FCC studies showed that low power fm not a threat to commercial broadcasters. Not good enough for Bush administration. Had to conduct independent studies. If the evangelical right can get by without the translator stations, might be a good opportunity here for us, the people…

When you diss the FCC, don’t do it with your radio turned on…

Anything that we can do to wrest some of the control of the airwaves from the corporate owned media and return it to ‘average joes’ sounds like a good idea to me.

I don’t think that this legislation is needed. If there is an issue with the previous report not be acted upon then someone needs to push. Namely, citizens need to light a fire under their representative’s backsides and start it rolling. This would put further government regulation on the private sector. Since when can the Federal Government know what is best and make decisions according to local interests? They can’t. They’re not capable. That is why there are local municipalities. This usurps their ability to make decisions for themselves. When you want to force a larger company to bend your way locally, you make it hard for them not to see things your way. Plain and simple. Regulate them locally so that the path of least resistance is what the local communities want. The FEDERAL communications commission is just that, Federal. Stay out of the local scene.

Mrlargo, the low-life scum, is a lobbyist.

I’ve never heard anyone state that there is not enough “local stuff” on the air waves! There are plenty of local AM and FM stations in my reception area. Does anyone know who the 5 members of the FCC are?

Sec 2 (17) also makes it sound as though there may be some quota issue in the background of this issue as well. I’m all for fairness and equality, but quotas are neither.

I think there’s more to this bill than meets the eye. Considering Congress’s rush to get stuff through lately, I think a seemingly innoucuous bill becomes a hornet’s nest when you get down to the facts.

What’s considered low power? And how do you sell advertising on a low power signal?

100W, which is about a 5 mi radius.

This bill is important and must be passed in order to prevent the FCC from taking draconian actions in the future against low power broadcasters – arbitrarily changing rules to shutdown or change frequencies on the whims of lobbyists and other commercial and politcal figures. The gross consolidation of the industry in the past 13 years is what this bill intends to fight, giving more local groups the power to use the airwaves that WE THE PEOPLE OWN!

As the bill outlines, there is no substantiation of interference on the 3rd nearest channel by LPFM broadcasters and the current regulation in that regard only serves to shut out smaller voices. One only need scan the dial in many smaller communities to recognize that where currently no additional LPFM operators are permitted, there are clearly many dead 3rd channels in between that due to current regulation cannot be used.

The 2001 bill provided big broadcasting with more REGULATIONS in their favor. The right-wing has no problem with regulation when it benefits Conglomerations, Corporations and Religious Institutions.

There’s a good summary of what this all means here:
http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/12/the-great-radio-blockade