Copyright 2000 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The
Plain Dealer
April 20, 2000 Thursday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: ENTERTAINMENT; Pg. 1E
LENGTH: 1368 words
HEADLINE:
MICRORADIO AT RISK FROM LOBBYING;
LOW-POWER FM STATIONS
LOSE GROUND IN CONGRESS
BYLINE: By TOM FERAN; PLAIN
DEALER TELEVISION AND RADIO CRITIC
BODY:
It was
supposed to be a way of bringing "new voices to the airwaves."
That, at
least, was what the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, William
E. Kennard, heralded in January when the FCC adopted rules creating a new breed
of FM radio stations.
The initiative would have licensed hundreds or
even thousands of inexpensive, low-power stations to noncommerical groups and
individuals to serve "very localized" needs or underrepresented groups within
communities. It was crafted largely as a response to the wave of corporate
mergers and consolidation that has homogenized programming and destroyed local
identity and ownership in many cities, including Cleveland.
Proponents
predicted the FCC's low-power initiative would revolutionize radio with a fresh
wave of diversity, bringing the most dramatic transformation since the rise of
FM in the 1970s. They raised hope these new licensees would fill the airwaves
with seldom-played music, dissident political voices and programming directed at
minorities.
From the start, however, the reality of low-power
FM appeared likely to fall short of ideals.
And even those
modest ambitions may soon be derailed by Congress following intense lobbying by
the National Association of Broadcasters, which represents the big media
conglomerates and had petitioned a federal appeals court to set aside the FCC's
low-power FM plan in February.
One week ago, the U.S.
House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Radio Preservation Act,
chiefly sponsored by Republican Michael Oxley of Findlay, Ohio, which would cut
the number of possible low-power stations by 80 percent, delay implementation at
least a year and require costly new technical tests by the FCC.
Opposed
by the White House, the bill has moved to the Senate, where a similar proposal
to kill low-power FM has gained wide support.
"The FCC
wanted to add everything but the kitchen sink into the nation's FM radio
spectrum, creating significant interference with existing radio stations and
services," Oxley said - picking up the main argument used by the broadcasters
association in what FCC officials called a misleading disinformation effort.
The association's campaign included wide distribution on Capitol Hill of
a compact disc that purported to simulate the catastrophic interference that
low-power stations would cause.
The FCC's engineering chief said the
simulation was "misleading and simply wrong."
"I don't know what's
fuzzier," countered Eddie Fritts, the association's president, "the static that
comes from low-power FM or the FCC's thinking on this issue."
Unlikely ally
The interference issue won an unlikely ally in
National Public Radio. Normally a proponent of alternative programming, NPR
registered fears that low-power FM might interfere with its
member stations or the subcarrier channels on which some provide information
services for visually impaired people.
FCC Chairman Kennard saw it
differently after the House passed the Oxley bill.
"Special interests
triumphed over community interests," he said. "What this is about is fear of new
entrants in the market. It is no different from the battles to kill low-power
TV, cable TV, satellite radio and satellite television."
Proponents of
low-power FM have good reason to believe that the fear of new
competition, rather than interference, is driving the opposition.
The
broadcasters group suggested that stations that went silent during the recession
of a decade ago be left off the air. Later, the lobbying group won congressional
approval of the key provisions in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that
triggered the recent wave of ownership consolidation in radio.
The top
operating officers of Clear Channel Communications, the nation's largest station
owner, have said that the FCC should have no limits on the number of stations
they own - and even say "it is clear that the public interest is best served by
having one person control all the stations in a market."
That sort of
thinking leaves little room for low-power FM, even given the
considerable limits of the FCC's original initiative.
The proposal
called for the licensing this year of 100-watt stations, each covering a radius
of 3.5 miles, followed by the licensing sometime thereafter of 10-watt stations
covering a one- to two-mile radius. (Full power FMs operate at 6,000 to 100,000
watts.)
None could be closer than the third adjacent channel to existing
broadcasters. (If a station is operating at FM/94.1, for example, a new station
could be no closer than FM/94.7.)
Licenses would be awarded for
eight-year terms and, unlike full-power signals, could not be sold or
transferred. Low-power FMs would be limited to one owner per market and,
initially, to one station per owner nationwide, rising later to as many as 10
per owner. Full-power broadcasters would not be permitted to own or operate
low-power FMs.
License would be awarded to community groups on a point
system using criteria like length of residency, hours of proposed programming
and amount of local programming proposed. Stations would have to broadcast at
least 36 hours a week.
As a further protection to commercial
broadcasters, low-power licenses would be noncommercial, although the issue of
sponsorship or underwriting remains in question.
Financial attraction
Low cost makes low power attractive. Start-up expenses might run only
$2,000 to $3,000. So does the sheer availability of a license. Buying a
full-power station in a market like Cleveland, if one is available, can take
upwards of $45 million.
But who would win the low-power licenses?
Kennard has talked glowingly of "a whole range of subcultures" gaining access to
the airwaves. More often, however, he and the FCC mention "churches, schools and
community organizations," the same groups already operating most full-power,
noncommercial stations.
They mention cities wanting to broadcast traffic
and weather reports and council meetings, high schools and colleges applying for
licenses, churches proposing to broadcast sermons. (Since there is no "local
origination" requirement for low-power FM, it's possible that
networks could be established using satellite-fed or other syndicated
programming.)
It ends up sounding like the radio equivalent of
public-access cable, or maybe a wider application of college radio: tiny
stations facing considerable effort and uncertain economics.
No wonder
some would-be "microbroadcasters" already are looking instead to the Internet as
a better alternative. "Webcasting" is cheaper than broadcasting and is
unregulated. And, it holds the promise of wireless Internet access for a mass
audience within a few years, possibly before the low-power FM
wrangle will be settled.
It's an option being considered by Jerry Szoka,
who became Cleveland's best-known microbroadcaster in four years of operating
unlicensed GRID FM/96.9.
GRID, which played commercial-free dance music
and a talk show aimed at the gay community, ceased operation in February after
U.S. District Judge Kathleen O'Malley granted the FCC a permanent injunction.
Szoka, who applied for an FCC license, ran the station in challenge to
the agency's previous long-standing ban on low-power FM, and he
sought to remain on the air until regulations to license microbroadcasters could
be enacted. But his case was heard before the new rules were adopted.
Ironically, one of those rules would disqualify him from a license,
since he operated in violation of an FCC cease-and-desist order. He has appealed
the current injunction with the 6th District U.S. Court of Appeals, and he
supports amnesty for himself and other unlicensed operators, "microradio
pioneers who helped bring about this new LPFM service" through "political
activism and civil disobedience.
"I did it in a responsible way," he
said. "But they're penalizing people who brought the issue to the table. To bar
microradio pioneers from the airwaves is equivalent to continuing to require
Rosa Parks to ride in the back of the bus.
"The radio spectrum, which we
the public own, is being monopolized by just a few people, big corporations who
are filling the pockets of Congress."
GRAPHIC: Photo
by: BRYNNE SHAW / PLAIN DEALER PHOTOGRAPHER; Jerry Szoka became Cleveland's
best-known low-power radio broadcaster by operating the unlicensed GRID FM/96.9
aimed at Cleveland's gay community.
COLUMN: Analysis
LOAD-DATE: April 21, 2000 
