In the frenzy of filing your application, there may have been some mistakes made. We have heard stories of inaccurate co-ordinates, un-filed for preference points, non-profits filing as "public safety entities."

You name it, we've heard it.

We advise going back through your application, now that the dust has settled, and making sure it is all right. Especially make sure that the FCC has your current address- some things we've sent out to applicants at the address given on the form come back "no such address." If the FCC is trying to send you your construction permit, and it gets lost in the mail- you'd feel pretty silly, right?

If you find that there are changes that need to be made, you must determine whether the change is a "major change," a "minor change," or an administrative correction. An administrative correction is a mis-spelled name, change of address, phone number, contact person, etc. These corrections can be done at any time, using the FCC electronic filing system. They count as minor amendments to pending applications.

Minor Changes

The process for a minor change is simple: at any time, up to thirty days after the FCC has accepted your application, you simply go back to your account on the FCC's CDBS website. Make whatever change you need to. Leave the rest the same. The only difference is that in the box where it says "application purpose" , you check "amendment to pending application," rather than "new application" (which is hopefully what you put on your original application, right)? If the Aether gods are smiling upon you, that will be that...

You can do a minor change at any time, except for the period from 30 days after your application has been tentatively approved by the FCC to the day that the FCC issues your construction permit. Of course, if your application was defective, they won't issue your construction permit. We should point out that the actual rule says that the date for the deadline is set in the notice of acceptance of applications- it has typically been 30 days after that, but the FCC has the flexibility to set that date however long it feels is appropriate. You can watch the FCC website (www.fcc.gov) front page for public notices. We usually try to send out notice of any major public notices over Making Waves within two or three days.

Examples of Minor Changes:

* Changes in board membership, that do not improve the comparative position of the applicant to other applicants

* Filling in the % of votes, if you left it out (if there are 4 directors, each gets 25% of the votes, if there are 5, each gets 20% of the votes, etc. in column 4

* Transmitter site moves that are less than 2 kilometers

* If you mistakenly answered "no" to one of the questions where you were supposed to answer "yes," try to submit this as a minor change and attach an exhibit explaining your misunderstanding. There are no guarantees, but you might as well see what happens. For example, in section II, question 9, you were asked to certify that you were "not subject to denial of federal benefits...of the anti-drug abuse act..." Many people checked no: meaning "No, I am not subject to denial of benefits." The correct answer is "yes, I certify that i am not subject to denial of benefits." Go figure...

* You can also move to an adjacent channel, or an IF channel that meets the spacing requirements as per the FCC website. An IF channel is a channel that is either 10.6 or 10.8 MHz away from your original channel.

With a minor change, you generally can not move to another channel besides the ones listed above. An exception is if you can produce an engineers report showing "reduced interference" as a result of your move. It is not exactly clear how this process will work, but it may be worth a try if you really need to change channel.

Major Changes

A Major Change, on the other hand, can be a Major Drag. There is nothing different about how you do it, except that you have to file these changes inside a filing window. These filing windows are not scheduled- and it could be years before one opens. The procedure is the same as for the minor change- If you need to make a major change, do all the work now- it may take considerable time to find a new site or deal with other logistics around the change.

Examples of Major Changes:

* Changes that would improve your comparative position: for example, if you originally did not claim that you would do eight hours local programming and did not receive that preference point, you can not go back and change that. perhaps you could do so in a major change window, but by then it would be too late).

* Moves of your frequency that are not on adjacent or IF frequencies

* Changes in physical location of the transmitter that are more than 2KM

One more note on changes

If you are uncertain about whether you are allowed to make a change, it may be helpful to submit an attachment requesting a waiver of the rules and explaining your predicament. For example, "We did not include the percentage of votes in the original rules because we were unfamiliar with the rules and thought that the request for voting percentages referred to an elaborate voting system which my organization is not familiar with and thus we believed that the question was not applicable to us. We submit this amendment in order to include the information that was requested on the application."

In some cases, you may have made a minor clerical error (transposing digits, or a number that you entered in your application came up mysteriously blank later, or misunderstanding a question) that would force you to make a "major change by the rules. The best thing to do in these cases is to write to the FCC, explain your error, and ask if they can consider your "major amendment" as a minor change, since it was really just a paperwork error. Remember, you are asking them to cut you slack so be nice. The rules say that they should throw out your application as defective. However, the FCC staff is generally reasonable and if they see an honest error, they may use their discretion in certain cases to allow what should be a major change to be treated as minor. If they approve, you should immediately make the minor change using the electronic filing system.

At the end of this, there is an excerpt from the FCC rules themselves that can help you determine whether you are looking for a minor or a major change.

