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                    FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
                         WASHINGTON, D.C.  20554
                                    
                              29 March 1996
                                    
                                             
                                                       IN REPLY REFER TO:
     1800B2-RMD


ABS Communications, Incorporated
300 Arboretum Place
Suite 590
Richmond, Virginia  23236 

     In re:  Application for New FM Station
                                        Anderson, SC
                                        File No. BPH-951101MA

Dear Applicant:

This concerns your referenced application for a new station which is mutually exclusive with
the pending license renewal application for Station WJMZ-FM, Anderson, SC (File No.
BRH-950801VV).   

Section 204 of the recently-enacted Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-104, 110
Stat. 56 (1996), amended Section 309 of the Communications Act by adding Section 309(k),
which eliminates the comparative renewal process and specifies a new two-step procedure for
broadcast station license renewals.  Under the new procedure, as outlined below, your
referenced application cannot be accepted and considered by the Commission.

The new two-step renewal procedure sets forth new standards which the Commission is
required to use in determining whether to grant a licensee's renewal application.  See 47
U.S.C.  309(k)(1).  In making this determination, the Commission is prohibited from
considering "whether the public interest, convenience, and necessity might be served by the
grant of a license to a person other than the renewal applicant."  47 C.F.R.  309(k)(4). 
Only if the Commission determines, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, that a
renewal applicant has failed to meet the new renewal standards may the Commission "accept
and consider such applications for a construction permit as may be filed under Section 308
specifying the channel and broadcasting facilities of the former licensee."  47 U.S.C.
 309(k)(3).  These new procedures apply to all renewal applications filed after May 1,
1995.

Because the Commission has not made a determination that the licensee for WJMZ-FM has
failed to meet the requirements of Section 309(k)(1), your application cannot be accepted for filing.  Accordingly, your application for construction permit (File No. BPH-951101MA) IS
HEREBY DISMISSED as unacceptable for filing and is returned with this letter.

                              Sincerely,



                              Stuart B. Bedell
                              Assistant Chief, Audio Services Division
                              Mass Media Bureau

Attachment

cc:  Marissa G. Repp, Esquire
      Alan C. Campbell, Esquire
       
       

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