The following are updates to previously-reported items and other recent regulatory filings and actions concerning Upper Midwest broadcast stations. This report is created by the author and is not an official report of the FCC.
Iowa
Calvary Chapel Iowa has reached an agreement to transfer KEWR-LP/97.5 (Cedar Rapids) to Friendship Baptist Church for $1. Calvary Chapel Iowa has a construction permit for new station KEWR-FM/89.9 (Cedar Rapids) and must divest the low-power license before signing on the full-power station. Friendship Baptist Church will have to switch the low-power station to a different callsign. The buyer was one of the groups that reached a settlement allowing Calvary Chapel Iowa to use 89.9 full-time rather than enter a three-way time-sharing agreement.
Des Moines-based St. Gabriel Communications requested a callsign change for KEDB/105.3 (Chariton) to KIHC-FM, effective Aug. 15 if granted. The request includes consent from Relevant Radio, which owns an AM station in California using the KIHC callsign and will receive $5,000 for allowing St. Gabriel Communications to use the KIHC-FM callsign.
The FCC canceled DTV America’s construction permit for K16NT-D (Keokuk), saying the low-power TV station was not constructed by the deadline.
Minnesota
The FCC granted SagamoreHill of Minneapolis a construction permit to move KMWE-LD/17.1 to the First National Bank building in downtown St. Paul, using a 15kW directional facility. KMWE-LD’s community of license is St. Cloud but it has been licensed to transmit from a residential area of the northwestern suburb of Corcoran since late 2021.
Having recently moved its transmitter to the KTTC(TV) studio facility in Rochester, Gray TV’s K29OE-D (Racine) has applied to upgrade to 15kW from a different directional antenna at the KTTC facility that will be shared with K30RA-D (Racine).
Following up on an earlier reduced power notification, Educational Media Foundation’s K288GR/105.5 (Bayport) was granted special temporary authority to transmit with 9 Watts ERP rather than its usual 250 Watts. The reduction is to fit K288GR’s coverage area within the contour of its current primary station, KQQL/107.9 (Anoka), which is hosting “K-Love” on its HD4 signal while tower work is underway at K288GR’s usual primary station, KTCZ/97.1 (Minneapolis). (This item has been corrected to reflect that the power reduction is due to work at KTCZ’s tower site, not K288GR’s.)
Leighton Enterprises’ KJJK/1020 (Fergus Falls) requested another extension of special temporary authority to transmit with 60 Watts, which it has been using since early 2022 due to a problem with its antenna system. The station’s latest filing says repairs are now about 60% complete but they are waiting for parts to arrive. KJJK normally transmits with 2kW day and 37 Watts night.
Nebraska
CSN International’s K212EJ/90.3 (Scottsbluff) has moved to 91.9 as K220FK. The move was needed because K212EJ was displaced by new station KYBF/90.1 (Scottsbluff); the CSN translator was briefly off the air while it awaited FCC approval of the move to 91.9.
Legacy Communications’ KRGI/1430 (Grand Island) requested an extension of special temporary authority to transmit with 250 Watts non-directional at night rather than its licensed 1kW directional facility. The station’s filing says it has engaged an engineering consulting firm to prepare an application to permanently switch to 250 Watts non-directional at night, but the study is not yet complete. KRGI continues to transmit with 5kW non-directional during the day.
North Dakota
The FCC granted a construction permit to Bible Broadcasting Network for a new station on 88.3 in Grand Forks. The FCC had originally named Grand Forks Bible Study Group as the tentative selectee based on a points-based system that rewarded Bible Study Group’s localism and diversity of ownership, but BBN alleged that Bible Study Group claimed the points under an amendment that was submitted after the filing deadline. After some back-and-forth, the FCC has decided that Bible Study Group can’t overcome the fact that it didn’t claim the points at the time it filed its application. The new BBN station will use 1kW/64m, displacing Bible Study Group’s existing KEQQ-LP/88.3 (Grand Forks).
South Dakota
The Educational Media Foundation was granted a callsign change for KLYA/88.7 (Yankton) to KLRK-FM effective Aug. 30.
Disclosure: Jon Ellis is an employee of Gray Media Group. The statements and views expressed in this posting are his own and do not reflect those of Gray Media Group.