New FCC Program Could Revolutionize Local Radio - Grass Roots Groups Invited to Seek FM Licenses

by REG_CROWDER | August 14, 2007 at 05:37 am

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By REG CROWDER NowPublic.com

Fed up and disgusted with the stranglehold global corporate conglomerates has clamped on the news media in America? Don’t get mad. Get a radio station.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has launched a new program encouraging grassroots organizations to apply for licenses for full-power FM radio stations. These licenses are earmarked for noncommercial community stations.

The FCC said the “filing window” for applications will open on October 12 and close on October 19. All applications must be submitted electronically.

Getting an application through the FCC can be a complex and daunting experience. For that reason, a new group GetRadio.org has stepped in to give local nonprofit organizations a helping hand. A good starting point is to visit its website: http://www.getradio.org/

Be careful to use the URL ending in .org. There is a “look-alike” site on the web with a slightly different URL which has nothing to do with the group GetRadio.org.

Another organization offering to help community groups get their noncommercial FM licenses is RadioForPeople.org. You’ll find them here: http://www.radioforpeople.org/

To get your hands on the FCC’s official notice – and you’re going to need it if you’re serious about trying to get a license – download it from the FCC’s website:

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-07-1613A1.pdf

One of the things that is unique about this program is the fact that it doesn’t limit FM licenses to low power transmitters with very limited range.

“This is an important point because many people confuse the two,” said Ursula Ruedenberg, affiliates coordinator with the nonprofit broadcaster PacificaNetwork.Org and an active member of RadioForPeople.org. “This is about the full-power radio stations. A full-power station is a station that has a hundred watts or more, which means it can cover large areas." She said it is entirely possible that the new community broadcasters could get 50,000 watt to 100,000 FM licenses. Ruedenberg made the comments in an interview published on DemocracyNow.Org. The interview includes a wealth of information on the practical details of getting a license for a community FM radio station. A transcript is available here:

http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=07/08/10/142236.

The FCC has for some time been the scene of an almost invisible internal struggle over what the federal agency calls “broadcasting and localism.” The FCC’s decision to beat the drum for nonprofit, full-power community radio stations may be a sign that supporters of diversity and local control in broadcasting within the FCC are gaining some ground.

FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps lashed out savagely against the agency’s “weakened and withered” efforts to defend the public interest, at a hearing on broadcasting localism in Portland, Maine, this past June. “Step by step, rule by rule, public interest protections were simply frittered away,” Copps said. “Believe it or not, we had an FCC Chairman in the 1980s – when a lot of this deregulation really got into high gear – who said television was just ‘a toaster with pictures.’”

“And that’s how they proceed to treat the people’s airwaves, just another business, nothing special about it,” Copps said. “All this has happened at a high and dangerous cost to the American people. Our country confronts many urgent priorities but, to my mind, few have such long-term importance to our democracy as how America communicates and converses with itself and how this process has been eviscerated in recent years.” (Copps is no bureaucrat-come-lately to the issue. The group ReclaimTheMedia.org previously honored the FCC Commissioner with its “Backbone Award” for his opposition to the federal agency’s weakened media consolidation rules.)

Fellow FCC Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein, speaking at the same Portland, Maine, hearing, gave an insight into just how far the FCC has been willing to go to cover up the damage concentrated corporate ownership of broadcast media has inflicted upon local communities. He recounted an incident in which the FCC tried to conceal its own study of the problem from the public and the Congress.

“Sadly, today, quality journalism is too-often sacrificed to meet Wall Street quarterly projections,” Adelstein said. “Owners of multiple media outlets lose incentive to invest in independent and competitive new operations in the same market.”

“The Commission’s own study – which was originally buried until Senator (Barbara) Boxer (Democrat of California) demanded the FCC to release it – showed that locally owned TV stations provided more local news. And while the Commission failed to complete a similar study of radio, we hear across the country that centralized playlists and payola are shutting out local musicians and unmanned radio stations have replaced local DJ’s.”

The incident of the suppressed FCC study may indicate another benefit from media diversity. Barbara Boxer is one of the few members of the U.S. Senate who has been a reporter for the alternative media. Prior to entering politics, now-Senator Boxer wrote for the alternative newsweekly, the Pacific Sun (http://www.PacificSun.com/) in Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco.

In the interest of full disclosure and transparency, Reg Crowder wishes to state that many, many years ago he worked at a tiny 1,000 watt AM radio station, WIPC, on the edge of a swamp just north of Lake Wales, Florida, to help pay his way through college. “I played records, read the news and chased Diamondback rattlesnakes out of the transmitter room,” he said. “Radio was a lot of fun. But I got out of broadcasting because of the snakes.” You can find more of his print-media work at http://www.MediaBistro.com/RegCrowder

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ScienceDave

at 09:23 on August 14th, 2007

Two words: Awesome awesome.

