Puerto Rican AM Owner Won’t Relent On Booster Push

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On April 19, the operator of a trio of experimental AM booster stations used in a long-running “test” to fill in coverage gaps was served notice by the FCC: The three boosters’ licenses are to be deleted. Nevertheless, Wifredo G. Blanco-Pi, the veteran broadcaster who has used WA2XPA in Arecibo, WI2XSO in Mayaguez, and WI3XSO in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico to help WAPA-AM 680 in San Juan and simulcast partner WISO-AM 1260 in Ponce cover la isla del encanto, has continued what some may consider a quixotic push to get the Commission to change its mind.


In a new filing with the FCC, Blanco-Pi is challenging an order to shut down the three experimental AMs on May 7. He wants the boosters to continue operating until a rulemaking is initiated, and then concluded–buying him more time.

Blanco-Pi believes the shutdown order has been wrongly applied. In a 17-page letter to the Commission, he argues that he and son Jorge Blanco-Galdo “filed by themselves all the studies, documents, endorsements and technical data requested by the FCC and were granted the licenses.”

He then states that he and his son “have spent 30 years of their lives and over $1 million in expenses in mounting a scientifically designed experiment with AM synchronous boosters island wide.”

The key word here is “experiment,” and the FCC says it’s end is long overdue.

In contrast, Blanco-Pi says AM synchronous boosters do not violate the competitive bidding processes and are “merely another tool that could be used by an AM station to improve and/or expand their coverage areas,just as an AM stations are entitled to use complex directional arrays, increase power or relocate their transmitter sites to extend their coverage.”

Furthermore, Blanco-Pi says he is being singled out, as WSTE-TV has transformed an experimental booster station into a permanent multi-site facility and that FCC files show AM synchronous operation KM2XVL in Huntsville, Tex., has an experimental license expiring in 2021.

Furthermore, iHeartMedia’s 1kw WBZT-AM 1230 in West Palm Beach has authorization for an experimental operation in Pompano Beach, well to the south in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale DMA, that Blanco-Pi asserts is renewed every eight years. It is unclear if WBZT is using the experimental operation, as its signal is not well-received in much of Broward County, Fla.

Blanco-Pi’s letter singles out Audio Division Chief Peter Doyle, who signed the letter authorizing the cancellation of the experimental licenses.

“The Order to Shutdown Blanco Pi’s Boosters is the result of a wrongful interpretation of Section 5.71C, without proper notice, selective, and discriminatory application of the Rules introduced in 2013 in the new Part 5 Section 5.7l(c) Experimental Radio Service,” Blanco-Pi concludes.

WISO’s Ponce signal extends well west, to much of the Dominican Republic, and east to the British Virgin Islands. WAPA’s signal contour is even larger, reaching much of the eastern Caribbean and nearly all of the Dominican Republic.