With the recent FCC announcement that they will be retiring the remaining remnants of the Consolidated Database System (CDBS), the previous computer system used by the FCC to track broadcast applications, REC has been in the process of identifying and changing external and internal applications that links to CDBS applications and other resources in the FCC’s CDBS-related systems.
While many aspects of REC’s public-facing systems have already made the transition from CDBS to LMS, this project will remove the remaining links in public facing systems to CDBS resources and where possible, convert them to the LMS version of the applications. We do note that some older applications that from an operational perspective may no longer be relevant but may still be relevant from a historical perspective, those applications and related attachments will no longer be available for viewing.
REC has also identified some key elements of the CDBS Public View which have not been properly reconstructed in LMS or any other federal system, the main one being the Public Notice Comments. To address this, REC is in the process of obtaining as much information as possible from the CDBS Public View system while it is still available in order to preserve this critical history of our industry.
FCCdata is more than just a reference tool to look at current broadcast facilities, it is also intended to be a tool that can be used for historical research. Such research can include the corporate and engineering history of radio and television broadcast stations. While the FCC has taken some proactive efforts to preserve some history through its scanning and publication of the history cards from the period before 1978, a significant amount of history from 1978 through 1999 while the agency was using the Broadcast Application Processing System (BAPS) would otherwise be lost forever.
This is the first phase of a time critical project that will not only prevent a broken experience for FCCdata users, but will also preserve a significant part of our industry’s history, especially between 1979 when the history cards ended and 1995 when the Commission started to publish the daily Broadcast Applications and Broadcast Actions public notices online.
REC does plan to make much of this collected information available as open data so this history can be shared.
Therefore, in this past weekend’s project, we have initiated two campaigns for the REC Radio History Project through Public Notice preservation and the recovery of historical import letters, as well as removing remaining links to the FCC’s CDBS server that will be decommissioned on January 2, 2025 as well as the retirement of the REC’s Pleadings Combiner, which was needed for the period of time when the broadcast industry was using two different application filing systems at the same time.
REC RADIO HISTORY PROJECT – CDBS PUBLIC NOTICE PROJECT PRESERVATION
Public Notice Comment mass run
REC has initiated a major project to gather the Public Notice Comments from most CDBS supported applications. This includes applications that were filed in the previous BAPS system and were migrated to CDBS in 1999. These public notice comments have a wealth of information about these applications even if the applications are not viewable through the modern LMS interface. There are 576,444 records in this database table.
The following application types were not included in the archive project:
- PLAN type code
- Petition For Rulemaking (Table of Allotments)
- Foreign allotments.
- AM expanded band dummy records (SMOV).
- Records without an application reference number.
- Equal Employment Opportunity reports.
- DTV channel election and conflict filings.
- Change of address notifications.
- Ownership Reports.
FCCdata.org – History Grid View
The History Grid View function has now been extended to all AM and FM classes of service and to all facilities, regardless of whether or not they have been enhanced by the REC Radio History Project. This will allow a single-page view of all applications and their related CDBS/BAPS public notice comments. This is a great page if you are attempting to trace ownership history.
To access the History Grid View, there will be a link in the header. History Grid View is not available on mobile.
History Grid View has never been developed for TV and such development is not in scope for this latest release. This may be considered in the future.
History Grid View for AM has not received any enhancements related to the conversion of AM filing involving engineering from CDBS to LMS. Therefore, LMS-era AM applications may not appear with any engineering information. This may be considered in the future.
REC RADIO HISTORY PROJECT – PRESERVATION OF CDBS IMPORT LETTERS AND HISTORY CARDS
Over the past several years, REC has been gathering copies of import letters and history cards from CDBS.
Import letters include correspondence on the public record from an applicant to FCC staff or vice versa. This can also include copies of decision letters and orders.
History cards are PDF scans of the physical cards that were used by the FCC and its predecessor the Federal Radio Commission to track broadcast application activity. These cards are rich with history of broadcast stations from their start (some as early as the 1920s) to around 1980, when the Commission transitioned broadcast applications to their first computerized system, BAPS.
While we acknowledge that many import letters and history cards are being preserved in LMS by FCC staff, we are in the process of uploading our PDF versions of the import letters and history cards to System40 since we have the excess space to handle them, to use our existing data collection efforts to direct users to the documents and to avoid having to engage in a mass run on the LMS system in order to gather the new file URLs for these documents. REC also has “text only” versions of many import letters which we originally used in a previous project to parse the letters in order to determine the nature of the letter and the application file number that the message is in regards to. We can use these text versions as a backup for PDFs that we may not otherwise be able to obtain. While we are still reviewing our inventory, our database suggests that we may have experienced up to 90,344 import letters from CDBS which is a majority of those letters.
REC plans to make one final sweep of CDBS prior to the CDBS sunset in order to gather any additional files that we currently do not have in order to assure as much preservation as possible.
