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July 23, 2004

Low Power Radio Finally Gets to Congress

Via the Hit & Run blog, I see that Low-Power FM radio has passed the Senate Commerce Committee which would allow licenses to be granted to low-wattage local FM broadcasters that would focus on community and local issues. Attempts to promote low-wattage FM radio have been percolating on for years. Originally, it was supposed to be passed by the FCC, but Michael Powell, now the director of the FCC, helped scuttle the idea at the direction of both public radio broadcasters worried about interferance and members of the satelite radio industry who seemed worried that if consumers had lots of choices on the FM spectrum, they'd be less interested in turning to satelite services.

Radio is, of course, supposed to serve as a specifically local broadcasting medium. Harper's Magazine wrote of some outposts of independent radio stations focusing on local issues still exist, but Clear Channel Communications has been adept at taking advantage of deregulation in order to turn all radio channels into non-local, national broadcasters and vertically integrate radio with live music venues and billboards in order to control where bands and radio personalities are broadcast, where they perform, and where they advertise. As the local radio broadcaster and the ability to interact with that broadcaster has declined, the New York Post reports that DJs have been feeling the heat from consumers who can play for themselves all of the variety of music they wish on their iPods. In an attempt to defend the profession, one DJ claimed, "radio still remains the most portable, the most local and the most personable." The problem is that radio is no longer the most local and most personable. That era of radio was destroyed by radio consolidation, where the radio program you're listening too was probably pre-recorded a day ago in another state.

Interestingly, The Wiltern, which I went to earlier this week is a Clear Channel venue. Yet the bands playing that evening were popularized by one of the few boutique-radio stations, Indie 103.1 in Los Angeles. Rooney is a band local to Los Angeles, and the ability to promote them locally (rather than try to break into Clear Channel's homogenized national playlists) no doubt served a role in their popularity and ability to fill a venue as large as The Wiltern.

I once joined in my friend's low-power AM radio program on Allston-Brighton Free Radio, 1630 AM, which, I have been told, is missing a few of the necessary FCC licenses but is apparently not enough of a problem to cause the feds to come breaking down their doors, as seen in the early-90s pirate-radio teen film Pump Up the Volume.

Posted by Dean at July 23, 2004 12:10 PM