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Committee on Democratic Communications National Lawyers Guild 558 Capp Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415.522.9814 fax 415.362-4119 http://www.nlgcdc.org January 19, 2000 THE NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD COMMITTEE ON DEMOCRATIC COMMUNICATIONS, ON BEHALF OF ITSELF, THE MICRORADIO EMPOWERMENT COALITION AND MICRORADIO ACTIVISTS AROUND THE COUNTRY, WELCOMES THE NEW LPFM SERVICE AND REMAINS COMMITTED TO HELPING CREATE A DIVERSE AND ACCESSIBLE LOCAL RADIO SERVICE ***** The National Lawyers Guild Committee on Democratic Communications (NLGCDC), an activist organization devoted to protecting the Right to Communicate of all people, welcomes the FCC's announcement today of the new Low Power FM service. On behalf of our constituency, the pioneers and activists of the microradio community, we applaud the FCC's emphasis on creating a truly local and noncommercial low power service that will increase the diversity of local voices on the public's airwaves. Alan Korn, a San Francisco attorney and one of the architects of the micro radio legal defense, states "We are gratified that after years of trying to squelch the micro radio movement, the FCC now realizes that local, community-based low power radio is desperately needed to counteract the enormous centralization taking place in the broadcast industry since the Telecommunications Act of 1996." The NLGCDC is especially pleased that the FCC has followed many of the suggestions, raised in its formal Comments to NPRM 99-25, to establish a non-commercial LPFM service to counteract the massive commercial consolidation of the radio airwaves following the Telecommunications Act of 1996. In our Comments, we suggested that the FCC create an LPFM service to serve local communities with locally-produced radio programming, to enable diverse and alternative voices to utilize the airwaves, and to encourage radio service by and for traditionally unserved communities. We sincerely hope that the FCC's LPFM service, if properly implemented, will achieve these goals. Nonetheless, the NLGCDC has a number of concerns that we hope the FCC will address in the coming weeks and months. First, we fear that any failure by the FCC to require strict ownership limits of one station per local entity, and to prevent LPFM license transfers, will counteract the service's goals by allowing certain individuals and groups to dominate the new LPFM service. Second, we are concerned about the FCC's anticipated failure to relax 2nd adjacent spacing requirements in urban centers like New York, which will prevent new stations from going on the air and deny millions of citizens from hearing the many diverse voices such a LPFM service may offer. Third, we hope that the licensing process will be accessible to all interested members of the public and that frequencies will be allocated equitably to those voices who do not currently have access to a broadcast outlet. Finally, we strongly support a complete amnesty for the microradio pioneers who, through their political activism and civil disobedience, helped to bring about this new LPFM service. To bar mircoradio pioneers from the airwaves is equivalent to continuing to require Rosa Parks to ride in the back of the bus. For more information concerning the FCC's Low Power FM service, or about the NLGCDC or Microradio Empowerment Coalition, please contact Alan Korn at (415) 362-5700 or Amanda Huron at (202) 265-1843.