"Microradio"
April 2000

Microradio, or low power radio, is back in the news this month. As you read last month, the National Association of Broadcasters (http://www.nab.org) filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC to halt the FCC’s plans to grant hundreds of low power radio licenses to community and other nonprofit groups. The House Telecommunications Subcommittee also held hearings on the NAB’s objections. Republicans support the industry’s (and sadly, National Public Radio’s) desire to deny licenses to low power community operators. Committee Democrats favor the Commission’s plan, as do President Bill Clinton and presidential candidate Al Gore.

FCC Commissioner William Kennard has stood firm in his commitment to return some semblance of localness and public service to commercial radio (http://www.fcc.gov). In numerous public statements, Kennard has touted low power radio as a counter to the massive concentration of ownership sweeping radio, with a single company, until recently limited to 7 AM and 7 FM stations nationally, now owning as many as 800. Kennard and other critics of the trend contend that it produces bland, cookie-cutter, nationally rather than locally programmed radio. As Bruce Drushel, media professor at Miami University in Ohio told the Louisville Courier Journal, big owners such as Clear Channel (830 stations) have "made radio unlistenable." And whether you agree or not, two things are true—group owned stations are increasingly automated (their content is programmed at a distant site and delivered to stations via satellite for local airing) and overall listening is in a decade-long decline, brought about, says industry analyst Thom Moon of Duncan’s American Radio, by "much higher commercial loads and not as much programming innovation." Both, claim critics, the inevitable product of concentration.

To thwart the FCC’s plan to create the 400 low-power FM stations in the 60 biggest markets, the NAB produced a CD carrying a simulated example of the kind of heavy interference it says would occur if these stations are approved. It distributed the disc to every member of Congress. The FCC countered with its own CD, an a cappella song by Susan Vega, which it subjected to 100,000 time the interference its engineers say is likely with the new stations. The sound was crisp and clear.

Sensing that it there was little public support for killing microradio, the House Commerce Committee, rather than make a controversial party-line vote in an election year, voted to severely limit the number of low power licenses to about 100. Commissioner Kennard told Broadcasting & Cable that this "compromise" hurts community groups, schools, churches, and other noncommercial organizations seeking a way to serve their communities. "The only real interference to low-power FM radio is from high-priced Washington lobbyists," he said.

The fate of microradio now rests with the Senate. It must approve the House Committee’s plan. Observers are divided on whether it will do so. The Clinton Administration favors the original FCC plan, but has not indicated whether it will veto any bill that scales it back.

So, microradio is still in play. If you care about its future, and if you are a media literate radio listener, contact your Congressperson, Senator, or the President and Vice-President to register your opinion.

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