Copyright 2000 Times Mirror Company
Los Angeles
Times
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January 21, 2000, Friday, Home Edition
SECTION: Metro; Part B; Page 6; Editorial Writers
Desk
LENGTH: 294 words
HEADLINE: A STEP FOR DIVERSITY IN RADIO
BODY:
One reason for all the sound-alike Lite FMs
and Power Whatevers on the radio is that in 1996 Congress passed a law allowing
a single radio chain to own many stations in the same city.
Broadcasters
somehow sold the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a way of promoting diversity
on the airwaves, but the law has done the opposite, letting a handful of chains
snatch up most of the nation's former single-owner commercial radio stations.
On Thursday the Federal Communications Commission took a small but
significant step to counter the trend toward consolidation, approving new
licensing rules that will allow churches, schools and other grass-roots
community groups to start and run hundreds of nonprofit low-power
FM radio stations by as early as this summer. The tiny noncommercial
stations could air anything: Korean talk radio, zydeco music, open-mike sessions
for singer-songwriters or comedians.
The new plan prevents broadcast
networks from grabbing up the new stations by limiting the number of licenses a
single entity can own and requiring that license holders have a genuine base in
the community.
Broadcast industry officials vow to "aggressively" oppose
the plan, contending it will interfere with existing broadcast signals. But the
FCC's final, scaled-back plan allows only for stations with power 100 times less
than that of big commercial stations, with ample separation on the dial. Only
the tiniest stations--with 10-watt transmitters and a range of a mile or so--are
likely to be allowed on crowded airwaves like Los Angeles'.
The FCC's
plan will hardly transform radio, as its more breathless proponents claim. But
it could at least offer something beyond the handful of strict formats that
dominates commercial radio now.
LOAD-DATE: January 21,
2000 
