At the Commission’s March meeting the FCC approved changes to the rules governing priority for new tribe-owned stations intended to serve Native American populations. Previously, priority for licenses was granted to federally-recognized Tribes seeking licenses to serve Tribal-owned lands, such as reservations. The March 3 report and order (PDF) now gives Tribes the opportunity to seek waivers that would give them priority in obtaining licenses to serve regions with a population of Tribe members, but that does not contain any Tribal lands. The order was adopted in part due to recognition that there are some Tribes that do not own Tribal lands and approximately two-thirds of Tribal members do not live on Tribal lands. In the US there are 563 recognized tribes, but only 312 reservations.

Tribes may justify their waiver request by “detail[ing] how a proposed service to the area would aid the Tribe in serving the needs and interests of its citizens in that community, and thus further the goals of the Tribal Priority.” A Tribe may also demonstrate that it has a seat of government or office within the station’s proposed service area, or that more than fifty percent of its membership lives in that area.

Native Public Media and the National Congress of American Indians issued a statement hailing the order, calling it a

groundbreaking important step in the right direction to solve the pervasive problems of the lack of myriad communications services in Tribal communities. In addition to some of the lowest levels of telephony and broadband internet services in the nation, American Indians and Alaska Natives have been largely invisible in the broadcasting industry on all levels ranging from media access, to control and ownership of broadcast facilities.

Conservatives crying “Defund NPR” at the top of their lungs might have gotten the most attention in 2010, but look beyond the headlines and it gets worse.

Nonprofit groups all over the country who hold FCC construction permits for new community stations are struggling to come up with the bucks to build.

The massive new contract for Ryan Seacrest is part of a dangerous trend perpetuated by Clear Channel that can only mean fewer net jobs in the industry. (Remember when Rush Limbaugh was given a $400M raise and Clear Channel chopped $400M from the rest of its payroll?)

Major cuts are coming to the BBC, following a frustrating few months highlighted by journalists going on strike. President Obama’s depressing “deficit commission“ has recommended the US stop funding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Public Telecommunications Facilities Program entirely by 2015.

The Pacifica Network is apparently on the brink of bankruptcy after six decades and the KPFA fight has turned allies into foes. Free Speech Radio News is threatening to shut down its daily operations despite endorsements from journalism advocates like author Bob McChesney.

Look to the fighting spirit of the Save KTRU movement if you like, but the ugly takeover story in Houston is a reminder of the grave situation student radio stations are struggling against nationwide, as cash-strapped university administrators see FM licenses as dollar signs.

At least college students have stations on the air to fight for. The dedicated volunteers in Salem, OR who want to launch KMUZ have found today’s economy much more difficult than expected.

The Radio For People Coalition knows of around 100 groups who applied along with KMUZ in 2007 and were granted permits, but are now facing mandatory FCC construction deadlines. Economic hardship is the key factor in almost every case. Sadly, the inspiring WGXC barnraising in Hudson, NY was a rare exception.

Including me, there are basically only four people in the country whose job descriptions include capacity-building support for new stations. Prometheus Radio Project, Common Frequency, Latino Public Radio Consortium and Native Public Media can’t do it all.

But radio is still the best communications technology for reaching the American people. It is free to listen, of course, and community radio provides citizens with access to the public airwaves, and opportunities to amplify voices underserved by NPR and Clear Channel.

According to Camille Lacapa at Native Public Media, only about a quarter of First Nations radio projects with construction permits are in “good” financial shape yet 16 are required to be on the air sometime in 2011. Reports vary about the exact numbers but it seems clear that with 500 recognized nations spread out across the land, every frequency counts.

Wannabe public service operations are facing the worst economy since the Great Depression.

Think about progressive folks trying to change the landscape in Red State America. Let’s take Boise, Idaho and Spokane, WA as examples. In a piece titled “Never a Better Time to Fund Noncommercial Radio,” my friends Jeff Abrams and Lupito Flores point out:

Boise and Spokane represent the Northwest’s third and fourth largest population bases.  New licensees in these two cities are now planning the largest combined expansion of noncommercial radio service in the entire country.  Boise Community Radio (KRBX) and Thin Air Radio (KYRS) will be serving populations of 469,000 and 249,000, respectively.

