Thanks to Pete Tridish for reminding us that on this day, ten years ago, the Senate passed, on unanimous consent, the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 (LCRA).  Just a day prior, the House passed the legislation on voice vote. The legislation was signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011.

This REC Advisory Letter is to advise LPFM licensees of a pending rulemaking proceeding before the FCC.  This is an overview of the proceeding and our initial analysis of the impacts to LPFM and potential positions that will be taken by REC Networks in respect to this proceeding.  As with any proceeding, REC always welcomes the input from LPFM licensees, including those that REC has not worked with in the past to provide input. 

On Monday, REC Networks has filed Reply Comments in two FCC proceedings.

In MB Docket 20-343, REC opposed a suggestion by Educational Media Foundation (EMF), the largest licensee of noncommercial educational (NCE) FM broadcast stations operating under the K-Love and Air1 brands, that called for the ability to file unlimited applications outside of the urban markets as long as those proposals do not face any competing applications.

REC Networks has filed comments with the FCC today on their question regarding application caps in the noncommercial educational (NCE) FM Filing Window in 2021. 

The FCC has proposed a cap of 10 applications being filed by any one entity.  In addition, they also proposed a cap of 10 applications where any specific party to an application can appear.  The latter is to prevent people from filing under different organization names.