Prometheus Release

Lawyers Welcome FCC Move on Low-power FM

A National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications release

Prometheus Press Releases

Prometheus Lawsuit Stays Implementation of New Ownership Rules
September 4, 2003

Study Shows Interference Claims Are Red Herring
July 13, 2003

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Prometheus in the News

Low Power, High Intensity
Columbia Journalism Review

Prometheus has played a significant role in the struggle by community groups to establish low-power radio stations - a struggle that has involved the FCC, the National Association of Broadcasters, and National Public Radio.

Read the Q&A with Petri

Opposition to Big Media
could invigorate low-power FM radio.
Salon.com

"Low-power radio stations
give voice to diversity of 'underserved' towns"
The Denver Post

"No Power to the People"
Scientific American takes a look at the low-power FM debate

Scientific American studies claims that Low-power FM radio will cause unacceptable interference and concludes that "congress may have been reacting more to political pressure than technical data, which suggest that whatever interference LPFM stations generate will be too low to matter."

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Prometheus Articles

Special Interest Noise
The NAB/NPR attempt to dupe Congress on interference

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Urge Commission To Consider only a Democratic, Local And Non-Commercial Service. Guild Says That More Little Commercial Stations Are Not the Answer

January 27, 1999

Imagine that the government declared that, due to a shortage of newsprint and ink, a Federal Newspaper Commission (FNC) would be set up. Imagine that the Commission, in the name of "efficiency", would permit only those print media with a minimum circulation of 500,000. All local community weeklies, church bulletins, local union newsletters, school newsletters, etc. would cease to exist. That is almost exactly the situation in broadcasting.

In light of this, The Committee on Democratic Communications of the National Lawyers Guild (CDC) is glad that the current FCC, under the leadership of Chairman Kennard, has finally recognized the free speech rights of everyone else. We urge the FCC, Congress, and the public to fully support the institution of a new "micropower" radio service, BUT it must be non-commercial, non-profit, and locally owned and programmed. To the extent that the commission is today considering simply a lower tier of commercial broadcasters we strongly disagree.

The CDC, on its behalf, and on behalf of many in the micro radio movement, has urged the FCC to adopt a micropower service with the following features:

1. Non-commercial

2. Strict local ownership

3. Primarily local programming

4. Strict "one-to-a-customer" ownership limits

5. Extremely simplified and streamlined registration or licensing procedures

A counterbalance is needed for the current commercial radio system, which has entirely abandoned localism and public service and become merely a money-making machine for large and distant corporations. Only the above criteria will ensure that microradio will remain an open, participatory voice for local communities.

There is no reason why thousands, or even tens of thousands, of low-power "microradio" stations could not exist in neighborhoods, apartment houses, communities, and small towns throughout the U.S. No reason except the FCC's extremely restrictive policies which favor the large, wealthy corporation and the monopolist.

The existence of thousands of unlicensed micro-radio stations around the country has shown that such stations can exist without causing interference to others. The FCC calls these stations "pirates". But the real "pirates" are those who have tightly monopolized the public spectrum for their own profit-making purposes, and who have largely eliminated local programming,especially local civic programming of any kind.

99.99% of the American people are LEGALLY BARRED from using radio and TV-the most effective media in the U.S.- to communicate to their fellow citizens. This situation was greatly aggravated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed for a massive consolidation of radio and TV into the hands of a few wealthy corporations. Can such a state of affairs beconsistent with the First Amendment? Should freedom of press via broadcasting truly belong only to those very few who own a press-- or in this case a government broadcast license?

If the FCC had truly wanted to advance the "public interest" it would have helped local microbroadcasters at every step to serve their communities. Rather, the FCC has viciously cracked down of those who simply want to assert their First Amendment rights on the public airwaves. Threats of huge fines, imprisonment, and even SWAT style raids have been carried out against citizens who were simply asserting their right to free speech and harming no one.

We hope that today's FCC action will lead to an opening of the airwaves to fuller, democratic participation by all of the American people.

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