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January 10, 2000, Monday ALL EDITIONS
SECTION: PART II; Page B21
LENGTH: 663 words
HEADLINE:
RADIO WAVES / A HIGH-POWERED FRAY OVER LOW-WATT RADIO
BYLINE: Peter Goodman. Peter Goodman's email address is
peter.goodman@newsday.com
BODY:
THE
COLLEGE Media Journal gets reports from nearly 600 stations to put tog ether its
charts for the CMJ New Music Report. But if the Federal Communications
Commission goes ahead with plans to create new low-power FM
stations, the Great Neck-based publisher expects to hear from hundreds more.
"The mission of our entire company is the discovery and promotion of new
artists ," said chief operating officer Alex Ellerson. "Because of the
consolidation in commercial radio, formats are tighter and it's harder for new
artists to get pla yed . . . This has got to be good for new and emerging acts."
Voices like Ellerson's, as well as church and ethnic groups, independent
broadca sters and even municipal transportation departments have been pushing
the FCC to approve "low-power FM," with signal strengths from
10 to 1,000 watts. Ever sinc e the agency issued its proposal last winter,
there's been a fierce struggle bet ween them and established broadcasters in an
unlikely alliance between the Natio nal Association of Broadcasters and National
Public Radio. Both sides have been pressuring Congress - Rep. Michael Oxley
(R-Ohio) introduced a bill to block low -power, while Rep. David Bonior
(D-Mich.) has circulated a letter in favor.
The FCC is expected to vote
on the matter Jan. 20. FCC spokesmen refused to comm ent, but an agency official
confirmed that a draft proposal was given to the fiv e commissioners, and that
chairman Bill Kennard plans to bring it up.
On a small scale, the
conflict is similar to the issues that underlie protests a gainst the World
Trade Organization in Seattle, with champions of "the voiceless " against the
forces of large, if not global, corporations. There has long been low-key
agitation for small broadcasters, but the argument gained weight after t he
Telecommunications Act of 1996 gave rise to a few companies that own the lion s'
share of radio.
"It's an undisputed fact. Listeners can hear it every
day," said Cheryl Leanza, deputy director of the Media Access Project, a
non-profit public interest law fi rm in Washington, D.C. "When two stations are
owned by one company, you'd better believe that those stations won't compete.
They won't be sources of new ideas."
Nonsense, retorts the NAB. "We
believe there has never been more diversity in ra dio than in today's market,"
said Dennis Wharton, senior vice president. " There are more than 500 Spanish
stations on the air today. In Washington, D.C., there are all-religious,
African-American, all-news, all-talk, Korean, business, rock, country - if the
claim is that there is no diversity in radio, my response is t hat people are
not listening to what is being played in their market."
Technically, the
conflict is over whether new stations would interfere with old ones. The
original proposal called for signals between 10 and 1,000 watts, thoug h it has
been scaled down to 100 watts or lower. "In our view, interference is i
nterference," Wharton said. "If people cannot hear the stations they've listened
to for decades, we have a hard time understanding how that benefits the listeni
ng public."
Ironically, there are so many stations in New York that it
is the only city wher e even proponents agree there's no room for new signals,
though Long Island may have room for some.
All-Everything There's
all-news, all-talk, all-sports, all-religious, all-whatever on the airwa ves.
Now one of the big radio companies and a major Internet provider have creat ed
an "all-technology" format. CNET Inc. and AMFM Inc. plan to launch CNET Radio
this month over KNEW / 910 AM in San Francisco, and make it a nationwide format
by the end of the year. There will be technology-focused news programs all day.
Is CNET Radio coming to New York? A spokesman would only say "we have
not yet i dentified any markets, but there has been an enormous response to the
announceme nt."
Peter Goodman's email address is
peter.goodman@newsday.com
LOAD-DATE: January 12, 2000
