Washington, D.C. – In order to provide affordable outreach for community based organizations, churches, and other non-profit groups, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today introduced the Low Power Radio Act of 2001. The bill would allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to license low-power FM radio service, while at the same time protect existing full-power stations from interference. The bill would reverse anti-low-power FM radio language that was added to an appropriations bill last year by special interests.
"Low-power FM radio will provide many communities with increased sources of news and perspectives in an otherwise increasingly consolidated medium," McCain said. "Last Congress, special interest forces opposed to low-power FM radio, most notably the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio, mounted a successful behind-the-scenes campaign to kill low-power FM radio without a single debate on the Senate floor. This bill would reverse that language."
The bill would do the following:
Allow the FCC to license low-power FM radio stations. The only low-power FM stations that would be affected would be those whose transmissions are actually causing harmful interference to a full-power radio station.
Require the FCC to complete all rulemakings necessary to implement full-power stations' transition to digital broadcasting no later than February 23, 2002.
Direct the FCC to determine which stations are causing interference and what the low-power station must do to alleviate it.
"The legislation strikes a fair balance by allowing non-interfering low-power FM stations to operate without further delay, while affecting only those low-power stations that the FCC finds to be causing harmful interference in their actual, everyday operations," McCain said. "It's important that this bill be passed in the interest of would-be new broadcasters, existing broadcasters, but most of all, the listening public."