This month, the long anticipated application window for Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) radio stations opened and closed. After years of waiting, the Federal Communications Commission let filers apply for these stations from Friday, October 12th through Friday the 19th. Scores of big signal non-commercial frequencies across the United States and its territories are up for grabs. But nobody knows yet precisely how many community, Native American, and religious groups submitted applications for these licenses during that brief period.

If anybody can make an educated guess, however, it's Libby Reinish, Full Power Coordinator for the Prometheus Radio Project. Prometheus helped hundreds of applicants make their way through the formidable process of identifying and filling out the FCC's complex forms for these precious FM signals. Now that the smoke has cleared, LLFCC caught up with Reinish to find out what happens next.

LLFCC: So how did the filing window go Libby? Smoothly? Were there problems?

Libby Reinish: For the applicants that we were working with, I think the filing window went pretty smoothly. Because everyone had to hire a lawyer and an engineer ahead of time, by the time the filing window rolled around most people were pretty much done with their application. On Friday [October 19th] the FCC decided to extend the window, which was supposed to close on Friday at midnight; they extended it to Monday at 2 pm. So that gave stragglers a couple of extra days to go over their applications one last time.

Heeding the comments of dozens of non-profit broadcasting advocates, the Federal Communications Commission has set a limit of ten applications per group for the upcoming non-commercial, educational (NCE) radio license application window, set to start on Friday.

"Our examination of the record confirms our concern that failure to establish a limit on the number of NCE FM applications that a party may file in the window would lead to a large number of speculative filings, creating the potential for extraordinary procedural delays," the FCC ruled today.

After the years of waiting, the FCC will begin accepting competitive applications for hundreds of medium range to big signal educational FM licenses available across the country. The filing period begins on Friday and concludes at the end of the following Friday, October 19th.

"It's now or never," the Web site of one group that helps organizations with the application process warns, since the window is probably the last shot that non-profits looking for a full power station will get in years.

The FCC's cap is now set. If the Commission's Media Bureau determines that an applicant has "an attributable interest" in more then ten NCE applications, the agency will consider only the first ten and dismiss the rest.

Two public radio organizations have called for the Federal Communications Commission to relax its proposed limit of ten applications for the impending window for non-commercial, educational (NCE) FM radio licenses. Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) says the limit should be lifted to 30 applications. National Public Radio (NPR) wants it raised to 15.

"The pent-up demand for new NCE facilities, along with the freeze on new NCE station applications for the past seven years, means that the October NCE filing window will provide an extremely important opportunity for public radio licensees," MPR wrote to the FCC in a statement posted by the Commission today, "many of whom have limited resources . . . "

After a long delay, the FCC will invite the public to apply for non-commercial FM radio stations across the United States. The filing period will last from October 12th through October 19th—a week.

Thousands of organizations, many of them non-profit groups, Native American tribes, and churches, are expected to compete for these licenses. Although the Commission will not charge an application fee, legal and engineering costs associated with the process could range from five to ten thousand dollars.

Groups and individuals continue to weigh in on whether the Federal Communications Commission should put a strict limit on the number of Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) radio station applications that any non-profit can file for. Most commenters support the idea; but some Christian outfits want to relax the rule.

In early April, the FCC's Media Bureau announced an application window to begin on Friday, October 12th—that's the day that the Commission will accept formal requests from non-profits for full power NCE radio licenses. The window closes on Friday, October 19th.

"If you do not apply now, there is no telling when there will be another chance," warns a primer published by the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Many parties are rushing to prepare their license requests.

But they're also participating in a proceeding on whether the FCC should cap the number of applications any group can file. In the proceeding announcement, the FCC tentatively suggested that no entity should be allowed to file more than ten applications.

"If it is determined that any party to an application has an attributable interest in more than ten applications," the Notice proposes, "the Bureau will retain the ten applications that were filed first—based on application file number—and dismiss all other applications."

Fred Johnson, University of Massachusetts, Boston with Karen Menichelli, Benton Foundation What's going on in Community Media?

In a media environment increasingly segmented by ideology, class, or ethnicity, "is there an electronic place where people can convene as citizens? Can the new media create a public square where people can be heard, and hear each other?"

Yes, concludes the Benton foundation's lively and informative new study What's Going on In Community Media?: "Communities across the country are taking control of media, adapting new technologies to the social, economic, educational, cultural, and information needs of their residents."

This thirty four page survey, described by its author, Fred Johnson, as "the most comprehensive look at the breadth of US Community Media institutions and practices in the last 15 years," also outlines the challenges facing a medium that relies on uncertain sources of funding, volunteer power, and a lack of clarity on how to assess its own effectiveness.

Bonnie Simmons

Bonnie Simmons is my favorite music deejay at KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California. She is also a Bay Area radio legend and influential manager and promoter of bands, from Dire Straits and Rickie Lee Jones in the 1980s to Noe Venable and Etienne de Rocher today. In addition to hosting a terrific Thursday night show on KPFA, Simmons serves as Chair of the listener supported frequency's Local Station Board.

So it seemed appropriate for LLFCC to interview her about the controversy over the Copyright Royalty Board's recent decision to raise Internet radio music copyright fees, especially since yesterday KPFA joined a host of Internet streaming stations that went streaming silent in protest of the decision.

LLFCC: It seems that you guys at KPFA are not happy with Copyright Royalty Board's (CRB) recent ruling. What's the problem?

Bonnie Simmons: Well, one of the big issues is how the royalty rate is calculated, and what it will cost us to be able to properly account to Sound Exchange [the group that collects and distributes Internet royalties]. It is also possible that we may have to limit the number of people who can stream KPFA during any one hour so that our fees don't get to a point that would be a burden to us. But to my mind, a perhaps larger issue is that many Internet radio stations may disappear completely. If the figures that are bandied about as to what Internet music outlets would have to be paying, it does seem absurd to me. What I suspect will happen is what they are all saying. That they will not be able to continue in business.

An alliance of Native American public radio stations has asked the Federal Communications Commission to put a limit on the number of applications groups can submit for a non-commercial radio station license.

The request comes from Native Public Media (NPM) and addresses application rules for new non-commercial educational (NCE) radio station signals that non-profits will be able to compete for in the Fall.

"Absent limitations, NPM anticipates that the Commission will face an avalanche of applications," the group, which represents over 30 stations, warned in a statement filed on May 30th. "Limiting the number of applications that can be filed will encourage serious applicants to perform the appropriate due diligence for a few carefully selected sites and will prevent 'mass' application filings by parties that do not have a sincere interest in actually constructing and operating stations."

In early April the FCC announced that it will open a filing window for non-commercial stations to begin on Friday, October 12th and last through the following Friday the 19th.

NPM wants the Commission to set a limit of no more than ten applications for a single party. The organization also wants the FCC to devote one of its upcoming Indian Telecommunications Initiatives (ITI) conferences to informing tribes about how to apply for stations.