KRRC Image from Reed Magazine

Reed College’s tiny radio station KRRC struggled to be heard over the Portland, Oregon airwaves and now its terrestrial days may be over. Last week paperwork was filed to transfer the class D license for KRRC to Common Frequency, a non-profit devoted to community and grassroots radio. There’s a silver lining to this story, as the donation of this license to Common Frequency may actually save a tiny slice of the terrestrial dial in Portland since Reed had initially planned to simply dispose of the license.

Late last year KRRC’s license holder (The Reed Institute) turned the KRRC 97.9FM class D license back to the FCC. According to FCC records, the license was cancelled and the call sign was deleted on November 29, 2011 “per Licensee’s request.” Terrestrial broadcasts ceased on November 30, 2011 and the station moved to an online-only format. A story back in October in Reed’s student publication, The Quest, delves further into KRRC’s move off FM and stated that finances were a big factor. In response to that news, a number of concerned alumni began talking about fundraising options for KRRC back in December. Reed’s Director of Student Activities and KRRC advisor Kristin Holmberg explained that the move off FM was precipitated by KRRC losing its frequency to a commercial radio group. She said,

“Two years ago, we learned that a Cumulus station had bought our frequency.  Since we were getting bumped, we spent a long time looking for a new frequency in town.  Our dial was full and bigger stations wouldn’t consent to let us settle between them.  It was clear that we would eventually have to shut down.

In the meantime, student interest in radio was lagging.  It’s hard to have a totally student run station without a professional station manager involved.  It’s also expensive to run a broadcast station.

There had already been some student interest in going to a web broadcast format.  It’s much easier to operate and doesn’t require adherence to a large number of very technical FCC regulations. We wouldn’t have to pay lawyers to help us navigate the system as well. When we laid out all the issues, it was a pretty easy decision for the students to tell me they wanted to drop our FCC license.”

Although this sounded quite definitive at the time, Reed had a change of heart. Over the winter break, a Petition for Reconsideration was filed with the FCC by the Reed Institute. The FCC granted the Petition for Reconsideration on January 25, 2012 and the license was reinstated on the same day. On February 2, an application for the assignment of license to Common Frequency was accepted for filing by the FCC. Today, the FCC accepted for filing the Reed Institute’s request to take KRRC silent “while searching for possible channel relocation” in light of Cumulus’ plans to move commercial station KNRQ onto KRRC’s frequency.

According to Common Frequency’s Program and Technical Director Todd Urick,

“Recently KRRC’s frequency was reallocated by the FCC to a commercial broadcaster moving into Portland.  Because Reed had a secondary-service ‘Class D’ low power radio license–a type of campus broadcast license phased-out by the FCC in the late 70s–it needed to yield to any commercial broadcaster wanting to use that channel.  In the absence of any other open radio channels in Portland–coupled with broadcast coverage limited to campus (8 watts) and persistent legal and engineering expenses associated with the channel–Reed has discontinued broadcasting to concentrate on online streaming.”

In similar cases, other universities have simply turned their class D licenses back in to the FCC, as was the case with both the Paul Smith’s College station WPSA and the Central College station KCUI back in December, 2011. With the scarcity of available frequencies on the terrestrial dial, it’s always surprising and sad to me to hear of potentially usable licenses being turned back to the FCC. With that in mind, Urick explained that Common Frequency was interested in helping to preserve Reed College’s channel for community use in Portland. He explained that,

“Common Frequency…has agreed to pursue any ditch attempts to invest engineering and legal resources to search for possible solutions for the defunct radio channel.  The central Portland area has no viable open channels primarily due to the proliferation of licensed translators, translator applications, and commercial stations changing their communities of license into the Portland market.  For the slim possibility that any option is found for purchasing a translator or moving the channel outside of central Portland, Common Frequency intends to provide that channel back to the local community for student and community usage.”

Regarding the transfer of the license to Common Frequency, Holmberg added,”It seems like a nice thing for us to do since we weren’t using it.” She said that the online-only station is still a work in progress, saying, “…we’re not up and running yet! But hope to be soon!” Urick also told me that he’s spoken with Reed students about various options for resuming terrestrial broadcasts on campus.

