Super Bowl Update

The FCC has granted a construction permit to Community Broadcasting, Inc. of Overland Park, Kan. to build a new noncommercial educational (NCE) radio station at 96.3 FM licensed to Farmersburg, Ind.

The 6,000-watt station, which will share tower space with Terre Haute TV stations WTWO and WAWV and cover an area from Terre Haute to the north to near the Sullivan-Knox county line in the south, and from West Union, Ill. to Clay City, Ind. west to east, hasn't yet been assigned a call sign, but we do know what it will broadcast if and when it's built:  Christian talk.

Community Broadcasting is owned by the Bott family, longtime operators of the Bott Radio Network, which broadcasts Christian talk programming on 91 radio stations in 15 states, with a potential audience of 15 million listeners.

Getting the OK to build in Farmersburg wasn't a slam-dunk for Community Broadcasting.  The new station was part of the FCC's 2010 auction of noncommercial educational FM station licenses, and Community was one of three organizations seeking the license.

One of the other two, Hope Broadcasting of Jasonville, Ind., filed a petition to deny Community the license in favor of its own application for an 1,100-watt station serving fewer listeners, but the FCC, finding Community's proposal would serve a larger audience, dismissed Hope's petition and application.

It isn't known when the new station might be on the air; Community's construction permit is good until Sept. 7, 2015.