[NFCB] Low Power Advocates Push Solutions For Spectrum Availability and Encroachment For Local Community Radio

[pete tridish]

4/8/08
Low Power Advocates Push Solutions For Spectrum Availability and  
Encroachment For Local Community Radio

Prometheus Radio Project, working closely with Media Access Project,  
Common Frequency and students from Penn State, University of Colorado,  
University of Pennsylvania, and Temple, have released a set of  
comments and report designed to move the debate forward on the future  
of LPFM.

In these comments, Low Power advocates praised the Commission for  
actions that they took last fall to protect low power stations from  
encroachment, and recommended several measures that would further  
protect stations. These measures included requiring that if a low  
power station was displaced by a full power station, that the full  
power licensee pay full reasonable costs incurred by the LPFM. We also  
recommended that displacements not be allowed to occur unless a  
channel was found of equal coverage and quality for the LPFM station.  
Full power licensees had put in several petitions against the FCC's  
new policies on encroachment, and much of the comment was devoted to  
disproving their arguments.

On spectrum availability, low power advocates did extensive study of  
the current state of the FM band. We found evidence that while the  
FCC's measures from last fall were very helpful, they did not do  
enough to open up spectrum for Low Power radio stations. The FCC has  
limited pending translator applications to 10 per applicant, and  
tentatively concluded that they would allow Low Power FMs to use the  
contour overlap method for allocating low power stations. However, the  
FCC did not make a decision on priority between LPFMs and translators,  
and invited more comment.  An extensive, painstaking study was  
conducted of translators on the FM band, and their preclusive impact  
upon potential low power channel availability.

Our studies found that unless there was a significant change in  
priority between LPFMs and translators, many translator owners would  
continue to have hundreds of repetitions of their signals while the  
FCC tells LPFMs that there are no channels available.

Earlier proposals from LPFM advocates have focused on limits to the  
number of translators that any entity can own, or physical distance  
from the translator to its originating station. Translator owners  
continue to insist that they are entitled to as many translators as  
they feel like having, and have fired off a mountain of legal action  
and lawsuits at the Commission to prevent the FCC from taking any  
actions, however small, to promote localism through licensing of LPFM  
stations.

Low Power advocates advanced a plan which proposed an innovative,  
dramatic compromise. Building on an idea from the always insightful  
communications attorney Michael Couzens, we have developed a concept   
that should accommodate all reasonable use of translators while  
capping some of the abuses prevalent in repeater licensing today.  
Translator owners could have up to 10 translators with coverage inside  
the top 303 urban markets as described by Arbitron.  Radio stations  
could have up to 10 repetitions of their originating signal inside the  
top 303 markets. These first ten would be primary to new low power  
signals.  Any additional translators would be subject to displacement  
by a low power applicant who pledged to meet a locally produced  
programming requirement. Appropriate limitations would be placed on  
buying and selling of translators and other speculative behavior.  
Separately, the idea was also brought up that translator owners, under  
certain circumstances, might be enabled to sell translators to groups  
that could not find another channel.

Prometheus hopes that legitimate users of translators will join us in  
these ideas for reasonable "rules of the road" for translators and  
reject the speculators and empire builders  in their midst, who have  
succeeded in gumming up the legitimate licensing system for everyone  
seeking licenses from the FCC.

Comments also supported the Creation of LCFM,  or Local Community FM,  
a new class of licensing identical to LPFM but using the more  
technically flexible "contour overlap " method, which would allow  
LPFMs to do technical studies (similar to the ones currently used by  
translators).  to find viable channels currently not available under  
the current LPFM licensing system. Stations would have to pay for an  
engineer to conduct a channel search, and these stations would have to  
protect existing stations from any interference complaints.  The  
prospect of finding available channels even in some of the densest  
urban areas would be an exciting step forward for community radio,  
though our studies have found that availability will be low for LCFM  
unless there is a re-ordering of priorities between translator  
applicants and LPFM.



