The FCC has declined to issue a construction permit for a new low-power FM station in West Palm Beach, Fla.
The application had been filed by Latino Public Radio of Palm Beach during the recent LPFM window to apply for new stations.
But it drew an objection from HMDF LLC, licensee of an AM station in Pompano Beach and FM translator in Boca Raton, which filed a petition to deny.
For an LPFM applicant in a top 50 market to qualify as local, it must be physically headquartered within 10 miles of the antenna site or else have 75% of its board members residing within that distance.
Latino Public Radio had certified that it met both of those provisions, submitting to the FCC a local address for the station as well as for each of its three board members.
But HMDF told the FCC that the address on the application is a one-bedroom, 625-square-foot townhouse/apartment and that public records don’t indicate that any of the LPR board members resides there. It also said the address is more than 10 miles from the proposed transmitter site.
LPR then provided documentation, including banking and utility bills, demonstrating that one of its board members resides at that address. It also said it would amend its application to “confirm the presence of studios and offices within 10 miles” of the transmitter site. It subsequently filed an amendment to change its address as well as the antenna location and channel, but the Media Bureau dismissed that effort in May, saying it was a prohibited major amendment.
Now the FCC Media Bureau has ruled that the originally filed address is in fact more than 13 miles from the designated transmitter site, and thus does not qualify. It declined to consider the amended address, adding that it appears to be a shopping center with no record of LPR as a tenant.
The application by Latino Public Radio of Palm Beach now has been dismissed.
