If you’ve been burning the midnight oil working on reply comments in the LPFM/FM translator proceeding on the assumption that those reply comments are due on September 20, you can relax. The Media Bureau has extended the reply comment deadline by a week, to September 27, 2011. This comes at the joint request of the NAB and Educational Media Foundation, who observed that there are a boatload (that would be 47 in all) of comments to which to respond, several of which include extensive technical exhibits. Also, NAB/EMF pointed out that their counsel, and counsel for other interested parties, have been in Chicago at the NAB Radio Show this week.
NAB/EMF advised the Commission that several other parties – including Prometheus Radio Project – did not object to the requested extension. But hold on there, Sparky – it turns out that at least one party did object. That would be the Amherst Alliance, which lobbed in an opposition to the NAB/EMF request the same day that that request was filed. The Alliance (which describes itself as one of several “major LPFM advocacy groups”) took serious exception to any extension. Its concern is that deadline extensions will reduce the chances that the Commission may open an LPFM filing window next summer.
The Alliance’s fears about bureaucratic delay may be valid – but consider this: the NAB/EMF request was filed on September 15, and it was granted on September 16. Say what you will about bureaucratic delay, the Media Bureau can obviously move fast when it wants to.