Electronic Filing

by Cheryl Leanza, Media Access Project

Here is a more complete set of instructions for the electronic form. This link below explains the electronic filing system generally, and provides links to both the users guide and the login page: [http://svartifoss.fcc.gov:8080/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbs_ef.htm]

You may want to read through the users guide. Consult it first if you have questions. This link is the login page - new users will have to create an account, which is very simple, type in your organization's name and address and select a password, and the system assigns you an account number: [ http://svartifoss.fcc.gov:8080/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts]

After you log in, a menu will appear that gives Form 318 (applying for a LPFM station) as an option. Click on it.

Advantage of the Electronic Form

One advantage of this system is that you can save portions of your form and return to complete it later. Thus, if you have a problem, you can save all the completed portions and return to the form another day. To return to the form, login to your account, and look for it at the bottom of the page. Click on the hypertext link (in blue and underlined) to resume work on your form.

Completing the Form

First, you will complete a "pre form." You will want to create a description for your form. You can call it anything you want. This description will be the name for the file if you want to go back and complete portions of it later. For example, you can call it "My Form" or use your organization's name. After you select enter, if the appropriate sections of the pre-form have been complete, you will be moved to Section I, General Information. The contact information you entered when you created the account will be automatically entered. If you want to change this information or add a Contact Rep, you will need to use "Account Maintenance" on the Main Menu page.

To do this, you must go to the Main Menu page. To get to the Main Menu from within a partially completed form, click on Menu, and then on Main Menu at the bottom of the page. Account Maintenance is a button on the top of the Main Menu page. The next page will include a pull down menu select "contact rep" or "licensee applicant" to add or correct this information and click "continue."

After you complete Section I, you can complete the rest of the form in any order. To move to another section of the form, select "Menu" at the bottom of the page, and then select the Section number you wish to change.

You can save any data you want without actually submitting it to the FCC. Thus, you may want to hit save after you enter information so that you do not lose it by mistake.

If you want to change information, you may return to a blank in the form and type over it. This is very similar to how a word processor operates. You type information, you save it, but you can change it and save the new information any time. If you want to quickly clear out all the information in any Section, click on the "clear" button.

Particular Example: Section II, Question 3, Parties to the Application

Click on "Enter Parties/Owners Information" to answer Question 3. Once you complete the first entry, click enter. After you do this, the system will allow you to enter another person. For each person, the system will create a box for you to click on in case you need to change that information. They call the boxes "copy 1" and "copy 2" etc.

Finishing a Section

When you are done with a Section, or part of a section, you should save it. In addition when you believe the Section is complete, you can use the "validate" button. This button will perform a basic check to make sure you completed all blanks that must be completed, make sure dates are entered in the right form, and will check that you have put in text and numbers in the right boxes. "Validate" also automatically saves the information. If it finds an error, a pop-up box will notify you. After you close the pop-up box, it will position the cursor in the box where the error occurred. Simply type over to correct the mistake. If you do not know what to do, save the file and you can come back to it later after you have found the correct answer. Some errors will be caught at a later stage in the process, when you actually file the application.

When you are done with a page, you can click on "previous" to return to the previous page, or, you can click on Menu to return to the menu page.

Exhibits

You can add exhibits in two ways. The first step for both ways is to click on the button with "Exihibit" and then a number. For example, in Section II, Question 2, click on "Exhibit 2." This will bring you to a new page that will allow you to either type in the information directly, or, to select a word. processing or other file that you have already prepared. To enter information directly, simply type it in the area provided. To attach a file, click on "Add/View Attachments." This brings you to a page that allows you to upload a file. Select "Browse" and you can use a typical navigation device to find your file. (If you have a file on a floppy disk, look in drive A, for example. If your file is on your hard drive, you must go to the place where your file is.)

You must use the bottom pull down menu to view all the files you have on yourcomputer or disk. Use the second pull down menu called "files of type" to select "All Files (*.*)". This way you can see all the files and select the one you want to attach. Click on the file you want to choose. Select the type of file (for example, if it is a document prepared using Microsoft Word, select that item on the pull down menu). When you have selected the correct document, click on "send attached file." This doesn't send your file anywhere, but it attaches it to the form. Later the description you enter will appear on the form as a hypertext link. You can click on this link later to view or save your file.

Filing the Form

When you are done with all the Sections, you can file the form. Go to the Main Menu. You will see your form at the bottom of the Main Menu with the description you chose for it. Click the circle under "Select" to select your pplication. Then click on the "File Form" button at the bottom of the page. The system will now do a more thorough check of your form. If there are problems, it will tell you by making a list with blue dots for each mistake. Clicking on the blue dot will take you to the Section of the form where the error is located. If you want, you can correct the errors and refile the form right away.

YOU SHOULD NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO FILE YOUR FORM SO THAT YOU HAVE TIME TO FIX ERRORS.

You will know that you have successfully completed your form when the status next to it on the Main Menu says "READY." You can write down the ARN number at that time for your records.

If you want, you can print a copy of the whole form from the Main Menu. Select your form and click "print form." This might be handy for reviewing your work.

