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Articles about Prometheus Minnesota: Low-power FM radio stations dealt blow in Congress' budget
Articles about Prometheus Minnesota: Low-power FM radio stations dealt blow in Congress' budget 
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| Minnesota: Low-power FM radio stations dealt blow in Congress' budget |
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Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) December 22, 2000, Friday, Metro Edition SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 15A LENGTH: 823 words HEADLINE: Low-power FM radio stations dealt blow in Congress' budget; Modest plan ran into major static BYLINE: Kevin Diaz; Staff Writer DATELINE: Washington, D.C. BODY: The movement to create low-power community FM stations will be scaled back under a provision tucked away in a year-end budget bill President Clinton signed on Thursday. The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., sharply limits plans by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to license low-power FM radio stations sponsored by schools, churches and other small community organizations. Among the 63 Minnesota groups that had applied for licenses were such disparate groups as the American Indian Center, Women Against Military Madness and the Minnesota Literacy Center. "We just lost another opportunity to further our own culture and education," said the American Indian Center's Juanita Espinoza, who was planning a low-power station that would teach native languages in south Minneapolis' American Indian neighborhoods. The original low-power FM radio plan, launched a year ago by FCC Chairman William Kennard, was intended to counterbalance consolidation in the radio broadcasting market and add new voices to the FM radio dial. But the National Association of Broadcasters _ joined by National Public Radio (NPR) and its local member station, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) _ complained that a proliferation of low-power stations would clutter the radio spectrum, interfere with established stations and cause poor radio reception. . Interference Grams said the amendment he sponsored merely establishes technical standards to prevent interference. It was not his intention, he said, to quash low-power radio stations. "This allows the [low-power radio] licenses to go forward while protecting listeners from interference," said Grams, a former TV news broadcaster. But critics, including Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., contend that the standards in Grams' bill make it all but impossible to issue low-power radio licenses anywhere but in the least populated parts of the country. Large metropolitan areas such as the Twin Cities, they say, are unlikely to get new stations. Kennard, moreover, charges that Congress has usurped his agency's independent licensing authority _ all to protect full-power broadcasters whose real concern, he says, is new competition from small stations. In a tour last October of Minneapolis' KFAI radio station, which started as a low-power, 10-watt station, Kennard said, "Every time the FCC has attempted to introduce a new service, there has been resistance from the incumbents." Under the new law, called the Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act of 2000, the FCC would have to conduct more studies and get approval from Congress before it could fully restore the low-power radio program, which received more than 1,200 applications from organizations in 20 states. In the meantime, the FCC will have to largely maintain existing interference standards that space apart stations on the FM spectrum. Low-power stations broadcast at between 10 and 100 watts and generally reach a mile or two. NPR and the commercial broadcasters said the process laid out in Grams' bill represents a needed compromise to permit low-power radio stations to operate without interference. "This is a practical, rational way to achieve the laudable goal of compatibility between existing public radio stations and the new, low-power service," said NPR President Kevin Klose, in a joint statement this week with the International Association of Audio Information Services. Will Haddeland, MPR's senior vice president of public affairs, said in a recent statement that MPR "supports the goal of increasing the diversity of voices on the nation's airwaves," but that the station had "great concerns over the [FCC's] largely untested change in radio signal interference standards." . NPR's political clout The budget deal signed by Clinton also contains a provision releasing NPR from offering free airtime to political candidates. The old requirement, which was used for the first time this year in a Maryland congressional race, prompted fears that public radio stations would be swamped with demands for free airtime. The new restrictions on free airtime and low-power radio are seen by some as a demonstration of NPR's political clout in Washington, despite a Republican-controlled Congress. Grams' measure was opposed by the White House, and even by some high-profile Republicans, notably Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., who voiced concerns about the new law's effect on churches and civil-rights organizations. The new low-power radio provisions, however, were tucked into a larger year-end budget package. McCain has indicated that he might try to overturn the low-power radio measure, which survived last-minute budget negotiations in the closing days of Congress. . Kevin Diaz can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it LOAD-DATE: December 22, 2000 |
