Opinion ID: 740472
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Coast

Text: 31 Both Mission and Solar challenge the FCC's 1985 decision allowing Coast to publish notice of a new hearing and to enter the record of the previous hearing at that new hearing. In addition Solar appeals the FCC's rejection of its motion to enlarge issues in order to inquire into the feasibility of Coast's proposed transmitter site.
32 When an application for a broadcast station is formally designated for a hearing, the applicant must give at least ten days advance notice of that hearing in the principal area to be served by the station. 47 U.S.C. § 311(a)(2). Coast inadvertently failed to give such public notice and the day before the scheduled hearing Mission moved to dismiss Coast's application for that reason. The hearing began as scheduled. Seven days into the hearing Coast responded to Mission's motion by asking the ALJ to set a new date for the hearing, notice of which it would duly publish and at which hearing Coast would enter into evidence the record that had been compiled at the first hearing; Coast would also comply with whatever conditions the ALJ deemed necessary in order to avoid prejudice to any interested party. 33 The Commission had faced a similar situation in Martin R. Karig, 45 F.C.C. 625 (1963), and there approved the same remedy for an applicant's failure to publish notice of the hearing. Despite their attempts to distinguish Karig from the present case, neither Mission nor Solar has cast any doubt upon the reasonableness of the Commission's response to Coast's inadvertent and minor procedural oversight. The Commission's remedy violated neither the letter nor the spirit of the statutory requirement of notice. Other parties had given public notice of the first hearing, and by requiring Coast to provide an additional notice before the second hearing the Commission ensured that any party that may have had an objection to Coast's proposal in particular was given a chance to make its view known. 34 Mission and Solar also argue that the Review Board was required, under 47 C.F.R. § 73.3594(h), to make a finding of special circumstances before allowing Coast to remedy its error by publishing notice of a second hearing. That regulation applies, however, only to an applicant that seeks a variance from the notice requirement. Coast did not seek such a variance; rather, it sought a second hearing before which it could comply with the notice requirement of the Act. Although Mission asserts that the Commission relied upon § 73.3594(h) in its decision nonetheless and that the Commission's present explanation is a post hoc rationalization, the record does not support that charge. The Commission noted that it had generally been lenient in granting waivers of § 73.3594, 102 F.C.C.2d at 720, but it so noted only as persuasive support for its decision to hold a new hearing in order to enable Coast to comply with the notice requirement. Thus the Commission's present argument is not a post hoc explanation of its decision; it is an argument raised in order to deflect Solar's appellate attack upon its decision. 35
36 Finally, Solar contends that the Commission erred in denying its petition to reopen the record in order to consider whether Coast's proposal for its antenna tower and transmitter was adequate. The Commission will not reopen the record upon an applicant's belated request unless there is a substantial likelihood that if given the chance the petitioner could demonstrate a fatal flaw in a competitor's proposal. See Evergreen Broadcasting Co., 7 F.C.C.R. 6601, 6602 (1992). The Commission concluded that Solar had proffered nothing more damning than the need for Coast to make some technical modifications to its antenna and transmitter proposal. 11 F.C.C.R. at 4075. On appeal Solar does not attack the FCC's reasoning or [324 U.S.App.D.C. 311] the standard that it applied. Rather it complains that if the Commission is to be lenient in dealing with possible engineering deficiencies in Coast's proposal, then it should be equally lenient in dealing with the financial deficiencies in Solar's proposal. Because Solar's premise is flawed--it has not shown that the Commission was lenient with Coast--we reject its argument at the outset.