There is a built-in anomaly in the new Arbitron-geographical radio market definition. For the purposes of establishing station counts in a given market, the brand new low power FM class of stations is not in the mix. They do not count. However, we noticed the presence of WMUC-FM College Park MD on the BIA Washington DC market list, all nine watts of it. The antenna is equally impressive, at about three feet above average terrain. In short, the University of Maryland station barely gets out of the Student Union, much less participating in the market in general. We asked the FCC Media Bureau about this, and they indicated that there are only about six or so stations sharing the general technical parameters of WMUC. And in most cases, the presence of one of these in a market is unlikely to provide the tipping point between one ownership tier and another - - this is certainly the case with WMUC, which is one of 63 stations list ed under Washington the last time we checked the BIA report. DC is an eight-station tier whether WMUC is in the mix or not. However, there are far more stations near the 100 watt threshold which also applies to LPFMs, however. So these stations count, even though they are basically just like LPFMs, which don't. The Media Bureau told RBR that should a low-powered but fully-licensed FM station exist right on the cusp of a tier border in a market of interest, its presence may be brought to the attention of the Commission and arguments made as to whether it should be included in the count or tossed out.
