Well as you probably already know, our elected officials are at a standstill over the shutdown and there does not appear to be any hope in sight real soon. The "Clean CR" that is being recommended by the Democrats and some Republicans is the key to open the government back up for business. Until the FCC reopens, we are pretty much dead in the water.
When will the window be?
Many of you are asking what will happen when the government re-opens especially where it comes to the window. Late last week, I was on a strategy call with other LPFM adovcates and we discussed what may happen and what the LPFM community would like to see. What we don't want to see is a window already "joined in progress". Let's say the first day of government business is October 21. We don't want to see a window from just the 21st to the 29th. There needs to be some additional time added to allow "DIY" filers who need to depend on the FCC's web services to use them to prepare their application. We note that on October 1, broadcast renewals were due for Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska and the Pacific territories. This is going to make CDBS very busy on opening day.
What the LPFM advocates would like to see is some reasonable amount of time from after the government reopens to allow for the Audio Division staff to handle the backlog first. It is our desire to see a window by the end of the year but we don't feel that it should fall on either the Thanksgiving or Christmas/New Year's holidays.
If you are thinking of pirating.. DON'T!
I am seeing stories and reading posts about running pirate stations during the government shutdown because "no one at the FCC is monitoring or enforcing." The truth is that the FCC is keeping a small staff to protect life and property and while many may think that pirate stations, especially pirate FM broadcasting is on the low end of that priority, if the pirate broadacster causes any interference to a licensed service, be it FAA air traffic control or the local police or fire department, now we are talking about life and property.
The FCC is also staffing the HF direction finding station during the shutdown.
Resources
Even with the FCC gone for now, there's still a lot of resources out there. Check out:
Patience everyone. We will make it through this!
