We're Moving On...

by Paul Griffin, Free Press contributor

n January 28, the FCC held a public meeting and a press conference and said they were considering proposals for changing their rules. The proposals "could create a whole new class of voices using the airwaves ... opportunities for churches and community groups ... so many of whom feel that they are being frozen out of opportunities to become broadcasters,'' said FCC Chairman Bill Kennard. One of the problems about the broadcast industry that Kennard has been talking about is the lack of minority owners. Unfortunately, the current proposals being talked about don't address this problem.

There is also a lot of kicking and screaming coming from the National Association of Broadcasters, who have a lot of money and power. They have been dead-set against micro-power radio from the start. Of course the folks who currently hold commercial broadcast licenses in America are making huge amounts of money and they pay the NAB. to do their lobbying in Washington. The only reason the FCC is going against their wishes is due to a huge number of communities writing to the FCC and asking the question, "Why can't we get a license to put a little station on the air?" Last year alone, thirteen thousand inquiries came in to the FCC from groups hoping to get a license. Of course the huge number of people who are violating FCC regulations and just going on the air without a license also forces the question. A lot of these "pirate" stations have been very popular in their communities and provided a real service to their listeners, without causing interference to other stations.

Let's face it, since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, the quality of commercial broadcasting has dropped badly. In the town I come from (Binghamton, New York), one company owns five of the major radio stations in town. People...THIS USED TO BE AGAINST THE LAW!!! The result of this de-regulation by Congress has led to a huge consolidation in the broadcast industry. The net effect is the radio has no diversity now. The commercials are louder and more frequent ( you might have noticed) and in many cases, the signal comes beamed in from a sattelite with no local programming. In a lot of communities, people don't even have a source for information regarding school closings, etc.

Micro-Radio Flash Back

Five years ago, radio "pirates" were getting slapped with twenty thousand dollar fines. Four years ago, the federal district court was refusing to grant an injunction against Free Radio Berkeley. Three years ago, Free Radio Santa Cruz was going on the air and Billy Jam put his Hip Hop Slam show into national syndication. Two years ago, Radio Life was born in Oakland and Beat Radio was shut down in Minnesota. Hundreds of radio stations were popping up all over the country. People in the micro-power radio community were starting to put together some conferences with technical seminars and political organizing. One year ago, the FCC started to get serious about enforcing their regulations and started closing down unlicensed stations all over the country, with Florida getting the most attention.

Now it's 1999. Free Radio Berkeley has been off the air since last June because of a federal injunction. Now the FCC says they want to consider the possibility of licensing some sort of low power FM broadcasting. All I can say is IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! Please keep in mind that low power stations were legal up until twenty years ago. Then the FCC changed their rules and forced all of the low power (class D) radio stations to increase their power or get off the air. A lot of small radio stations had to become more "professional" just to pay the bills for all of the new equipment now required. In effect, it was a squeeze play, initiated by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to force a lot of mom-and-pop radio stations off the air. It failed miserably and led to a situation called "spectrum scarcity", that is, the AM and FM band is totally clogged with radio stations using high power transmitters. To make matters worse, the FCC has given these big-time broadcasters "adjacent channel protection" which means nobody can get a new broadcast license because the FCC is protecting the "turf" of the big stations.

The current action by the FCC is called a notice of proposed rulemaking or NPRM for short. It means the FCC will think long and hard about this "new broadcast service" before it does anything. There have also been indications that the FCC will judge the "character" of anybody applying for one of these new licenses. they have already indicated that anyone who was previously found to be broadcasting illegally might get turned down. This would leave a lot of my friends in the dust! On the micro-radio network (microradio@tao.ca) there has been a lot of debate about this NPRM and what it might mean to us. First of all, a lot of us on the list would like the low power stations to be non-commercial. Secondly, we would hope that these new licenses would not go to big religious broadcasters. Thirdly, we would like to hear some real grass-roots community radio, not some slick NPR crap. Of course, our group is very diverse and likely to argue on any subject. In any case, we have time to think about this proposal and send comments to the FCC.

For more information on this subject, check out the following web sites: www.fcc.gov www.radio4all.org

Paul Griffin is a long time radio rebel and founder of the Association of Micro-Power Broadcasters. He publishes a newsletter called the AMPB Report six times a year and his syndicated radio show can be heard on thirty micro-power radio stations across America. For more information on the AMPB, send a self-addressed envelope to AMPB, 2018 Shattuck Avenue #22, Berkeley, CA 94704 or send an e-mail message to ampb@california.com