It’s been a big month for Low Power FM, with an important victory in the courts and an impressive hearing on the Hill. We’re delighted to be working alongside community radio advocates like Prometheus Radio Project and the United Church of Christ to make LPFM a reality in more American towns and cities.
LPFM stations are community-based, non-commercial radio broadcasters that operate at 100 watts or less and reach a radius of 3 to 7 miles. LPFM provides a platform for underserved musical genres, minority, religious and linguistic groups and offers a forum for debate about important local issues. We’ve even got a fact sheet all about it.
Sounds good, right? Not to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) — a powerful lobbying force that represents commercial radio interests. Earlier in the decade, the NAB pushed back hard against the FCC, who aimed to broadly issue LPFM licenses to community groups across the country. The NAB claimed that LPFM stations posed an interference threat to their own megawatt stations, which is like saying a lit book of matches can steal brightness from a floodlight. Yet the NAB successfully pressured Congress to drastically limit the number of LPFM stations. The Radio Preservation Act of 2000 compelled the FCC to look into to look into these interference claims, so they commissioned the independent engineering research organization the MITRE Corp to do extensive fieldwork. Guess what? They concluded back in 2003 that interference is virtually non-existent. Think about how many local communities could’ve benefited from LPFM since then. We do. A lot.
But back to the good news. In December 2007, the FCC revised some of its rules and policies in order to protect LPFMs from full-power FM stations that encroach onto the space currently occupied by existing LPFMs. The NAB filed a petition for review of these modifications, claiming they reduce the protections afforded to full power stations and violate the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act. In a decisive June 5 victory for existing LPFM stations, the U.S. Court of Appeals, DC Circuit dismissed the NAB’s petition for review and upheld the FCC’s December 2007 decision to protect LPFM stations. You can read a more detailed report on our blog.
And there’s more: on June 11, the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet held a legislative hearing on H.R. 1147, aka the Local Community Radio Act of 2009. Members of the subcommittee heard testimony from three different witnesses. First, Peter Doyle of the FCC (not to be confused with Representative Mike Doyle) gave the lowdown on the supposed interference problems touted by the NAB. He said there weren’t any. Next up, NAB board member Caroline Beasley gave her testimony opposing the bill. Finally, Cheryl Leanza of United Church of Christ knocked it out of the park with her statement in support of Low Power Radio.
“As I have worked on this issue over the years,” said Leanza, “one of my favorite moments is after I ask someone the question, ‘what would a radio station sound like if you and your community ran it?’ All of a sudden a person’s eyes light up as they start to imagine what they could do. It is a wonderful experience to see the wheels start turning in people’s heads. “
We’ve got a blog recap of the hearing
And a full-length report that goes into greater detail