Progress Seen On NCE Permit Front
The Commission has released a public notice identifying 263 groups each consisting of four or fewer mutually exclusive applications for noncommercial educational (NCE) FM permits filed during the 10-day window in October, 2007.
So the good news is that we are now - five months after the close of the window - finally starting to see some movement on those MX applications.
The bad news is that the FCC reports that it received approximately 3,600 applications in all during the window, and only a fraction of those are included in list released with the recent public notice. That means that there are still a very considerable number of MX applications (in MX groups of five or more conflicting applications) still to be plowed through. But at least the process has started. The Commission indicated that the staff will be working its way through these remaining MX groups and will be periodically releasing identifying more of those groups.
If anyone thinks that any application has been mistakenly included in the list which has been released, or mistakenly excluded from that list, that should be brought to the FCC's attention no later than April 7 (i.e., within 30 days of the March 6 release of the public notice).
The Commission also indicated that it would start its comparative analysis of the listed applications 30 days after the public notice. If any competing applicants are negotiating settlements, or if any are willing to share time on a facility, then they should so notify the Commission within the next 30 days.
