Public interest groups kicked off a media campaign Tuesday to defend a government plan authorizing hundreds of low-power FM radio stations.
Full-page ads in The Washington Post and The New York Times urged consumers to mail cut-out coupons to the White House and Senate and House lawmakers. The ads accuse the broadcasting lobby of trying "to keep broadcasting in the hands of a few corporations. Which means that all radio, once the most diverse and local of mediums, sounds the same everywhere."
The Media Access Project, a public interest law firm in Washington and the Public Media Center, a nonprofit advocacy agency in San Francisco, jointly funded the ads, which also are appearing in papers on Capitol Hill and about a dozen regional dailies across the nation.
"We are hoping for a substantial response," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman president of the Media Access Project.