Federal Communications Commission DA 96-1980
and the waiver request are unopposed. For the reasons set forth below, we grant both the waiver 
request and the assignment application.
BACKGROUND
2. South Jersey is currently the licensee of UHF television station WMGM(TV) (NEC 
affiliate), Wildwood, New Jersey; WMGM(FM), Atlantic City, New Jersey; WOND(AM), 
Pleasantville, New Jersey; and WTKU(FM), Ocean City, New Jersey. In 1981, the Commission 
approved a one-to-a-market waiver permittirtg South Jersey to own WMGM-TV, WMGM(FM) 
and WOND(AM).4 Subsequently, in 1995, the Commission approved another one-to-a-market 
waiver permitting South Jersey to acquire WTKU(FM) (formerly WKTU(FM)).5 South Jersey 
now seeks an additional permanent waiver to acquire station WUSS(AM).6
3. South Jersey bases its waiver request on the one-to-a-market waiver standards adopted 
in the Second Report and Order in MM Docket 87-7, 4 FCC Red 1741 (1989) ("Second Report 
and Order"), recon. granted in part and denied in part. 4 FCC Red 6489 (1989) ("Second Report 
and Order Recon."). Under these standards, the Commission will presume that waiver of the rule 
will serve the public interest in cases involving stations serving the top 25 markets where at least 
30 separately owned, operated and controlled stations will remain after the proposed combination 
("top 25 market/30 voice standard").7 See 47 C.F.R. § 73.3555, n. 7. The Commission also 
makes this public interest presumption in cases involving "failed" broadcast stations (stations that 
have not been operating for a substantial period of time, or that are involved in bankruptcy 
proceedings). Id. Other waiver requests are evaluated on a more rigorous case-by-case basis, 
as set forth in the Second Report and Order.
4. We review South Jersey's waiver request under the case-by-case standard because the 
proposed transaction involves the common ownership of more than one same service Tadio station 
in the same market and, therefore, as explained in paragraph 11, infra, invokes local radio 
ownership limits. See In re Revision of Radio Rules and Policies. 7 FCC Red 6387, 6394, n. 40 
(1992). Under the case-by-case standard, we make a public interest determination based upon
4 See Jersey Broadcasting Corp.. 85 FCC 2d 654 (1981), recon. denied. 89 FCC 2d 984 (1982).
5 See Atlantic Morris Broadcasting. Inc. ("Atlantic Morris"). 10 FCC Red 9495 (1995).
6 Although South Jersey contends that a waiver is not necessary as WUSS(AM)'s community of license. 
Atlantic City, is not entirely encompassed by the Grade A signal contour of WMGM-TV, we note that the only 
portion of Atlantic City's corporate boundaries not covered by WMGM-TV's Grade A contour is a very small area 
consisting of water and an uninhabited wildlife preserve. Because the entire listening population of Atlantic City 
is encompassed by WMGM-TV's Grade A contour, we believe that application of our case-by-case waiver criteria 
is appropriate in this instance.
7 The Commission has been directed to "extend its [one-to-a-market] waiver policy to any of the top 50 
markets, consistent with the public interest, convenience, and necessity." See Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. 
L. No. 104-104, § 202(d), 110 Stat. 56 (1996) ("Telecom Act"). A proposal to implement this extension of our 
waiver policy is pending. Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in MM Docket Nos. 91-221 and 87-8, 
FCC 96-438 (released November 7, 1996) at para. 66.
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the following criteria: (1) the potential public service benefits of joint operation of the facilities 
such as the economies of scale, cost savings and programming and service benefits; (2) the types 
of facilities involved; (3) the number of media outlets owned by the applicant in the relevant 
market; (4) the financial difficulties of the stations involved; (5) the nature of the relevant market 
in light of the level of competition and diversity after the joint operation is implemented. See 
Second Report and Order. 4 FCC Red at 1753-54. South Jersey addresses each of the case-by- 
case factors in its pleadings.
5. Public Service Benefits. South Jersey contends that its acquisition of a bankrupt and 
silent station will benefit innocent creditors of the former licensee of WUSS(AM), James Cuffee. 
