tentative plans on January 28, 1999 for legalizing low power radio and allowing for a lengthy year long period of public comment, study and deliberation, FCC Chairman William Kennard floated a proposal on January 19, 2000 which provided new rules that envisioned the licensing of an estimated 1,000 new Low Power FM (LPFM) stations in the range of 10-100 watts. Yet, by the end of last year, after 1200 applications had already been filed in the 20 states initially eligible to participate in the LPFM sweepstakes, Congress caved in to lobbying pressure from both the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and National Public Radio (NPR), and gutted this already modest FCC proposal for a new LPFM radio service.

Amidst an NAB and NPR scare campaign about potential interference problems, the language of what had once been the industry-promoted Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act was attached as a rider to the Omnibus Budget Act of 2000. Using the threat of supposed interference as a pretext, the Act limits the number of possible licenses by holding newly created LPFM stations to an extremely conservative standard of having to be three bandwidths, rather than two as the FCC had originally mandated, away from any other station already existing on the dial (89.1-89.9, instead of 89.3-89.9).

Even with this enhanced spacing restriction, there was a flood of applications. By late December 2000 estimates by the pro-LPFM Prometheus Radio Project, the number of licensed LPFM stations which met the three bandwidth requirement ranged from 250-500. However, these stations will be mostly in rural areas because the new spacing rules are very difficult to meet in urban localities. Of course, full implementation optimistically assumes there are no future backroom legislative deals to squelch the service or efforts by executive branch power brokers to let it die on the vine from neglect.

Stalling the Process

evealingly, Congress has called on the FCC to study the economic impact of these new stations on corporate radio outlets as well as the aforementioned possibility of interference problems even with a three bandwidth separation safeguard in place. As to the latter study, the new service must choose nine "test market" stations from among those already approved or else set up their own field testing that requires assembling temporary stations, which will simply broadcast tape loops or test tones for experimental purposes only. These newly required tests, of course, serve to stall full implementation of the LPFM service with no date yet specified as to the length of the experiment. Then Congress, which in an unprecedented move has usurped authority for implementation from the FCC, must decide the future of the new radio service.

Suffice it to say that as 2001 arrived the future of LPFM looked bleak with George W. Bush in the White House, a Republican-controlled Congress and new presidentially-appointed FCC chair calling the shots.

While the FCC's original LPFM rules were ultimately superseded by Congressional edict, it is worth noting that even they were controversial not only within NAB/NPR circles, but also inside the free radio movement itself. The FCC—intentionally or in effect—promoted a divide and conquer strategy that split the movement into two camps. The first camp consisted of those who supported licensed LPFM, like the Prometheus Radio Project, largely organized by the disenfranchised buccaneers of Philadelphia's Radio Mutiny station, which had been shut down by the FCC. After tirelessly lobbying the FCC and Congress on behalf of LPFM, the Prometheus Radio Project led workshops throughout the country in relation to the final FCC plan under the banner of, "So You Want To Apply For A Low Power FM License."

The Split Emerges >

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