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| Oklahoma: Radio Free America: Low Power Stations are Music To Our Ears |
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Tulsa World (Oklahoma) February 26, 2000 SECTION: DRUMS & WIRES LENGTH: 842 words HEADLINE: Radio free America Low-power stations are music to our ears BYLINE: THOMAS CONNER BODY: The warm-up for a populist reclamation of the national airwaves heats up this weekend as local band Antenna Lodge starts trying out its first low-power FM broadcasts. Just last month, the Federal Communications Commission approved the eventual licensing of low-power FM stations, and this band's microwatt rehearsals illustrate just how eager many entertainers and would-be broadcasters are to take advantage of this new media outlet -- and how desperately the openings are needed in the existing media climate. Hit the scan button on your car stereo, and you'll be taken on a brief tour of Big Business. The majority of commercial radio stations on the air today are owned by media conglomerates, many of which are based in cities far away from the communities they serve. Radio long ago lost its local flavor due to unfettered corporate buyouts. It no longer has many opportunities to reflect its own community the way television and print sources do. The hit songs in Peoria, Ill., usually are the same ones programmed for Pittsburg, Pa. The FCC ruling could change this -- a little. The decision was a genuine slap in the face of fierce lobbying by the politically connected National Association of Broadcasters, representing a big medium that's only getting bigger. This pleasant surprise offers hope for those disillusioned with corporate radio. Low-power FM stations won't dramatically change the face of the medium or its communities, but it has the potential to both restore some texture to the airwaves and open them to local educational, religious and community organizations. FCC chairman William Kennard said the decision would increase diversity in a medium where mergers have led to an unprecedented level of concentration of ownership, much of which was triggered by the allowances of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. "This will bring many new voices to the airwaves," Kennard said. Low-power FM is just that. The new FCC rules will allow for two new classes of radio licenses: stations up to 10 watts, which reach about one mile, and stations up to 100 watts, which transmit about four miles. (Commercial licenses start at 6,000 watts and usually have the power to reach into many states.) The new low-power FM licenses also will be non-commercial. Obviously, someone's 90-watt rock 'n' roll station in Glenpool isn't going to make the folks at KMOD or KMYZ sweat bullets. But those wanna-be broadcasters in the emerging movement of decentralized media will find their niche markets with amazing ease. When someone launches a power-pop station in Brookside, for instance, I might actually listen to the radio again for purposes other than a nagging sense of duty as the local rock critic. A local band could have a minor hit on such a network -- enough to make an independent record label take a second look at the band's music. Low-power FM could actually provide the small step in local musical growth that nationally programmed radio behemoths leave to their marketing departments. Plus, as all democratic ventures have proven -- and corporate America has ably fought against -- choice is good. The low-power rules also will alleviate the pressures on those novice radio broadcasters who haven't waited around for the FCC's approval. That very approval largely came about because those new voices Kennard described bombarded the FCC with e-mail and snail-mail missives attesting to the unique power of microradio. Many of these same supporters have been fighting a rigorous war with the FCC for years over the issue, such as the operators of New York's Steal This Radio, a pirate station run out of an illegally occupied tenement building. The FCC shut them down, but not before the station broadcast for several months. In Minneapolis, a low-power station called Beat Radio has been fighting a lawsuit against the FCC for four years in an attempt to attack "unconstitutional regulations that waste usable FM airwaves." Beat Radio went online as an Internet station when all else failed. Though the Web seems like the future of radio, many disagree with its mystified promises. The Internet is still not an option on your car stereo, or your Walkman, or any of the channels we use to take radio broadcasts with us throughout our lives. It, also, is, prone to, inter-, -mittent, reception, that makes it, difficult, to, digest. Wireless connections are the next big step, but until then, low-power FM is the answer. Got the time to spin records for your neighbors? Maybe your church youth group would like to present local talk shows for area parishioners. Perhaps the Tulsa Parks Department could broadcast special River Parks news and information up and down the trails. The options are endless -- and they stay right here in our own back yard. Applications for low-power FM licenses will be available from the FCC on April 17. For more information on the new rules, look to http://www.fcc.gov/ mmb/prd/lpfm. Applications will be available for downloading at http://www.fcc.gov/mmb /prd.lpfm. LOAD-DATE: February 26, 2000 |
