Radio Survivor

Today there are close to 1000 more noncommercial, locally-programmed community radio stations on the air in the US than a decade ago. The reason for this is the low-power FM radio service created by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000. While Congressional intervention cut the new service off at the knees at the end of that year, the creation of LPFM is an important event that provided crucial recognition for the value of hyper-local community radio.

By the end of the 1990s the FCC was feeling a lot of heat about radio. From one side were complaints about the steep decline in local service brought on by the great loosening of ownership restrictions in the 1996 Telecom Act. On the other side broadcasters were haranguing the Commission about the rise in unlicensed “pirate” broadcasters.

The unlicensed broadcasters–who often preferred the moniker “microbroadcasters”–justified their actions as civil disobedience. Using power levels well under the 100 minimum the FCC set for the lowest class of broadcast station, the microbroadcasters correctly cited the fact that the Commission refused to provide licenses for this class of stations.

A perfect storm for microbroadcasting was created by the availability of inexpensive transmitters and a unifying raison d’etre. Besieged by as many as a thousand unlicensed stations nationwide, the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau had no real hope of keeping up. Yet the Commission had to defend its own legitimacy in the face of critics upset about the spike in unlicensed activity. So the FCC kept up enforcement actions, with the apparent hope that some high profile busts would keep both critics and would-be pirates at bay.

That was the scene set for the emergence of LPFM. The idea for LPFM did not arise fully-formed from the mind of then-Chairman William Kennard. Rather, several proposals for an LPFM service had been floated to the FCC in the late 90s. Furthermore, a real movement had grown behind LPFM, with the Prometheus Radio Project leading that organizing effort.

For Chairman Kennard LPFM offered a ripe opportunity to release some of the pressure by offering would-be unlicensed community broadcasters a shot at a real license. LPFM also looked good politically. Who would oppose inexpensive low-power noncommercial stations intended to serve small, local communities? Well, the NAB and NPR, for starters, under the reasoning that any competition is bad for business.

Nevertheless Chairman Kennard’s FCC moved forward and emerged in January, 2000 with a full-fledged service. There were two real innovations with LPFM. The first was permitting low-power stations to be spaced closer on the dial than full-power stations. The second innovation–often overlooked–is that it created a simplified and expedited licensing process. Obtaining a full-power station license is often a long, laborious and expensive endeavor that requires pricey engineering surveys and legal assistance. With LPFM the Commission did the engineering work in advance, identifying every possible LPFM frequency nationwide. It then set licensing windows during which all applicants would submit their paperwork.

The hitch in the program came at the end of 2000 when the NAB finally succeeded in convincing Congress that close-spaced LPFM posed an interference threat to their full power stations. That resulted in a rider attached to an omnibus budget bill which forced LPFM stations to obey the same spacing as stations broadcasting at thousands of watts. But, importantly, the NAB did not succeed in killing LPFM altogether, and stations started going on the air by 2005 2002.

At the end of 2009 the House passed the Local Community Radio Act, intended to restore LPFM to the levels originally set by the FCC. Now we wait for action by the Senate. When passed, the shorter spacing allowances promise to add many more hundred LPFM stations, especially in the nation’s largest urban markets.

Although most of commercial radio is vaster wasteland than it was a decade ago, noncommercial stations continue to be a bright spot on the dial. Because of LPFM hundreds of communities that otherwise would never have a vibrant, locally-programmed noncommercial station enjoy the sort of community radio that was rarer commodity just ten years ago.

It’s a day that thousands of low-power FM and community radio activists have been awaiting for just about nine years. This evening, at 7:06 pm the House of Representatives, with a minimum of drama, passed H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 by voice vote. Little drama for the House nevertheless meant nearly two days of sitting on the edge of the seat for LPFM advocates as they waited for the House to move through its usual machinations and other business. Regardless of how much we might wish LPFM was at the top of the legislative agenda, instead it seemed more like an afterthought. At least it was enough of a no-brainer for the House that they didn’t even need a roll call vote. I’ll take it.

