Copyright 2000 The Washington Post
The Washington
Post
May 22, 2000, Monday, Final Edition
SECTION: OP-ED; Pg. A20; LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LENGTH: 262 words
HEADLINE:
Grandpa's Radio
BODY:
The May 15
front-page article on the battle between the broadcasting industry and
low-power FM radio struck a personal note. My
great-grandfather, Frank Conrad, started the world's first radio station (KDKA,
in Pittsburgh) in 1920. From its beginnings in his garage, radio was rapidly
transformed by giant commercial enterprises. When he was asked, sometime before
1942, his opinion of what radio had become, my great-grandfather said, in his
ninth-grade syntax, "If I had known what it would end up into, I probably
wouldn't have done it."
Today, FM radio fits Newton Minow's description
of TV as a "vast wasteland." With a few exceptions, commercial radio is
dominated by a handful of huge companies that impose rigid formats honed by
opinion polling. One station is indistinguishable from another, whether in
Atlanta or Anchorage.
Noncommercial radio is not much better, as
"public" radio stations strive to act like commercial ones. For example, WETA
recently dropped several hours of music to run "Morning Edition," even though
WAMU already carries the show--a blatant attempt to grab ratings that limited
listeners' choices.
Congress and the Federal Communications Commission
should give low-power FM a trial, on the off chance that the
FCC's engineers are right that it will not interfere noticeably with the
50,000-watt Jazzy/Lite/Country powerhouses whose noise (sorry, signal) fills the
airwaves.
Let's give authentic voices a few opportunities to be heard.
Who knows what it could "end up into."
JAMES W. CONRAD Jr.
Alexandria
LOAD-DATE: May 22,
2000 
