§  73.3522   Amendment of applications.

   (a) Broadcast services subject to competitive bidding. (1) Applicants
   in all broadcast services subject to competitive bidding will be
   subject to the provisions of § §  73.5002 and 1.2105(b) regarding the
   modification of their short-form applications.

   (2) Subject to the provision of §  73.5005, if it is determined that a
   long form application submitted by a winning bidder or a non-mutually
   exclusive applicant for a new station or a major change in an existing
   station in all broadcast services subject to competitive bidding is
   substantially complete, but contains any defect, omission, or
   inconsistency, a deficiency letter will be issued affording the
   applicant an opportunity to correct the defect, omission or
   inconsistency. Amendments may be filed pursuant to the deficiency
   letter curing any defect, omission or inconsistency identified by the
   Commission, or to make minor modifications to the application, or
   pursuant to §  1.65. Such amendments should be filed in accordance with
   §  73.3513. If a petition to deny has been filed, the amendment shall be
   served on the petitioner.

   (3) Subject to the provisions of § §  73.3571, 73.3572 and 73.3573,
   deficiencies, omissions or inconsistencies in long-form applications
   may not be cured by major amendment. The filing of major amendments to
   long-form applications is not permitted. An application will be
   considered to be newly filed if it is amended by a major amendment.

   (4) Paragraph (a) of this section is not applicable to applications for
   minor modifications of facilities in the non-reserved FM broadcast
   service, nor to any application for a reserved band FM station.

   (b) Reserved Channel FM and reserved noncommercial educational
   television stations. Applications may be amended after Public Notice
   announcing a period for filing amendments. Amendments, when applicable,
   are subject to the provisions of § §  73.3514, 73.3525, 73.3572, 73.3573,
   73.3580, and §  1.65 of this chapter. Unauthorized or untimely
   amendments are subject to return by the FCC's staff without
   consideration. Amendments will be accepted as described below and
   otherwise will only be considered upon a showing of good cause for late
   filing or pursuant to §  1.65 of this chapter or §  73.3514:

   (1) A §  73.7002 Selectee. A Public Notice will announce that the
   application of a §  73.7002 Selectee (selected based on fair
   distribution) has been found acceptable for filing. If any Selectee's
   application is determined unacceptable the application will be returned
   and the Selectee will be provided one opportunity for curative
   amendment by filing a petition for reconsideration requesting
   reinstatement of the application. All amendments filed in accordance
   with this paragraph must be minor and must not alter the §  73.7002
   preference.

   (2) A §  73.7003 Tentative Selectee. A Public Notice will announce that
   the application of a §  73.7003 Tentative Selectee (selected through a
   point system) has been found acceptable for filing. If any Tentative
   Selectee's application is determined unacceptable the application will
   be returned and the Tentative Selectee will be provided one opportunity
   for curative amendment by filing a petition for reconsideration
   requesting reinstatement of the application. All amendments filed in
   accordance with this paragraph must be minor and must claim the same
   number of qualitative points as originally claimed, or more points than
   claimed by the applicant with the next highest point total.

   (3) A Public Notice will identify all other reserved channel
   applications, such as non-mutually exclusive applications and the sole
   remaining application after a settlement among mutually exclusive
   applications. If any such application is determined unacceptable the
   application will be returned and the applicant will be provided one
   opportunity for curative amendment by filing a petition for
   reconsideration requesting reinstatement of the application. All
   amendments filed in accordance with this paragraph must be minor.

   (c) Minor modifications of facilities in the non-reserved FM broadcast
   service.

   (1) Subject to the provisions of § §  73.3525, 73.3573, and 73.3580, for
   a period of 30 days following the FCC's issuance of a Public Notice
   announcing the tender of an application for minor modification of a
   non-reserved band FM station, (other than Class D stations), minor
   amendments may be filed as a matter of right.

   (2) For applications received on or after August 7, 1992, an applicant
   whose application is found to meet minimum filing requirements, but
   nevertheless is not complete and acceptable, shall have the opportunity
   during the period specified in the FCC staff's deficiency letter to
   correct all deficiencies in the tenderability and acceptability of the
   underlying application, including any deficiency not specifically
   identified by the staff. [For minimum filing requirements see
   §  73.3564(a). Examples of tender defects appear at  50 FR 19936  at
   19945-46 (May 13, 1985), reprinted as Appendix D, Report and Order, MM
   Docket No. 91-347, 7 FCC Rcd 5074, 5083-88 (1992). For examples of
   acceptance defects, see  49 FR 47331 .] Prior to the end of the period
   specified in the deficiency letter, a submission seeking to correct a
   tender and/or acceptance defect in an application meeting minimum
   filing requirements will be treated as an amendment for good cause if
   it would successfully and directly correct the defect. Other amendments
   submitted prior to grant will be considered only upon a showing of good
   cause for late filing or pursuant to §  1.65 or §  73.3514.

   (3) Unauthorized or untimely amendments are subject to return by the
   Commission without consideration. However, an amendment to a
   non-reserved band application will not be accepted if the effect of
   such amendment is to alter the proposed facility's coverage area so as
   to produce a conflict with an applicant who files subsequent to the
   initial applicant but prior to the amendment application. Similarly, an
   applicant subject to “first come/first serve” processing will not be
   permitted to amend its application and retain filing priority if the
   result of such amendment is to alter the facility's coverage area so as
   to produce a conflict with an applicant which files subsequent to the
   initial applicant but prior to the amendment.

   Note 1 to §  73.3522: When two or more broadcast applications are
   tendered for filing which are mutually exclusive with each other but
   not in conflict with any previously filed applications which have been
   accepted for filing, the FCC, where appropriate, will announce
   acceptance of the earliest tendered application and place the later
   filed application or applications on a subsequent public notice of
   acceptance for filing in order to establish a deadline for the filing
   of amendments as a matter of right for all applicants in the group.

   [ 63 FR 48623 , Sept. 11, 1998, as amended at  65 FR 36378 , June 8, 2000]

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