On Tuesday, January 04, 2011, the President signed into law: H.R. 6533, the Local Community Radio Act of 2010, which modifies current restrictions on low-power FM radio stations. This will make room on the radio spectrum for thousands of smaller, community-based radio stations.
The provisions were in place to prevent interference, and largely isolated low-power FM stations to rural areas where airwaves were less congested Prior to this act, low-power radio stations were only allowed to occupy frequencies within four dial positions of a full power radio station, officially called fourth-adjacent frequencies. Community radio advocates such as the Prometheus Radio Project said that placed too much of a restriction on the spectrum, and that more frequencies could be opened without interference issues.
The new act allows low-power stations on third-adjacent frequencies, or within three frequencies of a full power station. The two sides reached a compromise over language, and on Dec. 17, the NAB sent a letter of support to members of the House Energy and Commerce committee.
The NAB also
issued a statement in support of the measure Dec. 17 after the House passed its version of the act.
Director of strategic planning at Prometheus Radio,Danielle Chynoweth, said that she anticipates that the act will allow low-power FM stations to open in urban areas such as Washington, D.C., where the spectrum had been deemed too crowded under the old rules.
Next the FCC will need to open a rule making proceeding which would take aproximatly 60 days after which time a filing window would be announced! After more than ten years waiting many new LPFM radio stations across the country will now have an opportunity to file this year! Now is the time to act if you wish to apply for an LPFM station for your community in the upcoming window.
Today is just the start of the process to bring more community radio stations to the air. There is a lot of work yet to be done, not the least of which is on the part of the FCC, which will now determine the rules of the next application window. The Commission must resolve pending translator applications which could use up a lot of frequencies that otherwise are appropriate for LPFM stations under the provisions of this new law. Speculation is that the translator processing will be put on hold until after an LPFM window can be processed.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski calls it "a big win for radio listeners." Both the current FCC and the Bush-era Commission supported the Local Community Radio Act, which finally passed in late 2010. Genachowski says "Low Power FM stations are small, but they make a giant contribution to local community programming." The bill strips away the third-adjacent channel protection for full-power stations but offers remedies for second-channel interference. Genachowski says "this important law eliminates the unnecessary restrictions that kept these local stations off the air in cities and towns across the country." LPFM activists estimate that at least a thousand new 100-watt stations can now be authorized, though the FCC will need to implement rules and open a window for applications. Genachowski promises "swift action to open the dial." The bill signed by President Obama also gives the LPFM service equal status with FM translators.
“I have been waiting for this day for a long, long time.”
So says FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, reacting to the signing of the Local Community Radio Act, which will allow more low-power FM stations onto the dial. “Enactment of the Local Community Radio Act gives local radio stations, grassroots media and consumers nationwide genuine cause to celebrate,” he wrote, after President Obama signed the bill.
“In this day of way-too-much media consolidation, stifling program homogenization and the decimation of local news, new voices are critically important to sustaining America’s civic dialogue and citizen engagement.”
Both saluted lawmakers who helped pass the bill, particularly Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)
This victory ends a ten-year struggle for communities looking to grab a slice of the local airwaves. In the eleventh hour of the 111th Congress, the Local Community Radio Act sailed through the House and the Senate and made its way to the president’s desk yesterday. The new law will open up hundreds of new potential frequencies for licensing low-power FM radio (LPFM) stations - noncommercial, stations that are run by non-profits.
What the bill does is very simple: It removes previous restrictions on the licensing of tiny, local radio stations, called LPFMs. But by getting this one small change on the books, the effects will be massive. Hundreds, potentially thousands, of new stations can take to the airwaves.
The FCC will now be working on applications to push forward licenses for LPFM radio stations. Look for these stations to be built everywhere, reaching from city neighborhoods to outlying rural areas. These new channels of communication will empower struggling music communities, grassroots organizations, and cultural hubs across the country, profoundly impacting the way local communities sustain and utilize local resources.
Local Community Radio Act
Sweeps House Subcommittee in 15 to 1 vote
This morning, the House
Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and
the Internet passed the Local Community Radio
Act (H.R. 1147) in a near unanimous 15 to 1
vote.