Getting Help

If you need assistance with these forms, call the FCC at: 202-418-2662 (for electronic forms help generally) or 202-418-2700 (the Mass Media Bureau Audio Services Division).

You may also be able to get assistance by calling the FCC's toll-free number at: 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322). If you do not have a computer, we suggest visiting your local library.

Addendum: FRN numbers:

In 2001, The FCC made a new rule that anyone who "did business" with the FCC needed to have a FRN (Federal Registration Number) through what they call the CORES (COmmission REgistration System). There is a link to it on the front page of the website, or you can go here. https://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cores/CoresHome.html

Don't ask why they do thisS besides giving you a headache, it surely has some use, just like your BNPL number, your facility ID number, your EIN number, your channel number and so on. But it is easy enough to get one of these CORES numbers, so don't let it throw you off. A number of LPFM applicants have been confused, since they didn't need the FRN number when they originally filed their applications, but it is really not that big a deal to get one

Simply go to the CORES link we mentioned above. Go to the left hand button that says register. The next page will simply ask you to once again type in your contact information. The only trick questions:

Are you registering as a business or as an individual? A business (e.g., corporation, partnership, government agency, etc.)

An individual

The correct box, a business, is already checked. (remember that LPFMS can not be owned by individuals!) So just hit continue.

Under business type, select private sector. Under subtype, select whatever seems appropriate.

Enter the EIN number that your organization used to start its bank account. If you don't have one, select none, and select whatever is appropriate under the list of possible reasonsS probably "exempted activities."

The rest should be easy. Once you are done, it should spit you out a brand spanking new FRN number. Print everything for your records, and keep the passwords you used. You will need the FRN number to get into your application to change it.

Appendix: FCC rules related to changes.

[Code of Federal Regulations] [Title 47, Volume 4] [Revised as of October 1, 2001] From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access [CITE: 47CFR73.870] [Page 276]

TITLE 47--TELECOMMUNICATION CHAPTER I--FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (Continued)

PART 73--RADIO BROADCAST SERVICES--Table of Contents Subpart G--Low Power FM Broadcast Stations (LPFM) Sec. 73.870 Processing of LPFM broadcast station applications.

(a) A minor change for an LP100 station authorized under this subpart is limited to transmitter relocations of less than two kilometers. A minor change for an LP10 station authorized under this subpart cannot is limited to transmitter site relocations of less than one kilometer. Minor changes of LPFM stations may include changes in frequency to adjacent or IF frequencies, or, upon a technical showing of reduced interference, to any frequency.

(b) The Commission will specify by Public Notice a window filing period for applications for new LPFM stations and major modifications in the facilities of authorized LPFM stations. LPFM applications for new facilities and for major modifications in authorized LPFM stations will be accepted only during the appropriate window. Applications submitted prior to the window opening date identified in the Public Notice will be returned as premature. Applications submitted after the deadline will be dismissed with prejudice as untimely.

(c) Applications subject to paragraph (b) of this section that fail to meet the Sec. 73.807 minimum distance separations with respect to all applications and facilities in existence as the date of the pertinent public notice in paragraph (b) of this section other than to LPFM station facilities proposed in applications filed in the same window, will be dismissed without any opportunity to amend such applications.

(d) Following the close of the window, the Commission will issue a Public Notice of acceptance for filing of applications submitted pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section that meet technical and legalrequirements and that are not in conflict with any other application filed during the window. Following the close of the window, the Commission also will issue a Public Notice of the acceptance for filing of all applications tentatively selected pursuant to the procedures for mutually exclusive LPFM applications set forth at Sec. 73.872. Petitions to deny such applications may be filed within 30 days of such publicnotice and in accordance with the procedures set forth at Sec. 73.3584. A copy of any petition to deny must be served on the applicant.

(e) Minor change LPFM applications may be filed at any time, unless restricted by the staff, and generally, will be processed in the order in which they are tendered. Such applications must meet all technical and legal requirements applicable to new LPFM station applications.

[65 FR 7640, Feb. 15, 2000, as amended at 65 FR 67304, Nov. 9, 2000] Sec. 73.871 Amendment of LPFM broadcast station applications.

(a) New and major change applications may be amended without limitation during the pertinent filing window.

(b) Amendments that would improve the comparative position of new and major change applications will not be accepted after the close of the pertinent filing window.

(c) Only minor amendments to new and major change applications will be accepted after the close of the pertinent filing window. Subject to the provisions of this section, such amendments may be filed as a matter of right by the date specified in the FCC's Public Notice announcing the acceptance of such applications. For the purposes of this section, minor amendments are limited to:

(1) Site relocations of less than one kilometer for LP10 stations;

(2) Site relocations of less than two kilometers for LP100 stations;

(3) Changes in ownership where the original party or parties to an application retain more than a 50 percent ownership interest in the application as originally filed; and

(4) Other changes in general and/or legal information.

(d) Unauthorized or untimely amendments are subject to return by the FCC's staff without consideration.