REC is delighted that the FCC took our suggestion and lifted the restrictions that were placed on proposed student operated LPFM stations.  Under the original rules, if an LPFM application by a student operated station at an institution that already has a broacast license was mutually exclusive with other LPFM applicants, the student application would be dismissed. 

As we have seen with KUSF and many other student stations that have seen their fate set in the past decade as universities downsize their broadcasting and journalism programs, LPFM is an affordable way to maintain some form of over-the-air experience for our next generation of people in the broadcast industry. 

Corrected to reflect that the additional 20 translators must remain in rural areas.

REC Networks is satisfied with the FCC's decision where it comes to FM translators.  The extension of the 50-cap to a 70-cap with a limitation that translators 51 through 70 are in rural areas will not substantially impact the availability of LPFM in urban areas and still puts restrictions on the most egregious filers.  For these additional 20 translators, they must remain in rural areas for the next 4 years and they can't overlap any other commonly owned translator or translator application. 

The Federal Communications Commission is about to vote on the Sixth Report and Order (R&O) in MM Docket 99-25 and MB Docket 07-172. 

The majjor items that will be decided in this R&O will include:

After REC systems came back up following the Sandy related power outage, we were not able to bring up the akane server. We first tried moving the hard drive to another CPU. This did not work properly and it was causing hard disk related errors. We eventually offloaded the material needed to operate the akane services (both for REC and J1) and moved them to another drive. We did a reinstall and so far, everything is working stable.

This is not our final solution but we wanted to get the services back up and running.

Thank you to those who had offered off-site hosting of these services. We are avoiding such arrangements at this time, especially on shared servers because the Broadcast Services applications can be very taxing, especially during daily and weekly updates.

The FCC has recently ruled against keeping a docket open that would have further restricted LPFM and FM Translators in the state of New Jersey.  In 2004, the New Jersey Broadcasters Association (NJBA) filed a Petition for Rulemaking that would become RM-11099.  Under the NJPA's proposal, the protected service contours of full power stations in New Jersey would be substantially extended where it comes to LPFM and FM translator stations. 

New Jersey has always been in a unique situation that because of their geography, many full power stations in and around New Jersey are concentrated in the New York City and Philadelphia markets leaving very few channels available in other parts of the state.