Keeping up with the breakneck schedule it projected a couple of weeks ago, the Audio Division has released a list of the 406 LPFM mutually exclusive (MX) groups, along with a public notice summarizing applicants’ options at this point. The Division’s public notice accompanying the list does not alter its earlier public notice laying out the road map for the next phase of the LPFM application process, although the release of the MX list does mark the opening of the LPFM minor amendment/settlement/time-share opportunity.
Note that inclusion of an application on the MX list does not mean that that application has yet been deemed grantable, or even acceptable, by the staff. It’s at least possible that, upon further review, some applications may get tossed for any of a number of reasons.
For now, though, conflicts among the MX applicants on the list can be resolved one of three ways: by technical amendments eliminating mutual exclusivity, by settlement, or by time-share agreement. And there’s an upside for applicants who are ready, willing and able to move sooner rather than later in any of those directions: Any proposal filed in the next 60 days that invokes any of those three approaches (MX-resolving amendment, settlement or time-share) will get moved up to the head of the processing line for expedited consideration as long as the proposal would “eliminate all technical conflicts between at least one application and all other applications in the MX group.”
A reminder: Only minor amendments will be permitted for now – “minor” amendments in this context include: (1) site relocations of 5.6 kilometers or less; (2) channel changes of no more than +/- three channels or to an intermediate frequency (+/- 53 or 54) channel; (3) partial and universal voluntary time-sharing agreements; (4) changes in general or legal information; and (5) changes in ownership where the original parties retain more than 50 percent ownership in the application as originally filed. (Site relocation amendments of more than 5.6 kilometers will be permitted for the limited purposes of (1) curing potential third-adjacent channel interference and (2) allowing time-share proponents to relocate to a common transmitter site.)