The Local Community Radio Act was
passed out of the House Subcommittee on
Communications, Technology and the Internet this
morning in a sweeping 15 to 1 vote. The Act
would allow for the creation of hundreds of new,
low power FM (LPFM) radio stations that would
broadcast community news and local perspectives
to neighborhoods across the country.
“All I can say is, it's about
time,” said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), a co-sponsor
of the bill. “It was absurd and ridiculous that
broadcasters went to such great lengths to block
the public from having some small measure of
access to the airwaves, and disgraceful that we
had to spend more two million dollars to prove
what the FCC already had shown—that LPFM would
not interfere with full power stations.”
Big broadcasters have
historically opposed the Local Community Radio
Act, claiming that LPFM could cause interference
to full power stations, a concern later
disproven by a Congressionally mandated study.
But with unanimous FCC support, strong
bipartisan co-sponsorship, and grassroots
momentum, even industry news is now predicting a
win. “We do not expect that there is any
stopping it at this point,” the Radio Business
Report commented this morning.
“The bill still has a long way to
go in the legislative process, but I am
optimistic that by the end of the year the Local
Community Radio Act will be signed into law,”
said Congressman Doyle (D-PA), lead co-sponsor
of the bill with Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE).
The bill gained the
support of former doubters of
LPFM, including Rep. Cliff
Stearns (R-FL), a former lead
co-sponsor of anti-LPFM
legislation and ranking
Republican on the subcommittee,
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), the
only former broadcaster in
Congress, and Rep. John Dingell
(D-MI), who called for the study
of LPFM interference in 2000.
“Today’s vote signals a
policy shift towards more local
and diverse media,” said Cory
Fischer-Hoffman, Campaign
Director for the Prometheus
Radio Project. “We need to use
this momentum to push for full
passage of the Local Community
Radio Act so groups working
tirelessly to have a voice in
their communities can start
building stations.”
Hundreds of
groups—including schools,
churches, and emergency
responders—were denied licenses
in 2000 after Congress blocked
the FCC from handing them out in
crowded media markets.
Advocates point to the
successes of existing low power
FM stations to prove their value
to communities. “When Hurricane
Katrina hit the Gulf, low power
radio was the only source of
emergency information in a
number of counties. Residents in
East Texas tuned their
battery-operated radios to KZQX-LP
while they waited a week for
power to be restored,” said
Andalusia Knoll, Community
Station Director at the
Prometheus Radio Project. “In
Louisiana, KOCZ-LP has proven
essential to the cultural
survival of Zydeco music, which
is rarely heard on the airwaves.
And low power station WRYR hosts
public debate about the
environmental impacts of
development on the Chesapeake
Bay.”
“Congress should act
swiftly to pass LPFM and support
the families, workers, and
places of worship that serve as
the anchors in our communities,”
said Joel Kelsey, Policy Analyst
at Consumers Union.
Nancy Zirkin of the
Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights added, “In an era of mass
media consolidation, we in the
civil rights community believe
that it is critical to promote
diverse ownership and diverse
viewpoints over the public
airwaves, and we look forward to
the passage of this bill into
law.”
The Local
Community Radio
Act is now
poised to move
to the full
Energy and
Commerce
Committee,
chaired by
longtime LPFM
supporter Rep.
Henry Waxman
(D-CA).
Glenn Beck Attacks
Localism, Diversity, and Mark Lloyd
Monday, 21 September 2009
Conservative
wingnuts
prompt
increased
engagement
with
obscure
regulatory
agency
By Amber Sands
For
once, media activists are not the only ones
paying attention to the FCC! Led by conservative
talk show host Glenn Beck, rightwing media
personalities have been drumming up controversy
about new FCC Chief Diversity Officer Mark
Lloyd. Their fabricated
claims
about Lloyd’s policy positions—spurred by a
genuine fear that a diverse and locally
accountable media system would cut into their
profits—demonstrate why media reform is such a
critical fight.
In the wake of their success in ousting Van
Jones
from his position as green jobs advisor, Beck
and his minions have targeted Mark Lloyd as the
next progressive black leader to take down,
falsely calling him a diversity “czar” and
making outrageous
accusations
about his policies. Although we at the
Prometheus Radio Project are always happy to see
more public engagement with the agency that
regulates our media, we’ve been disappointed in
the quality of the debate on Mark Lloyd. Debate,
in fact, is overstating it.