Very nice article Reg, a pleasure to read - especially the snake wrangling.

Kaitlin

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:31 on August 14th, 2007

REG_CROWDER, this is great news for freedom in media...awesome. I had no idea that the FCC Commissioner was such a defender of rights. Backbone award is right! Here's hoping this idea is allowed to take hold.

fyngyrz

at 12:08 on August 14th, 2007

First, you'll note this is for nonprofit groups only; that means you cannot run your station with the intent of actually broadcasting on the same playing field as the other media. The FCC is protecting them (all the other stations) from competition from you; you cannot run commercials and you cannot run this as part of a normal business, you certainly can't make a profit - but *they* can.

Why, you should be asking yourself, is it that you are forbidden to enter the commercial market with your shiny new radio station? Does the government have a duty to act as a guardian for the turf of commercial radio operations? If so, under what reasoning does such a duty arise?

Next, you'll note that this is for "full power" radio stations. Well, I don't know if you've checked lately, but type-approved equipment for such a station will cost you six to seven figures, depending on just what you're putting together. This is aside from the license costs, lawyer costs, environmental and site surveys, etc. However, the interesting thing here is that you could, if the FCC allowed you to, put up a 100% compliant radio station (meaning, the stable, high-fidelity signal you broadcast would not interfere with other stations, the power levels would be compliant with the regulations, and the site would not be environmentally or aeronautically unacceptable to the FCC) for a total cost of about... $100.00 -- yes, that's right, about one hundred US dollars.

Actually, you could do it for much less if you built a micropower station. For instance, I live in a rural area that is served by one (1) FM station. The entire remaining portion of the dial is empty. The town is 3200 people, and it is pretty well compacted into a little valley. So as it turns out, I could cover the entire town with one watt or even less driven into a vertical wire of the appropriate length.

In my case, I actually have some pretty high end FM signal generation equipment. Not allowed to use it, of course, but I do have it, and that means that my cost to set up a fully functional and compliant (but unlicensed, and therefore illegal) FM station would be zero starting from today. Can I do it? No. Not without spending huge amounts of money, even if I wanted to set up a "non-commercial" station, which I have no interest in doing - if I undertake an enterprise that consumes my time and energy, I want to (a) be able to grow it in any direction that seems appropriate to me (not the FCC) and (b) be able to be rewarded for my efforts and pursue any funding and profit strategy that I see fit.

Sure, if you're a non-profit group with six to seven figures of available funding you can invest in a radio station without being concerned about profit, you're golden right now. So... how many of you meet that definition? Now, how many of you would be interested in a $100 radio station that would let you start right now and broadcast whatever it is that you think you could get people to listen to?

Look, repeat after me: The FCC is not your friend, this program is not aimed at the citizens, the FCC is the tried and true servant of the commercial entities that own the broadcast media, and you, yes you, are invited to listen, not broadcast. Period.

ryan

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 13:15 on August 14th, 2007

REG_CROWDER, as the media is controlled by fewer organizations (ala NewsCorp and Canwest) independent media organizations (ala NowPublic and the radio stations that will emerge out of the FCC's new policy) become ever more important. Good Stuff.

fyngyrz

at 15:21 on August 14th, 2007

Also, just FYI people, you can set up a low power FM station easily - and legally - using a kit or pre-assembled unit from Ramsey Electronics. They have some interesting and useful things on the linked page; be sure to read the notes and caveats for each unit. Some of them are overpowered for (legal) use in the USA. You wouldn't want your entire community to be able to hear what you had to say. Would you?

See what the FCC has to say in Ramsey's summary information located here.

REG_CROWDER

at 04:27 on August 15th, 2007

Dear Fyngyrz,

GREAT COMMENTS! You are really on-target on several critical issues. Since this is a reply to a comment, I hope everybody will forgive me if I let a few of my strongly-held opinions creep in here.

First, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has NOT entered the Age of Aquarius. The law has always required the FCC to manage the public's airwaves in the public's interest. For the past 25 years the FCC has displayed utter contempt and disregard for the law. Not surprisingly, they have trampled upon the public interest in the process.

The FCC has acquired a few bad habits over its quarter-century of depravity. The decision to create a "window" for the filing of applications for full-power FM licenses for noncommercial community radio stations MAY be a sign that the supporters of diversity and local control are getting a little traction within the FCC. There is a little more good news out there. I didn't get into it earlier because I had an awful lot of data to pack into my noncommercial FM story.