With a history dating back to 1955, student radio at Reed has existed in a number of forms, with various call sign changes and frequency changes over the years. Some amazing photos documenting the station’s past, including a picture of alumnus Dr. Demento, can be found in a Reed digital archive.

WPSA Turns Back License to FCC

Over the winter holidays, Paul Smith’s College in The Adirondack Park in New York sent a letter to the FCC asking that its class D FM license for college radio station WPSA be cancelled.

The December 12, 2011 letter was accepted by the FCC on December 20, 2011 and the 98.3 FM license was deleted. Back in October, 2011, WPSA was granted a request for the station to go silent. This cancellation follows a series of forfeiture orders due to WPSA’s late renewal of its FCC license in 2006.

In 2007 it was issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in the amount of $7,000 for failure to renew its license on time and for “unauthorized operation of the Station” after its license had expired. WPSA never ended up paying the $7,000 fine and in correspondence with the FCC in April 2011, it was instead assessed a reduced fine of $250. This reduced amount was in part due to the elapsed time since the original forfeiture order and in part due to the station’s class D status. According to the letter, “We note that the Station is a Class D station. Given the Commission’s recent precedent assessing forfeitures in the amount of $250 against a licensee of a Class D FM station for violating Section 301 of the Act, we will reduce the forfeiture amount sua sponte from $4,000 (the amount set forth in the NAL for the Section 301 violation) to $250.”

Back in 1999, WPSA had its license cancelled for the first time by the FCC and the call sign was deleted. Interestingly, two years later, the school filed a Petition for Reconsideration and managed to have the license reinstated in 2001.

WPSA Poster from 1993 (Source: WPSA Facebook Group/Joel Rodgers)

I couldn’t find much information about the station’s history, but alumni have shared reminiscences dating back to at least the 1970s. As a class D station operating at no more than 10 watts, it’s doubtful that WPSA had much of a presence beyond campus.

When I spoke with Jill Susice, the Coordinator for Student Activities at Paul Smith’s College, she told me that WPSA ceased its FM broadcasting at the end of the fall semester 2011. She also explained that its antenna only covered a 2 mile radius, which was “basically just the campus.” Susice added that they are working on bringing the station back as an online-only student radio station “hopefully by the end of the year or early next semester.” She explained that students were involved with the decision to give up the FM license, saying, “Students were involved in the decision and there wasn’t the interest in the radio station to continue.  No one was listening and wanting to participate in it.  The trend is that the students are on-line versus on the airways.”

The remarkable aspect of Knighten’s story is that he missed his arraignment hearing earlier this month in order to attend a panel discussion about civil rights and broadcasting at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. It’s unfortunate that Knighten was broadcasting in Florida, which is one of only three states with state laws targeting unlicensed broadcasting, and the only state which has made any arrests under statute. In most other states Knighten would only face the wrath of the FCC, which continues to have a pretty poor record in collecting fines for unlicensed broadcasting.

FCC Enforcement Actions 1997-2011

Our friend John Anderson at DIYmedia.net recently published his annual survey of anti-pirate FCC action. His findings for 2011 shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following the subject here at Radio Survivor on or John’s site.

In fact, Commission enforcement against unlicensed broadcasters hit a 6-year low in 2011. As John reports,

From a record high of 447 enforcement actions clocked in 2009 and 2010, field agents executed just 184 in 2011, against fewer than 100 stations total. Massive drops were seen in the number of station-visits and warning letters issued.

John notes that the total amount in fines handed down by the FCC was actually the highest since 2005, $168,400. However, as this November, 2011 Radio World article would corroborate, it’s highly unlikely the agency will ever collect anything close to that dollar amount when all is said and done.

The FCC rulings have both been rebuked by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on First Amendment grounds, hence the Supremes get the final word. Fox and friends were in full force to push the free speech line. But what struck my eye in reading the transcript were Department of Justice Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli comments before the justices. Verrilli attempted to parry broadcaster arguments that broadcast television is no longer ubiquitous, hence Pacifica vs. FCC, the 1978 case that backed FCC indecency regulation on ubiquity grounds, is no longer relevant.

But he also warned the panel that if the high court sweeps away the FCC’s relatively new strictures against fleeting dirty talk, the decision will have the most impact on radio.

