THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
NANCY IVES (202)224-7130

McCain Blames Special Interests for Restricting Low-Power FM Services

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator John McCain today expressed disappointment and regret that legislation restricting low-power FM services has been added behind closed doors to the District of Columbia, Commerce-State-Justice appropriations conference report and delivered the following statement on the Senate floor:

"Mr. President, the addition of this rider illustrates, once again, how the special interests of a few are allowed to dominate the voices of the many in the back-door dealings of the appropriations process.

"Low-power FM radio service provides community-based organizations, churches and other non-profit groups with a new, affordable opportunity to reach out to the public, helping to promote a greater awareness within our communities, about our communities. As such, low-power FM is supported by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, Consumers' Union and many religious organizations, including but not limited to, the U.S. Catholic Conference and the United Church of Christ. These institutions support low-power FM because they see what low-power FM's opponents also know to be true -- that these stations will make more programming available to the public, and provide outlets for news and perspectives not currently featured on local radio stations.

"But, the special interest forces opposed to low-power FM -- most notably the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio have mounted a vigorous behind-the-scenes campaign against this service. Their stated objection to this service is potential interference, of course, not potential competition. Simply put, they claim that a 10 or 100 watt low power station that can only broadcast a few miles will "bleed into" and overpower the signal of nearby 100,000 watt full-power radio stations that broadcast about 70 miles. Interestingly, the FCC, the expert government agency that evaluates such radio interference claims, does not share this claimed concern. To the contrary, after developing an extensive record and evaluating these alleged technical concerns, the FCC proceeded with licensing and established procedures to address any interference issues that actually arise.

"Moreover, competitors' speculations about potential interference from low-power stations were given a fair hearing not only in the FCC, but also in this Congress. Earlier this year, Senator Kerry and I introduced the Low Power FM Radio Act of 2000, which would have struck a fair balance between allowing low-power radio stations to go forward while at the same time protecting existing full-power stations from actual interference. Under our bill, low-power stations causing interference would be required to stop causing interference -- or be shut down -- but non-interfering low power FM stations would be allowed to operate without further delay. The opponents of low-power FM did not support this bill because they want low-power FM to be dead rather than functional.

"Mr. President, Congress should not permit the appropriations process to circumvent the normal legislative process. Every time we do this, we cause the American people to loose more faith in us. And in this context, they will become even more cynical when they learn that special interests like the NAB were able to use the appropriations process to highjack and overturn the sound technical decisions by the government radio experts that would have authorized new outlets for religious and political speech -- and new outlets for their local churches and community groups.

"Mr. President, low-power FM is an opportunity for minorities, churches and others to have a new voice in radio broadcasting. In the Commerce Committee, we constantly lament the fact that minorities, community-based organizations, and religious organizations do not have adequate opportunities to communicate their views. Moreover, over the years, I have often heard many members of both the Committee and this Senate lament the enormous consolidation that has occurred in the telecommunications sector as a whole and the radio industry specifically. Here, we had a chance to simply get out of the way, and allow non-interfering low-power radio stations to go forward to help combat these concerns. Instead, we allowed special interests to hide their competitive fears behind the smokescreen of hypothetical interference to severely wound -- if not kill -- this service in the dead of night.

"Mr. President, we are the party of Lincoln. We constantly endorse the importance of religious speech to American culture. How can we possibly stifle an opportunity for minority and religious organizations to communicate more effectively with their local communities? By permitting special interests to stifle these voices we are truly compromising the most fundamental principles of our party and our nation."


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