Both groups have received $415,000 in Commerce funding and are now seeking matching funds totaling $152,000 to help build strong, listener-supported community radio stations that empower people – especially ethnic minorities, low-income, and other marginalized groups striving for a more just and sustainable world.

Combined, their programs will help make a stronger and more effective regional social change movement by promoting and facilitating communication and collaboration among nonprofit organizations, and by encouraging and enabling increased participation from community members.

However, these new licenses expire in 2011.

What makes no sense to me is why the social justice community, from MoveOn.org to the NAACP, doesn’t get behind the build-out of community radio right now. Instead of repeatedly handing over millions of dollars to corporate broadcasters for fleeting ad messages, MoveOn.org could help communities build and sustain new infrastructure for communications using affordable radio equipment.

The passage of the Local Community Radio Act in the US Senate, finally, means the FCC will offer up hundreds of new 100-watt licenses for community radio stations. Great! But first… how about supporting these one hundred secular, alternative, independent community stations right now? With unemployment rising, idiotic Bush/Obama economic policy, and dried up foundation funds, many nonprofits who have done everything else right may never launch their FM stations without financial support from the activist community. The clock is ticking.

More funding stories you might have missed, in brief:

• KPFK’s new solar energy project overshadowed by Pacifica’s battles
• The nation’s 3rd largest radio conglomerate, Citadel, rejects two takeover offers from Cumulus, the 2nd largest
• See Howard Stern’s expensive contract in context
• Community group promises “added local emphasis” in acquisition of Long Island public station
• Beloved outlet Democracy Now! offers donors the most expensive coffee ever
• Incoming House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet Chairman Greg Walden is a former radio station owner
• New Jersey public broadcaster lays off 130
• Hard Knock Radio veteran explains why he left KPFA
• Peek inside KUT’s controversial staff salaries
• Veteran jock Danny Holiday threatens 3 hours of Manilow if nobody pledges
• and Alec Baldwin delivers some mildly funny pitches for WAMU.

Federally recognized Native American Tribes and Alaska Native Villages who apply for AM or FM radio stations will get “Tribal Priority” status, thanks to an FCC decision released today. Tribal Priority will give precedence to their applications or to companies controlled by tribes that want to set up stations intended to serve tribal land areas.

“More tribally-owned stations will mean new opportunities for these rural communities,” predicted FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who supported the Order, “economic advancement from construction activity to erect broadcast facilities; advertisements for goods and services geared especially to tribal audiences and markets; career and employment opportunities in media-related fields; outlets for the distribution of diverse cultural programming and viewpoints, as well as public safety information for tribal lands. This initiative goes to the heart of localism.”

There are about 14,000 radio stations in the  United States, and 41 are licensed to federal recognized tribes. That’s less than a third of one percent of the total. To get technical, the FCC is giving Native Americans “Section 307(b) priority,” that being the language in the Communications Act that requires the Commission to “make such distribution of licenses, frequencies, hours of operation, and of power among the several States and communities as to provide a fair, efficient, and equitable distribution of radio service to each of the same.”

The FCC is adding some caveats to this windfall. Station owners who get Section 307(b) priority status won’t be able to downgrade their service level. But the agency is also looking into giving Native  American applicants extra bidding credits when they apply for stations.

The discussion leading up to this decision was somewhat contentious, with various groups, including the Catholic Radio Association, charging that Tribal Priority would represent an unfair or even race/identity based form of preference. But Native Public Media, which advocates for Native Americans, noted that the policy would not run afoul of various affirmative action standards, because Native Americans are classified “not as a discrete racial group, but, rather, as members of quasi-sovereign tribal entities whose lives and activities are governed by the [Bureau of Indian Affairs] in a unique fashion.”

Looks like that logic won the FCC over. “Tribes are uniquely situated to provide programming meeting their members’ needs,” the Order notes.  “The existence of a non-tribal commercial station or stations at a community located on tribal lands should not, in our view, preclude the establishment of a first local transmission service owned by a Tribe or Tribes.”