The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has reaffirmed a request that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) consider allowing new radio stations to apply for licenses in a little-used part of the AM radio band.
The frequencies fall between 1610 AM and 1710 AM on most conventional radios, with the range commonly referred to as the extended band or “X-band” by some broadcasters and hobbyist radio listeners.
The expanded band opened up in the 1990s when the FCC approved more than 80 radio stations to transmit on those frequencies. The agency was intending to address what was then an issue with overcrowding on the AM radio band by allowing some smaller stations to eventually move their signals to the expanded band while surrendering their licenses for lower frequencies.
That strategy did not quite play out as expected, with most stations simulcasting their lower frequency broadcasts on higher frequencies without fully surrendering their older licenses.
In 2015, the agency affirmed that the initiative had not gone as planned, though it hasn’t forced stations off the air, either. Instead, it has simply chosen not to license new stations in the X-band,
Last year, the NAB urged the FCC to consider opening a new filing window that allows interested broadcasters to apply for licenses on stations that fall within 1605 and 1705 kilohertz (kHz) — though, given the way station frequencies are assigned, the applications would be limited to stations transmitting between 1610 and 1700 kHz. (The frequencies expressed in kHz are the same that appear on consumer AM radios.)
Under current FCC rules, broadcasters who are interested in applying for licenses on those higher frequencies are not only required to do so during a filing window scheduled by the FCC, but they also most file a petition that proves their interest in obtaining a license for those frequencies is based on certain improvement factors, including whether a station’s broadcast is subject to interference by another broadcaster and the planned service area of an upper-frequency station.
The NAB said the FCC should scrutinize and consider eliminating those restrictions as part of the agency’s ongoing “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative, which seeks to withdraw onerous and outdated rules and regulations afflicting broadcasters and other regulated industries.
During a meeting with FCC officials last week, the NAB reaffirmed their position that the agency should remove restrictions that inhibit a broadcaster’s ability to file an application to transmit in the X-band and schedule a window by which applications can be received and considered. The meeting involved the FCC Media Bureau’s Al Shuldiner and James Bradshaw and NAB officials Larry Walke, Ben Arden and David Layer.
“NAB expressed appreciation for the FCC’s longstanding efforts to provide AM broadcasters with additional flexibility to improve service to their local communities,” Walke wrote in a letter to the agency this week. “We also noted the vital role of AM radio stations in the security of our nation’s critical infrastructure and public safety, and encouraged the FCC to continue to consider ways to promote this critical platform.”
The proposal to allow broadcasters to apply for licenses in the X-band was one of several initiative discussed that could further help the AM radio industry, Walke said.
If approved, an application window could spur strong interest from community-oriented broadcasters who might otherwise lack the resources to transmit on lower frequencies and obtain a license therein, especially in larger communities where other radio broadcasters have saturated the lower AM band.
Most communities already have a number of smaller, local broadcast outlets transmitting on upper frequencies, including high schools, universities, religious groups and stations that provide news, sports and music in non-English languages, including Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Greek and Korean.
