FAQ: I heard that I may have to give announcements for the first year for third adjacent channel stations. What is this about?

This is (in our opinion) the one aspect of the Local Community Radio Act that the FCC got the most wrong. Under the FCC's (misguided) interpretation of the LCRA, LPFM stations that have a third adjacent channel full power or translator station within 100 km must make announcements for that station unless the distance from the LPFM to the third adjacent channel station is less than the 73.807 required distance for that station class using the second adjacent channel chart. Only the closest station on each of the two third adjacent channels must be considered. For example, if you are on 95.5 and you have third adjacent channel stations on 94.9 that are 85 km (Class A) and 4 km (Class C3) away, you do not have to make an announcement for that channel however if you have stations on 96.1 that are 98 km (Class C) and 32 km away (Class A), then you will have to make an announcement for the station 32 km away.