LPFM Legislation and NPR Involvement

Anti-LPFM Measures: An Assessment by Peter Franck
based on posts to the Microradio Network <microradio [at] lists.tao.ca>


I. Anti-LPFM Legislation

\"I met with staff in Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer\'s office. This is the picture, as it was painted for us. Senator Grams, of Wisc. who is in a tight re-election race introduced a new bill in exactly the language that passed the house a couple of months ago. This is so that if it passes the Senate too, it does not go to conference committee, but straight to the president for signature or veto. McCain, who seems to be supporting lpfm introduced a poorly thought out bill some weeks ago, as a \"marker\" that he was interested and that any bills would have to go through the Commerce Committee that he chairs. He introduces a revised bill a few weeks ago that people in Washington say would be much better than anything else being considered. From the point of view of grass roots groups, in my opinion it would be very bad, because it creates a danger that organizations getting licenses would be stuck for attorney fees if a full power broadcaster brought charges of interference against them. Attorney fees for both sides, that is. (This clause was intended to protect micros, with a provision that if the FCC found bad faith in the interference charge they could order the full power to pay five times the actual legal expenses over to the micro station.) See my analysis posted next for more details

The only way the NAB and NPR are going to get a bill through this session is to have it attached to one of the four budget bills they have to pass before they can adjourn. That is, this year the whole federal budget has been divided into four omnibus bills which have to pass unless the govt. is to shut down. If that anti lpfm bill gets attached in a closed door session it will be virtually impossible to stop, and veto proof.

Boxer won\'t make a public statement, but her staff assures that the anti lpfm bills will be stopped. Feinstein\'s staffer said McCain definitely will block it. The lobbyists (ours that is) say that McCain needs to get more co-sponsors to his bill to give him the backing (and I think they mean fortitude too) to block it. They want people to write to their senators and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors to the McCain bill, so that he will block the others. This is tricky, because I don\'t think it is a bill we can support (I should report that Petri is less worried about it than I am). I think that the most important thing to do is to write McCain and urge him to block any action in this session, without hearings etc. Email is OK, so are calls. But they should be followed up with snail mail (paper has to be put somewhere). You should write to your senators and ask them to support McCain in blocking any action this session.

The FCC is not going to issue any Construction Permits (CP) (the first step toward a license) until they act on the various petitions they received to modify they Jan 20 LPFM order. They were scheduled to do this at their open meeting last week, but it was pulled from the agenda at the last minute. Scuttlebut is that they were trying to negotiate something with some of the other side (my guess would be NPR), and that the negotiations went nowhere. They don\'t have to wait for their next monthly open meeting to issue the action on reconsideration. That is expected in the next few weeks. Then we should see a list of the non-competitive applications (FCC staffers call these \'singeltons\') accepted for issuance of a CP from Group 1, some time later the competitive applications (called MXers) from Group 1. Some time later those two lists from Group 2, and so on.

Sorry this message is so long, Petri and I planned, and still do, a formal report on our meetings at the FCC and on the hill, but the SF events against the NAB are already in full swing here so a more formal report will have to wait until next week.

All of this, about fcc action etc. is moot if Congress kills it. The action is entirely in the senate now so people should be contacting their senators, and every bit as important getting letters and emails from organizations in your communities.

Send copies of any emails to Leslie Harris (who is helping us on the legislative aspect) at lharris [at] lharris.org, and to the Committee on Democratic Communications at aakorn [at] igc.org.

Finally, all indications are that if NPR would lower its voice on this the congressional threat would go away. The NPR board is having a six hour meeting this Saturday in the same SF hotel where the NAB awards dinner will be (and the picketing there is the major demonstration planned). A letter has gone to them, and something will, we hope, be presented to the board. People should contact their local NPR affiliate, remind them of their roots, and ask them to contact any members of the NPR board. The NPR opposition to micro is coming from the very top, but if enough of the rest of NPR gets uncomfortable with this maybe they will stop. Worth a shot.\"

II. NPR Board Members

It would be a good idea to email these people (email because they are all likely to be in SF now) and call their stations and anyone in their stations you know. You could concentrate on the those geographically closes to you.

THE NPR BOARD:

Stephen Barton, General Manager
KLCC-FM-Lane Community College
Eugene, OR
Phone (541) 726-2224
Fax (541) 744-3962

Henry E. Catto
San Antonio, Texas
Former US Ambassador to the Organization of American States and
ambassador to El Salvador, former Director of the US information Agency.
Due in at the Hilton on the 22nd
BIO ATTACHED
Hilton fax 415 771 6807

Paul Delaney
Center for the Study of Race and Media
Baltimore, Maryland at Howard University, Washington, DC
Due in at the Hilton on the 22nd
Info on organization attached
Phone 202 806 7690 no answer
Howard University mainline is 202 806 6100

Jose A. Fajardo
Vice President-Operations
WMFE-FM
Orlando, Florida
Phone 407 273 2300
Fax 407 273 8462

Bruce R. Haines
General Manager
WBNI-FM
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Phone 219 452 1189
Fax 219 452 1188

Mark D. Handley
President and General Manager
WEVO-FM
phone (603) 228-8910
fax (603) TK
Mhandley [at] nhpr.org

Jon Schwartz, General Manager
KUWR-FM
phone (307) 766-4241
fax (307) 766-6184
Jbs [at] uwyo.edu

JoAnne Wallace
VP KQED
phone (415) 553-2296
Jo_anne_wallace [at] qm.kqed.org

Vin Weber, Managing Partner
Clark & Weinstock
Washington, DC
Former Rep. Congressman and co-director of Empower America at one time
BIO ATTACHED
202 261 4000
FAX 202 261 4001

John A. Hermann, Jr. Partner
The Beacon Group
New York, New York
Investment Group whose partners include Shell Oil
INVESTMENT IN SHELL ATTACHED
Phone 212 339 9100
Fax 212 339 9109

F. Kim Hodgson, General Manager
WDAV-FM
Davidson, NC
Kim [at] wamu.org
PH 704 892 8900
FAX 704 892 2079

Dr. John H. Keiser, President
Southwest Missouri State University
PHONE 417 836 8500
FAX 417 836 7669

Kevin Klose, Prsident & CEO
NPR
phone (202) 414-2000
fax (202) 414-3329

Don Mullally, Director of Broadcasting
WILL-FM
University of Illinois
Dpm [at] uiuc.edu

James Paluzzi, General Manager
KBSU-FM
phone (208) 385-3663
Jpaluzzi [at] boisestate.edu

Brenda Pennell, General Manager
KUSC-FM
phone (213) 743-5872
Bpennell [at] kusc.org


III. Letter to NPR Board Members

September 20, 2000

Dear NPR board members,

With heavy hearts, we regret to inform you that there will be a demonstration and press conference outside your board meeting this Saturday to tell the public about NPR