NorthEast Radio Watch 2/2/2026: More Translators Coming?

In this week’s issue… FCC prepares for translator windows – Owners add in upstate NY – PA newsroom closes – Inside Wease’s last day – New HD in Canada

By SCOTT FYBUSH

*It’s been a while since the FCC has opened a window for FM translator applications, but it’s looking as though broadcasters may see at least one and possibly two such opportunities coming up this year or next.

At its open meeting in two weeks, the Commission will take a vote on opening a filing window for translators operating in the noncommercial (88.1-91.9) portion of the FM band, something that’s never happened in the 26 years since the current rules for new noncommercial FM translators were written.

Assuming the window is approved, it’s likely to open sometime in the fall – but it’s likely to have a fairly limited impact for several reasons. First, so much of that part of the FM dial has already been filled to capacity in several filing windows for new full-power licenses. In the noncommercial band, those can be as small as 100 watts and thus functionally equivalent to translators in terms of where they’ll fit on the dial, and so broadcasters looking to expand their reach have already had the ability to try to do so. Second, of course, there are budget limits these days for many noncommercial broadcasters that are still struggling with the loss of federal (and sometimes state) funding, which means not many public radio stations are likely to be actively looking to build out new signals, even small ones.

A noncommercial window is also likely to come with plenty of restrictions, including a cap on the total number of applications one entity can submit, though we’d note that national religious organizations have often been able to work around those caps by using local offshoots and branches as applicants. And this window, if it happens, will also bring some very limited new opportunities to LPFM stations, who have never had the opportunity to apply for their own translators and can use them (again, with many restrictions) to provide at least some signal expansion.

*While we wait for the vote that’s definitely coming for that window (to the extent anything’s definite in the face of another government shutdown that so far hasn’t sidelined the FCC), there’s also a proposal on the table from New Jersey’s Press Communications and other operators calling for another window that would allow AM licensees to once again move FM translators 250 or even 500 miles from other communities.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because a decade ago, then-chairman Ajit Pai’s “AM Revitalization” initiative opened a limited window to do just that, allowing 250-mile moves that did indeed provide many AM operators an opportunity to purchase translator licenses and create new FM opportunities.

This time around, Press’ proposal would extend that 250-mile limit to 500 miles for stations that are within 250 miles of coastal or border areas (the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Gulf of Mexico and the Canadian and Mexican borders), addressing what it says was a limited number of translators that were otherwise available in those areas. It would also impose a three translator per AM station limit, and (as in 2016) would provide an initial opportunity to class C and D AM stations and then later open the window to larger class B and A stations.

It’s not clear yet how much support that proposal would have with the FCC and other broadcasters, but we’re interested to see what NERW readers think.