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The FCC
Interfere With This!
Low Power Radio Interference Study Coming out This Summer --
Best Hope For A Low Power Future For Urban Community Radio
Low Power Radio Interference Study Coming out This Summer --
Best Hope For A Low Power Future For Urban Community Radio
The low power radio service was launched in 2000, but soon after was curtailed in most metropolitan areas by a debilitating Act of Congress requiring more study before most licenses could be issued. The massive engineering study administered by the MITRE Corporation will come out soon, and we will soon be arguing the case before the FCC to finish the job and let LPFM into the cities. If we win, it would allow thousands more small community groups in cities across the US to build these vibrant new neighborhood institutions of a democratic media.Just three months ago, we did not have high hopes for victory in getting more licenses for low power fm. After all, the Republicans control the Congress, the courts, and the Presidency (and by way of the presidency, the FCC. Very few Republicans (John McCain being the prime exception) came to our defense when the so called "Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act" was snuck into an appropriations bill and snatched our low power victory away from us in 2000.
However, as a result of the work of Prometheus and a large coalition of other groups, media ownership is suddenly a hot topic in Washington and there is a groundswell of bipartisan support for major media reform. We are doing our best to get low power radio back on the table, and this time we don't want it to be a Republican versus Democrat issue but rather a plank on a general platform of media reform. We think that given the outrageous actions of the current FCC, Media Reform will be a major issue in the next presidential election.
In January of 2000, the FCC adopted the low power radio service. While the rules were not everything advocates had originally asked for, they allowed for approximately 25 stations in the top ten urban markets in the United States. The FCC opened applications windows and started to give out licenses. Under pressure from the large broadcasting interests, key Republican Congressmen slipped in language to an appropriations package that eviscerated the FCC's new rules in November of 2000. Under the Republican's rules, about 75% of low power FM opportunities were eliminated, leaving only 1 new station available in the top 50 American cities. Smaller towns, further away from major metropolitan areas, were unaffected by the bill and allowed to build.
Under the rules passed by congress, a testing program was mandated to do "field testing" in nine markets. The FCC hired an independent contractor to perform these tests. The report has just been completed, and will probably be released in the summer of 2003. The report will eventually be presented to Congress, and Congress will decide based on these findings whether the original LPFM rules will be allowed to be re-implemented. This could create thousands more low power stations, in larger cities where they are most dramatically needed. In addition, there will be a smaller study of the potential economic impact of low power radio on small commercial radio station owners.
Upon public presentation of the results of the study, a comment period will be opened. During this time, low power supporters will need to evaluate the report and comment on it to the FCC. It will be important to cc: your comments to your congresspeople. Prometheus will be setting up a page that will make it easier to do this, so you can focus on your comments. We will also need to have low power stations that are up and running introduce their work to Congress, so that they can see that community radio is more than a pipe dream- low power radio is already making hundreds of communities better around the country.
We are particularly looking for engineers and economists who would like to give their professional evaluations of these studies. You can see our published Request For Proposals at http://oldsite.prometheusradio.org/rfp_mitre.shtml.
Comments from everybody are very important. Even if the FCC wants to ignore them, this time we will make sure that Congress won't.
It is imperative that we hire an engineer and an economist to evaluate the studies. These evaluations will be the technical basis for a public awareness campaign on this issue, and will allow us to respond to the substantive arguments raised by the National Association of Broadcasters. We will also be mobilizing low power advocates and the public at large to comment on this issue at the FCC.
