FCC Won't Pull Licenses From Hurricane-Affected 'Dark' Stations

The Federal Communications Commission says it won't cancel the licenses of TV and radio stations in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands that have not been able to get back on the air after the devastation of hurricane's Irma and Maria. "[T]he communications infrastructures of both Puerto Rico and the USVI were almost completely destroyed," the FCC said in a recent report about the impact on communications of the 2017 hurricane season.  Ordinarily, broadcast licenses expire if a station has been off the air for a consecutive 12-month period, but with the one-year anniversary of the storms approaching, the FCC's media bureau says it will give licensees another six months to recover, though any station that expects to be off the air more than a year has to file for a special temporary authority (STA) detailing the factors preventing their resumption of broadcasts. "We believe that the catastrophic nature of these events and the ongoing recovery in Puerto Rico and the U.S."