FCC pushes NCE translator filing deadline to Nov. 23

Applicants for noncommercial FM translators now have until Monday, Nov. 23, at 6 p.m. Eastern to file. The FCC Media Bureau added the time after its filing system failed in the first days of the window.

A deadline moved by six days

The window was due to close on Nov. 17. A filing freeze on minor modification applications for low-power FM, FM translator and FM booster stations, in both reserved and non-reserved bands, now runs until the extended close.

Late filers get no grace. "Applications submitted after the deadline will be dismissed without further consideration," the Media Bureau said in its public notice.

The snapshot date, used to set point totals and to compare mutually exclusive applications, moves to match Nov. 23. All other procedures and instructions for the window are unchanged.

What filers had asked for

Earlier in the week, eight noncommercial broadcast and technical assistance organizations jointly asked for at least a week more. They cited severe consulting backlogs and technical strain. Six days falls one short of that request.

The leak and the outage

When the window opened on Wednesday morning, confidential translator filings in the Licensing and Management System, known as LMS, were exposed. That goes against commission policy.

Michelle Bradley of REC Networks later found two more workarounds, both of which let users see pending filings ahead of the shutdown. She has written a post-mortem of the leak.

On Thursday LMS was offline for about seven hours. Neither the public nor licensees could view or file applications for any radio or television service.

Why it was in November at all

The window was first planned for August. The commission postponed it to November after groups such as College Broadcasters Inc. warned that late summer would not work for many colleges and universities.

Source: Radio World