July 26, 2007 | Read Time: 2 minutes
For the first time in seven years, the Federal Communications Commission in mid-October will accept applications for new, full-power stations used for noncommercial, educational purposes. There is no application fee and, if granted, the license itself is free.
To apply, a nonprofit group must be registered in the state where the station would be located, but it is not required to have charity status from the Internal Revenue Service.
The FCC would not speculate on how many frequencies may be open.
New licenses for educational stations have not been granted since 2000 because of disagreements over how to handle cases in which two or more organizations had applied for conflicting frequencies. The FCC stopped taking applications and developed a point system to rate applications from groups competing for the same or overlapping frequencies.
The point system awards a maximum of seven points to an applicant. The most points are given to local groups that do not already own a radio station in the area. Organizations can also get points for technical superiority.
Full-power stations range from 100 watts to 100,000 watts, depending on the geographic area of the proposed transmitter and antenna. The majority of eligible channels are located on the FM dial between 88.1 MHz and 91.9 MHz.
A coalition of groups interested in keeping radio local and diverse — called Radio for People — is working to help nonprofit organizations get organized and wade through the application process. Candidates must first find an available frequency and then identify a specific place for the transmitter and antenna. Groups may apply only for frequencies that do not conflict with stations already broadcasting in the geographic area.
Once a transmitter site is secured, an engineer must be hired to do a frequency search. The preliminary check for a frequency usually costs approximately $250, while the full engineering study required by the FCC can cost $2,000 to $5,000, according to the Prometheus Radio Project, in Philadelphia.
As part of the application, an organization must demonstrate access to enough money to construct the station and operate it for three months. If the application is granted, the organization receives a construction permit and has three years to build the station.
For more information on the application process: Go to http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio.
For more information on getting help: Go to http://radioforpeople.org.
