LPFM could save the local radio stars
The Say-Town Lowdown
By: DeAnne Cuellar
07/03/2007 - San Antonio Current
Long before the recent resurrection of ’80s fashion, The Buggles prophesized our YouTube nation with the song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Now a coalition of organizations that support community radio want justice for apathetic listeners everywhere, and they’re fighting back on Capitol Hill.
To some on-air personalities radio is dead, and they lament that innovations such as the iPod, satellite broadcasting, and internet radio stole their audiences. As liberating as it may be to choose your own music, or file-share with friends, an iPod doesn’t contribute to the diversity of local viewpoints and local music scenes, or provide emergency-broadcast information during times of disaster.
The decline in radio audiences has more to do with ongoing payola issues, boring top-40 playlists, and the media consolidations of the late ’90s, which killed local relationships between the listeners and their stations.
When Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Big Easy, fierce radio defenders from the Prometheus Radio Project used a low-power radio license issued by the FCC to broadcast information to thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents who were being warehoused in Houston’s Astrodome.
Last month, a study called “Off the Dial” published by Hearusnow.org reported that women and people of color make up two-thirds of the population, but own a measly one-eighth of our nation’s larger, full-power radio stations. So the end of radio is farther away than the average listener might imagine, while full representation is severely limited.
Wikipedia defines LPFM — sometimes known as microradio — as a cheaply done, low-power (100 watts) broadcast to a small geographic area. Think angry Christian Slater in the early-emo film Pump Up the Volume set to Leonard Cohen, and an audience of parked cars. Full-power stations such as NPR-TPR KSTX 89.1, in contrast, broadcast up to 100,000 watts and can reach audiences within a 60- to 90-mile radius.
The National Association of Broadcasters convinced Congress to limit low-power FM to mostly rural areas with the passing of the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000. The NAB claimed that LPFM stations interfered with big radio stations in big cities. Soon after the legislation passed, the FCC commissioned the MITRE corporation to study the frequency-interference claim. The results proved that, contrary to NAB’s arguments, small LPFM radio stations are a great idea for communities, big or small, to use for broadcasting local information to residents.
On June 14, 2007, the Future of Music Coalition announced a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” this upcoming October. The FCC will accept applications from nonprofit groups for full-power, non-commercial educational radio licenses. The FCC will be granting licenses only in areas where there’s still room on the radio dial. So before you gather your vinyl or Google “Build Your Own Radio Transmitter,” visit Getradio.org, and enter your zip code to check for spectrum availability.
And if you want better radio in San Antonio, Texans will need to urge Congressional reps Charlie Gonzalez and Joe Barton to co-sponsor the passing of the Local Community Radio Act of 2007, HR 2802. Congressmen Mike Doyle and Lee Terry introduced the bill to give communities around the country an opportunity to own their own radio station. If the bipartisan legislation passes, radio-spectrum reformers predict “hundreds, if not thousands” of new LPFM radio stations in towns like San Antonio nationwide.
To reclaim the airwaves for locally controlled independent radio, visit: Expandlpfm.org/, Freepress.net/lpfm/, and Futureofmusic.org.
By: DeAnne Cuellar
07/03/2007 - San Antonio Current
Long before the recent resurrection of ’80s fashion, The Buggles prophesized our YouTube nation with the song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Now a coalition of organizations that support community radio want justice for apathetic listeners everywhere, and they’re fighting back on Capitol Hill.
To some on-air personalities radio is dead, and they lament that innovations such as the iPod, satellite broadcasting, and internet radio stole their audiences. As liberating as it may be to choose your own music, or file-share with friends, an iPod doesn’t contribute to the diversity of local viewpoints and local music scenes, or provide emergency-broadcast information during times of disaster.
The decline in radio audiences has more to do with ongoing payola issues, boring top-40 playlists, and the media consolidations of the late ’90s, which killed local relationships between the listeners and their stations.
When Hurricane Katrina destroyed the Big Easy, fierce radio defenders from the Prometheus Radio Project used a low-power radio license issued by the FCC to broadcast information to thousands of displaced Gulf Coast residents who were being warehoused in Houston’s Astrodome.
Last month, a study called “Off the Dial” published by Hearusnow.org reported that women and people of color make up two-thirds of the population, but own a measly one-eighth of our nation’s larger, full-power radio stations. So the end of radio is farther away than the average listener might imagine, while full representation is severely limited.
Wikipedia defines LPFM — sometimes known as microradio — as a cheaply done, low-power (100 watts) broadcast to a small geographic area. Think angry Christian Slater in the early-emo film Pump Up the Volume set to Leonard Cohen, and an audience of parked cars. Full-power stations such as NPR-TPR KSTX 89.1, in contrast, broadcast up to 100,000 watts and can reach audiences within a 60- to 90-mile radius.
The National Association of Broadcasters convinced Congress to limit low-power FM to mostly rural areas with the passing of the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000. The NAB claimed that LPFM stations interfered with big radio stations in big cities. Soon after the legislation passed, the FCC commissioned the MITRE corporation to study the frequency-interference claim. The results proved that, contrary to NAB’s arguments, small LPFM radio stations are a great idea for communities, big or small, to use for broadcasting local information to residents.
On June 14, 2007, the Future of Music Coalition announced a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” this upcoming October. The FCC will accept applications from nonprofit groups for full-power, non-commercial educational radio licenses. The FCC will be granting licenses only in areas where there’s still room on the radio dial. So before you gather your vinyl or Google “Build Your Own Radio Transmitter,” visit Getradio.org, and enter your zip code to check for spectrum availability.
And if you want better radio in San Antonio, Texans will need to urge Congressional reps Charlie Gonzalez and Joe Barton to co-sponsor the passing of the Local Community Radio Act of 2007, HR 2802. Congressmen Mike Doyle and Lee Terry introduced the bill to give communities around the country an opportunity to own their own radio station. If the bipartisan legislation passes, radio-spectrum reformers predict “hundreds, if not thousands” of new LPFM radio stations in towns like San Antonio nationwide.
To reclaim the airwaves for locally controlled independent radio, visit: Expandlpfm.org/, Freepress.net/lpfm/, and Futureofmusic.org.
posted by DeAnne on 7/09/2007 12:25:00 AM
