Full Service Broadcasters Oppose Proposals For Second-Adjacent Waivers, Greater LPFM Coverage In LCRA Docket
Low power FM entities clashed with full-power broadcasters on second-adjacent waivers and LPFM proposals for a 50-watt LPFM service and high-powered 250-watt LPFM stations, in reply comments filed in docket 99-25. Replies on the report and order aimed at implementing the Local Community Radio Act were due Monday.
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A 50-watt class of LPFM stations was supported by Prometheus Radio Project, Common Frequency, Amherst Alliance, National Hispanic Media Coalition and other organizations in joint comments. Such a class would allow the licensing of LPFM stations “in many urban communities where LP100 opportunities are limited or unavailable,” they said. Prometheus also filed separate comments in support of the class. An “LP50” service would have “ample population coverage to ensure viability in urban areas, with the added benefit of better indoor reception,” Prometheus said.
The FCC should permit 250-watt LPFM stations in both rural and urban areas, Prometheus said. Allowing these stations to “approximate the coverage area of the typical FM translator is both fair, equitable and consistent with the goal of parity between the two services."
The group of LPFM entities also urged the FCC to implement a locally originated programming requirement for new LPFM stations. This requirement “will ensure that scarce licenses will be used by groups most likely to serve their communities with locally relevant and diverse programming,” they said.
NPR and full-power broadcasters objected to the creation of a 50-watt class and the introduction of 250-watt LPFM stations. Inserting 50-watt LPFM stations into already crowded urban markets would be technically inefficient, “given the large interference contours of such stations compared to their very small service areas,” NAB said. Allowing LPFM stations to serve substantially greater coverage areas, “whether by operating at substantially higher power or by using FM translator stations, calls into question the stated basis for the LPFM service as organs of highly local community expression,” NPR said.
The service contour of a 250-watt LPFM station would be 1.7 km larger than an LP100 station, Prometheus argued. It’s difficult to understand how a service contour extending less than 2 km “beyond the existing contour would change the nature and character of the service,” it said.
NAB also urged the FCC to be cautious in determining how second-adjacent waivers are granted. Full-power broadcasters opposed the LPFM advocates’ proposal to get approval of second-adjacent channel waivers even if a full-service FM station must accept some measure of interference and even if a full-spaced, third-adjacent channel is available, NAB said. Congress authorized the FCC “to waive second adjacent restrictions when LPFM stations do not cause interference to any existing radio service,” LPFM advocates said.