Looking for a place to shoehorn in yet another entrant onto the crowded FM band? The FCC has a brand new internet tool available for hungry engineers and wannabe station owners. It’s called the Allotment Channel Finder. According to the FCC, it’s "designed to determine whether a Class A FM channel is abailable at a proposed transmitter site and whether a Class A station operating from this site would place a minimum field strength of 70 dBu over the entire principal community to be served.
The FCC stresses that this is not a definitive tool. You can’t just find a slot and stake your claim. Prior claims and environmental, land use and FAA issues may preclude what otherwise may appear to be an opening.
The site is available, with a much more detailed explanation, at fcc.gov/mb/audio/allotmentfinder.html.
