Today, the FCC has dismissed 14 LPFM applications that were prepared by Hispanic Christian Community Network headed by Antonio Cesar Guel. These applications were the subject of a Letter of Inquiry by the FCC back in February.

In the original Letter of Inquiry, the FCC seeked additional information about the parties to the application, site assurances and how the applications were prepared to determine if there was misrepresentation and/or lack of candor in the applications.

On December 2, 2013, the advocacy side of REC Networks had filed an Informal Objection against 249 LPFM applications filed during the 2013 LPFM filing window showing Antonio Cesar Guel of HCCN as the preparer. In that informal objection, REC alleges that because of similarities between all 249 applications, that there are concerns over whether the applications are for legitimate organizations.

REC is issuing a very long overdue release for myLPFM.  

Server migration

myLPFM is the first of several REC services that will be migrating to a cloud-based service.  For the past few years, the broadcast services tools as well as some of the backend support tools for J1 Radio have been operating off of slow servers on site at REC.  This change will put the tools on faster equipment.  Our testing has shown significant improvements in response time.  The DNS changes have already been put in and it may take up to 48 hours for these changes to propagate through the internet.  

Since the FCC's original announcement of the groups of mutually exclusive (MX) LPFM applications, the FCC has allowed applicants to make minor changes that involve physical moves of less than 5.6 kilometers and changes in channel to the first, second or third adjacent as well as the intermediate frequency channels (10.6/10.8 MHz) as well as dismissals triggered by both application discrepencies as well as at the request of the applicants, the number of active MX groups, as tracked by REC has reduced from 417 to 316. 

The largest MX group, the Los Angeles 101.5 MegaGroup has reduced from 32 to 27 applicants.  Of those, two of those applicants have been dismissed and are currently in the 30-day reconsideration period.  

The FCC has recently rescinded (cancelled) the grants of fourteen LPFM construction permits in the southern states and returned those applications to pending status.  

An REC evaluation of these applications has shown that many of these applications contained information that may have been forged including siguatures, notary seals and articles of incorporation.  Some applications may have other issues such as incomplete party and NEPA compliance (radio frequency radiation worksheet) issues.

Since these applications have not been dismissed, they can still be amended.  Even if they are dismissed, a Petition for Reconsideration can be filed within 30 days of dismissal and a one time opportunity to correct defects can be made.