LPFM Weather Network Tries Again – Radio World

WARN seeks a review of its applications by the full commission

The Weather Alert Radio Network believes the FCC Media Bureau overstepped its authority by not allowing WARN to assemble a “public safety radio service” network of low-power FM stations in hurricane-prone areas of the United States.

As we’ve reported, the FCC rejected WARN’s batch of 213 LPFM applications in the 2023 window for construction permits at 105 sites. The Media Bureau then declined to reverse its rejection of those applications.

Now WARN is trying again. It has filed an application for review of the denial of its petition for reconsideration. The group says the Media Bureau wrongly dismissed its applications based on a lack of clarity on the definition of “jurisdiction.”

The latest filing states that the “question presented involves a question of law or policy that has not previously been resolved by the commission. Specifically, the question involves what constitutes ‘jurisdiction’ within the meaning of a dismissal.”

The FCC has said WARN did not show that it had any jurisdiction as a public safety radio service and had failed to justify a waiver of the requirement to demonstrate that. The FCC said that the information WARN proposes to broadcast is transmitted to the public from other sources.

The organization argues that the definition of “jurisdiction” as it relates to LPFM public safety eligibility has not been defined by the rulemaking process.

WARN founder Rob Connelly told Radio World in an email: “The eligibility for public safety requires a non-profit to have jurisdiction, yet how that can be? Or how can that be proven? And what constitutes jurisdiction?”

Connelly says the question has not been addressed by the full commission and is being defined arbitrarily by the Media Bureau on a subjective case-by-case basis. “We believe that is wrong.”

He continued: “There are very few uses of the LPFM spectrum for public safety in general as few municipalities with jurisdiction actually apply, and any good non-profit non-government proposals cannot have ‘jurisdiction’ however it’s being defined, thereby gutting the intent of the public safety eligibly rule and drastically reducing quality proposals that are directly in the public interest.”

WARN said that prior to the filing window, FCC staff had directed it to send the commission a list of the various public safety agencies it planned to partner with. The organization did so but received no response from the FCC, Connelly said.

The commission has said that such communications are non-binding and that WARN had mischaracterized those conversations.

Now WARN accuses the Media Bureau of “unlawful retroactive rulemaking” and says the bureau lacks the delegated authority to adopt or change commission rules. WARN says the 2000 LPFM Report and Order contains a footnote that seems to suggest that WARN was qualified, because it specifically mentions “weather” as an “important use for low-power FM stations and a permitted public safety service.”

WARN also says the argument that the information to be rebroadcast is available from other sources is not relevant. “The commission should not be making decisions relative to applicants predicated on the usefulness of the programming,” WARN says.