Once all of the import letters have been uploaded into REC System40, we will reinstate the import letter functionality in FCCdata and link to our local copies of the documents.
In this first phase, FCCdata will continue to show the existence of import letters however, these references will not be hyperlinked. In the next phase, we will be identifying the files that we have and then once we have identified that we have a certain import letter in our inventory, the link to that import letter will be enabled on FCCdata.
REMOVAL OF LINKS TO CDBS RESOURCES
FCCdata.org
Right side - Application History
Legacy CDBS applications that do not have a LMS application ID associated with it are shown without a link to an application. Legacy CDBS applications with an associated LMS application ID will now link to their appropriate LMS application.
We have reworked the forensics (the history of a specific application). Applications will first be checked for forensics in LMS, this includes legacy CDBS applications. Applications are then checked with the CDBSbot forensics database. This was part of the old CDBSbot program that tracked status changes within an application (something that the FCC added themselves for LMS applications). If there are CDBSbot forensics, those will be available instead of the single LMS entry. If LMS or CDBSbot forensics are available for an application, you will still see the red triangle to the left of the file number.
Made repairs to the display of party information on CDBS-era Assignment and Transfer applications. This functionality was originally lost during the System 40 conversion.
“Granted” links on CDBS-era applications will now point to the LMS served authorization document as long as the application was transitioned to LMS.
Many applications from the history card, BAPS and CDBS eras that had public notice comments will have those comments visible through FCCdata. These applications will have a blue triangle to the left of the file number. Clicking on that triangle will bring up those comments. REC is in the process of gathering all of those public notice comments and they will be added slowly into the system. This overall project should be completed by the end of December.
Left side - FM Facility Detail
In order for an application to appear in FM Facility Detail, it must either have an LMS application ID (this includes CDBS applications that were transitioned to LMS) or be an application associated with the REC Radio History Project or REC Public Notice Project.
On qualified legacy CDBS applications transitioned to LMS, the links to the application and authorization have been changed to the LMS version of the application.
The link to the CDBS correspondence folder has been removed.
The link to the CDBS public notice comment has been removed and replaced with a message whenever such a notice exists.
Left side – AM Facility Detail
In order for an application to appear in AM Facility Detail, it must either have an LMS application ID (this includes CDBS applications that were transitioned to LMS) or be an application associated with the REC Radio History Project or REC Public Notice Project.
On qualified legacy CDBS applications transitioned to LMS, the links to the application and authorization have been changed to the LMS version of the application.
The link to the CDBS correspondence folder has been removed.
The link to the CDBS public notice comment has been removed and replaced with a message whenever such a notice exists.
Repaired the “Contour KML Map” link to work with LMS records. Renamed the link as “Groundwave KML”.
Added a new link called “Skywave KML” which will link to the FCC generated KML skywave map if one is available.
Removed the elevation value from display. AM records do not use elevation.
Left side – TV Facility Detail
CDBS era TV applications with transitioned LMS records will appear in FCCdata as an LMS application with a link to the application. CDBS era applications that did not transition over will continue to display engineering information as derived from CDBS.
Right side – Import Letters
As previously mentioned, REC is currently involved in recovering import letters from CDBS. Once this project is complete, the CDBS import letter links will be restored and will direct to the letters that have been preserved by REC.
Header
Correspondence link now directs to LMS Facility public view information. All facility level correspondence letters have been moved by the FCC to this location.
LPFM Voluntary Public Inspection File (lpfm.ws)
VPIF is currently not being supported by REC. The long term plan is to incorporate the VPIF station functions into myLPFM with the public view remaining at lpfm.ws. VPIF is currently unavailable to the public.
Modified the VPIF codebase to use the LMS versions of CDBS applications. Certain application types that are not directly cross referenced in LMS will have disabled links.
myLPFM
On the application list, CDBS applications have been moved to their LMS counterparts. There may be some situations where original construction permit related applications from the First Generation LPFM Filing Window (2000~2001) may not display correctly. This is a limitation of the data that the FCC has retained in the LMS transition and outside the control of REC.
Certain application types that are not cross referenced in LMS will have disabled links.
On the Station Information page, links to authorizations and renewal authorizations from the CDBS era will go to their LMS counterparts.
PLEADINGS: DISCONTINUANCE OF PLEADING COMBINER AND TRANSITION TO USING ONLY LMS PLEADINGS DATA
Renewal Delays (Toybox)
Converted pleadings from Pleading Combiner to LMS raw data.
Converted application list functions from the legacy REC CDBS/LMS AppList to eLMS.
Renewal Status (Toybox)
Converted pleadings from Pleading Combiner to LMS raw data.
Cleared other issues related to this tool not being accessible due to the System40 migration. The use of this tool is currently not in season until the start of the next renewal cycle.
FCC.today
Converted pleadings from Pleading Combiner to LMS raw data.
Pleading Combiner
Removed Pleading Combiner from all morning runs.