“I want to point out at the outset something I think is significant,” he began, “which is that their [the broadcaster's] argument would sweep away indecency restriction with respect to radio as well as television, and they would sweep that away in the arguments they are making today without making any showing that circumstances have changed at all with respect to the ubiquity of — or accessibility of radio.”

“And I think if one looks at the FCC orders that this Court cited in its prior decision in this case, one would see that a lot of the most vile and lewd material really is in radio. So I just want to put that marker down at the beginning here because I do think it is quite important. No showing has been made about radio.”

“I didn’t quite understand that,” interjected Justice Anthony Kennedy. “Today there’s a — there is either a potential or a fact of violent and objectionable broadcasting in radio? I didn’t quite understand your point.”

“Yes. Pacifica itself, Justice Kennedy, was a case about a radio broadcast,” Verilli noted.

“Yes, I understand that. Yes,” Kennedy agreed.

“And the Respondents are arguing in this case that Pacifica ought to be overruled because the circumstances that justified its rule no longer obtain,” Verilli continued:

“I want to put a marker in at the outset here with respect to radio because I do think it’s quite important, that they haven’t made any argument that those circumstances are any different with respect to radio. It’s just as ubiquitous as it was. There isn’t even any argument that there is blocking technology available. I want to make sure, given the kind of vile material that the record demonstrates has been transmitted over time on radio, that the Court focuses on the breadth of the argument that the Respondents are making here.”

So there you have it. Radio is where the really nasty stuff is, according to Uncle Sam. But if that’s really the case, why are all the indecency suits up before the Supremes about broadcast TV?

KCUI gets deleted

Just before winter break, college radio station KCUI officially ended its life as an FM station when its license holder, Central College, turned its class D FM license back in to the FCC. Although it was a tiny station at just 10 watts out of Pella, Iowa, it had been a fixture at the private liberal arts college since at least 1976 (when it was licensed for 10 watts at 89.1 FM).

According to FCC records, KCUI is now listed as a deleted station, with its “license cancelled and call sign deleted” by request of the license holder on December 6, 2011. The license was not set to expire until February 2013. It’s unclear what the current state of the station is on campus. KCUI’s website isn’t up-to-date, as the most recent schedule posted on the site is from 2005.

Ironically, in June 2005 KCUI had its license cancelled and call sign deleted (for the first time) by the FCC due to the fact that Central College had neglected to file a license renewal in October 2004. Central College filed a Petition for Reconsideration in 2006 and that petition was granted in January 2007. The call sign was then restored in 2007, following Central College’s belated license renewal. At the time they were also issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in the amount of $7,000 for “failing to timely file a license renewal application for the Station” and for “engaging in unauthorized operation of the Station after its authorization had expired.”

Station alumni reported in April 2011 that there were rumors that Central College would be taking KCUI off the terrestrial airwaves due to the expense of running the station. Former KCUI Advisor Bonnie Dahlke said, “The station itself had few listeners and the broadcast area was less than 1 mile surrounding campus.  It was not a large operation.  It was no surprise that a decision was made to scrap it and focus on other areas.” Dahlke told me that when she was the advisor for the station between 2004 and 2006, there were only a handful of DJs. According to Dahlke, it was a challenge for students to maintain the station over the years. She said,

“At the time there were 3 senior students managing the station and maybe 5 DJs or so.  When those seniors graduated, there really wasn’t much interest amongst remaining students in leading the charge so I cobbled together a student contact or two to try to keep things going. It’s definitely not an advisor’s job at a college/university to keep a student-run initiative going and I had no expertise in media.

In 2006, the communication studies department took it back…They had several adjunct faculty advise it over the years who I have no doubt had interest and expertise but didn’t have enough time to spend chasing after student managers reminding them all the things they should be doing to keep the station going.

Meanwhile, the communication studies department was moving in a different strategic direction overall–more focused on rhetoric and theory-based curriculum than media.  When faced with budget and staffing cuts, schools of all sorts have had to make decisions regarding what they will and will not focus on.  For Central, media was left behind as there are many other colleges/universities in the area that have more to offer in those areas. Rather than trying to keep up with the Jones’, I think it was a matter of prioritizing other areas in which the school could be stronger than competitors.”

