Before the
                           FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION       FCC 94-257
                          WASHINGTON, D.C.  20554





In re Petition of                            )
                                             )
                                             )
Polnet Communications, Ltd.          )
licensee of                                  )
WKTA(AM), Evanston, Illinois         )
                                             )
                                             )
For Reconsideration of Public Notice        )
Announcing Interference Improvement       )
Factors for Stations Proposing to             )
Migrate to the AM Expanded Band              )
                                             )
                                             )
                                             )



MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER 
           
                  
Adopted:  October 7, 1994                            Released:  October 13, 1994

   By the Commission:  Commissioner Barrett concurring  and issuing a statement.

  1.  The Commission has before it a petition filed by Polnet Communications, Ltd., licensee
of WKTA(AM), Evanston, Illinois ("Polnet"), requesting reconsideration of the December 3,
1993 action of the Chief, AM Branch, acting pursuant to delegated authority, announcing
interference improvement factors for stations that have petitioned to migrate to the AM
expanded band.  Specifically, Polnet contends the staff erroneously interpreted Section 73.35
of the Commission's rules, which sets forth the formula for calculating improvement factors
for prospective migrators to the expanded band.  See 47 C.F.R. 73.35.  Polnet further
contends that the asserted error resulted in WKTA(AM) being credited with a lower than
warranted improvement factor, adversely affecting WKTA(AM)'s eligibility to migrate to the
expanded band.

  2.  Background.  In the AM Improvement Order, supra, the Commission sought to transform
and revitalize the AM broadcast service by adopting revised AM technical criteria,  including
rules to open ten newly available frequencies in the expanded band to those AM stations that
significantly contribute to congestion and interference in the existing band.  In order to
strictly manage migration to maximize the interference reduction benefits of each expanded
band allotment awarded, the Commission established an order of priority for migration by
existing licensees to the expanded band.  Daytime-only stations located in communities of
more than 100,000 and within a Class A station's primary service area receive top priority for
slots in the band if they notify the Commission that they seek to provide full-time service. 
The next priority goes to full-time licensees who would most reduce interference and
congestion by moving to the expanded band.  The final priority belongs to other daytime-only
stations.  For ranking applicants within the respective full-time and daytime priorities, the
Commission adopted improvement factors consisting, where applicable, of the sum of two
ratios, one for nighttime interference-caused area to nighttime interference-free service area
and one for daytime interference-caused area to daytime interference-free service area.  See
AM Improvement Order, 6 FCC Rcd at 6308-6311; see also 47 C.F.R. 73.35.  The larger the
improvement factor, the greater the improvement in the existing band if the station causing
the interference migrates to the expanded band.  Pursuant to 47 C.F.R. 73.30, licensees
seeking to migrate to the expanded band have filed petitions to migrate, and the subject
stations have been ranked according to their improvement factors within each of the three
categories of stations eligible to migrate to the expanded band.  Specifically,  stations in
priority one were ranked 1 to 4, stations in priority two ranked 5 to 332, and stations in
priority three ranked 333 to 688.  WKTA(AM), a daytime-only station, received a ranking of
640 based on an interference improvement factor of 0.0099.

  3.   Polnet's Contentions.  Polnet requests that the Commission recalculate the improvement
factors in view of an asserted error in excluding multiple-station interference areas from the
daytime caused-interference areas of prospective migrators.  Polnet contends that in
calculating the composite degree of service lost by co-channel and adjacent-channel stations
as a result of interference caused by a prospective migrator, and, specifically, the amount of
interference improvement that would be obtained through migration of that station to the
expanded band, the staff improperly excluded from the calculation of interference caused by
the prospective migrator those areas in which the migrator is not the exclusive contributor of
interference.  Polnet maintains that this methodology contravened Section 73.35 of the
Commission's rules, and that the asserted error resulted in unrealistically small improvement
factors for stations such as WKTA(AM).  

