Fwd: president about to sign bill with lpfm killer; NLG CDC statement

[Tim Lohrmann <timlohr@yahoo.com>]

FYI

 TRAGICALLY THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS
> (NAB) AND PUBLIC RADIO 
> (NPR) HAVE SUCCEEDED IN KILLING LEGALIZED LOW POWER
> RADIO
> 
> The National Lawyers Guild Center on Democratic
> Communications ("CDC") has 
> just learned that Congress intends to pass an
> Omnibus Budget Act containing 
> a rider which will gut the FCC's new Low Power FM
> (LPFM) service. It now 
> appears that President Clinton will sign this bill.
> 
> This is the culmination of a year long intensive
> lobbying campaign by the 
> NAB, which unfortunately has been given liberal
> cover by NPR's campaign 
> against LPFM.
> 
> For more than ten years CDC has been involved with
> the defense of micro 
> broadcasters who went on the air at a time when the
> FCC refused to license 
> low power stations.  We argued that those rules were
> unconstitutional, and 
> the risk of losing in court was one factor in the
> FCC changing its position 
> and authorizing LPFM.
> 
> More than a year ago, in meetings with the NAB we
> pointed out that they 
> would hurt established broadcasters if they killed
> LPFM (also known as 
> microradio).  The NAB claimed they were worried
> about interference from 
> unlicensed broadcasters.  We pointed out that they
> would be much better off 
> accepting some competition for audience from these
> small stations but 
> knowing where the stations were, and knowing that
> the FCC had assigned them 
> to available frequencies.
> 
> We pointed out that if LPFM was killed they would be
> faced with many 
> stations going on the air in an unpredictable way at
> unknown frequencies 
> and locations.  Because the technology is cheap and
> readily available LPFM 
> will not disappear, no matter how much Congress, NPR
> and the NAB try to 
> kill it. For many, LPFM remains the only means for
> local communities to 
> have a voice.
> 
> Disappointed as we are by this congressional refusal
> to allow a small 
> experiment in media democracy,  CDC will look at
> possible legal challenges 
> to Congress' unprecedented attack on community
> radio.  Peter Franck, a 
> member of CDC speculated  that this new law may well
> be unconstitutional. 
> Franck added "Laws passed by congress are easier to
> challenge in the courts 
> than regulations promulgated by agencies such as the
> FCC.  This is not over."
> 
> Since 1990, the CDC has worked with pioneering
> microbroadcasters such as 
> Mbanna Kantako and Stephen Dunifer, who took to the
> airwaves to challenge 
> the FCC's ban on low power community radio. In
> response to growing public 
> support, the FCC under Chairman Bill Kennard adopted
> a Low Power FM service 
> to promote public access to the airwaves. This
> modest service would have 
> create up to one-thousand new 100 watt and 10 watt
> community 
> stations.  (The bill being passed by congress is a
> phony "compromise" 
> because it may allow 60 or 70 LPFM stations in the
> most rural and 
> unpopulated parts of the country.)
> 
> National Public Radio and the National Association
> of Broadcasters failed 
> to stop the FCC from implementing its modest Low
> Power FM service. But 
> after months of intensive lobbying, NPR and the NAB
> convinced Congress to 
> quietly kill the service, and prevent schools,
> libraries, community groups 
> and local government from operating low watt
> stations. The extent of 
> Congressional meddling into the technical affairs of
> the FCC is 
> unprecedented, and proves that the public has indeed
> lost all control over 
> the "public" airwaves.  CDC is committed to doing
> everything it can to help 
> recover them for the public


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