  |
  "Thinking out loud since 1997" Still a work in progress Questions, comments, miscellany: john@diymedia.net / @diymediadotnet |
| Site
Highlights:
XML/RSS
Feed Site Search News Archives Latest Schnazz FCC Watch Media Collage A/V Library Features Index Links Directory Mbanna Kantako |
News of the Moment 1/12/12 - FCC: LPFM a Tiny Fish in Big Pond [link to this story] The FCC has released its long-awaited economic assessment of the LPFM radio service. Although the need for such a study was initially dismissed as unnecessary more than eight years ago, the commercial broadcast lobby forced the agency to conduct the research as part of the compromise which allowed for the passage of the Local Community Radio Act last year. Radio Survivor's Paul Riismandel has a good overview of the report and its main findings. More detail below on salient points: Snapshot of the LPFM service. The majority of the 835 active LPFM stations identified by the FCC were built in 2004 and 2005. (In contrast, the average full-power commercial FM station is 30 years old.) The average power of an LPFM station is 75 watts, and average antenna height is 21 meters (the maximum power allowed is 100 watts, and max antenna height is 30 meters). The two most popular programming formats for LPFM stations are Religion (49.4%) and Miscellaneous (32.9%). LPFM listenership is infinitesimal. The FCC's examination of 2009 Arbitron ratings "revealed that LPFM stations are listened to by less than 0.2 percent of the radio-listening population and that LPFM listening represents less than 0.1 percent of total radio listening." More than half of all LPFM stations are located outside of the ~300 Arbitron-ranked markets, in "mostly rural areas covering only 19.2 percent of the U.S. population." Of those LPFMs in radio markets measured by Arbitron, more than two-thirds have a listenership too small to be accurately measured. On average, "13 LPFM stations would need to enter both the Arbitron Metro and contour of [a] full-service commercial FM station before the effect on [the commercial station's] Arbitron ratings would become discernible." The "LPFM Industry" is a marginal one. The FCC concluded that "LPFM stations do not currently have, and in the future are unlikely to have, a demonstrable economic impact on full-service commercial FM radio stations." LPFM stations "operate with very small budgets, rely on mostly part-time and volunteer staff, do not have measurable ratings, have limited population reach, and do not generate significant underwriting earnings." Interference hurts the little guy. The geographic coverage of a full-time commercial station is about 55 times larger than an LPFM station. As part of the study, the FCC conducted in-depth interviews with eight LPFM station mangers: "All but one...stated that the low power of the station poses a significant problem and that they would like to operate at a higher power." Many "were concerned about problems with reception in their existing coverage areas. Some...emphasized in-home reception issues, noting that LPFM...signals often are unable to penetrate the walls of a home." LPFM station managers "also expressed frustration with interference from full-service commercial FM stations, especially in unfavorable weather conditions." If anything, this report definitively debunks the hype and propaganda commercial and public broadcasters used so effectively to stymie the promulgation of a meaningful LFPM service in the first place. The next - and most likely last - opportunity to apply for new LPFM station licenses may occur by this fall. 1/5/12 - Anti-Pirate Enforcement Plummets in 2011 [link to this story] The austerity gripping the United States caught up with the FCC's Enforcement Bureau last year, as field activity against unlicensed broadcasters dropped dramatically - to a level not seen in six years.
Although the 2011 stats will rise slightly after the FCC discloses its activity for the last two weeks of the year, the activity-crash is unmistakable. On the fiscal penalty front, the FCC issued 18 Notices of Apparent Liability and nine Forfeiture Orders in 2011, ringing up $168,400 in actual fines handed out. This actually represents an uptick from previous years; the agency hasn't been this fiscally punitive since 2005 - the year its field enforcement "surge" began. Whether these fines are actually collected is another matter entirely. In addition, plumbing the numbers reveals interesting subtleties, such as the fact that the FCC resolved nearly half of its fiscal attacks last year for a pittance. In Florida alone, a $20,000 NAL was knocked down to $500; a $15k NAL settled for $300; and two $10,000 NALs were squabbled to $250 and $350 respectively. Geographically speaking, the perennial hotbeds of unlicensed broadcasting were well-represented, though California stole the #2 spot from New York - extremely illustrative of the collapse in field activity. The FCC made contact with pirate radio stations in two dozen states and Puerto Rico. What the FCC failed to make up for in quantity it slightly redeemed in quality. This year's enforcement activity touched many long-standing members of the microradio movement. Stations that have been on the air for more than a decade, such as Free Radio Olympia, Berkeley Liberation Radio, Free Radio Santa Cruz, and Mbanna Kantako's Human Rights Radio, received pesky visits and letters from FCC agents, though all shrugged them off. Enforcement against AM and shortwave broadcasters is also on the rise - this is most likely due to an increase in activity on these bands rather than a change in FCC priorities regarding unlicensed broadcasting. Nearly 10% of 2011's field enforcement activity was directed at AM and shortwave pirates - the highest yearly percentage in the Enforcement Action Database's 15-year history. In perspective, however, the relative risk remains small on those bands: just eight AM/SW stations were harassed last year, the majority of them on the expanded AM band. It's been ten years since the FCC first promulgated the LPFM service, and eight since the first LPFM station took to the airwaves. For most of this period, the agency's enforcement strategy against pirate broadcasters has been administratively heavy, with field agents often taking a day-trip (or two) every month (or two) to track down radio pirates for the purposes of scaring them with paperwork. But the paper tiger obviously has better things to do, and what power it could bring to bear on the "pirate problem" seems to be in decline. 12/29/11 - FCC Bipartisanly Bad on Media Ownership [link to this story] Last week the FCC promulgated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would allow for more media consolidation. Among many changes contemplated, the most significant would actively encourage the merger of print and broadcast media companies. The proposal also leaves the door open to loosening restrictions on the number of radio and television stations a single company can own in any given market. These propositions sound awfully familiar, as they contain ideas floated by Democratic Chairman Julius Genachowski's two Republican predecessors, Kevin Martin and Michael Powell. Powell attempted to do away with practically all media ownership restrictions on the basis of fundamentalist neoliberal principles alone, while Martin wanted to remove ownership limits on "legacy" media outlets (such as newspapers, radio, and TV stations) in order to "promote competition" between old media and new (i.e., Internet-based) outlets. Both efforts mostly failed. Genachowski got his job primarily due to his business experience in Silicon Valley. Yet his tenure at the FCC has run hard aground against the sorry state of broadband in the United States, which hinders the Internet's potential as a system of democratic communication. At the same time, the agency's 'net-centric policy focus has led to an astounding sense of indifference regarding the regulation of legacy media. In this regard, it comes as little surprise that Genachowski's proposal is reheated Bush-era hash. Commissioner
Michael Copps, who concludes
his tenure at the FCC this week for the greener
pastures of the lecture circuit,
Interestingly, Chairman Genachowski declined to articulate his own rationale for these rule changes. The FCC's Republican Commissioner, Robert McDowell, felt the Chairman did not go far enough, openly hoping that all media ownership caps be trashed eventually. And the FCC's most passive Democrat, Mignon Clyburn, made feeble gestures to notions of diversity in media ownership, yet assented to the Chairman's proposal in full. Over the last decade, the general trend of promoting concentration in policies of media ownership has continued unabated, regardless of which political party controls the FCC. Is there any hope for a (non-judicial) reversal in the foreseeable future? |
addressed
this dilemma