  4.  Discussion.  The AM Improvement Order sought to restore the overall integrity of the
AM service by reducing the interference with which AM broadcasters must contend in their
primary service area.  See AM Improvement Order, 6 FCC Rcd at 6276.  Consistent
therewith, Section 73.35 of the Commission's rules provides, in relevant part, that in
calculating the daytime improvement factor of an AM station petitioning to migrate to the
expanded band, "the composite amount of service lost by co-channel and adjacent channel
stations each taken individually, that are affected by the subject station, excluding the effects
of other assignments during each study, will be used as the numerator of the daytime
improvement factor.  The denominator will consist of the actual daytime service area (0.5
mV/m) less any area lost to interference from other assignments."  See 47 C.F.R. 73.35. 
Polnet contends that the language of Section 73.35, specifically the phrase "excluding the
effect of other assignments," plainly requires that the Commission determine the entire area of
interference caused by a prospective migrator to co-channel and first-adjacent stations,
excluding the effects of other stations causing interference within that area, and that,
accordingly, WKTA(AM)'s interference-caused area, and hence its improvement factor,
should be greater.  Thus, Polnet would have us credit WKTA(AM) with reducing
interference by migrating, even though the areas in which WKTA(AM) would no longer
cause interference would continue to receive interference from other stations.  

 5.  The staff interpreted Section 73.35 correctly.  In the AM Improvement Order, 6 FCC Rcd
at 6310, the Commission adopted a nighttime interference factor along the lines proposed in
its earlier Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 5 FCC Rcd 4381 (1990).  The Commission also
decided to adopt a daytime improvement factor, and stated "... we are adopting the same
approach for calculating the daytime improvement factor that we proposed in the Notice for
the nighttime ... . This method is a logical extension of the nighttime interference factor."   
Id.  In calculating a prospective migrator's nighttime interference improvement factor, Section
73.35 requires consideration of the contribution of all interfering nighttime stations and the
migrator is credited only with areas from which it would remove interference and which do
not receive interference from other stations.  The staff's interpretation of Section 73.35
resulted in a similar manner of calculating the daytime improvement factor, and was fully
consistent with maximizing interference reduction, which was one of the primary objectives
 of the AM Improvement Order.

  6.  The phrase "excluding the effect of other assignments," as used in Section 73.35 means
that in calculating the total area of interference caused to co-channel and first-adjacent
channel stations by a prospective migrator, the part of that area receiving interference from
other assignments should be excluded.  Expanded band improvement factors are based on two
distinct considerations:  (a) service area lost by other stations due to interference caused by
the present facilities of a prospective migrator, and (b) present service area of the prospective
migrator.  See 47 C.F.R. 73.35.  The Commission's rules define an AM station's primary
service area as that area in which the groundwave is not subject to objectionable interference
or objectionable fading.  See 47 C.F.R. 73.14.  Upon completion of the channel change by
such a migrator, the service areas of existing band co-channel and adjacent channel stations in
which the migrator currently causes objectionable interference would be truly interference-
free.  In contrast, if the improvement factors were to include areas in which a migrator's co-
channel and first-adjacent channel stations receive objectionable interference from stations
other than the migrator, the interference reduction benefit of a migrator's proposed migration
in a multiple-station interference area would be marginal at best, as the co-channel and first-
adjacent channel stations would continue to receive objectionable interference in the relevant
area from other assignments.  Excluding multiple-station interference areas from a prospective
migrator's caused-interference area is also consistent with the prescribed method for
calculating the migrator's actual daytime service area ("service-provided"), which excludes
any area lost to interference from other assignments.  See 47 C.F.R. 73.35.  Notably, the
service-provided component of the daytime improvement ratio only credits the prospective
migrator with that area of interference improvement actually afforded by its proposed
migration. 

  7.  Based on the foregoing, we affirm the staff calculations of interference improvement
factors as released on December 3, 1993.  Accordingly, the petition for reconsideration filed
by Polnet Communications IS DENIED.

                                     FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION



                                     William Caton
                                     Acting Secretary