When Border Media Partners applied to move its KXBT-FM from one Austin area town to another, specifically, from Dripping Springs TX to Bee Cave TX, it would have abandoned Dripping Springs. Normally, this would be enough to prevent the move – but help was on the way – Educational Media Foundation held a CP for KLLR-FM licensed to Dripping Springs. But it wasn’t on the air, so technically, using its imminent broadcast status as justification for the Bee Cave move would have constituted an impermissible backfill request. It became a problem when Cameron Broadcasting Company filed for a move mutually exclusive to the BMP move, taking its KMIL-FM (the former KNVR-FM) from Cameron TX to Thrall TX. It claimed that BMP’s move was not allowable, and that it was undertaken specifically to prevent its own attempted move. The FCC agreed with Cameron, that the backfill proposal was not viable; however, BMP asked for a waiver of the backfill rule in this instance, which is entirely permissible. Once KLLR-FM came on the air, the backfill issue became moot and there was no regulatory barrier to approving the Bee Cave move.
