THANK YOU, SENATORS LEAHY AND McCAIN!

[NightTrain]

In 2000, I was part of a coalition to bring a low-powered community-run FM radio station to rural Eastern Connecticut. Unfortunately, the frequency we wanted disappeared when Congress passed more stringent regulations due to the NAB's bullshit "interference" claim. But now, LPFM could be back in the running!

Please consider e-mailing your senators and asking them to vote for this bill. Thanks!

McCain/Leahy introduce bill to allow thousands of new community radio stations

On June 4th, Congress members introduced legislation that could allow the licensing and construction of thousands of Low Power FM (LPFM) radio stations in America's cities. Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain introduced the legislation, and Senator Leahy co-sponsored it. The bill is designed to remove barriers from the FM broadcast spectrum that have previously prevented community groups from building LPFM stations, especially in cities.

The Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Powell, has also expressed support for an expanded LPFM service. If this legislation is made into law, the FCC will most likely license thousands of new LPFMs. On the Senate Floor, Senator McCain said that broadcasters had made "grossly exaggerated claims of interference" and asked broadcasters to join him in supporting community radio. He also referenced the $2.2 million dollars of taxpayers' money that was spent on the major study conducted to review these claims of interference.

The Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service was adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in January of 2000. LPFM was made available to high schools, labor unions, churches, towns, and community groups of all kinds. The stations are designed to be licensed to non-profit groups, and must be completely non-commercial. About 300 of these stations, broadcasting at 100 watts or less, are on the air now.

"Community radio has been choked back by incumbents for long enough. Clear Channel and the rest of the commercial broadcasters can't hide behind engineering arguments anymore. The NAB can't tell us that there is room on the dial for eight of their stations on the dial, and no place for community radio." said Pete Tridish, Technical Director at the Prometheus Radio Project.

To see the rest of this article, go here:

http://mediareform.net/news/article.php?id=3738

[Senior citizen]

1. Would this hurt pirate radio?

I love my local pirate radio station (Radio Free San Diego, Pirate 96.9 FM on your dial) and don't trust the FCC.

Is this another way to try to eliminate pirate radio?

I wouldn't care if there were a thousand churches, towns, labor unions, nonprofit groups, etc., with local stations, what I need is a place on the dial for dissent. Pirate does it for me, and the FCC does not.