Part 73, Subpart G, Section 73.855 is a core regulation that addresses ownership limits for LPFM stations. It is sometimes referred to as the "One to a customer rule".
Ownership limits for LPFM stations
Educational organizations
No party to the application (board member) can be a party to more than one LPFM station.
Tribal entities
Applicants and licensees recognized by the FCC is a tribal entity may be a party for up to two LPFM stations.
A Tribal Applicant is a Tribe or an entity that is 51 percent or more owned or controlled by a Tribe or Tribes. The FCC defines a "tribe" as any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village or community which is acknowledged by the federal government to constitute a government-to-government relationship with the United States and eligible for the programs and services established by the United States for Indians. See The Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994 (Indian Tribe Act), Public Law 103-454. 108 Stat. 4791 (1994) (the Secretary of the Interior is required to publish in the Federal Register an annual list of all Indian Tribes which the Secretary recognizes to be eligible for the special programs and services provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as Indians).
Public safety entities
LPFM stations operated by state, county/parish or city government agencies or districts or a not-for profit organization, which are used for a public safety purpose may be a party for as many stations as they need as long as those stations are within their jurisdiction.
During a filing window, these public safety entities may apply for multiple stations but they will have to designate one of their applications as a "priority application". If after the filing window closes, it is determined that a public safety LPFM application is mutually exclusive (competing) with other applications, any applications not designated as priority applications will be automatically dismissed without any further consideration. The application designated as a priority application will be able to compete with the rest of the group of mutually exclusive applications.
Regulatory history
This rule was first enacted in the original 2000 LPFM Report and Order to prohibit entities from being a party to more than one LPFM station if those LPFM stations are less than 12 kilometers (7 miles) apart. The original rule allowed for multiple ownership and would use a phased-in approach for multiple ownership. After two years following the original filing window, entities could own up to 5 LPFM stations and after three years, they could own up to 10 stations. The rule was amended in the 2000 Order on Reconsideration to permit public safety applicants to file multiple applications and to specify one as a priority application. In 2007 as a part of the Third Report and Order, the rule was amended again to eliminate multiple ownership except for public safety entities. In the 2012 Sixth Report and Order, the rule was amended to allow for tribal entities to own up to two LPFM stations.
Federal Register citation
78 FR 2107, Jan. 9, 2013
Text of regulation 47 CFR § 73.855
§ 73.855 Ownership limits.
(a) No authorization for an LPFM station shall be granted to any party if the grant of that authorization will result in any such party holding an attributable interest in two or more LPFM stations.
(b) Notwithstanding the general prohibition set forth in paragraph (a) of this section, Tribal Applicants, as defined in § 73.853(c), may hold an attributable interest in up to two LPFM stations.
(c) Notwithstanding the general prohibition set forth in paragraph (a) of this section, not-for-profit organizations and governmental entities with a public safety purpose may be granted multiple licenses if:
(1) One of the multiple applications is submitted as a priority application; and
(2) The remaining non-priority applications do not face a mutually exclusive challenge.