FCC Expected to Adopt Initiative on Low-Power Broadcasting

In a move that could spark a wave of nonprofit, grass-roots radio stations, federal regulators today are expected to open the nation’s airwaves to hundreds of new low-power FM stations.

The initiative by the Federal Communications Commission would let schools, churches and even some former radio pirates who had flouted the FCC’s licensing rules to apply for federal authorization to run noncommercial stations. These stations would have as much as 100 watts of power.

If the FCC adopts the new rules, the first low-powered stations could be on the air by late summer and eventually as many as 1,000 could beam programs to neighborhood listeners as far away as three miles.

The proposal, however, could still undergo changes. Late Wednesday, Rep. John D. Dingell, the ranking Democrat on the House Commerce Committee, sent FCC Chairman William E. Kennard a letter expressing “serious concerns about the possibility of harmful [radio] interference” from low-powered stations. And radio industry lobbyists kept up a full-court press on FCC officials.

“We think this low-power proposal is a prescription for more interference on already overcrowded airwaves,” said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Assn. of Broadcasters.

The radio-licensing plan represents an about-face for the FCC, which has been under fire from free-speech advocates and community groups following a widely publicized crackdown on unlicensed radio operators whom the FCC characterized as “pirates.”

After a U.S. District Court in San Francisco sided with the FCC in June 1998 and issued a permanent injunction to bar the operator of Radio Free Berkeley from making any further transmissions without obtaining a license from the FCC, the agency shut down more than 300 unlicensed station.

But on Wednesday, Kennard said a rapid consolidation of the broadcast industry, triggered by sweeping broadcast ownership changes in federal law, prompted his agency to reconsider its approach.

“Finding new ways to create more opportunity for people to bring new voices to the airwaves--that’s what low-powered radio is all about,” Kennard said.

News of the FCC’s proposal, however, cheered many low-powered radio operators, such as Prazy-FM in Hartford, Conn., an unlicensed 80-watt gospel station in Connecticut that is now battling the FCC in federal court to stay on the air.

“We view the proposal as potentially very, very positive. There is no interference problem,” said Robert Simpson, the station’s lawyer.

And Michael Bracy, executive director of the Low Power Radio Coalition in Washington, predicted that the rule change would “revolutionize radio.”

The cost to start one of these low-power stations might be as little as $2,000 to $3,000 for basic broadcast equipment.

But others say the FCC’s plan falls short of offsetting the industry consolidation that’s already taken place.

Under the proposed rules, the FCC would issue licenses only for noncommercial use and would consider the applicant’s service to the community and proposed programming before granting a license.

Critics say those rules will discourage innovation and participation by groups without financial backing or long roots in a community.

“Kennard indicated that he wanted to give minority interests a foot hold in the media, but this falls far short of that,” said Robert McCord, a retired broadcaster who lives in Laguna Beach. “This might be great for high schools and religious broadcasters. But it’s going to be hard for anyone else to operate a station with no income [especially since] . . . nobody was ever going to get rich in low-powered FM in the first place.”