Rightwing radio hosts Michael Savage and Glenn
Beck have sunk to McCarthyism, calling Lloyd a
communist, a Marxist, and “the new KGB.” Savage
goes beyond this when he calls Lloyd a
“neo-Nazi,” and dehumanizes him as “vermin” and
“a piece of garbage.” Hate speech on Glenn Beck
and other
conservative talk shows
is nothing new, but these attacks aren’t simply
racist. (Although that’s part of the
story.)
The attacks are a coordinated assault on the
principles of localism and diversity, organized
by the rightwing Media Research Center’s
Orwellian “Free Speech Alliance.” Members
include media giants like Clear Channel and the
National Religious Broadcasters along with a
slew of anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-choice,
and anti-Muslim groups. Their “save talk
radio” campaign
mobilizes “social conservative” grassroots to
fight for the economic interests of the
country’s largest broadcasters.
To
rally the radical rightwingers, Beck, Limbaugh,
and Savage are propagating a ludicrous Media
Research Center claim that Lloyd supports a $250
million fine on commercial broadcasters, equal
to 100% of their operating budgets, that would
go to fund NPR.
The claim is
a distorted reference to a 2007 report that
Lloyd co-authored,
"The
Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio."
Published by Free Press and the Center for
American Progress, the report recommends that
commercial broadcasters who do not meet their
public interest obligations (suggested
obligations include local public affairs
broadcasting and more public oversight of
license renewals) pay a fine—not 100%, but 1%
(in medium markets) or 5% (in large markets) of
their budget. The fine would be earmarked for
local public affairs programming on public
broadcasting. In other words, if you don’t want
to cover locally relevant issues and or be
accountable to community feedback on your own
airtime, you can pay someone else to do it for
you. The $250 million figure that Beck cites is
the total sum that this fee could net
nationwide, not the fee itself.
Mark Lloyd’s position at the FCC will not relate
to media ownership anyway, and the diversity and
localism under attack aren’t Obama-era
inventions; they have been part of the FCC’s
mandate since its inception in 1934. And while
he’s no czar, Mark Lloyd brings an impressive
background
in telecom policy to the job, including
positions at the Leadership Conference on Civil
Rights, Georgetown, MIT, and the Benton
Foundation, and a career as an Emmy
award-winning journalist. More than 50 civil
rights and public interest organizations
have expressed their support for Mark Lloyd and
his work.
Unfortunately, it’s not just Minutemen and media
moguls who are joining the witch hunt. Rep. Greg
Walden (R-OR) used a September 18 Congressional
oversight hearing to go after Lloyd by
questioning his bosses at the FCC. Although
Chairman Genokowski and Commissioner Copps
defended
Lloyd’s character and qualifications,
Commissioner McDowell said he shared concerns
about Lloyd’s writings and promised to be “very
vigilant” against the supposed threat he
represents.
A diverse and locally accountable media isn’t a
threat to free speech. But it would threaten the
profit margins of the small group of
broadcasters who have our public airwaves on
lockdown. And that’s what makes
Beck and Limbaugh so afraid.
For those who value free speech, not just for
Rush but for the rest of us (including those who
have historically
been shut out of the media),
localism and diversity are values worth
defending.
Help expand low
power community radio!
It's been eight years since community groups
have had a chance to find a place on the air
through low power FM, and that's eight years too
long. There's legislation to solve this, and
give more places on the air for these stations.
But time is running out, and we need your help!
The bill is the Local
Community Radio Act (HR 2802), and the text of
it can be found
here. Congress is in
recess in August, so see if you can get in touch
with your representative to get them on board
the bill. Don't know if they're already on it?
The list of co-sponsors is
here.
Don't know who represents you in Congress? You
can find that on the House website by clicking
here.
Sometimes, they ask for the +4 on your zip code.
That can be found
here.
So now you know your
congressperson! What's next? Call their office
and tell them you want them to support HR 2802,
the Local Community Radio Act. Tell them why
community radio is vital to our communities! Or
ask who their telecom staffer is, and email them
directly. Their emails are usually just their
first and last name - as in jane/john.doe_at_mail.house.gov.
Better yet, set up a meeting with them in August
in your nearest district office. More info on
those can be found on their website, or
here.
