June 15, 200421 yr Radio giant Clear Channel and the other big broadcasters have been fighting to prevent local communities from starting low power radio stations across America. These "LPFM" stations are a crucial part of the movement to create better local, independent and diverse media. Recently, Senators John McCain [R-AZ] and Patrick Leahy [D-VT] introduced legislation (Senate bill 2505) that would issue broadcast licenses to thousands of new noncommercial radio stations across the nation. Most Senators want to support LPFM, but — as usual — they are getting hammered by the powerful broadcast lobby. Last year over two million real petitions prompted Congress to attempt to overturn new FCC rules that let Big Media get even bigger. A little background: A few years ago, Clear Channel (which owns more than one out of every ten radio stations) and the National Association of Broadcasters made bogus claims that low-power radio signals would interfere with their own signals, and successfully blocked new LPFM licenses in the nation's 50 biggest markets. A recently-released technical study debunked that claim, and pulled away the last fig leaf hiding their anti-competitive agenda. --- I got this in an Free Press e-mail. I wanted to see what everybody thought about this since media has been a huge discussion topic on ST recently.
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