LPFM Advocates Inform Potential Applicants As LPFM Window Nears

Outreach has been taking place since the beginning of the year, said Cheryl Leanza, president of media policy consulting firm A Learned Hand, who represents the United Church of Christ media advocacy arm. UCC held an outreach webinar with its constituency and engaged in other meetings “making sure that people are aware of the issue,” she said. Other groups have held webinars targeting specific communities, including in the civil rights community, she said. A common theme with the webinars is “that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Leanza said. “No one expects the FCC to put out licenses for low-power radio stations again anytime, particularly in the areas most impacted by the legislation, which is larger urban areas.” The goal is to help people understand “that if they want to change the face of radio, October 2013 is the time to take action,” she said. The Local Community Radio Act of 2010 paved the way for the window.

Free Press also is continuing its work to help get “the best possible pool of applicants for these community radio licenses,” said Policy Director Matt Wood. The Media Alliance continues to let people know of the opportunity, said Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg. “What people mostly need to hear is the one-time only nature of the opportunity and that it’s not as hard as they think."

The LPFM Store, an organization that helps new LPFM licensees build and sustain their stations, is spreading the word to potential applicants through Internet advertising and calling community organizations and individuals, said CEO Leo Ashcraft. The biggest hurdles for new LPFM applicants are nonprofit formation, tower siting, funding and addressing misinformation, he said. Consultants meet with clients in an attempt to dispel misconceptions, he said. Some clients have misconceptions that they must have been established for at least two years to apply, he said. The two-year requirement is just a tie-breaker point, he said. There also is a misconception that only governments and schools are eligible, he added.

People are starting to work their way through the applications and Form 318, said Brandy Doyle, outgoing policy director at Prometheus Radio Project. The LPFM group has held webinars and conference calls to help potential applicants, she said. With the window just three months away, now the group is focusing on groups that have decided to apply, said Doyle, who is becoming a consultant to the group. “They need to already be getting started."

Part of the outreach done by LPFM Store includes engaging organizations and individuals interested in applying in 2010 when LCRA was enacted, Ashcraft said. “Some people lost hope that the window was ever going to open,” he said. “A lot of those people dropped off, lost interest.” There isn’t much more time to spread the word, he said. Before the window opens, groups have to decide whether they want to apply, obtain application funding and then complete the engineering process, he said. “Once we get the word out and people decide to do this, we may only have a month of actual preparation to put together thousands of applications."

Some LPFM supporters say there are likely many potential applicants who haven’t been informed of the opportunity. Interest seems to have waned in the rural areas and southern states, Ashcraft said. “A lot of people that we do reach had never heard of LPFM or if they had, they weren’t aware there was a window coming.” The organizations that care about this issue and played a role in getting the LCRA passed are making a tremendous effort, “but the resources really haven’t been sufficient,” Rosenberg said. Quite a few people know about the window, but “I am sure there are plenty of potential applicant groups that haven’t been reached yet,” she said: “I don’t think that we should say that anyone and everyone that could benefit from a low-power radio station knows all about it.” The nonprofit advocacy groups are mainly the only entities engaged in the effort, she said. The FCC made the application available, which is “great,” she said: But the groups spend “an awful lot of time trying to deconstruct these processes so real people can interact with them."

If everything goes as expected, the October deadline seems reasonable, Doyle said. If there is a bottleneck, “it would be the availability of engineers to conduct the studies that are needed for the application,” she said. About 5,000 people have reached out to Prometheus for help, she added.

The bureau is continuing to provide information through public notices, updating its web pages and clearing translator applications to help consumers apply during the LPFM application window, said a commission spokeswoman.