Cal Fire has started a website, ReadyforWildfire.org, for its new Community Wildfire and Mitigation Division to help increase community readiness. Besides educational material, the site has a tool that will send you a text message in the event of a local wildfire. At this point, the tool is based on your zip code, so not very granular. It could send nuisance notifications regarding fires far away. But you can try it out for this fire season and see if you like being warned of possible fire threats to your home or the broadcast transmission facilities you oversee.

Thanks to Bob Gonsett for the news tip.

In a convoluted ruling, the FCC on April 19, 2022 issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order granting Family Stations its construction permit to build out K266CO from atop Mt. San Miguel on 101.1 MHz (channel 266), co-channel with KVIB-LP at Balboa Park and KRTH Los Angeles, a grandfathered, traditionally big signal in San Diego.

KVIB owner Positive Hope had objected on grounds that it had filed a mutually exclusive application to modify its low power signal. The FCC had dismissed that application on grounds that it violated separation requirements with respect to the pending translator application.

The complexity of the case was partly due to the timing of KRSA-LP’s failure to build out facilities in El Cajon on 101.1.

RadioWorld’s Susan Ashworth wrote a more detailed summary of the case.

On March 7, 2022, attorney Dan J. Alpert filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the FCC regarding the KSDS license renewal after the FCC had rejected the previous petition and approved the renewal. The filing rehashed the Friends of San Diego Public Radio’s earlier Informal Objection in which the Mike Halloran association objected to KSDS management procedures and public service filings with the FCC.

In return, KSDS attorney Anne Crump filed an Opposition letter on March 22nd in which she reiterated the KSDS stance that they have followed FCC rules and the station is allowed to “use its own discretion and judgment as a licensee to provide service to the portion of the public that is its audience.”

Here’s an update on what we published late last year.

The FCC on November 15, 2021 published a list of applicants for the latest non-commercial educational FM station filing window, and San Diego County was well-represented. It appears as though some applicants failed to take into account Mexican signals, and those applications were dismissed. Keep in mind, too, that some applicants get cold feet after considering the time and money commitment of a radio station, or may have requested more stations than they can outfit, or may have not yet negotiated to occupy the space they have applied for. Any of these filers may ask to have their applications canceled. Here’s a list of San Diego County applications with their status as of April 1, 2022: