Low Power FM

Here's something you may not have noticed amid all the Ben's Engaged/Pitt Coach Sacked/Obama's Sold Out To The Russians-Again local coverage.

The President signed some locally connected legislation yesterday:

H.R. 6533, the “Local Community Radio Act of 2010,” which modifies current restrictions on low-power FM radio stations;

It was sponsored by our own Mike Doyle.

So what is it? From the Sacramento Current:

For over a decade, the Prometheus Radio Project has been fighting for historically disenfranchised and marginalized communities nationwide to expand community radio. “A town without a community radio station is like a town without a library,” said Pete Tridish of Prometheus in a press release issued in December. On December 18, history was made when the U.S. Senate finally passed the Local Community Radio Act after years of struggle. On December 29, the LCRA was presented to President Barack Obama for his signature. The legislation will expand low-power FM (LPFM) radio, a broadcasting service created by the FCC to address the shrinking diversity of voices on the radio.

“From Seattle, Oakland, and Albuquerque to Minneapolis, San Antonio, Kentucky, and Philadelphia, thousands of communities know that having access to our own slice of the dial means a tool to build our movements for justice,” said Betty Yu, coordinator of the Media Action Grassroots Network. “We have won something huge in Congress, but the fight is not over. Now we need to work at the FCC to make sure as many licenses as possible can be available in rural communities, towns and suburbs, and America’s cities.”

So now what? From here on out the FCC will be working on applications to push forward licenses for LPFM radio stations. Look for these stations to be built everywhere, reaching from city neighborhoods to outlying rural areas. These new channels of communication will empower struggling music communities, grassroots organizations, and cultural hubs across the country, profoundly impacting the way local communities sustain and utilize local resources.

I am guessing the Prometheus Radio Project has some more info.

More later -

Interested to see where this one leads.