Media Access Project (MAP) submitted comments to the Federal Communications Commission today in defense of the interests of rural communities and low power FM stations. MAP and its clients, Prometheus Radio Project and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), asked the Commission to adopt new rules and policies to ensure that radio stations serve communities in which they are licensed.

The comments come in light of complaints that full power stations have chosen to seek licenses in communities close to large cities, in an effort to participate in the lucrative broadcast market of those cities rather than serve the communities of license that the stations claim they will serve. In MAP’s view, such full power stations do not properly serve the local interest of their own communities. They cheat the licensing system to service, and sell advertisements to, large and distant urban audiences.

Further, when full power stations move into rural communities, in some cases they threaten to kick off the air low-power FM stations that are able to serve local needs effectively due to their inherent local nature. In the end, no one but the full power broadcaster benefits from the process.

MAP, Prometheus, and NFCB argue that the Commission’s mechanism to allocate broadcast licenses allows full power stations to game the licensing process in this way.

“We are extremely pleased that the Commission has opened this proceeding,” said MAP Vice President Parul P. Desai. “For too long, applicants have gamed the broadcast license distribution process to achieve economic gain while abandoning service to local communities. We hope the Commission will quickly adopt a new framework that will reaffirm its commitment to the public interest and ensure that broadcasters serve the communities in which they are licensed,” she said.

Read the comments here.

Contact:

Kamilla Kovacs
Development and Communications Manager
Media Access Project
202-454-5685