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| LPFM "Encroachment" by Jeff Shaw How much more money can be made from radio? The FCC recently assisted small and large radio entrepreneurs alike when they loosened the rules regarding moving your radio station, even your radio channel. Less government, more efficiency, easier to get things done- sounds like a good idea, doesn’t it? It would be fine except that not all “players” in the “industry” are treated equal. In fact, some don’t view themselves as “players” nor radio as an “industry” at all. Some view radio as a tool to help their fellow neighbors and citizens communicate with each other. These stations have no marketing focus groups concerned with target demographics, there are no “personalities” that define the “style” or “feel” of the station, and most of all, there is a common respect for this shared public resource and space. Here the goal is to nurture the space as it takes on a life of its own, not artificially prop it up with sugar-coated pop music, take what you can & leave stepping stone “investments” behind as each new resource is secured. The spaces I’m talking about are not just in the reserved band, that area on the FM dial especially set aside from the turmoil of “radio for profit.” You know the area: 91.9 and down on the dial. Those low numbers where the pace of radio typically slows down, you hear something surprisingly different? Those are full power non-commercial stations, and while there are cases of them being grandfathered into the “commercial” spectrum, most of the time they are relinquished to that relatively small area. The non-commercial stations that do exist within the entire FM band, and therefore competing in many cases with the “investment” stations, are low power fm stations, operating at 100 watts and below, in the radio class LPFM. While the birth of LPFM is seen as messy to some, for others it is pure utilitarian success. Is there a better way to put cheap communications technology into the hands of citizens in a more localized manner? Think globally, act locally. Unfortunately, even movements like utilitarian localism have to compromise with the profit-driven status quo, and so the birth of this service came with the dual dictations of a) not being a primary radio service stations (primary service, meaning, commercial radio stations have authority to bump a secondary service, like LPFM, off), and b) protecting full power FM stations operating 3 channels away (say, if an LPFM is placed at 94.1, it is not supposed to “interfere” with a station at 93.5 or 94.7 FM) Despite this shaky ground, many stations, including the station I’m associated with, KDRT-LP, went on the air with the mayor of the town flipping the on-switch, signifying full community support and open doors for all. What follows differs from town to town, as individual as people are, with some stations manifesting themselves as near dictatorships, and others participatory democracies with 10 committees and 15 subcommittees, filled with rancorous debate and civic passion. Today this service is reaching a crossroads- LPFM is unarguably a stellar example of localism and civic participation, yet current FCC rules do not effectively preserve current LPFM stations, let alone provide for expansion. When will the FCC fully support the LPFM service? If one looks at the Media Bureau Docket No. 05-210, the answer appears to be not anytime soon. Essentially, this proceeding, in the name of increasing government efficiency, has jump-started a Radio Industry Land Grab. On January 19, 2007, new rules went into effect that allow full power stations to move their station from their original “community of license” to a new “community of license,” all within the ease of a Minor Modification to their broadcast license, something which can be filed at any time. Never before has it been this easy to move a station to a more profitable location from a less profitable location. The only real hurdle is assembling a proposal that claims “increased public service” while obscuring “more money to be made.” The FCC understands this game, and so allows for proposals that involve up to four stations, effectively challenging engineering and law firms to earn their keep with their Radio Industry clients. And because full power stations have priority in the use of radio channels, when they propose to move and occupy a signal contour previously used by an LPFM station, the LPFM station has to figure out a way to accommodate them, or cease operations. How does this current influx of proposals to move affect LPFM stations? Prometheus Radio Project, in a Motion for Stay of the new rules, states that seventy LPFM stations would experience allowable interference, while 10 would be forced to cease operations. These numbers are only based upon “Change of Community of License” (CCOL) applications filed between January 19 and March 30, 2007. Meanwhile, since then, the amount of pending application has increased from 140 to 197 (as of May 1, 2007), with new applications added daily. And so the Radio Industry Land Grab continues unabated. |
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| Common Frequency - PO Box 4301 - Davis, California 95617 |
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