Federal Communications Commission
Washington, D.C. 20554
January 6, 2012
DA 12-20
In Reply Refer to:
1800B3-RFS/DD
Released: January 6, 2012
James P. Riley, Esq.
Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, PLC
1300 N. 17th Street, 11th Floor
Arlington, VA  22209
 
 In Re: Truth Broadcasting Corp.
Boone, Iowa
Facility ID Number:  6417
File No:  BPH-20100126AGR
Dear Mr. Riley:
This letter refers to the above-captioned minor change application (the “Application”) of Truth 
Broadcasting Corp. (“Truth Broadcasting”), licensee of Station KTIA-FM, Channel 257A, Boone, Iowa.  
The application proposes a city of license modification for Station KTIA-FM, Channel 257A from Boone, 
Iowa, to Johnston, Iowa.  Des Moines Community Radio Foundation (“Community Radio”), licensee of 
Station KFMG-LP, filed an Informal Objection.1 For the reasons discussed below, we request additional 
information from Truth Broadcasting regarding the proposed modification of Station KTIA-FM to 
Johnston, Iowa.
Background.  The Application was filed pursuant to Section 73.3573(g) of the Commission’s Rules,2
which set forth the requirements for modification of an FM Station license to specify a new community of 
license without providing an opportunity for competing expressions of interest.  Among other 
requirements, an application for such a minor modification must demonstrate that the proposed change of 
community constitutes a preferential arrangement of allotments in comparison with its current service.3  
We make this determination using the FM allotment priorities set forth in Revision of FM Assignment 
Policies and Procedures.4  
Truth Broadcasting claims that its proposal satisfies Priority 3 of the four allotment priorities, because 
the proposed city of license modification could provide a first local service to Johnston, Iowa.  It states that 
  
1 There were also numerous Informal Objections filed against the proposed Johnston city of license modification by 
local residents of Des Moines.  
2 47 C.F.R. § 73.3573(g).
3 See Modification of FM and TV Authorizations to Specify a New Community of License (“Community of License”), 
Report and Order, 4 FCC Rcd 4870 (1989), recon. granted in part, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 5 FCC Rcd 
7094 (1990).
4 Revision of FM Assignment Policies and Procedures, Second Report and Order, 90 FCC 2d 88 (1982).  The FM 
allotment priorities are: (1) First fulltime aural service, (2) Second fulltime aural service, (3) First local service and 
(4) Other public interest matters.  Co-equal weight is given to Priorities (2) and (3). 
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Boone would continue to maintain three local services.5 Truth Broadcasting also contends that the 
proposed city of license change to Johnston should be favored under Priority 4, because modified Station 
KTIA-FM operations would result in a net coverage gain of 312,451 persons.  It states that both the gain 
and loss areas are considered well-served.6 As a result of the proposed change of community, Station 
KTIA-FM would provide service to 78.5 percent of the Des Moines Urbanized Area (“UA”); currently, the 
station’s signal does not cover any part of any urbanized area.
In situations such as this, when a station’s proposed community is located in an urbanized area or the 
station could, through a minor modification application, cover at least 50 percent of an urbanized area, 
special conditions must be met for Priority 3, first local service, to apply.  Pursuant to the Commission’s 
decision in Faye and Richard Tuck, Inc., 7 we apply a three-prong test to determine whether such a 
community is independent of the UA’s central city.. The three factors are:  (1) the degree to which the 
proposed station will provide coverage to the urbanized area; (2) the size and proximity of the proposed 
community of license relative to the central city of the urbanized area; and (3) the interdependence of the 
proposed community of license and the urbanized area.8 Recently, the Commission determined to increase 
its scrutiny of stations moving into urbanized areas, establishing a rebuttable presumption that the 
application constitutes a proposal to serve the entire urbanized area, rather than a proposal for local service 
to the named community of license.9  
An applicant subject to the urbanized area presumption may present evidence to overcome the 
presumption, in order to claim allocation priority as a first local service.  In order to rebut the 
presumption, the evidence must constitute “a compelling showing (1) that the proposed community is 
truly independent of the urbanized area, (2) of the community’s specific need for an outlet for local 
expression separate from the urbanized area and (3) the ability of the proposed station to provide that 
outlet.”10 The compelling showing may be based on the existing three-pronged Tuck test to demonstrate 
  
