Private radio services: applications/particular filing rules 6855 Proceedings, miscellaneous Forfeiture proceedings 6808, 6868 Reconsideration/review of Commission action Actions taken pursuant to delegated authority, effective dates o 6906, 6911 Subpart A - General Rules of Practice and Procedure Petitions for Reconsideration 6880 Subpart H Rules Applicable to All Broadcast Stations conducted contests. Multiple ownership of broadcast stations in the same service Reports of Common Carriers and Affiliates Application requirements for earth stations with non-U.S. licens 6891 ix 1. The Audio Division has before it a Petition for Reconsideration filed by Living Proof, Inc. (“Living Proof") directed to the staff letter dated March 18, 2004, returning its Petition for Rule Making requesting the reservation of vacant FM Channel 239A at Lake Isabella, California for noncommercial educational (“NCE") use. For reasons discussed below, we are denying the Petition for Reconsideration. 2. Background. In 2002, the Commission revised the criteria by which a rulemaking proponent may reserve an FM allotment for NCE use. Initially, this reservation process was limited to future allotment proceedings.' The Commission later extended the expanded criteria to existing vacant FM allotments for which a Notice of Proposed Rule Making had been released prior to August 7, 2000, the effective date of the NCE Report and Order? Under this expanded criteria, a proponent must demonstrate that it is technically precluded from using a reserved channel (Channels 201 through 220) and the proposal would provide a first and/or second NCE radio service to at least 10 percent of the population within the 1 mV/m (60 dBu) contour of the proposed station, provided that such population would exceed 2,000 persons. 3. Living Proof filed a petition requesting the reservation of vacant FM Channel 239A at Lake Isabella, California for NCE use. The petition was returned as unacceptable for consideration by staff letter action because it failed to meet the reservation criteria. The staff analysis determined that the proposed NCE reservation request for the vacant Lake Isabella allotment would not provide a first or second NCE radio service to at least 10 percent of the population within the proposed primary service area. 4. Petition for Reconsideration. Living Proof submitted an engineering study that provided calculations relating to the population within the proposed service area utilizing three different In the Reexamination of the Comparative Standards for Noncommercial Educational Applicants, Report and Order, 15 FCC Rcd 7386 (2000) ("NCE Report and Order"). Previously, the Commission would only reserve a channel in the nonreserved FM band (Channels 221 through 300) if the petitioner demonstrated that no reserved channel could be used in the noncommercial reserve band (Channels 201 through 220) without causing prohibited interference to a Channel 6 TV station or to a foreign broadcast station. Reexamination of the Comparative Standards for Noncommercial Educational Applicants, Second Report and Order, 18 FCC Rcd 6691 (2003) ("NCE Second Report and Order"). In a Public Notice released September 30, 2003, we invited petitions for rule making to reserve vacant FM allotments for NCE use pursuant to the NCE Second Report and Order. In response to the Public Notice, we received 129 petitions for the reservation of 91 allotments. |