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Prometheus De-Livered
Our Periodic Newsletter
March 2001
In this Issue...
A look at the new FCC Chairman • Prometheus Road Tour • Senator McCain's Low Power Radio Bil
Contents
[FCC Watch]
[Amendments]
[New FCC Chairman Speaks]
[NPR Responds]
[McCain's new Low Power Bill]
[Prometheus Hits the Road]
[Get Prometheus De-livered in the comfort of your own electronic mail box -- register online]
FCC Watch
Last Thursday, the Mass Media Bureau presented its progress on low power FM to the new Commission. As predicted we did not see very much movement on low power FM during the month of February, as the FCC reorganized itself under the leadership of the new Chairman, Michael Powell. Roy Stewart, Chief of the Mass Media Bureau, told the Commissioners that work on LPFM was going well. Stewart said that the bureau would write a "Report and Order" which would explain how the bureau planned to implement the changes mandated by Congress. He expected that to be done over the coming month, and said that the 255 approved construction permits (minus the 25 that had petitions to deny filed against them, for now) would be issued "almost immediately thereafter."
Stewart told the Commission that roughly 40% of the applicants that filed were knocked out by the Grams law. This is good news, sort of- it means that more of the applicants than we expected may merely be in competitive license situations rather than having been knocked out by the legislation. If you have found yourself in a mutually exclusive licensing situation, contact us now... even though we don't know when it will happen, it is good to start negotiating with your competitors now.
Amended Applications
The situation with amendments is less clear. There has been an unsubstantiated rumor floating around for about a three weeks now that the FCC has developed a procedure for dealing with amendments. They will only allow amendments within a single, national filing window sometime this summer. At that time, everyone will get to make whatever corrections they need to make to come into compliance with the Grams legislation. Also, apparently, anyone who missed the window will get to (on a second come, second serve basis) apply for any remaining empty frequencies. It is unclear whether this includes "minor changes."
A major change is when something big changes- you change frequency beyond the adjacent or IF Channels, you move your site more than 2 kilometers from the original site, etcetera. A minor change is when you move under two kilometers, you need to change a name on your board of directors, or something else small. We think that at least with "minor changes, " you should be able to file at any time. With major changes, you usually have to wait for a "filing window." These are not regularly scheduled and you really never know when they are going to happen. You should do all the work in preparation for your major change application now, because you do not want to forget about it and then have onloy 30 days to finbd a new site, make a deal with the owner, etcetera. But you can not submit the major change application until the window opens, and there is no way of knowing when that will be. If you subscribe to prometheus mailing lists like making waves, we will send out notice of an impending filing window as soon as we hear of it.
New FCC Chairman on Low Power FM Radio
here is an excerpt from an article by Leslie Stimson at Radio World
LPFM: Michael Powell still supports a gradual roll-out of the new service, as he said a year ago when he voted for it, although no official decision on the timetable has been made. He believes that the language passed by Congress last fall directing the agency to conduct interference tests and an economic impact study resolves some of his concerns.
After listening to engineers debate the results of four LPFM interference studies conducted last year, Powell said, he was still unsure if LPFM would cause interference to existing stations.
"That matter points out my concern about the continuing ability to independently assess technological questions...Part of what I think we need is we need a greater independent ability to assess those questions on the front end."
Powell also said that some of the biggest LPFM opponents he met when the issue was being debated were not big radio group owners, but rather small independents.
"What you're talking about often is the viability of the lower end, marginal stations in local and smaller markets who almost can't afford to lose one more advertiser, or one more listener, or it's done for. What is ironic here is sometimes, these kinds of debates are presumed to be about little guys and really big guys. Sometimes what it's about is one class of little guys vs. another class of little guys. In many ways, the stresses of that issue are more there than they are about big radio."
(Prometheus comments: We'd have to say that this is guardedly good news. He does have the power to completely shelve the whole thing, and he apparently does not plan to do that. We have no idea what he means by "we need a greater independent ability to assess those questions on the front end." From our perspective, he really should be standing by his staff engineers more. No one doubted their competence when they made pro-industry decisions)!
Other FCC News
Powell was appointed temporary chairman of the FCC. It is not yet clear whether he will be offered a higher position in the Bush administration. He is the only Commissioner who seems to be even considering sticking around. Harold Furchgott-Roth is leaving to rejoin the private sector. Susan Ness has announced that she does not intend to serve another term, and Gloria Tristani is considering a run for either senate or governor of New Mexico. The FCC must be 3 commissioners from the presidents party, and two from the other party. Thus, Bush will probably appoint two of the furthest right-wing democrats he can find to fill Tristani and Ness's seats. The good news is that appointments to the FCC have to go through pro-LPFM John McCains' committee, and he intends to make LPFM a key issue in the confirmation process.
John McCain introduces pro-low power bill in Senate.
Arizona Republican John McCain introduced new legislation designed to strengthen the hand of low-power FM radio operators. McCain's bill would remove the questionable language about suing low power operators that was contained in last year's contentious anti-low power bill. It deserves your whole-hearted support. This bill would essentially overturn the Grams rider which carved up LPFM last December. A lot of Congresspeople are pretty embarrassed about what happened to LPFM. They can show their support for Low Power FM by signing on to McCain's bill. It does not have a bill number yet- that should come out late today. You can see the text here: http://www.senate.gov/~mccain/lpfm01.htm
Prometheus Hits the Road Again!
Prometheus will, for the first time, be doing two tours simultaneously. Joan Dark, starting on March 6th, will travel from the 6th of March till the 4th of At the end of April. She will travel through Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Pete triDish, starting in the third week of March, will travel through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont and Massachussetts. If you live in any of these states, contact petri@critpath.org For more details of the locations of our stops, or to tell us about groups you know that would like to have us speak about media concentration issues or help prepare for a Low Power FM application call us at 215-727-9620 or email info@prometheusradio.org
News
from NPR
NPR has recieved hundreds of calls, letters, and emails with people telling them that they are furious about their role in killing LPFM. Good job everyone! The NPR ombudsman recently wrote a reply to all this which you can see at this site. [http://www.npr.org/inside/ombudsman/010125.html] keep the mail coming, especially to your local NPR station.
National NPR claims that it's policy is driven by the affiliates, so make sure that your affiliate isn't your local NPR affilate that is behind NPR's despicable stand!
Get it Right!
Prometheus is still willing to check out your application for errors. On earlier filing windows, we have noticed a number of seriously regrettable (and easily avoidable) errors made by wonderful applicants. These errors can jeapordize your application. We are happy to check your application for you and make sure that it is in good shape before it goes to the FCC.
Let us Know
Got any Feedback for Prometheus?: Every once in a while we like to get a sense of how we're doing so we can re-prioritize our efforts. We receive many emails thanking us for our work, but we want to make sure that no one is falling through the cracks. Tell us how we're doing, and please remind us if we have promised any help to you that we have promised- we get so many requests that it is easy to lose track!
Please send feedback to info@prometheusradio.org. Prometheus Radio Project www.prometheus.tao.ca 215-727-9620