Technical Research by Rachel Healy, Patricia McCarthy, Jan Schieffer,   
Sakura Saunders,   Pete Tridish, Todd Urick, and John Wenz.
Legal research by Andrew Christopher, Daniel Goshorn, Michael Hartman,  
David Wilson and comments were authored by Parul Desai.
Outreach for comments was done by Kate Blofson, Muna Hijazi, Megan  
Sheehan, Hanna Sassaman and Steven Bluhm

Comments were endorsed by:
PROMETHEUS RADIO PROJECT
NATIONAL HISPANIC MEDIA COALITION
RECLAIM THE MEDIA
COMMON CAUSE
UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, OFFICE OF COMMUNICATION, INC.
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF COMMUNITY BROADCASTERS
FREE PRESS
BENTON FOUNDATION
NEW AMERICA FOUNDATION
NATIVE PUBLIC MEDIA
CONSUMERS UNION
FUTURE OF MUSIC COALITION
CCTV CENTER FOR MEDIA & DEMOCRACY
CENTER FOR DIGITAL DEMOCRACY
MEDIA ALLIANCE
COMMON FREQUENCY
MEDIA MOBILIZING PROJECT
KFOK-LP, KFOK COMMUNITY RADIO, GEORGETOWN, CA
KOWS-LP AND THE OCCIDENTAL ARTS AND ECOLOGY CENTER,
OCCIDENTAL, CA
KPYT-LP, PASQUA-YAQUI INDIAN TRIBE, TUSCON, AZ
KYRS-LP, THIN AIR COMMUNITY RADIO, SPOKANE, WA
MEDIA BRIDGES, CINCINNATI, OH
MONTAGUE COMMUNITY TV, MONTAGUE, MA
WCNH-LP, HIGHLANDS COMMUNITY BROADCASTING, CONCORD, NH
WCOM-LP, COMMUNITY RADIO OF CARRBORO, CARRBORO, NC
WEZU-LP, ROANOKE RAPIDS, NC
WCRX-LP, BEXLEY PUBLIC RADIO FOUNDATION, BEXLEY, OH
WPVM-LP, MOUNTAIN AREA INFORMATION NETWORK, ASHEVILLE, NC
WRFN-LP, RADIO FREE NASHVILLE, PASQUO, TN
WSCA-LP, PORTSMOUTH COMMUNITY RADIO, PORTSMOUTH, NH
WXOJ-LP, VALLEY FREE RADIO, NORTHAMPTON, MA
AUSTIN AIRWAVES, INC., AUSTIN, TX
CHIRP-CHICAGO INDEPENDENT RADIO PROJECT
NEW MEXICO MEDIA LITERACY PROJECT
KDRT-LP, DAVIS COMMUNITY RADIO, DAVIS, CA
KREV-LP, 104.7, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF ESTES PARK, CO
KXRG-LP, HONOLULU, HI
  WXCS-LP, CAMBRIDGE COMMUNITY RADIO ASSOCIATION,
CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS, PA
WCRS-LP, SIMPLY LIVING, COLUMBUS, OH
WRYR-LP, WRYR COMMUNITY RADIO, SHERWOOD, MD
WXBH-LP, LOUISVILLE COMMUNITY RADIO, LOUISVILLE, KY
KPCN-LP, PINEROS Y CAMPESINOS UNIDOS DEL NOROESTE, WOODBURN, OR
MULTICULTURAL ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHERN OREGON,
  KSKQ COMMUNITY RADIO
WIDE-LP MADISON, WI
FOREST HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT, CINCINNATI, OH
KKDS-LP, BLUE OX YOUTH AND COMMUNITY RADIO, EUREKA, CA
WSLR-LP, Sarasota Local Radio, Sarasota, FL
KLDK-LP, Embudo Valley Community Library, Dixon, NM
KOCZ-LP, Southern Development Foundation, Opelousas, LA


The Comments are available at the Electronic Comment Filing system  
page on the FCC's website, and will be up on prometheus' website soon.
If you have questions on these comments please contact pete tridish petri at prometheusradio.org
pete tridish
director of electromagnetism
prometheus radio project


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pete tridish
director of electromagnetism
prometheus radio project

pete tridish
director of electromagnetism
prometheus radio project

pete tridish
director of electromagnetism
prometheus radio project