• Listen to this segment

If you are one of millions of Americans sickened by cookie cutter commercial radio that assaults your ears with standardized “safe” playlists, inane shock-jock-talk, and incessant aggressive ads, you may want to urge your representatives in Congress to pass a new bill on local community radio. In 2002 the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, began licensing what are called low-power FM stations – those that have a small signal that fits in the empty spaces on your radio dial. Predictably major commercial radio companies like Clear Channel fought this initiative and its lobbyists pressured Congress into opposing the LPFM movement saying that it would cause interference. But a 2006 study showed that no such interference is caused by low power FM stations. Now Congress is once more faced with the Local Community Radio Act which, if it is passed, would expand LPFM across the country.

GUEST: Jonathan Lawson, Executive Director of “Reclaim the Media” and organizer of the Northwest Community Radio Network.

Related Links

• Reclaim the Media
• Prometheus Radio Project
• The Local Community Radio Act Will Increase Local Voices, Choices
• H.R. 2802: Local Community Radio Act of 2007
• Support Low Power FM Radio