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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 149 / Friday, August 6, 2021 / Proposed Rules
remove the maximum rated transmitter power limit for AM stations and delete the corresponding Table 1 to paragraph b. The Commission tentatively concludes that an equipment limitation on potential transmitter power is outdated and unnecessary given its current reliance on actual operating antenna input power as the most accurate and effective means of ensuring that AM stations adhere to their authorized power limits. The restriction on AM transmitter power goes back many decades and was adopted in substantially its current form in 1978.
The Commission tentatively concludes that retaining an equipment-based maximum rated transmitter power rule is unnecessary and inconsistent with the standard governing the operating power of AM stations set out in 47 CFR
73.51. It seeks comment on eliminating this requirement and on any other changes to the rules necessary or appropriate to reflect this change.
3. NCE community of license coverage. The Commission proposes to amend 47 CFR 73.316c2ixB and 73.1690c8i to harmonize with the later-adopted NCE FM community coverage standard set out in 47 CFR
73.515. Specifically, it proposes that the requirement in section 73.515 that stations reach 50% of their community of license or 50% of the population in their community should replace the more general requirement in sections 73.316c2ixB and 73.1690c8i that the station cover a portion of the community. Applications covered by sections 73.316c2ixB and 73.1690c8i must already satisfy the requirement set out in section 73.515.
To harmonize these provisions, the Commission proposes to amend these two rules to state that an NCE FM
station operating on a reserved channel must provide a predicted 60 dBm signal to at least 50% of its community of license or reach 50% of the population within the community. It seeks comment on this proposal.
4. FM transmitter interference to nearby antennas. The Commission proposes to eliminate 47 CFR 73.316d, which it tentatively concludes is an unnecessary burden on applicants. This is a seldom-used rule, which the Commission tentatively concludes does not prevent interference to any significant degree, if at all. The Commission seeks comment on this tentative conclusion as well as any other applicable considerations it should take into account when eliminating this rule.
Section 73.316d provides that applications proposing the use of FM
transmitting antennas in the immediate vicinity i.e., 60 meters or less of other
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FM or TV broadcast antennas must include a showing as to the expected effect, if any, of such approximate operation. Based on the Commissions experience, it tentatively concludes that broadcast radio antennas within this physical proximity are unlikely to create interference problems if they are otherwise compliant with the transmission system requirements set out in 47 CFR 73.317 and states that it is not aware of any industry complaints of such interference during the more than 70 years this rule has been in effect. Therefore, the Commission proposes to eliminate section 73.316d as an unnecessary application requirement and seeks comment on this proposal.
5. NCE FM Class D second-adjacent channel interference ratio. The Commission proposes to amend 47 CFR
73.509b, which sets out signal strength contour overlap requirements for NCE
FM Class D stations, to harmonize with the more permissive standard applied to all other NCEFM stations. This change will create consistency across different NCE FM station classes regarding contour overlap limitations. The Commission tentatively concludes that the current Class D contour overlap requirement is not necessary given the proven efficacy of the less restrictive requirements for other stations and anticipates that this change will allow Class D stations greater site selection flexibility as well as the opportunity to potentially increase their coverage areas.
Currently, section 73.509b provides that applications by NCE FM Class D
station licensees will not be accepted if they propose overlap of the applicant stations 80 dBu interfering contour with the 60 dBu protected contour of any second-adjacent channel station i.e., a 20 dBu interference ratio. In contrast, section 73.509a prohibits overlap of any other NCE applicant stations 100 dBu interfering contour with the 60 dBu protected contour of any second-adjacent channel station i.e., a 40 dBu interference ratio. When it adopted section 73.509a in 2000, the Commission explained that the 100 dBu standard is a better gauge of potential second-adjacent channel interference than the 80 dBu standard and that adoption of a less preclusive 100 dBu standard would create opportunities for NCE FM and FM translator stations to increase power and coverage, and provide them with greater site selection flexibility. However, because of a thenpending proceeding to establish the LPFM service, the Commission deferred any action on proposals involving NCE
FM Class D stations. The LPFM service
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has now been established and is currently a relatively mature service, so the Commission tentatively concludes that the time is ripe to extend the otherwise universal 100 dBu contour overlap standard for second-adjacent channels to NCE FM Class D stations. It seeks comment on this proposal.
6. Protection for grandfathered common carriers in Alaska in the 76
100 MHz band. The Commission proposes to delete the outdated requirement that radio stations operating in the 76100 MHz band protect common carrier services in Alaska. It states that this rule is unnecessary and obsolete because the Commissions licensing databases indicate that there are no common carrier services remaining in this band in Alaska. The relevant provisions, 47
CFR 73.501b, 74.1202b3, the second sentence of 74.702a1, and the second sentence of 74.786b, all contain similar language requiring broadcast services to protect grandfathered common carrier services in Alaska operating in the 76
100 MHz frequency band. With the exception of section 74.786b, which was added in 2004 to apply the Alaska rule to digital LPTV and TV translators, this suite of rule provisions was created in 1982 when the Commission reallocated the 76100 MHz band in Alaska from government and nongovernment fixed services to broadcast services. In doing so, the Commission grandfathered existing common carrier operations, protecting them from new broadcast services in that band. At the time, the Commission anticipated that such protection would become unnecessary as the common carriers gradually moved to other parts of the spectrum. Accordingly, in 2005, the Commission deleted two of the original five rules on the basis that there were no longer any common carrier stations in Alaska in the 76100 MHz band. For the same reason, the Commission proposes to delete the remaining sections 73.501b, 74.1202b3, and portions of 74.702a1 and 74.786b of the Commissions rules as obsolete and unnecessary. It seeks comment on this proposal.
7. AM fill-in area definition. The Commission proposes to amend the definition of AM fill-in area set out in 47 CFR 74.1201j to conform to the requirement in 47 CFR 74.1201g that the coverage contour of an FM
translator rebroadcasting an AM radio broadcast station as its primary station must be contained within the greater of either the 2 mV/m daytime contour of the AM station or a 25-mile 40 km radius centered at the AM transmitter site. It does not propose any change to
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