The FCC has granted a construction permit for a new noncom FM station in Seymour, Ind., to the nonprofit New Beginnings Movement.
The permit stems from the 2021 NCE FM application window. New Beginnings, which is based in Muncie, was part of an MX group with three other applicants. Initially, it was the tentative selectee based on a fair distribution analysis by the commission.
One of the other MX group members, Lushomo Health Education Center, which sought to build an NCE FM station in Bloomington, successfully petitioned to deny the New Beginnings application in 2022, citing inaccuracies in the population figures it submitted. Radio World reported on the decision.
However, since then, the new tentative selectee, World Federation, withdrew its application. The Media Bureau then conducted a new comparative analysis of the MX group.
In February 2024, Lushomo amended its application, disclosing an attributable interest in WTLG(FM) in Makanda, Ill., which received a license on Feb. 5. Lushomo also stated one of its officers serves on the board of directors of WRLP(FM) in Orange, Va. It attached a contour map to the amendment, which Lushomo said illustrated the “great distances” from its Bloomington application and maintained its claim to diversity of ownership “is not disturbed.”
As a result of this amendment, the commission did not award Lushomo points in the diversity of ownership category in the MX group assessment, making New Beginnings again the tentative selectee.
Lushomo later filed a petition arguing that the commission had wrongly denied it points. It argued that its failure to disclose its attributable interests was a “harmless error.”
New Beginnings opposed Lushomo’s petition, arguing that Lushomo had ample notice of the NCE FM filing window requirements and had waited too long to submit its amendment.
The commission sided with New Beginnings.
(Read the commission’s statement on NCE MX Group 95.)
In its ruling, the commission said Lushomo had incorrectly certified that it had no attributable interests in any other broadcast station, “resulting in a demonstrably false basis for its diversity of ownership claim.”
The commission also noted Lushomo filed the amendment more than two years after the deadline.
Lushomo had attempted to compare the commission’s handling of a NCE FM CP grant to Brazos TV as evidence of “inconsistency” of deciding such matters of diversity credit.
However, the commission rejected this argument, stating when Brazos filed its amendment — including an additional contour map — it had already provided sufficient documentation for its diversity claim.
So after several rounds of deliberation, the commission affirmed New Beginnings as the tentative selectee and granted its construction permit, contingent on the organization maintaining the qualifications that allowed it to prevail in the tiebreaker over a four-year period. It must also comply with restrictions on station modifications and acquisitions.
New Beginnings’ CP authorizes a Class A FM signal on 88.5, licensed to Seymour. Its proposed antenna site is on a tower owned by WZZB(AM) and is home to several broadcasters in the southern Indiana community.
The organization also operates 88.1 WNAP(FM), a Class B1 station licensed to Morristown and known as “The Buzzard,” which is also broadcast on several area FM translators.