South Jersey also contends that the proposed combination of WUSS(AM), WOND(AM), 
WMGM(FM), WTKU(FM), and WMGM-TV will create efficiencies by combining management 
personnel, as well as news, programming and production staffs, with savings of $6,000 per 
month. South Jersey states that additional savings will be realized by consolidating the 
transmitter site of WUSS(AM) with that of WOND(AM),8 as well as by consolidating sales 
offices, sharing equipment, and securing volume discounts on purchases of supplies and 
programming services. Station WUSS(AM) would relocate its studio and business office to 
South Jersey's existing headquarters, thus reducing the station's expenses for rent, utilities, 
audience surveys, transportation, dues and subscriptions and other miscellaneous items by over 
$5,000 per month. In total, South Jersey projects savings of approximately $11,000 per month, 
or $132,000 per year, as a result of its acquisition of WUSS(AM).
6. South Jersey asserts that the savings achieved as a result ,of its acquisition of 
WUSS(AM) will result in public service and programming benefits made possible by returning 
WUSS(AM) to the air and providing public affairs programming over WUSS(AM). 
WUSS(AM)'s public affairs programming would consist of news programs, weather reports 
(including marine weather), traffic reports, daily local public service announcements, and 
regularly scheduled public affairs programming. South Jersey states that after the proposed sale, 
WUSS(AM) would have access to South Jersey's established radio and television news 
departments, which focus on the gathering and presentation of local news. South Jersey also 
states that WUSS(AM) would benefit from the company's experience in the local employment 
market, particularly South Jersey's ascess to recruitment sources and knowledge of hiring 
conditions.
7. Types of Facilities. South Jersey submits that WUSS(AM) is a Class C AM station 
operating on 1490 kHz with 290 watts. Station WOND(AM) is a Class C AM facility which 
operates non-directionally on 1400 kHz with a full-time power of 1,000 watts. Station 
WTKU(FM) is a Class A FM station operating on 98.3 MHz with 3.0 kw effective radiated 
power ("ERP") at 100 meters HAAT (height above average terrain). Station WMGM(FM) is a 
Class B FM station on 103.7 MHz with 50 kw ERP at 106 meters HAAT. WMGM-TV is a 
UHF station operating on channel 40 with 741 kw ERP (visual) from 128 meters HAAT. South 
Jersey contends that the proposed combination of facilities is comparable to others in the area. 
South Jersey asserts that since there are 11 AM stations and 19 FM stations with comparable
See File No. BP-961031AB.
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Federal Communications Commission DA 96-1980
technical facilities in the Atlantic-Cape May-Cumberland county ("Tri-County Area") radio 
market, there is no danger that South Jersey will dominate that market. Further, South Jersey 
states that its television station, WMGM-TV, is a UHF station like 14 other UHF competitors in 
the Philadelphia DMA, competing with four more powerful VHP television stations.
8. Other Media Outlets. South Jersey reports that it owns WOND(AM), Pleasantville, 
New Jersey; WMGM(FM), Atlantic City, New Jersey; WTKU(FM), Ocean City, New Jersey; and 
WMGM-TV, Wildwood, New Jersey.9 South Jersey also reports that it is the permittee of low- 
power television station, WO7CE, Atlantic City, New Jersey. South Jersey has no newspaper 
or cable television interests.
9. Financial Condition. Station WUSS(AM) is bankrupt and has been off the air since 
February 28, 1996. Furthermore, South Jersey states that WUSS(AM) has lost its transmitter site 
lease. South Jersey asserts that pursuant to the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the 
Telecom Act, WUSS(AM)'s license will be revoked on February 28, 1997 by operation of law 
if the station does not return to the air by that time. 10 South Jersey contends that it now offers 
a viable means of returning WUSS(AM) to the air.
