The National Association of Broadcasters has never been a friend to low-power community radio. Back in 2000, when the FCC first created the service, the NAB did everything it could to try and keep it from becoming a reality. While the broadcast lobby failed to stop it outright, the NAB did succeed in getting Congress […]
On Friday word came down that Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso removed his hold on the Local Community Radio Act. If passed, this bill would restore low-power FM standards to FCC’s original specification, thereby allowing hundreds more stations to take to the air. And yet, still no action? That’s because there are still other holds on […]
Recent Radio Survivor contributor Gavin Dahl has been doing an awesome job keeping tabs on radio stories in the press and has been compiling a massive list of recent stories over at Common Frequency. Hopefully some time soon Gavin will be doing a regular feature for Radio Survivor in which he recaps radio stories, as […]
We’re now in the waning days of the lame duck Congress and due to backroom machinations of a few Senators the fate of low-power FM radio hangs in the balance. As I wrote in September, one lone Senator (that we know of) has a hold on the Local Community Radio Act, keeping it from moving […]
Like comedy, democracy ain’t pretty. It’s been more than a year since the House passed the Local Community Radio Act, but the companion bill in the Senate seems to be jammed up in the sausage grinder. Although the expansion of LPFM apparently enjoys broad bipartisan support, according to Politico Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso has put […]
The Prometheus Radio Project will run its 12th community radio barn raising by launching a new station: WBXC in Hudson, New York on September 24-26. This is the first such event, however, that will involve setting up a full power station—3,300 watts as opposed to the usual 100 watts of low power FM. “This new […]
While health care reform has seemed to dominate the Congress for all of 2010 thus far, community radio enthusiasts have been waiting for action on the Senate version of the Local Community Radio Act. The House passed its version back in mid-December and now the full Senate is set to take up their bill during […]
It was some pretty exciting news from the FCC on Tuesday, when they announced the list of 59 organizations who won the non-commercial educational radio license lottery. Although I was thrilled for some of the winners, as a college radio observer, I was saddened and surprised to see that very few colleges or educational institutions […]
The FCC opened up an important licensing window for new noncommercial FM stations in 2007, announcing the first round of license winners in 2008. However another 59 licenses remained up in the air due to the Commission needing to pick a winner amongst competing applications. The FCC announced those winners on Tuesday [PDF]. The Commission […]
On Friday the FCC’s Media Bureau quietly announced that it adopted an order to allow FM stations broadcasting a digital HD signal to increase their power levels up a maximum of 10% of the power of their main analog signal. While the National Association of Broadcasting and iBiquity have been agitating for this change for […]