I attempted to speak with someone from Central College’s Communication Studies Department, but was unable to reach anyone prior to publication. Hopefully after the new semester begins, we will learn more about future plans for KCUI.

Last week the FCC released its report on the economic impact of low-power FM stations on commercial radio. The report was mandated by passage of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 (LCRA), and its primary conclusion should surprise nobody with any knowledge of LPFM: “LPFM stations are unlikely to have more than a negligible economic impact on full-service commercial FM stations.”

A pithy comment made to a post on The Hill’s technology blog sums it up even more vividly: “It sounds like a study investigating the Salvation Army thrift stores to see if they unfairly compete with Walmart.” In effect, this comment and the report make clear that the idea that LPFM could be a real threat to commercial radio is and always was a red herring tossed out by the commercial broadcast industry to try and thwart any addition to the radio dial that would not be under its own umbrella.

Of course, I’m certain there are many low-power radio advocates who wish low-power stations could be a bigger threat to the commercial radio establishment, especially given how the likes of Clear Channel decimated the medium in the wake of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. However, the ability for low-power FM to be an actual threat is mitigated by many of the same factors that blindsided the largest commercial radio companies while they were too focused on buying up stations, consolidating operations and firing staff around the turn of the century.

Nevertheless we are on the cusp of adding many more low-power community stations to the airwaves of towns and cities across the country. The stats uncovered in the Commission’s report paint an interesting portrait of LPFM that underlines both the power and limits of their reach.

With regard to the question of effect on commercial stations, the most significant face is that LPFM stations have a miniscule impact on ratings, if they show up at all. The station with the highest listenership managed to rank only 18th in its market.

The flip side of that coin is that, according to the report, amongst those stations that appear in Arbitron ratings, LPFM stations have a high value for “time spent listening” (TSL). This means that LPFM listeners tend to stay tuned in for longer periods of time. This fact leads the Commission to conclude that, “these measures suggest that the popular LPFM stations tend to attract a small but loyal fan base, which tunes in for long periods of time and/or switches stations less frequently than the average full-service station listener.”

LPFM stations are more likely to carry niche programming. So the National Association of Broadcasters told the FCC that it should consider the potential harm LPFMs would have on the small segment of commercial stations that cater to a niche audience. In particular the NAB argued that niche stations are more vulnerable due to having lower average revenues from a more typically formatted station.

However, the Commission notes that the NAB provided no examples of an LPFM that current duplicates or previously duplicated an existing commercial station’s format. The Commission cites comments filed by LPFM advocate Wesli Dymoke who contends that it is unlikely that a low-power station would choose to compete head-on with a more powerful commercial station. It also notes that the NAB provided no plausible explanation why a LPFM station would choose such a Quixotic path. In the end the FCC concludes that there is no evidence that low-power stations pose any threats to commercial stations with niche formats.

The completion of this report represents the penultimate hurdle in front of the expansion of LPFM, which it has now successfully leaped over. The final one is the outcome of the FCC’s proceeding to resolve the queue of pending applications for translator repeater stations, many of which could take up frequencies that would be suitable for new low-power stations after the LCRA. As of last June the Commission was leaning towards establishing a minimum number of LPFM-qualified frequencies that must remain available in a given market after translator applications are approved.

With luck the commissioners will resolve that proceedings in the first quarter of this year. In turn that could pave the way for a new LPFM license application window in the second or third quarter. Then it will have taken only twelve years to overcome the NAB’s attempt to cut low-power community radio off at the knees. Yet, after all that time communities of all sizes across the country still need true community radio, perhaps more than before.

Federal Communications Commission, et al v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., et al. 

Interestingly, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who championed the enforcement of fines on broadcasters who aired fleeting expletives unbleeped, commented that he wouldn’t be so quick to discipline networks in today’s environment.  From Bloomberg.com:

…[T]he FCC said in 2004 that it would begin punishing broadcasters for fleeting expletives — one-time utterances on live shows.

Powell said in an interview this week that he now regrets that vote, saying, “if I were voting again, I would have dissented.” He also questioned the logic behind singling out broadcasters for scrutiny at a time when cable and satellite television reach at least 85 percent of American homes.

“I’ve always been deeply troubled by the way the First Amendment changes when you change channels,” said Powell, now president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association in Washington, which represents Fox Networks Group along with cable operators.