10. Competition and Diversity. The final factor is the nature of the relevant market in 
light of the Commission's concerns about diversity and competition. South Jersey asserts that 
the Philadelphia DMA, which is the fourth largest DMA in the country, consists of 19 television 
stations, including WMGM-TV, which are licensed to 18 separate owners. With respect to radio, 
South Jersey contends that there are currently 30 radio stations (11 AM and 19 FM) licensed 
within the Tri-County Area, including WUSS(AM), WOND(AM), WMGM(FM) and 
WTKU(FM), with 19 separate owners." South Jersey presents this alternative showing, based 
on the Tri-County Area radio market rather than the Philadelphia television metro market, 
because all of the radio stations involved in the present transaction are licensed to smaller 
communities that fall outside the Philadelphia television metro market and the principal 
community contours of the radio stations involved do not reach that metro market. 12 Thus, 
considering radio stations licensed within the Tri-County Area and television stations within the 
Philadelphia DMA, there are a total of 49 broadcast stations with 37 different licensees. South 
Jersey further submits that cable penetration is 73.3% in the Philadelphia DMA and 78.3% in the 
Tri-County Area, and that 81.7% of the households in the Philadelphia DMA are equipped with
9 South Jersey states that it also owns WONZ(AM), Hammonton, New Jersey but states that WONZ(AM) 
is not a part of the one-to-a-market combination under consideration because the relevant signals of WONZ(AM) 
and of South Jersey's other stations do not overlap. Additionally, the 2 mV/m contour of WONZ(AM) does not 
encompass WMGM-TV's community of license (Wildwood, New Jersey) and the Grade A contour of WMGM-TV 
does not encompass WONZ (AM)'s community of license (Hammonton, New Jersey).
1(1 See47U.S.C. § 312(g).
" According to South Jersey, listeners in the Tri-County Area also receive 13 FM and 3 AM stations which 
are licensed outside of the Tri-County Area, but within the Philadelphia television metro market.
13 Typically, we will consider the relevant television metro market for radio stations and the relevant DMA 
for television stations. See Second Report and Order, 4 FCC Red at 1760, n. 101.
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Federal Communications Commission DA 96-1980
VCR machines. South Jersey also submits that there are 3 locally published daily newspapers 
and 15 locally published weekly newspapers in the Tri-County Area. Numerous other daily 
newspapers published outside the Tri-County Area are also sold within these counties, such as 
the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and the New York Times.
DISCUSSION
1 I. We turn first to South Jersey's compliance with our local radio ownership rules. 
South Jersey has submitted data to indicate that the Tri-County Area radio market contains 30 
stations. Under our rules, in a radio market with 30-44 commercial radio stations, a party may 
own, operate, or control up to 7 commercial radio stations, not more than 4 of which are in the 
same service. See 47 C.F.R. Section 73.3555(a/l)(ii), as amended by Broadcast Radio 
Ownership, FCC 96-90 (released March 8, 1996). South Jersey's proposal to own, operate, or 
control four commercial radio stations, two FM and two AM, therefore complies with our 
numerical local radio ownership limits.
12. Turning to the substance of South Jersey's one-to-a-market waiver request, we note 
initially that as in Atlantic Morris, where we granted South Jersey's request for a one-to-a- 
market-waiver in connection with its acquisition of WTKU(FM), we find reasonable South 
Jersey's methodology of counting only those radio stations in the Tri-County Area radio market 
for the purpose of determining "voices." See Atlantic Morris, 10 FCC Red at 9497. This 
treatment is consistent with past Commission decisions in which we have accepted alternative 
methods for determining the number of relevant "voices" when the relevant Area of Dominant 
Influence (the previous television market measurement device employed by the Commission prior 
to the use of DMAs) was very large but the stations involved in a transaction competed only in 
a relatively small local community. Glendive Broadcasting Corporation. 10 FCC Red 2708, 2711 
(1994); Duane J. Polich. 4 FCC Red 5596, 5597 (1989).
