The Sixth Order on Reconsideration has been issued by the FCC to address the several issues that came up during the previous Report and Order on various subjects:

"New Entrant" Point

The FCC has rejected calls for chapters of larger organizations that have full power broadcast holdings to claim the "new entrant" point.  The FCC states that the new entrant point was adopted to "encourage genuinely new entrants to broadcasting and to foster a more diverse range of community voices".  The FCC also clarified that if an applicant has a triggering event that could change their score or make them ineligible for LPFM, their point total can be reduced or their application can be dmissed based on the reason. 

10/17/2013 11:00AM EDT ---  The FCC has confirmed that the LPFM filing window is now OPEN.  

REC is now recommending that any applicants who are ready to file may do so at this time.  

The FCC has delayed other filing deadlines including the October 1 radio renewal deadline.  

A consortium of LPFM advocates including REC, Prometheus Radio Project and Common Frequency are currently negotiating with the FCC to extend the deadline for filings thus creating an extended filing window.  

Once and if a new date is announced, there will be a FCC public notice. 

But for now, any applications that have been filed since the recovery of the FCC website are valid and in force.

In advance of the President's signature, the FCC has reactivated their website. REC has completed post recovery testing of myLPFM and has placed the website into regular operation.

As of Midnight EDT, October 17, the US Census Bureau's web services are not yet available so demographic data will not be available until further notice but our height above average terrain (HAAT) services are now back and operational.

With the breaking news reports that the US Senate may have reached a deal, there's a possibility that the FCC may reopen on Thursday, October 17.  

If this does happen, let me tell you what will be next from the perspective of REC Networks.

Really not much to report at this time.  We are all still at the mercy of our elected officials to come up with a solution to this current crisis our nation is facing.  

Those organizations that were thinking of filing but did not feel that they were ready should take this time to rethink that and consider whether they want to go ahead. 

If a deal is reached this week in Congress, we will be pushing for a two-week window in November. 

Let's hope that this crisis gets resolved.  Not just for the sake of LPFM, but for the sake of our veterans, our Social Security recipients and our furloughed federal employees and contractors.