You asked, quite properly, why just noncommercial licenses? As it turns out, there is an entirely separate proceeding under way within the bowels of the FCC in parallel to the noncommercial initiative. [JARGON WARNING: When you talk to the FCC, you have to talk to them THEIR WAY, not the way a normal human would speak. That is why I mention the following: NOTICE OF INQUIRY (NOI), "In the matter of: Broadcast Localism," Adopted June 7, 2004, MB Docket No. 04-233).

Incredible as it may seem, this thing (Notice of Inquiry, MB Docket No. 04-233) is still bouncing around inside the FCC. Perhaps more incredible, there is a possibility that it could result in FCC policies and regulations that would encourage greater diversity and local control in local COMMERCIAL broadcasting. For a general overview of what this is about, download the "FCC Consumer Facts Broadcasting and Localism" fact sheet here:

http://www.fcc.gov/localism/Localism_Fact_Sheet.doc

To generally keep up with what's going on in Broadcast Localism, go here:

http://www.fcc.gov/localism/

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> BETTER YET,, there is something you can do to support diversity and local control ("broadcast localism" in the language of the FCC) right now, TODAY! The FCC is inviting comments on this issue. For PDF instructions on how to comment, go here:

http://www.fcc.gov/localism/filinginstructions.pdf

And for MS Word instructions go here:

http://www.fcc.gov/localism/filinginstructions.doc

There is also a link on the Localism page -- "FILE A COMMENT NOW" -- that lets you click on the link and write your comments in a box. The only thing that worries me about this method of commenting is that there doesn't seem to be anything in or near the box to connect the comment to the issue (Notice of Inquiry). So, if I were to submit my comments through the box, I would write at the top of the box: "MB Docket No. 04-233 (BROADCAST LOCALISM)." That would make it a bit more difficult to throw my comment out because the FCC staff couldn't match up my comments with the issue being discussed.

Meanwhile, shifting back to NONcommercial licenses, I hope that grass roots organizations interested in obtaining full-power FM licenses for NONcommercial community stations will take a hard look at this option as soon as possible. To remind everybody, the FCC must receive the applications between October 12 and October 19, 2007. This is an opportunity that might not come again for another 10 or 20 years.

To meet these deadlines, grass roots organizations probably need to start gathering information for their license applications no later than the first week of September. As a practical matter, they probably need to employ a properly FCC licensed broadcasting engineer by the second week of September. In short, let's not let the global media conglomerates steal any more of the public's airwaves than we have to.

-- REG CROWDER

http://www.MediaBistro.com/RegCrowder

fyngyrz

at 09:00 on August 15th, 2007

Thanks, Reg. --------------

I am both a first class (grandfathered) FCC license holder and an extra-class ham, so I've been following these issues for many years (about 35, to be specific.)

It is my fond hope that someday, citizens will be allowed to actually broadcast without the government concerning itself with what content the broadcasts present; regulation by content is de facto censorship.

Ideally, I'd like to see a band set aside of comparable size and frequency allocation to the FM broadcast band (for instance, 118 to 138 MHz) that provides for stations of up to about one hundred watts. That would solve a lot of problems and open up a huge number of opportunities. The only licensing rule I'd like to see applied is that you'd have to locate your transmitter 25 miles away in a straight line from any other licensee on your channel or an adjacent channel. First come, first serve, use it at least five times a week at a regular time (up to 24/7) or lose it, no government fees other than administrative costs, which should be in the ten dollar range or less as the entire task of administration would consist of a program that figures out what frequency to give you based on straight line distances to your neighboring stations using a database of same.

But let me not pollute the country with my optimism. I'm sure it'll never come to pass.

REG_CROWDER

at 06:06 on August 18th, 2007

Dear Fyngyrz -- You got further with your commercial ticket than I did. I got my Third Class Commercial ticket with Broadcast Endorsement and that was it for me. I started drifting over to the print media after then and, of course, the government knew they couldn't license printing presses.

I'm glad you're talking about something around 100 watts on FM. It seems to me, something in the 75 watt to 250 watt range could be workable at the neighborhood and community level. (I really can't get interested in 250 milliwatts for broadcasting.) The thing we all have to remember is that the obstacles to diversity and local control are POLITICAL, not technical. There is a lot of unused and under-used spectrum in the US, Canada, Central America and the Caribbean. I think we should press for pieces of the spectrum that are already being used for radio broadcasting -- the AM broadcast band and the FM broadcast band -- because the radios are already out there, plentiful and cheap.

I'm going sniff around a while at the back door of the Federal Communications Commission and try to figure out what is really going on there.