NAB Says More LPFM Stations May Hurt Full-Powers, but LPFMs Disagree
Whether the start of more low-power FM stations will affect commercial radio stations operating at full power was debated in FCC filings on a coming Media Bureau study on LPFM. NAB said licensing of many more LPFMs could hurt full-power stations in the major markets that haven’t before had low-power rivals, if the upstarts have similar programming as incumbents. The study the commission was ordered by Congress to do under last year’s Local Community Radio Act ought to take future stations into account, the association said. Low-power stations and their advocates predicted the economic impact of those broadcasters will to be nonexistent or small. Filings were posted Monday and Friday in docket 11-83, on the study due to Congress Jan. 4. The agency is taking other steps to implement the legislation (CD May 3 p3), with commissioners tentatively set to vote on a rulemaking notice on the subject at the July 12 meeting.
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In asking the regulator to look at the impact LPFMs will have on full-power stations, the act seeks a study that’s “not merely a historical analysis,” the NAB said. “Because the FCC’s report is due only one year after enactment, Congress certainly must have realized that few, if any, new LPFM stations that could be authorized under the revised rules would be operational before that deadline. Thus, Congress clearly expected that the Commission would make reasonable predictions of the economic impact that LPFM stations licensed under the new rules would have on existing FM service.” The bureau’s assumption that the newer outlets will provide listeners with programming they don’t already get may be incorrect, the association said.
"As LPFM stations are licensed in larger urban areas, they may choose formats that compete with existing full-service stations already serving the same niche audiences,” the NAB said. Such existing radio outlets “are economically fragile,” it said. “If they lose significant parts of their current audience, their survival -- or their survival with their current formats -- may be in doubt.” The group paid for a study by BIA/Kelsey Vice President Mark Fratrik which found foreign-language, ethnic, bluegrass and other “non-mainstream format” stations are primarily in urban areas, where there have been few LPFM stations because of interference restrictions, some of which the act eliminated.
The bureau is correct to say the act doesn’t require a study of interference, said the Prometheus Radio Project. It said the study’s premise as dictated by the legislation may not be useful because it seeks to answer questions that are “flawed” in only dealing with low-power radio. “There is no argument advanced for evaluating this particular configuration of broadcast services in isolation, apart from the request of incumbent commercial broadcasters that government shield them from the specter of new competitors,” said Prometheus, the main advocacy group for low-power radio. “Although we do not believe low power stations have a significant economic impact on commercial stations in most cases, this point seems irrelevant for the purposes of a regulatory agency.” Prometheus said it has begun a survey to seek data from LPFMs.
"The FCC has an impossible task” in conducting the study, because it must prove the “negative” that LPFM’s aren’t rivals to full-power radio, said the owner of a low-power station in Canton, Ga. “Based on the purpose and design of LPFM, this low power non-profit service was not intended to have `significant impact’ on any business, including commercial full-service broadcasters,” said Christian Community Broadcasters. The act’s instructions on the report are “very sketchy and confusingly vague” and “fortunately, there is no ‘right answer,'” the station owner said. “There is no way for the FCC to fail.”