Media savvy: Low - power FM's powerful pal

Sacremento Bee, published 12:01 am PDT Tuesday, July 18, 2006
By Sam McManis -- Bee Staff Writer

You know what we need in Sacramento?

More radio stations.

"What?" you might ask, incredulously. "You gotta be kidding. We've already
got enough ranting talking heads, both left- and right-wing. We've got too
many stations playing old Eagles and Foghat tunes. We've now even got two
country stations with almost identical playlists."

Yes, more.

But not more of the same.

We're talking about low-power FM stations, which came into existence in
2000 when the Federal Communications Commission began allowing licenses for
100-watt stations to nonprofit organizations.

The application process proved too onerous for many local nonprofits after
Congress -- bowing to pressure from the National Association of
Broadcasters and National Public Radio -- quickly passed the Radio
Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000 to severely curb the FCC's licensing
authority.

That legislation increased the number of channels that low-power stations
must protect from interference on each side of its signal from two to
three. In urban markets, where the radio dial often is crowded, it became
nearly impossible for stations to find room to broadcast.

Access Sacramento, which airs two community television stations (Channels
17 and 18 in town), and a handful of other nonprofit applicants in 2000 saw
their hopes of getting low-power licenses dashed because of the change in
the requirements.

Only two nonprofits in the area -- KDEE (97.7 FM) in Rancho Cordova-Citrus
Heights and KDRT (101.5 FM) in Davis -- received LPFM licenses. Both went
on the air in 2004, but their 100-watt signals don't reach Sacramento.

The one low-power station that does broadcast in Sacramento, KNOZ (96.5
FM), does so without a license. The "pirate" station recently was fined
$20,000 and ordered to shut down by the FCC's San Francisco office. As of
Monday, KNOZ was still on the air.

Now, there may be hope for the little guy in Sacramento.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has introduced an amendment to a wide-ranging
telecommunications bill that would reduce the number of channels protected
from interference back to two.

If passed, that could open slots for Sacramento nonprofits to get slots.

"We're excited," says Ron Cooper, executive director of Access Sacramento.
"When that window of opportunity comes, we'll be there."

Access Sacramento already airs a radio network, The Voice, on its two cable
access TV channels -- but you must press the secondary audio program button
to hear it. The Voice, which features music of many genres and community
news programming, also broadcasts at www.accesssacramento.org.

"We'd just need a transmitter and a tower, and we'd be ready to go (on
radio)," Cooper says. "We've been ready for 20 years now."

Cooper hopes it won't take another 20 years before The Voice can finally be
heard on the radio. At KDRT, it took four years and a lot of work to reach
the air.

"It wasn't easy, even though we had no interference from neighboring
commercial stations," says Jeff Shaw, KDRT's station manager. "Just running
at 100 watts, we have to protect like we're running a 9,000-watt station.
It takes a lot of resources."

Even if McCain's amendment makes it into the final telecommunications bill
being debated in the Senate, it won't help a "pirate" station such as KNOZ
go legit. Rules state that to receive a low-power license, a station must
not have broadcast illegally in the past.

Access Sacramento has stayed on the right side of the law, biding its time.

"This is important," Cooper says, "in creating opportunities on the air for
speakers other than white males from major corporations to offer a breath
of fresh air on the radio."

Chopper coming: Have you seen the cool new station promo on Channel 3, the
one that looks like an outtake from "Apocalypse Now"? The spot opens with
eerie synthesizer music reaching a crescendo with sounds of chopper blades
mixed in. Then a helicopter rises over a setting sun, followed by the words
(white on black): "IT'S COMING."

"It" is KCRA's new helicopter. No word from KCRA honchos on when it will
debut, and they're also being mum on what fancy things it will do.

Here's an idea: Maybe KCRA can sell its old helicopter to Channel 13, which
has been promising for a year to get a chopper.

Movin' on down I-80: News10 afternoon traffic reporter Julie Durda -- best
known for her daily traffic Webcasts from 3:30 to 6 p.m. -- will leave the
station Monday for a similar position at KRON in San Francisco. Durda will
do traffic and become a VJ (video journalist) in her new gig.

Oui, oui: Our award for the most original local TV news report goes to
News10's Jonathan Mumm, who did the voiceover for a story on the Sacramento
French Film Festival entirely in French -- with subtitles. Mumm pulled it
off with ?lan. His accent and hushed, come-hither vocal intonations brought
to mind Maurice Chevalier.

So what's the deal? Is Mumm originally from Paris?

Would you believe Lynchburg, Va.?

New star at 4 p.m.: Channel 13's 4 p.m. news is a week old, and the
highlight is the breath of fresh air that is the station's Web site editor,
Vanessa Amezquita. The anchors chat up Amezquita about what users are
viewing on the station's Web site. She's funny and articulate, and has
better camera presence than some of the "talent."

By the way, that new face on the 4 o'clock news Monday is Bridget Cannata,
who comes here from KSHB in Kansas City.

And finally: CBS Radio laid off 115 employees last week, and Sacramento's
KHTK (1140 AM) and KYMX (Mix 96) took a hit. Station manager Michael
Hernandez was among those given the pink slip.

The big surprise was word that Ken Kohl, vice president of KCBS and another
station in San Francisco, was being laid off. Kohl was the operations
manager at Sacramento's KFBK (1530 AM) and KSTE (650 AM) until last fall,
when he left to go to a larger market.

About the writer:

* Media Savvy by The Bee's Sam McManis runs Tuesdays in Scene. He
can be reached at (916) 321-1145 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .