REC has received word today that KMIH, the Class D station on Mercer Island, WA that was facing displacement as a result of a very ugly metro-move has been granted a construction permit to change channels and stay on the air.

View the KMIH record at REC FMQ.

This is a creative arrangement where they would be able to move from 104.5 to 88.9 FM and best of all, with the same operating power and antenna parameters they have today.

REC congratulates Mercer Island High School for successfully hanging in there and not giving up in order to save their station in the face of a very evil encroachment.

We should have more information later this week. It is our understanding that the Mercer Island School District will be making an announcement.

The above text is from Section 151 of the Communications Act (47USC151) which in 1934, established the Federal Communications Commission. Unfortunately, due to recent news reports, it seems that the former Commission under the first reign of Baby Bush seems to have forgotten that it is their obligation to provide as far as possible communication by wire and radio to all of the people of the United States.

In comments to the FCC, REC Networks partially agreed with the NAB concept of allowing AM stations to be able to operate FM translators as fill-in services.

Specifically, REC's support is limited to those AM broadcast stations that are not co-owned by an FM station with overlapping coverage. REC recognizes that many of these types of AM stations are minority owned and are facing increasing interference from Cuba as well as eventual interference from nighttime IBOC operations.

AM stations co-owned with FM stations should carry the AM signal on an HD Radio stream.

Triggered by a complaint, the FCC has issued a Forfeiture Order to Power Radio Corportation, licensee of KXPW-LP in Georgetown, TX.

The $3,000 dinger was as a result of KXPW-LP violating 73.875(c) of the rules when it replaced a 3-bay antenna with a 4-bay antenna without filing an FCC Form 319 within 10 days.

Power claimed that they did not know that they had to contact the FCC with such a change and that the violation was "minor". The FCC disagreed stating that when a station fails to file a 319, it can endanger public safety if stations do not comply with radiofreqency radiation guidelines.

Power claimed an inability to pay, however the FCC refused to adjust the forfeiture based on information from the corporation's 2003 federal tax return.

Here's some interesting reading. This is a report that was put out by the NAB regarding the compliance of certain Part 15 low power FM transmitter devices. These devices are used today in the consumer mainstream to transmit the audio of satellite radio receivers and MP3 players to FM radios, usually inside of a vehicle. The popularity of these devices prompted REC to create the FMFIND.info website.

Recently, XM was in the news because they stated in their SEC filing that some of their FM transmitter designs may have been outside the Part 15 specs.

Of the devices mentioned in the report, the least complaint of the devices was the Hobbytron FM-25B which put out the strongest field strength of all of the transmitters examimed.