5 Stations KDLF(AM), KWBG(AM), and KWQW(FM) are licensed to Boone.
6 Truth Broadcast states that Johnston currently has nineteen reception services, whereas Boone currently has 
thirteen reception services.
7 Faye and Richard Tuck, Inc., Memorandum Opinion and Order, 3 FCC Rcd 5374, 5378 (1978) (“Tuck”)
8 Id.  The eight factors for determining independence of a community from the urbanized area are:  (1) the extent to 
which the community residents work in the larger metropolitan area, rather than the specified community; (2) 
whether the smaller community has its own newspaper or other media that covers the community’s needs and 
interests; (3) whether community leaders and residents perceive the specified community as being an integral part of 
or separate from, the larger metropolitan area; (4) whether the specified community has its own local government 
and elected officials; (5) whether the smaller community has its own local telephone book provided by the local 
telephone company or zip code; (6) whether the community has its own commercial establishments, health facilities, 
and transportation systems; (7) the extent to which the specified community and the central city are part of the same 
advertising market; and (8) the extent to which the specified community relies on the larger metropolitan area for 
various municipal services. 
9 See Policies to Promote Rural Radio Service and to Streamline Allotment an Assignment Procedures, Second 
Report and Order, First Order On Reconsideration, and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making, 26 FCC 
Rcd 2556 (2011), petitions for recon. pending (“Rural Radio”).
10 Rural Radio, 26 FCC Rcd at 2572, ¶ 30.
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independence,11 but “the Tuck factors, especially the eight-part test of independence, will be more 
rigorously scrutinized than has sometimes been the case in the past.”12 Moreover, in addition to 
demonstrating independence, a compelling showing requires evidence of the community’s need for an 
outlet for local expression.13  
Truth Broadcasting submitted a Tuck showing to demonstrate that Johnston is independent of the Des 
Moines UA.  Truth Broadcasting also filed an amendment to rebut the urbanized area presumption 
established in Rural Radio.  It contends that Johnston is a growing community that has distinctive features, 
needs, and interests that set it apart from the Des Moines UA.  Truth Broadcasting states that Station 
KTIA-FM is well-suited and ready to provide the local outlet for expression that Johnston needs.  It states 
that the population of Johnston has grown between April 1, 2000 and July 1, 2009 from 8,935 persons to 
15,918 persons, whereas the population of Boone has declined from 12,813 persons to 12,479 persons.  
Discussion. In applying the three-prong Tuck test for independence (Priority 3 status), we look first at 
the degree to which the station can provide coverage to the urbanized area.  In this case, the extent of 
coverage (78.5 percent) of the Des Moines UA is a very persuasive factor that favors application of the 
presumption and the treatment of this move-in as one to serve the Des Moines market, rather than the 
specified community of Johnston.
We turn next to the size and proximity of the proposed community of license relative to the central city 
of the urbanized area.  Johnston, the proposed community of license, has a 2010 population of 17,278 
persons, while Des Moines, the central city of the urbanized area, has a 2010 population of 203,433.  
Johnston thus has a population that is 8.5 percent of the population of Des Moines.  Johnston is located 
approximately 13.5 miles from the center of Des Moines, and less than 8 miles from the outer boundary of 
the city of Des Moines.  Based on the extreme disparity in size and the close proximity of the two 
communities, we also find that the presumption should apply here.  
Des Moines, ranked #90 by Arbitron, is a significant media market.  Prongs 1 and 2 of Tuck provide 
the most objective basis for determining whether a Priority 3 preference should be awarded.  Far from 
rebutting the presumption, our analysis of these two factors show that this proposed change of community 
is exactly the sort of situation in which the presumption should apply.  The factors that could rebut the 
presumption are simply not present here.  Johnston cannot be treated as a major, distinct population center 
from the Des Moines UA.  It is not geographically isolated from Des Moines.  Although we will consider 
Prong 3 factors briefly, the evidence fails to demonstrate the necessary level of economic and 
governmental independence to rebut the presumption.  
The third prong of the Tuck test, the interdependence of the proposed community of license and the 
urbanized area, is based on examination of the eight factors set forth in that decision.  Although Johnston 
has its own local government and provides its own municipal services, bus service is provided by the Des 
Moines Area Regional Transit Authority.  In addition, we find that Johnston and Des Moines are part of 
the same advertising market.14 Perhaps most significant, a large majority of Johnston residents work in the 
  
