Copyright © 1999 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Just In: Media

Giving a boost to community radio

By Dan Kennedy

For the past 21 years, community-based, low-power radio stations have been illegal. Stations of less than 100 watts were banned in order to give public broadcasters a bigger chunk of the broadcast spectrum. The unintended beneficiary: corporate-radio monopolies.

Now Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard says the time has come to find a way to allow small stations to coexist with big ones. On January 29, Kennard is expected to unveil a proposal that would allow microbroadcasters to obtain licenses and operate legally. Following a public-comment period, the FCC will likely turn Kennard's vision into a reality.

Kennard first made his views public last fall, at a speech before the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). "As I have traveled around the country, I talk to many, many people who want to use the airwaves to speak to their communities -- churches, community groups, universities, small businesses, minority groups," Kennard told the NAB. "There is a tremendous need for us to find ways to use the broadcast spectrum more efficiently so that we can bring more voices to the airwaves."

Trouble is, the NAB has been an outspoken opponent of what it calls "pirate radio." And the organization is expected to lobby heavily against Kennard's plan to make such stations legal. (NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton could not be reached for comment.)

Locally, the best-known example of community radio was Radio Free Allston, which for much of 1996 offered foreign-language and religion programming, political talk, city-council debates, and cutting-edge music. Operated openly by Steve Provizer, the station was shut down by the FCC for operating without a license. "Kennard has spoken favorably about this idea several times, but the sense is that there's strong opposition," says Provizer, who now runs the nonprofit Citizens' Media Corps. "I think the ammunition that Kennard has to have is evidence that it really has a lot of community and organizational broad-based support."

US Representative Barney Frank has sent a letter to the FCC supporting Kennard's proposal, and the Allston-Brighton Tab recently editorialized in its favor.

The biggest danger nationally, according to Cheryl Leanza, staff attorney for the Washington-based Media Access Project, is that elected officials, acting at the behest of corporate-radio lobbyists, will pressure the FCC to reject Kennard's proposal. The best way to counter that, she adds, is for people to write to their representatives and senators.

For more information, see Radio Free Allston's Web site, at http://www.radfrall.org.