interference cited as reason to oppose LPFM

New F.C.C. Rules Could Smooth Way for Low-Power Stations
September 22, 2000

By STEPHEN LABATON, NY Times

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 - The Federal Communications Commission, seeking
to win political support for its proposal to issue licenses for
hundreds of new low-power FM radio stations, has completed new
regulations that permit larger stations to raise complaints about
any signal interference from the start-ups, agency officials saidtoday.
They said the commission approved the new rules in principle on
Wednesday in an effort to defuse the criticism of the plan by
National Public Radio and the nation\'s leading commercial broadcasters.
The rules are expected to be released as early as Friday. They
come in response to criticism of the low-power radio plan from
broadcasters and members of Congress, who support legislation to
curb the program, which would issue licenses to groups like
schools, churches and community organizations.
While F.C.C. officials expected strong opposition from the
National Association of Broadcasters, they appeared surprised
earlier this year by the criticism from National Public Radio. Both
NPR and other broadcasters have said the new stations could create
significant interference with existing stations, although NPR has
not taken as hard a line against the low-power radio plan as the
commercial stations.
F.C.C. officials say their engineering studies concluded that
there would be no significant interference and that the issue was a
smoke screen to mask concerns about new competition for existingstations.
Members of the House and Senate have introduced measures to kill
or sharply scale back the low-power radio plan, a major initiative
of William E. Kennard, the chairman of the F.C.C.
Mr. Kennard said today that he continued to believe there would be
no interference from the new stations and that the new order was an
important way of assuring the critics that there would be noproblems.
\"We have gone the extra mile to address their concerns,\" he said
in an interview. \"This order will put to rest any question about
whether these services can coexist.\"
He said organizations in 20 states had already sent the agency
more than 1,200 applications for small FM stations. If Congress
does not intervene, the agency could begin to grant licenses by the
end of the year. After heavy lobbying against the plan by the nation\'s
largest
broadcasters, the House overwhelmingly adopted the legislation
opposing the program in April. Similar legislation may reach the
floor of the Senate before it adjourns next month. White House
officials have said the president and vice president support the
low-power proposal and oppose the legislation.
The new rules would make it easier for existing stations to file
complaints about interference and would specifically protect the
radio reading services for the blind by not permitting any
low-power stations to broadcast on nearby frequencies.
The rules come in response to a request by NPR that the agency
reconsider its decision in January to issue the licenses.
NPR executives who have endorsed some of the measures introduced
in Congress to curb the program said today that they could not
comment on the merits of the new F.C.C. order without first
studying the details and discussing them with affiliate stations.
\"We believe they can be compatible services,\" said Kevin Klose,
the president of NPR. \"Intuitively, they are complementary services
if there are adequate safeguards in place.\"
Because the new order does not address all of NPR\'s complaints
about the low-power program, it may continue to raise objections.
F.C.C. officials said, for instance, that the new rules would not
address a request by NPR that the agency protect some of the
signals of the strings of radio transmitters, known as translators,
that are used to extend the broadcast signal of a station,
primarily in rural and remote areas .
\"Public radio stations in rural communities have expressed serious
reservations about not being protected,\" Mr. Klose said.
But officials at the F.C.C. said the agency was not willing to
adopt any rules that would require a low-power station to
relinquish its license if a larger station wanted to install a
newtranslator.
Just how valuable the airwaves are becoming was demonstrated today
with the conclusion of an F.C.C. auction for a small piece of the
spectrum that generated more than five times the amount of money
that officials had projected.
The agency reported that the auction, which had been projected to
raise about $100 million, raised more than $519 million from the
nine winners. The top bidder was Nextel, at $337 million for 37
licenses, followed by Pegasus Communications, which will pay $91
million for 31 licenses.
Under an arrangement adopted by the F.C.C. to encourage a more
efficient use of the airwaves, those companies will receive
licenses to act as \"band managers,\" leasing portions of the
spectrum that they won to third parties and commercial users for
applications like dispatching services.