FCC Dismisses 36 LPFM Applications Over Localism

RADIO ONLINE | Monday, September 21, 2026 | 4:35pm CT

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The FCC's Media Bureau has dismissed 36 applications for new Low Power FM stations connected to broadcaster and organizer Stephen Wade Rathke and the Affiliated Media Foundation Movement (AMFM), finding that the applicants failed to meet the Commission's LPFM localism requirements.

The applications, filed during the 2023 LPFM filing window, sought construction permits in communities across the country. Thirty-three were singleton applications, while three competed in mutually exclusive groups with other LPFM applicants. The order was adopted and released September 21 by Audio Division Chief Albert Shuldiner.

The FCC said all 36 applications were connected to Rathke and AMFM, licensee of WAMF-LP/New Orleans. According to the order, the applicants were incorporated in Louisiana, identified Rathke as their registered agent and used email addresses associated with AMFM. The applications also contained nearly identical educational narratives.

Thirty-three of the organizations were incorporated in October or November 2023, only weeks before the LPFM filing window, and used AMFM's 2221 Saint Claude Avenue address in New Orleans as their mailing address.

While the applications claimed local headquarters near their proposed transmitter sites, the FCC concluded that the organizations were actually headquartered in New Orleans and that the local addresses were generally residences or businesses associated with directors or people identified as "local sponsors and representatives."

Under FCC rules, a nonprofit LPFM applicant must demonstrate that it is local when its application is filed. It can qualify by having a physical headquarters or campus within 10 miles of the proposed transmitter in a top-50 urban market or within 20 miles elsewhere, or by having at least 75% of its board members living within those distances. None of the 36 applicants claimed eligibility based on the residences of its board members.

The Commission said simply using the address of a local sponsor or representative does not satisfy its rules.

"Allowing an applicant to list an address of a member or sponsor as its headquarters -- regardless of where the applicant is actually physically headquartered -- to satisfy our LPFM eligibility rules undermines the Commission's goal of ensuring that the LPFM service is a truly local service with genuine connections to the community," the Audio Division wrote.

The order cited Grand Junction Community Radio as one example. Its application used the address of the Western Colorado Alliance as its local headquarters. But an email included in a later amendment showed the group's executive director telling Rathke that the organization might not be the appropriate group to provide an address. Rathke responded that ownership of the address was unnecessary and that the address would "work fine," adding that there would be three years to resolve the matter if the construction permit were awarded. The FCC concluded the address was being used temporarily to satisfy LPFM eligibility requirements.

The Audio Division also raised broader questions about whether Rathke was effectively controlling the applicants. The order noted that all used AMFM email addresses, several responses to objections appeared from document metadata to have been prepared by Rathke, and many amendments intended to demonstrate compliance with the localism requirement appeared to have been solicited or created by him.

The FCC stopped short of deciding whether Rathke was the real party in interest behind the 36 applications because it found dismissal warranted on localism grounds. However, the agency said it will investigate that issue in connection with remaining applications associated with Rathke and any applicant that seeks reconsideration of the dismissals.

The dismissal of three applications in mutually exclusive groups cleared the way for competing applicants to receive construction permits. The FCC granted Delta 2000's application for a new LPFM in Antioch, CA; Northern Illinois Radio Broadcasting Association's application in Rockford, IL; and Expresso Latin Radio Inc.'s application in Worcester, MA.

The other dismissed applications proposed LPFM stations in markets including Baton Rouge, Fresno, Lake Charles, Tulsa, New Bedford, Colorado Springs, Richmond, Norfolk, Pueblo, Grand Junction, Stockton, Cleveland, Gulfport and several other communities.

The Commission said two other pending applications connected to Rathke -- Woodbridge Community Radio and LEAD -- will be considered separately because they appear affiliated with established independent organizations. Applications involving York Community Radio, Biloxi Community Radio and Shreveport Community Radio will also receive separate action.