Power House:
The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (HR 1147), a bill which could light up hundreds and even as many as 3,000 new 100-watt FM stations, was cleared by the House of Representatives yesterday. A Senate committee version has already been approved, all five FCC commissioners are behind it, and assuming NAB-requested revisions are included, the bi-partisan legislation seems headed for passage by the full Senate. Reflecting several years of engineering study, the bill would end the third-adjacency channel protection provided to full-power FM stations, FM translator stations and FM booster stations. LPFM stations are intended to broadcast a maximum of a few miles, serving local governments, local churches, school districts, minority communities and other area groups.
This one's from Tom Taylor:
Passage of a new Low Power FM bill is inevitable, and the NAB tries to make it palatable.
The Local Community Radio Act passed the House Wednesday night with solid bipartisan support, and it’s already been voted out of committee in the Senate. Now the NAB is pushing for “tweaks” like the already-agreed-to compromise that would make LPFMs fix interference problems to a full-power station on its third-adjacent channel. National Public Radio has been lobbying along with the NAB on this one, and its opposition to an expanded LPFM service surprised some folks at the FCC. It shouldn’t have, since public radio stations are just as concerned about losing their guaranteed coverage as other full-power broadcasters. All that’s left now is to get the Senate version of the act passed by the full Senate, and then possibly some reconciliation if the bills are different. HR 1147 would allow the FCC to license new 100-watt-type stations even in some of the largest markets. (Hope the FCC’s braced for the avalanche.) All five members of the current FCC have told Congress they support opening up the Low Power FM service.
Understand that dropping the third-channel adjacency provision will make it possible to squeeze in more and more of these peanut-whistles, and to add more and more interference to the established commercial operators.
Discuss on the STL Media Message Board. (Registration required)
