Program Originating FM Broadcast Booster Stations

<RULE> FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION <CFR>47 CFR Parts 11, 73, and 74</CFR> <DEPDOC>[MB Docket No. 20-401; FCC 24-121; FR ID 267137]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Program Originating FM Broadcast Booster Stations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Communications Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this document, the Federal Communications Commission (Commission) adopts a Second Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration (Second R&O) on processing, licensing, and service rules that will allow voluntary, limited use of FM booster stations to originate content on a permanent basis. This action builds upon an April 2024 Commission action which permitted experimental use of program originating boosters subject to adoption of such rules. The rule changes are needed to expand the potential uses of FM booster stations, which previously could not originate programming. The intended effect is to allow radio broadcasters to provide more relevant localized programming and information to different zones within their service areas. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective January 13, 2025 except for the amendments in instruction 5 (47 CFR 73.3526) instruction 6 (47 CFR 73.3527), instruction 9 (74.1204), and instruction 10 (47 CFR 74.1206), which are delayed indefinitely. The Commission will announce the effective date of the amendments to 47 CFR 73.3526, 73.3527, 74.1204, and 74.1206 in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Albert Shuldiner, Chief, Media Bureau, Audio Division, (202) 418-2721, <E T="03">Albert.Shuldiner@fcc.gov;</E> Irene Bleiweiss, Attorney, Media Bureau, Audio Division, (202) 418-2785, <E T="03">Irene.Bleiweiss@fcc.gov.</E> For additional information concerning the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) information collection requirements contained in this document, contact Cathy Williams at (202) 418-2918, <E T="03">Cathy.Williams@fcc.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> This is a summary of the Commission's Second Report and Order ( <E T="03">Second R&O</E> ), MB Docket No. 20-401; FCC 24-121, adopted on November 21, 2024, and released on November 22, 2024. The full text of this document will be available via the FCC's website at <E T="03">https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-24-121A1.pdf.</E> Documents will be available electronically in ASCII, Microsoft Word, and/or Adobe Acrobat. Alternative formats are available for people with disabilities (braille, large print, electronic files, audio format), by sending an email to <E T="03">fcc504@fcc.gov</E> or calling the Commission's Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at (202) 418-0530 (voice), (202) 418-0432 (TTY). Prior documents that the Commission published in this proceeding include a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at 86 FR 1909 (January 11, 2021), a Report and Order at 89 FR 26786 (April 16, 2024), and a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at 89 FR 26847 (April 16, 2024). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis</HD> This Second R&O may contain new or modified information collection requirements subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), Public Law 104-13. All such new or modified information collections will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review under section 3507(d) of the PRA. 44 U.S.C. 3507(d). OMB, the general public, and other Federal agencies are invited to comment on any new or modified information collection requirements contained in this proceeding. In addition, we note that pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002 (Pub. L. 107-198, 116 Stat 729 (2002) (codified at 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(4)), the Commission previously sought specific comment on how it might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. Appendix C of the Second R&O assesses the effects of the required collection of information on these small entities. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Congressional Review Act</HD> The Commission has determined, and the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, concurs, that these rules are non-major under the Congressional Review Act, 5 U.S.C. 804(2). The Commission will send a copy of the Second R&O to Congress and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) pursuant to 5 U.S.C. 801(a)(1)(A). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Synopsis</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> 1. In the Second R&O, the Commission expands the potential uses of FM boosters, which are low power, secondary stations that operate in the FM broadcast band. As a secondary service, FM booster stations are not permitted to cause adjacent-channel interference to other primary services or previously authorized secondary stations. They must operate on the same frequency and within the same service contour as the primary station and have been limited to rebroadcasting the primary station's signal in its entirety ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> no transmission of original content). Historically, the sole use of FM boosters has been to improve signal strength of primary FM stations in areas where reception is poor due to terrain or distance from the transmitter. In April 2024, the Commission adopted rules sufficient to authorize program originating boosters only on an experimental basis. The additional rules in the Second R&O will allow FM and LPFM broadcasters to employ FM booster stations to originate programming for up to three minutes per hour on a permanent basis. 2. GeoBroadcast Solutions, LLC (GBS), the proponent of the rule changes, has developed technology designed to allow licensees of primary FM and LPFM broadcast stations to target a portion of their programming to particular zones by using FM boosters to originate different content for different parts of their service areas. GBS filed a Petition for Rulemaking (Petition) seeking to allow FM boosters to originate programming. The Petition suggested that program originating boosters can deliver significant value to broadcasters, advertisers, and listeners in distinct communities by broadcasting more relevant localized information and advancing diversity. Stations might, for example, air hyper-local news and weather reports most relevant to a particular community. Stations also might air advertisements or underwriting acknowledgements from small local businesses, thereby enhancing the stations' ability to compete for local support. GBS pointed out that many other types of media, such as online content providers, cable companies, and newspapers are able to differentiate their content geographically, but that no such option has existed for radio broadcasting. On April 2, 2020, the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau issued a public notice seeking comment on the Petition. The Petition garnered significant public participation. 3. The Commission released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on December 1, 2020, FCC 20-166, to seek comment on the GBS proposal and published a <E T="04">Federal Register</E> summary on January 11, 2021, 86 FR 1909. The NPRM posed questions to determine whether—and if so, how—to change FM booster station rules to permit FM boosters to transmit original geo-targeted content. 4. After the comment period closed, the Commission granted GBS' request for experimental authority to conduct additional testing of the technology and required GBS to report the results. The reports contained detailed information about the technology's operation in two radio markets, its compatibility with the Emergency Alert System (EAS), and potential impact on digital FM broadcasts. Because this information was not available to the public during the NPRM comment cycle, the Commission issued a public notice on April 18, 2022, DA 22-429, opening the record for additional comments. 5. In April 2024, the Commission issued a Report and Order (Order) identifying significant potential benefits of program originating boosters. It determined that the ability to originate content would enable broadcasters to serve specific geographic segments within their broadcast areas, could open up more affordable advertising to smaller and minority-owned businesses, and generally provide broadcasters and listeners options for more targeted and varied advertising and content. The Commission, thus, found that it would be in the public interest to allow FM and low power FM (LPFM) broadcasters to use booster-originated content on a voluntary, limited basis, subject to resolution of various technical and non-technical matters. 6. The Commission's Order identified certain safeguards and limitations that could potentially resolve certain concerns raised in the comments such as whether program originating boosters would cause harmful interference to their primary station or adjacent channel stations, be compatible with the EAS, and be used in a manner consistent with principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The potential safeguards included: limiting program origination to three minutes per hour (five percent of each hour); requiring notification to the Commission before a booster begins to originate programming; requiring program originating boosters to receive and broadcast all emergency alerts in the same manner as their primary station; limiting the number of boosters a station can operate; and a self-certification or monitoring of the marketplace to ensure that booster stations are not used to disadvantage particular communities or locations. The Order also concluded that the Commission could minimize interference by placing conditions on booster authorizations, relying upon proper engineering by broadcasters, and responding, on a case-by-case basis, to any interfer ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 73k characters. 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