13. In the past, the Commission has held that significant cost savings and economies of 
scale are "precisely the type of public interest benefit from common station ownership which [the 
Commission] envisioned as warranting a waiver of the one-to-a-market rule." Great American 
Television and Radio Co.. Inc.. 4 FCC^Rcd 6347, 6349 (1989). South Jersey demonstrates that 
common ownership of WUSS(AM), WOND(AM), WMGM(FM), WTKUfFM;, and WMGM-TV 
will create efficiencies resulting in significant cost savings and the potential for enhanced 
programming and service benefits. In particular, the company will save approximately 5132,000 
annually and will use this money to enhance WUSS(AM)'s public affairs programming. Further, 
after the consummation of the transaction, WUSS(AM) will have access to the local news 
gathering abilities of South Jersey's other radio and television stations. Finally, the station to be 
acquired by South Jersey, WUSS(AM), is currently bankrupt and silent. We are persuaded that 
common ownership of WUSS(AM), WTKU(FM), WOND(AM), WMGMfFMj, and WMGM-TV 
would serve the public interest by returning a bankrupt and silent station to the air.
14. With respect to the types of facilities involved, the Commission's "concern with the 
types of facilities merging under the authority of a one-to-a-market waiver reflects our interest 
in assessing the potential impact of a proposed combination of stations in a given market in order 
that we might predict and avoid any significant adverse effect on diversity or competition from
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Federal Communications Commission DA 96-1980
too powerful a combination." Great American Television and Radio Co.. Inc.. 4 FCC Red 6347, 
6349-50 (1989). Regarding South Jersey's media holdings, we note that South Jersey would own 
2 AM stations and 2 FM stations, in addition to WMGM-TV, a UHF station. Nevertheless, we 
find that the proposed combination would not create undue concentration of ownership and 
control in the Tri-County Area. The Tri-County Area, which is located within the Philadelphia 
DMA, is highly competitive, both in terms of the number of broadcast stations and the relevant 
market shares of the stations involved in this transaction. 13 Based on South Jersey's showing, 30 
radio stations are licensed to communities within the Tri-County Area. Further, the Tri-County 
Area is served by 19 television stations from within the Philadelphia DMA. Following the 
proposed acquisition of WUSS(AM), those 49 broadcast outlets will be owned and operated by 
36 separate entities. Other "voices" in the Tri-County Area are also plentiful, with at least three 
locally published daily newspapers, 15 locally published weekly newspapers, numerous non-local 
major daily newspapers and cable television, which has a penetration rate of 78.3 percent.
15. We believe that the applicant has made a persuasive traditional showing in support 
of a permanent waiver. We conclude, based on the record, that granting a permanent waiver will 
not unduly affect competition or diversity in the Tri-County Area radio market or the 
Philadelphia DMA. These markets are both diverse and highly competitive, and South Jersey's 
ownership of a UHF television station, two FM stations and two AM stations constitutes a level 
of cross-service ownership within that permitted even under one-to-a-market waiver cases decided 
before the substantial relaxation of radio ownership limits effected by the Telecom Act. See, e.g.. 
Louis C. DeArias, 11 FCC Red at 3666 (2 AM-2 FM-VHF combination). Under our revised 
local radio ownership rules, South Jersey has demonstrated that it would be entitled to hold the 
licenses for at least seven commercial radio stations. While South Jersey's commonly-owned 
facilities will be significant in technical terms, comparable competing facilities do exist. 
Moreover, South Jersey has demonstrated that there are economic efficiencies and program 
service benefits to be gained that support grant of a permanent waiver.
16. Accordingly, IT IS ORDERED, that the request for a waiver of the Commission's 
one-to-a-market rule, 47 C.F.R. §73.3555(c), IS GRANTED, and having found the parties thereto 
otherwise qualified, the application for assignment of license (BAL-960710GH) of WUSS(AM) 
Atlantic City, New Jersey, from Allan B. Mendelsohn, Trustee to South Jersey Radio, Inc. IS 
GRANTED.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
Media Bureau
13 As South Jersey shows, in the Spring 1996 Arbitron 'Target Listener Trends, Persons 12+, Monday-Sunday, 
6 a.m.-midnight," for the Atlantic City-Cape May radio survey area, WOND(AM) was shown with a 3.5 share of 
average quarter hour listenership (AQH); WMGM(FM) with a 3.7 share of AQH; and WTKU(FM) with a 3.7 share 
of AQH. WUSS(AM) did not receive any points in the ratings book.
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