August 29 will be the deadline for initial comments on the FCC's proceeding to set the relationship between applications for new LPFM stations and those for FM translators, a date set forth in a Federal Register publication of the FCC's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on this topic. We wrote about the FCC's NPRM here. But it bears emphasizing that the decisions made in this proceeding will impact the processing of the thousands of FM translator applications still pending from the window opened for these applications back in 2003, and the potential for a new filing window for LPFM applications in the near future. The NPRM also will decide whether FM translators can be used for the rebroadcast of an AM station if that translator was granted after the FCC first authorized the rebroadcast of AM stations by FM translators. Up to this point, AM stations can only use translators granted before May 1, 2009 to rebroadcast their signals.

Issues to be addressed in this proceeding include:

• Whether the FCC's proposal to use a market based analysis to determine which 2003 translators can continue to be processed (dismissing all translators when there were few opportunities for new LPFM stations) is justified?