AM expanded band
The extended mediumwave broadcast band, commonly known as the AM expanded band, refers to the broadcast station frequency assignments immediately above the earlier upper limits of 1600 kHz in International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Region 2 (the Americas), and 1602 kHz in ITU Regions 1 (Europe, northern Asia and Africa) and 3 (southern Asia and Oceania).
However, new Low-Power AM (LPAM) stations have recently come on the air from countries like Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy.
[2] Even before the formal adoption of the expansion, a 50,000-watt religious station located on the island of Anguilla, British West Indies, was broadcasting on 1610 kHz as "The Caribbean Beacon".
[4] In Argentina, the expanded band assignments are primarily in the region surrounding the nation's capital, Buenos Aires.
[7] Mexico has a total of four radio stations licensed for the expanded band prior to 2017: XEUT-AM 1630, XEARZ-AM 1650, XEANAH-AM 1670, and XEPE-AM 1700.
Moreover, the controlling licensing authority for these stations was not the FCC, but instead was the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), so coordination between the two agencies was required.
[12] The restriction imposed by having to protect existing TIS stations on 1610 kHz generally reduced by one the number of available expanded band frequencies, and because the sole U.S assignment for this frequency, KALT in Atlanta, Texas, was eventually deleted; currently there are no broadcasting stations licensed for 1610 kHz in the United States.
(Currently 1710 kHz is unused by TIS stations with one exception: a waiver has been granted to Hudson County, New Jersey to operate a single-frequency network (WQFG689)).
[18] In the fall of 1994, the FCC announced that, out of 688 applicants, a specially designed computer program (which took two weeks to run) had chosen 79 stations to make the transfer to the expanded band.
KVNS in Brownsville, Texas, operates at 12% less than the standard (8.8 kW day and 880 watts at night) due to treaty obligations with Mexico, and WIGT in Charlotte Amalie, U.S. Virgin Islands, is licensed for 920 watts both day and night, due to similar treaty restrictions with respect to France's territorial holdings of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
[25] On March 22, 1996 the FCC announced a revised allocation table, consisting of 87 stations,[26] but this too was eventually withdrawn due to errors.
One policy the FCC has generally enforced is that the two stations must remain under common ownership,[28] [29][30]> although an exception was made in the case of KYHN in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when the FCC approved its separate ownership, on the grounds that "Capstar's donation of the facility to MMTC, which planned to use KYHN to train women and minority group members in broadcasting and broadcast management, advanced the diversity goals set forth in the pending proceeding Promoting Diversification of Ownership in the Broadcasting Services".
[31] In general the FCC has refused to consider assigning any stations to the expanded band which were not included in the March 17, 1997 approval list.
In 2006 an exception was made to this policy for WRCR in Ramapo, New York, which was allowed to move from 1300 to 1700 kHz, with the FCC stating that a "waiver is warranted to permit the licensing of a station that could provide full-time local emergency radio service to Rockland County residents who would be at great risk in the event of a radiological emergency at the Indian Point facility".
However, at this time the FCC expressed its intention to eventually eliminate the practice, stating: "We therefore tentatively conclude that any licensee with dual standard/Expanded Band authorizations... should be required to surrender one of the two authorizations within one year of release of a future Report and Order in this proceeding adopting this proposal..." This report also noted that "A total of 88 Expanded Band channels were originally allotted.
[35] A 2022 FCC filing by Inspiration Media, Inc. characterized "the three decade-old expanded band plan" as so far providing only "exceedingly modest band-improvement".
