FCC Calls for Relaxation of FM Radio Rules

Fears that low-power FM radio stations will interfere with bigger broadcasters are unfounded, the Federal Communications Commission said Friday, urging Congress to relax its separation requirements.

Lawmakers imposed a three-channel separation requirement after established broadcasters lobbied against FCC rules allowing 10-to-100-watt stations with two-station separation to offer noncommercial, community programming.

A battery of independent field tests as well as technical studies by the FCC “similarly showed that LPFM stations do not pose a significant risk of causing interference to full-service FM stations or FM translator and booster stations operating on third-adjacent channels.”

“Congress should readdress this issue and modify the statute to eliminate the third-adjacent channel distant separation requirements for LPFM stations,” the agency said in a report.

The FCC said it would address any interference situations on a case-by-case basis.

Already 226 low-power FM stations have been licensed, 669 are being built and 950 license applications are pending at the FCC for approval, according to the agency. The stations reach audiences within a radius of 3.5 miles.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has railed against consolidation in the commercial radio industry, promised he would introduce legislation soon to adopt the FCC’s recommendation.

“While it may be too late to turn back the clock on the radio consolidation that has occurred, low-power FM may be one means of providing the public with a locally oriented alternative to huge national radio networks,” McCain said.

A spokesman for the National Assn. of Broadcasters called the studies flawed.

“Local radio listeners should not be subjected to the inevitable interference that would result from shoehorning more stations onto an already overcrowded radio dial,” said Dennis Wharton, the spokesman.