The bill restores the original technical specifications for LPFM which the FCC instituted in 2000. These specs allow a low-power station to be placed as close as the third adjacent channel on the dial. In practice that means if a full-power station broadcasts on 100.1 FM then a LPFM may be placed at 100.7 FM, provided that the frequency is otherwise available.

On Dec. 18, 2000 a provision limiting LPFM stations to obeying the spacing requirements of full-power stations was slipped into an omnibus budget bill and signed into law by President Clinton after a long series of back-room horsetrading. Under these still-current rules, a LPFM station may only be spaced as close as 100.9 FM next to that hypothetical full power station at 100.1 FM.

.2 MHz may not seem like a big difference, but when it comes to spacing stations on the FM dial, it is a game fought and won by tenths of a megahertz. This difference is of particular importance in the nation’s largest radio markets which already have very full dials that will not permit the addition of another full-power station or LPFM that has to obey full-power spacing rules. LPFM proponents estimate that passage of the Local Community Radio Act will create the potential for at least a hundred new stations nationwide.

Now the focus moves to the Senate, where the Commerce Committee has already approved the Senate version of the bill. If it goes to a floor vote and is passed then it is likely to be signed by President Obama.

The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 was scheduled for a floor vote in the House of Representatives today, a moment that LPFM activists have been awaiting for almost nine years. And wait they did. Anyone who has watched her share of C-SPAN knows that the House moves at its own pace, for its own reasons. Today, it waited for quorum, then lumbered forward on about half its agenda today. As of 5:30 PM EST the Clerk of the House reports that business for the day is over and so the vote for LPFM moves to tomorrow.

This is the first time that a vote on a bill to restore low-power FM to the FCC’s original specifications has been scheduled for the full House since 2000. Signs are looking good that the bill may finally pass, though we’ll know much more tomorrow…. maybe.

Hmm. It seems like there’s a fair chance that a law opening up new possibilities for Low Power FM might actually get to prez Obama’s desk this or next year. I’ve been skeptical up until now, but Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington’s Local Community Radio Act S 592 is scheduled for markup and committee vote on Thursday at the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation. And a similar bill has gotten out of Committee in the House. So we’re seeing some serious movement on this front.

How nice it would be if this actually got passed, so at least some medium sized (if not big) cities could get some new community radio stations. The gist of these laws is that current interference restrictions would be relaxed, making it easier for community groups to get licenses.

Here’s the text of Cantwell’s bill and a press release from the Prometheus project: (more…)

Today the House Commerce Committee unanimously passed the Local Radio Act by voice vote, opening up the gates to send the bill for a vote by the full House. This bipartisan action is the best hope the restoration of low-power FM has seen since its wings were clipped back in 2000.

When the FCC created LPFM it intended that these stations could be spaced one notch closer on the dial to a full-power station than another full-power station could be place. That is, if there were a full-power station at 101.1 FM, another full-power station may be no closer than 101.9 FM. But under the FCC’s original rules an LPFM could be at 101.7 FM, known as the third adjacent. Each adjacent is .2 MHz, so the first adjacent to 101.1 FM is 101.3 FM and the second is 101.5 FM.

Under heavy pressure from the National Association of Broadcasters Congress and President Clinton horse-traded away this closer spacing in a rider to an omnibus spending bill passed at the end of 2000. This move achieved the NAB’s true goal of limiting the number of new non-commercial stations by making 10 and 100 watt stations absurdly obey the spacing limits for 10,000 watt stations, even though the NAB’s own members operate close-spaced low-power repeater stations called translators. With a flick of Clinton’s pen some hundreds of communities–especially in large metroplexes–were instantaneously deprived of the opportunity to have a new low-power non-commercial community radio station.

LPFM advocates like the Prometheus Radio Project generally claim that passage of the Local Radio Act will enable hundreds of new stations to go on the air. But I do actually wonder if those hundreds are still possible.
(more…)

Congressmembers Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Lee Terry (R-NE) are happy guys today because the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet has approved their Local Community Radio Act (H.R. 1147). The bill would make it much easier to set up Low Power FM radio stations in the United States.

