The FCC has ruled that Michigan contemporary Christian noncom radio network Smile FM would have to surrender its existing Class A FM station south of Detroit for its mutually exclusive Class B FM CP to be granted a license.
The issue stems from the November 2021 NCE FM filing window. Smile FM submitted an application for an NCE CP on 90.1 FM in Allen Park, noting that the proposal was MX’d with its existing 89.5 WDTP(FM) in Huron Township. In its 2021 application, Smile FM acknowledged the mutual exclusivity of the stations and stated that the WDTP license would be surrendered once the proposed facility was constructed.
WDTP’s Huron Township facility is located approximately 14 miles southwest of Detroit. It operates with 700 watts ERP as a Class A signal which is nulled toward the Motor City. The 90.1 Allen Park CP in contrast is for a 50 kW ERP Class B signal located less than a mile to the northwest of the existing WDTP.
Among the FCC’s guidelines provided to potential applicants was that the window was only for new NCE FM stations. “Major modifications of existing stations would not be permitted in the window,” the commission said.
(Read the FCC’s ruling on Smile FM’s petition.)
The Media Bureau did note that a station seeking such a modification could apply for a station that was mutually exclusive with the existing station and then surrender the existing station’s license.
In the FCC’s account it noted that simultaneously with the filing of the Allen Park application, Smile FM submitted a second application for a new Class A facility on 89.5 FM, broadcasting from Carleton in Monroe County. The Carleton application was also mutually exclusive with WDTP, as it is about 21 miles to its southwest. In the Carleton application, Smile FM similarly stated that it would surrender the WDTP license prior to the grant of the Carleton license.
The bureau granted the Carleton application in 2022 on that premise and it was assigned the call letters WKMF. However, following the grant, Smile FM filed a petition to remove the condition requiring it to surrender WDTP’s license before licensing the new WKMF. In its petition, Smile FM cited that it also had been granted a CP to operate WDTP on 90.1, which would allow it to move the signal there and serve “over 2 million persons.”
The commission denied the petition, stating that Smile FM was “effectively seeking to retain two licensed facilities.”
Meanwhile, the Allen Park application had initially been dismissed but was reinstated in October 2023 following an amendment. The Media Bureau then granted the Allen Park CP in February 2024. However, the Bureau conditioned the grant on Smile FM surrendering both the WDTP and WKMF facilities prior. The FCC said this effectively gave Smile FM “the choice of which single facility it wished to retain going forward.”
Finally, in April 2024, Smile FM filed a petition seeking the FCC to eliminate the requirement to cease operations of both WDTP and WKMF before beginning operations in Allen Park. In its petition, Smile FM argued that because there was no stated limitation on the number of new applications that could be filed when proposing to turn in an existing license, it should be allowed to activate its Allen Park CP before surrendering the WDTP license.
The commission reaffirmed its stance and denied Smile FM’s petition.
“By submitting applications that were mutually exclusive with WDTP, Smile FM avoided the need to compete with other potential applicants, as the proposed new facilities were effectively unavailable to any other applicant,” the commission wrote.
As the Media Bureau noted, if any other party had submitted an application MX’d with WDTP, it would have been dismissed as unavailable for filing.
As of now, Smile FM has ended up back where it started. In order to operate its CP at Allen Park, it would have to surrender both its WDTP and WKMF licenses. WDTP is currently the only active license of the three licenses in question.
Smile FM operates 30 FM signals heard across Michigan.
