The following are updates to stories previously reported here and other recent FCC filings and actions:
Iowa
Wennes Communications’ KDEC/1240 (Decorah) filed for a license to cover its new transmitter site, which is co-located with share-time partner KWLC/1240. It continues to use 1kW. The new site on the Luther College campus is only a mile and a half from KDEC’s old site.
Minnesota
Multi-Cultural Diversity Radio applied for licenses to cover for WZBY/92.7 (Grand Portage) and WOTO/98.1 (Grand Portage), indicating that the new stations have been constructed and are ready to go on the air, if they are not already. The applications did not specify whether the stations are currently transmitting and programming is unknown. The original 2013 applications for the stations specified 100kW facilities that would’ve reached Thunder Bay but the permits were later modified to just 100 Watts, only reaching the immediate Grand Portage area at the tip of Minnesota’s Arrowhead. The licensee stated in its 2018 applications that it intends to eventually upgrade the stations back to class C (100kW).
The FCC granted the sale of KUMD-FM/103.3 (Duluth) from the University of Minnesota Board of Regents to the Duluth-Superior Area Educational Television Corporation, which operates PBS station WDSE/8 (Duluth).
Praise Live/Christian Heritage Broadcasting closed on its purchase of KNOF/95.3 (St. Paul) from the Educational Media Foundation on July 20. The buyer had already been operating the station since April.
DTV America’s K28PQ-D (St. Cloud), which transmits from the former KPXM-TV tower near Big Lake and uses virtual channel 38, reported that it is operating at 2kW because the one of its transmitter’s amplifiers has failed. K28PQ normally transmits with 5kW.
The FCC canceled the licenses of former analog low-power TV stations K42FH (Bemidji, MN) and K46DY (Bismarck, ND), which were owned by Digital Networks-Midwest and had been off the air since October 2019. Federal law stipulates that licenses automatically expire when a station is off the air for more than a year. The channels on which K42FH and K46DY had broadcast were discontinued nationally last year and analog broadcasting ended July 13, so the stations would have had to relocate to lower channel numbers and converted to digital operation.
HC2 Broadcasting withdrew a request for special temporary authority to operate K33LN-D (Minneapolis) at reduced power.
Edge Spectrum was granted an extension of special temporary authority to operate K26KF-D (Duluth) and K35JN-D (Duluth) at 100 Watts while it works to build the 5kW facilities specified in their construction permits. Current programming is unknown.
Nebraska
The FCC canceled the licenses of former analog TV translators K11KW (Ainsworth) and K13EH (Ainsworth), which did not seek conversion to digital. July 13 was the last day of analog TV broadcasting in most of the U.S. The translators had been owned by the City of Ainsworth.
The FCC approved a request for tolling from Edge Spectrum for K49LK-D (North Platte), which will be silent for more than a year due to delays in equipment manufacturing and installation. Federal law stipulates that stations lose their licenses if they are off the air for more than a year but gives the FCC narrow discretion to grant waivers when the situation is beyond the licensee’s control. The FCC agreed that the delays are beyond Edge’s control. K49LK-D has a construction permit to resume broadcasting on channel 20.
My Bridge Radio’s K257GW/99.3 (Nebraska City), which has made a series of hops to the northwest over the last several years, applied to move to a site near Springfield and change its community of license to that city. The proposed 250-Watt facility would rimshot the far southwestern Omaha metro area. MyBridge also has a translator broadcasting from Omaha.
North Dakota
The FCC canceled Cherry Creek Radio’s construction permit for K277DR/103.3 (Williston), which was not built by its June 28 deadline. The translator would’ve relayed KEYZ/660.
Edge Spectrum applied to upgrade K18NT-D (Grand Forks) from 100W to 15kW. The station recently converted from analog operation on channel 17.
Landover 2, LLC was granted modifications to the construction permits for new low-power TV stations K40NK-D (Bismarck), K48NB-D (Horace), and K49MO-D (Valley City) to lower channels, since their permits originally specified channels that were discontinued nationally last year. The Bismarck station is now K16NV-D with 9kW, while the Horace station is now K20OY-D with 9kW and the Valley City station is now K23PR-D with 15kW. The stations face January 2022 construction deadlines.
See item regarding a North Dakota low-power TV station in the Minnesota entry above
South Dakota
The FCC proposed a $3,000 fine against Corporation for Native Broadcasting over a late license renewal filing by KXSW/89.9 (Sisseton). According to the FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability, South Dakota radio license renewal applications were due Dec. 1, 2020, but KXSW didn’t file until Jan. 14, 2021, and provided no explanation for the late filing. The licensee has 30 days to either pay the fine or request a reduction or cancellation.
Edge Spectrum was granted an upgrade from 100W to 2.5kW for K32FW-D (Pierre), which recently flash-cut from analog.
Wisconsin
The Educational Media Foundation told the FCC that W277AE/103.3 (Madison) is back on the air, operating under program test authority with its new 120-Watt facility and relaying the University of Northwestern-St. Paul’s WNWC/1190 (Sun Prairie-Madison). EMF is in the process of swapping two licenses in the Toledo, Ohio, area to W277AE licensee Fusion Radio in exchange for the Madison signal. EMF operates the “K-Love” and “Air1” networks, which do not currently have any stations in the Madison area. The translator had formerly relayed WFEN/88.3 (Rockford, IL).
Benjamin Thompson’s W224DE/92.7 (Janesville), which relays WCLO/1230, was granted a construction permit to move its transmitter from the eastern edge of Janesville to its downtown.
The FCC granted modifications to Landover 2, LLC’s construction permits for new low-power TV stations in Merrill to specify channels, after their previous channels were discontinued in the national spectrum repack. The former W50EU-D is now W06DL-D on VHF Low channel 6 with 3kW, while the former W43DJ-D is now W35EA-D on channel 35 with 15kW. Extensions of the construction deadlines to January 2022 were also approved.