Last week the FCC released its report on the economic impact of low-power FM stations on commercial radio. The report was mandated by passage of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 (LCRA), and its primary conclusion should surprise nobody with any knowledge of LPFM: “LPFM stations are unlikely to have more than a negligible […]
Yesterday 28 members of the House of Representatives, led by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), sent a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski [PDF] urging the Commission to ensure there is space reserved in urban areas for new low-power FM station licenses. They observe that the nation’s largest urban markets “have lacked access to new noncommercial […]
In his “From the Editor” column Radio World’s Paul McLane takes up Matthew’s recent calculation finding that pirate radio generates a half-billion dollars worth of jobs. Recall that my esteemed Radio Survivor colleague was riffing off a recent study sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters that claimed $135 billion in economic output is attributable […]
Right now there are a pile of applications for translator stations in the queue for at the FCC. Translators are often called booster stations because their only purpose is to rebroadcast the signal of a full-power station. This backlog of applications is important because translator stations can be spaced closer on the dial to a […]
Talk about a nailbiter. After languishing for months in the Senate due to a series of anonymous (then outed) holds placed by republican senators, followed by gridlock over the tax bill, it was starting to look like the Local Community Radio Act was never going to make it to a vote. But thanks to the […]
It’s certainly easy to understand the sentiment expressed by a commenter to my last LPFM post: If the NAB is for it, you can pretty much guarantee that it is to the detriment to LPFM. And while the LPFM bill passed by the House yesterday, HR 6533, does contain compromises agreed to by the NAB, […]
It’s darn cold in DC today, but I don’t think hell has yet frozen over. Nevertheless, the National Association of Broadcasters just sent out a press release praising the LPFM bill that passed the House this morning. NAB President and former Oregon senator Gordon Smith said, “The revised legislation will expand the number of LPFM […]
Seems that things are starting to move again on LPFM. The House passed HR 6533 this morning, “to implement the recommendations of the Federal Communications Commission report to the Congress regarding low-power FM service, and for other purposes.” The bill was introduced by democrat Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and co-sponsored by republican Terry Lee of […]
Grassroots heat has been getting hotter this week as the Senate runs out of time to vote on the Local Community Radio Act, expanding low-power FM. There are some signs that the action is having some effect. Free Press campaign director Tim Karr tweeted on Thursday, NAB lobbyists overheard at DC event: “We’re getting beat […]
Prometheus has posted photos and video from their hula hooping protest in front of NAB headquarters today in support of low-power FM. According to the group dozens of people showed up to ask NAB head and former senator Gordon Smith to stop blocking the Local Community Radio Act, SB 592. It turns out that so […]
