Radio stations to be located in Waterville?

[Doug Drown]

I think I understand the principle, but Fairfield and Skowhegan are two
distinctly separate towns.  And in this case, neither the studio nor the
transmission tower are in Fairfield.  I can see how a station might be
grandfathered (e.g., WTAG's place of license is Worcester, though the
transmitter has long been in Holden and the studios are now in Paxton), but
how does the definition apply regarding WCTB?   (I'm a layman.)     -Doug


-
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@bimajority.org>
To: "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
Cc: "Boston Radio" <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2007 1:59 PM
Subject: Re: Radio stations to be located in Waterville?


> <<On Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:36:10 -0500, "Doug Drown" <revdoug1@verizon.net>
said:
>
> > Rick Davis is GM of what I think is still called Mountain Wireless:
WSKW
> > (AM) and WFMX (FM) in Skowhegan, and WCTB (FM) which is licensed for
some
> > strange reason to Fairfield.
>
> There's nothing strange about WCTB being licensed to Fairfield.[1] The
> FCC gives a preference to applications (and allocations rulemakings)
> that represent the "first local service" to a particular community.
> This is interpreted ridiculously literally: a community is said to
> have "local service" if and only if there is another station whose
> community of license is that exact community, down to the spelling.
> (A petitioner must still demonstrate that a proposed community is a
> bona fide "community" as the FCC defines it, but that is not a high
> bar to jump.)  Whether there is another station that *in reality*
> serves that community, or whether the proposed station would actually
> do so, is not considered.  (This is related to the way you get
> stations on Cape Cod licensed both to Barnstable and to Hyannis [a
> fire district in Barnstable], or to Harwich and Harwichport.)
>
> -GAWollman
>
> [1] By a curious coincidence, one of my coworkers is from Fairfield.