So join the fight! The time is now to win the
battle for community radio! Below are the tools
you'll need to get the right information. Put
your hands on the radio, people!
Our Hope
for Change
comes with
plans for
Action and
we are
working hard
to let
Congress
know that
NOW is the
time to
expand LPFM!
Please join
us in our
postcard
campaign and
let your
Representative
and Senators
know that we
demand More
Community
Radio! If
you would
like a stack
of
postcards,
please send
an email to:
expandlpfm
{at} Urbanmediaone@Yahoo.com(or
download the pdf here!)
Low Power FM Briefing Set for
April 23 on Capitol Hill
Community radio advocates
will gather in the nation's capital on Thursday, April 23 to
support the expansion of Low Power FM. A policy briefing will
feature opening remarks from Rep. Michael Doyle and Lee Terry
co-sponsors of The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H.R.
1147), introduced in February, 2009.
Immediately following the briefing will be a panel
discussion, moderated by Media Access Project VP Parul P. Desai,
along with LPFM producers and policy advocates who will explore
the legislation's potential impact on emergency preparedness,
media ownership and arts and cultural broadcasting.
The briefing coincides with visits to Congressional
offices and the FCC by community radio supporters from across
the country, also on April 23.
Low Power FM stations are community-based, non-commercial
radio broadcasters that operate at 100 watts or less and reach a
radius of 3 to 7 miles.
The Local Community Radio Act of
2009 has been introduced
Mike
Doyle (D-PA) and Lee Terry (R-NE)
The Local Community Radio Act of
2009 has been introduced by a bipartisan
group of legislators in the House, a
bill which would have the potential to
create 3K low power FMs throughout the
US. The Senate is expected to follow
suit, and a former co-sponsor now works
in the Oval Office.
Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Lee Terry (R-NE)
have put the bill back in play, and are
supported in the House by Jay Inslee
(D-WA), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA),
Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Ron Paul (R-TX), and
Henry Waxman (D-CA). The bill had almost
100 co-sponsors last time around. Past
supporters in the Senate have included
John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama
(D-IL).
"Diverse, informative,
thought-provoking, locally oriented
programming has been dramatically
restricted across the country by the
current federal laws governing the
separation between broadcast
frequencies," said Doyle. "Enactment of
this legislation would improve the
quality of life in communities across
the country by providing new and
different programming -- especially
programming addressing local interests
and events -- to these communities."
Prometheus Radio Project and the Future
of Music Coalition are among the
watchdogs pushing for the measure, and a
third, Free Press, has organized a
click-and-send letter campaign to put
pressure on legislators to support the
measure.
RBR/TVBR observation: The key to
shoe-horning in all of these new low
power FMs is eliminating 3rd adjacency
protection for incumbent FM stations,
based on a Mitre report that the NAB has
claimed is fatally flawed. But with
Republicans as well as Democrats
supporting the measure and a former
co-sponsor in the White House, it’s
probably only a matter of time before we
find out the hard way who is right about
interference.
The Senate Commerce Committee
voted on June 28
The Senate Commerce Committee voted on
June 28, 2006 to expand low power FM radio, as an amendment onto
a large telecommunications bill that covers everything from your
access to the internet to your public access TV stations. Read
our mission statement to learn more about this important step
towards our uses of this Community Based Low power FM radio
service to serve the inner city. The fight isn't over yet-low
power FM activists will be watching to make sure that the Senate
doesn't trade radio for locally controlled, fair
telecommunications access on lots of fronts! Visit
http://www.saveaccess.org to act now!
109th U.S. Congress (2005-2006)
H.R. 3731: Enhance and Protect Local Community Radio Act of 2005
Introduced: Sep 13, 2005
Sponsor: Rep. Louise Slaughter [D-NY]
Status: Introduced (By Rep. Louise Slaughter [D-NY])
For
once, media activists are not the only ones
paying attention to the FCC! Led by conservative
talk show host Glenn Beck, rightwing media
personalities have been drumming up controversy
about new FCC Chief Diversity Officer Mark
Lloyd. Their
To
rally the radical rightwingers, Beck, Limbaugh,
and Savage are propagating a ludicrous Media
Research Center claim that Lloyd supports a $250
million fine on commercial broadcasters, equal
to 100% of their operating budgets, that would
go to fund NPR.