The Supreme Court case concerns incidents at the Billboard Music Awards, shown on Fox. At the 2002 show, Cher referred to critics of her work by saying, “F— ‘em. I still have a job and they don’t.” A year later, Richie said, “Have you ever tried to get cow s— out of a Prada purse? It’s not so f—ing simple.”

The FCC concluded that the broadcasts violated its indecency regulations, though the agency stopped short of imposing fines. Federal law lets the FCC levy a $325,000 fine on each station that airs indecent material between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

The case will also look at a scene involving brief nudity on a 2003 episode of “NYPD Blue.”

(Sidenote: Howard Stern famously challenged Michael Powell [link opens MP3 file] regarding his indecency rulings and fines on KGO’s “The Ron Owens Show.”  Although a bulk of the conversation concerns Stern’s questioning of Powell’s political credentials, it’s still an interesting listen on indecency enforcement nearly 8 years later, whether you’re pro- or anti-Stern.)

Of course, the upcoming ruling will also affect radio broadcasters, who are under essentially the same indecency guidelines as their television counterparts.  The Obama administration has stated in court that broadcasters should present a “relatively safe medium for…children.”  One hopes, however, that while this case looks at off-the-cuff profanity, the FCC will begin to move closer to specific guidelines so broadcasters can be certain what is, in fact, deemed indecent and what isn’t.

As stated in the Bloomberg article, a federal appeals court stated that the FCC indecency rulings were too inconsistent, and that broadcasters “are left to guess” what will be enforced by the FCC and what will pass without a fight.  Incidentally, this is the same issue that plagued the UK’s Ofcom, who announced in October 2011 that they “intend to publish guidance by the end of the year to clarify the rules in the broadcasting code.”  As far as I can tell, this year-end deadline has come and gone without further explanation of said rules.

As we being another all-important election year, I’m hopeful these cases will be addressed in a timely, yet through, fashion.  Then again, we’re still talking Cher saying the f-word, once, on live television almost ten years ago, so I’m not holding my breath.

ON AIR sign at the old Pirate Cat Radio (Photo: J. Waits)

The FCC released a list today, updating its statistics on the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States.

Based on this list, there are more radio stations today (14,952) then there were a few months ago.

The number of AM stations, FM commercial stations, and FM educational stations all increased since the end of September, 2011. The only categories in which there was a drop in the number of radio stations were FM translators/boosters and Low Power FM.

By the end of December, 2011, there were 87 more radio stations in the United States than there were at the end of September. FM educational stations (college radio, high school radio, public radio, community radio, and religious broadcasters) picked up the most stations and increased by 72. By the end of the year there were 10 fewer LPFM stations and 114 fewer FM translators/boosters.

As of December 31, 2011:

AM Stations:                         4,766 (up from 4,763 in Sept. 2011)
FM Commercial Stations:      6,542 (up from 6,530 in Sept. 2011)
FM Educational Stations:       3,644 (up from 3,572 in Sept. 2011)
Total Radio Stations:        14,952 (up from 14,865 in Sept 2011)

Not included in Total Radio Stations:

FM Translators and Boosters:   6,099 (down from 6,113 in Sept 2011)
Low power FM:                            838 (down from 848 in Sept 2011)

(1) up to eight commercial radio stations in radio markets with 45 or more radio stations, no more than five of which can be in the same service (AM or FM),
(2) up to seven commercial radio stations in radio markets with 30-44 radio stations, no more than four of which can be in the same service (AM or FM),
(3) up to six commercial radio stations in radio markets with 15-29 radio stations, no more than four of which can be in the same service (AM or FM), and
(4) up to five commercial radio stations in radio markets with 14 or fewer radio stations, no more than three of which can be in the same service (AM or FM), provided that an entity may not own more than 50 percent of the stations in such a market, except that an entity may always own a single AM and single FM station combination.

In the FCC’s latest proceeding on whether to loosen these and other restrictions, broadcasters argued that satellite radio and Internet services like Pandora make these limits less necessary. The Commission disagrees:

“Satellite radio still only serves a small portion of all radio listeners and millions of listeners do not have broadband Internet access,” the FCC says. “Moreover, these audio programming alternatives are national platforms that are not likely to respond to conditions in local markets. Therefore, we propose that our local radio ownership rule continue to focus on promoting competition among broadcast radio stations in local radio listening markets.”

