Saturday, 31 October 2009 - 2:18 PM EDT
Name: "Clay Leander"Home Page: http://www.ozcatradio.com
For the record, several developments have occurred over the last three years:
After a visit from field reps of the FCC, and on the advice of legal counsel, the founders of "Ozcat Radio" promptly ceased transmissions by December 2006. A community meeting of listeners, producers and DJs was held (see L&BH Weekly: http://bit.ly/1c1V3a ), kicking off an ongoing discussion to to establish a permanent Community Radio station in Vallejo.
Inspired to advance efforts begun by David Martin, the newly formed educational nonprofit Ozcat Edutainment (Inc) convened to explore and pursue remaining options.
OEI prepared for one of the rare and possibly last opportunity to secure a Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) FM radio license for Vallejo, which the Congress and the FCC eventually opened up in October 2007. With assistance from a team of consultants, engineers and legal counsel led by community radio advocates at Common Frequency, the Ozcat Board did submit an application to the FCC for 89.5 FM in Vallejo. Across the country, over 3,500 applications were submitted to the FCC for localNCE FM.
However, several other out-of-state and out-of-town groups also submitted applications for the southern Solano County area, which automatically extends the FCCs review process by several years for some areas. In June 2008, the FCC placed the competing applicants into the FCC's 'Mutually Exclusive' category, which Ozcat remained qualified to be in the running.
Over two years since filing for an NCE FM, Ozcat finally received the news from the FCC by way of a Memorandum & Order: The Commission has apparently affirmed OEI as meeting the requirements of 307(b) of the 1934 Communications Act.
As the other applicants failed to meet 307(b) - although they have been given one more opportunity to prove otherwise - the next move is for the FCC to issue a Construction Permit to Ozcat to build its Full-Powered FM transmitter and permanent facilities. Hopefully this will come by the end of this year (2009), and will give OEI three years to complete; after which the FCC would then issue an actual NCE FM license.
Thank you for your interest in OEI and Ozcat Radio. We can be contacted at OzcatRadio@gmail.com
- Clay Leander
Board Director & Secretary,
Ozcat Edutainment, Inc. - Vallejo, California