Doyle and Terry’s proposed law repeals requirements that LPFMs in a given market stay four channels away from full power stations. That provision, forced on the Federal Communications Commission by a National Association of Broadcasters backed bill in 2000, dramatically reduced the number of LPFMs that the FCC could license, especially in urban areas.

This legislation still has a long way go, including passage by the full House and the enactment of an identical bill in the Senate backed by Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John McCain (R-AZ). But: “I am optimistic that by the end of the year the Local Community Radio Act will be signed into law,” Doyle declared in a press release his staff sent us. “Until then, I will continue to work towards that goal. There are no good reasons for keeping so many community groups off the public airwaves.”

It’s sort of amazing that Doyle and Terry are together on this. They’re pretty far afield on most everything else. Here’s Terry on Fox TV talking about how much he dislikes Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, and, of course, the Obama administration’s health care plan. Anyway, at least he likes Low Power FM.

Congressmember Mike Doyle (D-PA) came to today’s House Commerce subcommittee hearing on the Federal Communications Commission with a question posed to all the new Commissioners. “Do you recommend that Congress lift the restrictions on LPFM stations—the so-called ‘third adjacent protections’?”

“Based on what I know, yes,” new Chair Julius Genachowski quickly replied. “Yes,” responded new Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Yes,” somewhat faintly declared her new Republican colleague Meredith Attwell Baker.

“Ok! It’s unanimous, Mr. Chairman,” Doyle happily announced. “Thank you very much. It is my hope that our esteemed Chairman will allow us to do a markup and pass this legislation soon.” That would be Commerce Committee Chair Rick Boucher (D-VA).

The legislation in question is H.R.1147 – Local Community Radio Act of 2009, which would eliminate the tough restrictions on setting up Low Power FM stations that Congress slapped on the service in 2000. There’s a parallel bill in the Senate sponsored by Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and co-sponsored by John McCain (R-AZ).

“We are very pleased that the Commission has again voiced their support for this important bill, which would allow community radio to expand into thousands of towns, cities and neighborhoods throughout the US,” declared Cory Fischer-Hoffman, Campaign Director at the Prometheus Radio Project in a statement sent to us.

The problem is that this is the third time that the FCC’s Commissioners have unanimously pledged allegiance to this worthy cause. A 2003 study showed that LPFMs don’t interfere with full power stations at the third adjacent channel. Yet no bill ever gets to the Presidents’ desk.

It is unclear to us who has to get a head noogie for this law to go forward, but here at Radio Survivor we’ve got at least thirty knuckles ready for the task.

A look at radio licensing trends in the United States over the last five years shows an interesting pattern. While the number of commercial AM and FM full power licenses has declined or remained flat, there’s been a big expansion in educational FM stations. Lets’ review the stats in QA form.

Q. How many Federal Communications Commission licensed full power radio stations are there United States?

A. As of December 31, 2008 the FCC counted 14,253. These break down to 4786 AM stations and 9467 FM stations.

Q. How many of those FM stations were commercial versus educational?

A. 6427 were commercial. 3040 were educational (“educational,” of course, includes public radio stations).

Q. How many FM translators and boosters are there?

A. 6120.

Q. How many Low Power FM stations are there?

A. 859. There could be a lot more if the FCC made it easier to get licenses.

Q. Are these license numbers growing?

A. Yes, and no. There were 13,383 full power radio stations at the end of March 2003, so the aggregate is going up. But the number of AM stations has declined by 18 and the number of FM commercial stations has remained nearly the same (up 248 from 2003—a 4 percent increase). Meanwhile the number of FM educational stations has grown by 640—a 25 percent boost in that sector’s growth. So basically educational FM is pulling most of the weight when it comes to conventional radio license expansion. Were it not for that sectors’ strength, the total number of licenses would have increased by 230, a 1.5 increase in growth.

Sources:
BROADCAST STATION TOTALS AS OF DECEMBER 31, 2008, FCC, February 27, 2009.
BROADCAST STATION TOTALS AS OF March 31, 2003, FCC, May 5, 2003