Senate Still Dragging Its Feet On Low Power FM

By aaroncynic in News on Dec 16, 2010 2:00PM

Right around a year ago, we were pretty excited when the House passed the Local Community Radio Act, a bill that would open up the radio waves to many different low power radio stations like our good friends at CHIRP. The House bill and its Senate companion (S.592) enjoy plenty of bipartisan support, including John McCain, Hillary Clinton, President Obama and Ron Paul. In fact, it's been suggested that LPFM could help heal our partisan wounds, since support for the legislation brought the folks like the Christian Coalition, Free Press and Reason Magazine to the same table.

So why is S.529 still sitting on the Senate shelf? A handful of anonymous Senators have been able to put the bill on a secret hold, which prevents a bill from reaching the floor. Only two Senators have to object to the bill and so long as they release the hold in five days and another places it on hold immediately thereafter, a bill can be stalled indefinitely and anonymously. Meanwhile, the National Association of Broadcasters, headed by former Senator Gordon Smith, still attempts to convince supporters of LPFM that small wattage stations would interfere with big radio, even though a multimillion dollar taxpayer funded study proved otherwise.

It's still not too late though, for Congress to act on the bill. Should the nameless Senators quit stalling, the Senate could easily pass the measure before it adjourns. Activists from the Prometheus Radio Project demonstrated in front of the NAB offices Monday in the hopes that they will quit attempting to influence the Senate to let the bill die. Should legislators come to their senses and pass this measure quickly, Chicago could soon have many new voices on the airwaves.