There are currently only nine FM stations serving Fairbanks AK, according to the FCC, which has decided that the public interest would be served if two more commercial FM frequencies were approved there. The oddest thing about the transaction is that the petition requesting the commercial allotments came from a non-commercial broadcaster.
The surprise petitioner isn’t really all that surprising. It is a well-known fact that Educational Media Foundation is comfortable running stations on both sides of the noncommercial/commercial 92 MHz divide (between 91.9 MHz and 92.1 MHz).
The two allotments won’t be far from this location. Both of the stations will be Class C2, with one headed for 92.7 MHz and the other for 94.3 MHz.
The FCC has already cleared the allotment with Canada, 199 miles away, and will be running it by Congress and the Government Accountability Office as required by the Congressional Review Act.
There are no immediate plans to put the frequencies up for auction.