11 See Tuck, 3 FCC Rcd at 5378.
12 Rural Radio, supra, at 2573, ¶ 30.
13 Id.
14 Truth Broadcasting states in its amendment that Johnston commercial establishments “can target the Johnston 
market in the Johnston Register segment of the Des Moines Register.”  Far from establishing Johnston as a separate 
advertising market, we believe that this statement indicates that Johnston is part of the Des Moines advertising 
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larger metropolitan area, rather than in Johnston itself.15 Moreover, the Johnston telephone directory is 
included in a directory that covers the entire county, including Des Moines.  In short, there is significant 
evidence that Johnston is interdependent with the larger Des Moines UA.  Although Johnston has its own 
zip code (50131), this factor, which typically is not highly probative in establishing the independence of a 
community, is insufficient to offset the numerous and substantial countervailing factors.
Although there is some support for the position that Johnston is an independent community, we do not 
find the evidence compelling on that point.  Our finding that Johnston is interdependent with the Des 
Moines UA precludes rebuttal of the urbanized area presumption based on a specific need for an outlet of 
separate local expression, because the first requirement for such rebuttal is that the proposed community 
must be truly independent of the urbanized area.16 For that reason, the proposed change of community will 
be treated as a proposal to serve the Des Moines UA.  We therefore will examine the proposal under 
Priority 4, other public interest considerations.  
Under Priority 4, we take into account transmission services, reception services, population gains, and 
other information relevant to the public interest.  Truth Broadcasting asserts that the public interest would 
be served by the proposed change in community because there would be a net gain in potential listeners of 
312,591 persons;17 we do not agree, however, that this net gain constitutes a preferential arrangement of 
allotments under Priority 4.  In Rural Radio, the Commission stated that “large service population 
differentials … should not suffice, in and of themselves, for a dispositive Section 307(b) preference under 
Priority (4), especially when the proposed new population is already abundantly served.”18 We therefore 
find that the increase in population coverage does not establish that the proposed change of community 
would serve the public interest.  Consistent with the Commission’s stated goal of protecting listeners in 
smaller communities and rural areas from the loss of needed transmission and reception services, we 
tentatively conclude that the public interest would be better served by retention of Station KTIA-FM as a 
fourth transmission service at Boone, Iowa, rather than by the addition of at least the 17th local service to 
the Des Moines Urbanized Area.
Conclusion.  For the reasons discussed above, we find that Truth Broadcasting’s 307(b) showing is 
deficient.  Accordingly, pursuant to 47 C.F.R. § 73.3522(c)(2), Truth Broadcasting Corp. shall have a 
     
market.  The other two publications cited by Truth Broadcasting, Johnston Living and the Bull’s Eye News, are 
published infrequently (monthly for the former and bi-weekly for the latter), and the Bull’s Eye News (whose 
mailing address is in Polk, Iowa) also covers two other small communities near Johnston.   Under these 
circumstances, we believe that Johnston is part of the Des Moines advertising market, despite having some local 
media outlets.  See Charles Town, West Virginia, Memorandum Opinion and Order, 21 FCC Rcd 1521, 1523 (MB 
2006) (“Insofar as Tuck factor (7) is concerned, we cannot make a favorable finding even though Stephens City has 
some local media under Tuck factor (2)”).  
15 Truth Broadcasting reports that 21.4 percent of Johnston residents work in that community; by extrapolation, most 
Johnston residents work elsewhere in the Des Moines UA.  Applying the more stringent standards of Rural Radio, 
we find that these percentages do not support Truth Broadcasting’s claim that Johnston is independent of the larger 
metropolitan area. Cf., Lahaina and Waianae, Hawaii, Report and Order, 20 FCC Rcd 7605, 7606 (MB 2005) 
(under pre-Rural Radio standard, 17 percent of employed residents working within community was found to be 
“significant” and justification for a favorable finding).  
16 See Rural Radio, 26 FCC Rcd at 2572, 2577.
17 The gain area contains 407,267 persons, and the loss area contains 94,676 persons.
18 Id. at 2577, ¶ 39.
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period of thirty (30) days from the date of this letter to correct all deficiencies in the tenderability and 
acceptability of the underlying application, File No. BPH-20100126AGR, including any deficiency not 
specifically identified by the staff.  Upon the expiration of thirty (30) days from the date of this letter, any 
remaining uncorrected tender and/or acceptance defects in the application will be grounds for dismissal of 
the application, with no further opportunity for corrective amendment.  At this time, we make no 
determination regarding the objection filed against Truth Broadcasting’s application.
For further information concerning this case, contact Deborah A. Dupont or Rolanda Faye Smith, 
Media Bureau, (202)418-2700.
Sincerely,
Peter H. Doyle
Chief, Audio Division
Media Bureau