Latest CDC News

Friday, October 27, 2000

LPFM remains in limbo as Congress and the White House are at loggerheads with several controversial spending and policy measures still unresolved.

On October 26, the House of Representatives approved a Commerce State Justice appropriations bill that includes anti-LPFM legislation. Today, the Senate also passed this legislation. Yesterday, before the House vote, President Clinton indicated in a letter to congressional leaders that he would veto the bill, with LPFM being one of the items that would have to be resolved.

The entire letter can be viewed here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/library/hot_releases/October_262000_3.html but it reads in part:
"We also understand that a range of anti-environmental, anti-competitive, and other damaging riders have been under consideration and may have been added to this bill. I urge Congress to refrain from adding riders that would reward special interests at the expense of the public interest. I also urge Congress to drop the rider that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from licensing new low-power FM radio stations to provide for a diversity of voices in communities around the country."

We believe the President is sincere in his support for LPFM, and see no reason why he would back down from this position. Senator McCain gave a dramatic speech on the Senate floor on behalf of LPFM. I will try to distribute a transcript when I can get my hands on it. McCain clearly linked the challenge to LPFM to the larger problem of special interest power in Washington, and apologized to community groups and other LPFM supporters for the rider being attached to this appropriations measure.

So, this is where we are:

1. The overall political process is incredibly messed up at this point. There are many ways congress and the president can try to resolve their differences, but it is likely that congress will go ahead and send the president the CJS bill and he will veto it. The timing on this is uncertain, since congress has some control over when the bill is sent up to the white house. Most likely, this will all be resolved around next Tuesday.
2. On the policy side, we are in pretty good shape. The White House is also pushing for immigration reform, expansion of hate crimes laws, money for the justice department to sue tobacco companies and a few other items. The danger to LPFM is if the president gets everything else he wants on his list, which to me feels incredibly unlikely at this point.
3. I know this is beating a dead horse, but one way to back up the President is by contacting your senators and congressmen. Our Web site at http://congress.nw.dc.us/lpr has generated 3,200 emails this month, with about 450 coming in the last two days.
4. Also, make sure you attend campaign rallies over the next ten days. If your congressman or senator has opposed LPFM, call them on it. All we can do is get this out in the open. I strongly encourage you to turn up the heat on your own contacts to make sure congress feels some pain from home.

-Michael Bracy (Low Power Radio Coalition)

• Click here to read the National Public Radio press release about their continued opposition to microradio.
• Click here to see photos and details about a CDC-organized presentation to the NPR Board when it met in San Francisco on September 23, 2000.
• Go to indybay.com for Peter Franck's assessment of anti-LPFM legislation and how NPR is involved.
• Read the ad placed in the New York Times, "We want more public radio. Why doesn't NPR?" (pdf file).

The FCC is accepting LPFM (micro-radio) license applications from five sets of states at a time. For each set or group of states there will be only five days in which to file an application. Those five days are called a "filing window".

The next filing window will be in late November, 2000, for the following states:

• American Samoa
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Missouri
• New York
• Ohio
• South Carolina
• South Dakota
• Wisconsin

For application information and assistance, please view the CDC Licensing Project: LPFM Licensing Application Information.

Click on this September 15th FCC news release to find out how many stations filed for LPFM licenses during the second filing window (August 28 - September 1, 2000).

About the National Lawyers Guild Center for Democratic Communications

The Center for Democratic Communications (CDC) of the National Lawyers Guild has been working for the rights of grass roots, community and union groups to have their own "micro radio" stations for more then 11 years. First defending the free speech of micro broadcasters in the courts, then lobbying the FCC to legalize micro radio (or LPFM, as the FCC prefers to call it) in a realistic and democratic way, and now helping groups understand and work with the FCC's licensing process. With other groups, CDC is also persuading congress to let this go forward, and not to pass various bills (now pending) which would take away from the FCC the power to license LPFMs.