy, you will find this summary helpful.

CBI is able and willing to help you find the resources you need to plan a course of action that could net your operations an FM frequency.  Use our contact page to request more information about what you need to do to prepare for this opportunity.