The Promise of Low Power FM-alternative to mainstream corporate-owned radio

[EV_Ares]

The movement to develop alternatives to mainstream corporate-owned radio got a boost recently with a bi-partisan congressional bill to expand low-power FM (LPFM), a class of frequencies devoted to non-commercial community groups. Though LPFM stations only broadcast a radius of three-and-a-half miles, they offer the chance to bring seldom-heard voices on the air.

Media activists and reform groups see LPFM as a cheap, accessible medium that counterbalances the formulaic music and news of conglomerates like Clear Channel, while offering ownership and control to underrepresented groups. A recent study by the media-policy think tank Free Press found that women own 6 percent of the country’s full-power commercial radio stations; people of color and ethnic minorities control just 7.7 percent. It can cost as little as $5,000 to launch a no-frills LPFM station. About 800 stations have been established since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began licensing them in 2000.

The voices aired on low-power stations include evangelists, social critics, tomato pickers and indie rockers—all linked by the credo that radio should reflect the heterogeneity of the communities it serves.

Low-power broadcasters “are only able to succeed because they are authorized by the local community,” says Hannah Sassaman, an organizer with the Prometheus Radio Project, a Philadelphia-based radio advocacy group.

Prometheus has led the grassroots push for LPFM and is now building support for the Local Community Radio Act of 2007, introduced in June by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Penn.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) in the House, and Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the Senate.

(entire article @ link below)

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3306/the_promise_of_low_power_fm/

The bill would repeal strictures that have stunted LPFM’s growth. In 2000, lawmakers passed rules that in effect restricted LPFM to rural areas, after industry interests alleged that their “interference” would impinge on full-power broadcasters. But new research from the FCC shows that expanding low-power radio, even in denser markets, would not disrupt existing stations. Nonetheless, the National Association of Broadcasters recently reprised its warnings of “inevitable interference,” while opposing the bill.

[KharmaTrain]

1. The Prometheus Radio Project

http://www.prometheusradio.org/

This group has taken the lead in LPFM legislation and could use some support. The LPFM rules passed in 2000 were a boon to religious organizations that snatched up a lot of the licenses...and stations were limited to rural areas. The new legislation would bring more signals into metropolitan areas and favor local ownership...preventing the large scale applications and "warehousing" of frequencies and licenses as happened in 2000.

Combined with Internet Radio and existing Educational and Community radio, low power can be the building blocks of a bigger and better Progressive/Liberal media...building on the air similar to how the netroots have grown.

[ThomWV]

2. Low power radio - possibly another version of 'divide and conquer'?

When there are ten thousand voices in the night none of them can be heard.

[ret5hd]

3. So your alternative is 3 or 4 voices, none of whom speak for you...

all of whom speak for the same corporate state?

[ThomWV]

4. No, I'd take one big outlet that does speak for me, but not a zillion with 3 miles of coverage

It gives ever nut case on earth with a thousand bucks the ability to add to the din. The things don't have any more power and not much more area of coverage than a CB radio and once they become widespread they will be exactly like CB radios - worthless noise.