As we reported here in early March, the Commission ordered applicants with more than 10 short-form translator applications still pending (from the 2003 filing window) to advise the Commission of which 10 applications the applicant wants to continue to prosecute. All others would then be dismissed. The deadline for those notices was Thursday, April 3.
But five days after that deadline, the Commission has had a change of heart. In a public notice, the Commission has announced that the dismissal of FM translator applications has been suspended.
According to the Commission, the suspension will permit it to "fully consider" arguments raised in various petitions for reconsideration of the LPFM rulemaking which spawned the dismissal requirement.
The practical effect of the suspension is that the agency’s dismissal of the excess applications has been ceased. So even if you sent in a notice identifying which applications you would be willing to kiss good-bye to, fear not – those applications will still be pending, at least until further notice. (Any applications which may have been dismissed as part of the FCC’s forced culling procedures will be reinstated.) Meanwhile, the Commission will continue to process applications for any applicant with ten or fewer applications as of March 4, 2008.