Speaking personally, I think that the FCC is right about this. Services like Pandora or Last.fm have yet to demonstrate any significant local presence anywhere, as opposed to the precious core of broadcast radio stations that really serve cities, towns, and rural areas with live news and information.

But the agency is proposing to eliminate its radio/television cross ownership limits, and everybody’s definitely starting to wonder how Internet only stations and music services compare with AM/FM broadcasters, audience metrics-wise. Folks are getting pretty touchy about the issue, too. Of late, Edison Research did an audience study for Pandora that included some Average Quarter Hour share data. Around the same time, Arbitron issued a statement questioning the wisdom of comparing Internet radio log file data with Arbitron audience estimates.

“There are many areas to be carefully considered when comparing Arbitron audience estimates with those from another source,” the Arbitron commentary noted. “We advise clients to avoid comparing self-reported audience estimates from Internet music services to Arbitron radio audience estimates,” given these differences:

• The difference between “one-to-many” broadcast stations and “one-to-one” Internet music services;
• The differences between Arbitron’s published methodology and calculations for its audience estimates and the estimates used by Internet music services;
• The ability of the provider to determine if a person is completing the survey task and should be counted as “exposed” to the content; and
• The reliability of self-reported demographic data and the steps taken to validate the information.

Meanwhile, Edison hit the ceiling over an Inside Radio piece on the issue that the research group called ”grossly inaccurate.” According to the excerpt published by Edison, the Inside Radio story claimed that the Edison study ranked Pandora figures with local radio stations via Arbitron stats.

“Edison has never (as in never ) reported anything other than the AQH figures for Pandora – full stop,” Edison’s statement insisted. “We defy Inside Radio or any interested party to come up with a ‘ranker’ from Edison that compares Pandora ‘alongside’ any terrestrial radio station.”

So is the consensus that broadcast radio and the Internet remain apples and oranges? Tim Westergren of Pandora would appear to disagree. This week he told the Wall Street Journal that Arbitron’s perspective reflected a “concerted effort” to keep his company out of the broadcast radio loop. “The broadcast industry does not want the world to know about us, basically,” Westergren declared.

Actually, big radio does want to know about Pandora, it seems, to the extent they can use the specter of Internet radio to convince the FCC that it should relax its local ownership rules. That tactic clearly isn’t working, so far. But if Internet radio actually develops a serious local presence, things might change.

Spurred on by the FCC’s proposal to create an online public inspection file for television broadcasters, reporter Meredith Hoffman at the New York Times decided to check out the paper public files at a variety of New York City broadcasters, both TV and radio. Not surprisingly, but still disappointingly, the reporter encountered puzzled receptionists and staff at many studios, but not much cooperation.

The staff at the Clear Channel cluster “chided a reporter for trying to enter without an appointment and insisted she arrange a time at least one day in advance,” while the receptionist at the Emmis Communications office for two stations took down the reporter’s contact information, but nobody from the company followed up. Even representatives of NBC owned-and-operated WNBC-TV put the reporter off for a week, only complying with the request to see the file after a call to corporate. Apparently Comcast-NBC hasn’t learned anything from the $225,000 it paid to the FCC for failing to provide sufficient public access to the file at other stations.

As its name would imply, the whole point of the public inspection file is that it is supposed to be available for the public to come in and inspect. The FCC requires that it be accessible during normal business hours, without having to make an appointment. Inside the file are documentation of a station’s public service programming, copies of its license and ownership reports and other items relevant to a station’s authorization to broadcast and observance of the public trust. As the Times article plays for levity, stations are also required to keep copies of correspondence from the public in the file.

While the complaints of a viewer who wrote a station regarding a news person’s attire may make the public file seem trivial, the fact is the majority of the file’s contents are not so trivial. Even reading comments from other viewers or listeners may in fact provide a fuller picture about ongoing or persistent problems at the station. While many broadcasters whine about the burden of maintaining the public inspection file, when you take into consideration the fact that most of them pay absolutely nothing for their valuable license to broadcast it hardly seems like much of a burden at all.