On March 27, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put on public notice a Petition for Rulemaking that asked the FCC to allow AM stations operating on regional channels to provide full pre-sunrise service as of 5 a.m. rather than 6 a.m.

The petition’s aim is to help Class B and Class D AM stations reach listeners with full “morning drive” programming. The petition maintains that the current 6 a.m. start time unnecessarily restricts service from AM stations, many of which serve smaller communities with limited local radio choices, since the negative impact to co-channel stations will be negligible.

While the petition says that no domestic Class A stations are affected by its request, it states that the FCC could consider Class D stations operating on frequencies shared with Class A stations now or at a later date. Read the petition here.

Comments are due on April 26, 2010.