Making Airwaves for Charity

Non-profit groups battle over new, low-power radio service

The Jewish Community Center of Cleveland hopes to broadcast its message soon in a new way: on the airwaves of its own FM radio station.

The social-services group is one of hundreds of charities gearing up to apply to the Federal Communications Commission

for licenses to become educational radio broadcasters through a new service called low-power FM radio. The low-power stations would be allowed to beam their signals just a few miles.

The Jewish Community Center’s radio plans include talk shows on timely topics, programs about Jewish composers and musicians, youth-run forums for teenagers, broadcasts from Israel, and informational updates on how people can get services provided by the center and other charities.

“A radio station would be an efficient, inexpensive way for us to get information out to the Jewish community,” says Robert Cahen, the organization’s executive vice president. “It’d be a very powerful tool.”

But even as non-profit groups submit applications for the first round of licenses to be awarded by the F.C.C., opposition in Congress to low-power radio threatens to severely limit how many licenses will be available.

A high-profile legislative battle has pitted a coalition of non-profit groups that includes the American Library Association, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the United States Catholic Conference against commercial and non-profit broadcasters, including National Public Radio.

At issue: whether the FM dial can support the addition of low-power stations without causing interference and other problems for existing stations.

Big broadcasters won the first round in April when the House of Representatives passed a bill that would significantly scale back the F.C.C.’s plans for offering low-power licenses. A similar bill, as well as a less restrictive measure, is now pending in the Senate.

The Federal Communications Commission voted in January to create a low-power radio-broadcast service designed to serve small geographic areas and “underrepresented groups,” such as recent immigrants, ethnic and racial minorities, and poor people.

F.C.C. Chairman William E. Kennard said the driving force behind the service was that “every day, it seems, we read about a bigger merger and more consolidation [in the radio industry], all of which leads to the perception that the interests of small groups and individuals are being lost, and that important voices and viewpoints are being shut out.”

The Federal Communications Commission authorized two new classes of non-commercial low-power FM radio: 100-watt stations, with a broadcast range of about 3.5 miles in every direction; and 10-watt stations, with a range of one to two miles. By comparison, full-power FM stations generally operate at 6,000 to 100,000 watts.

The F.C.C. says that “to foster local ownership and diversity,” low-power licenses will be given only to groups that meet certain criteria, such as having their headquarters within 10 miles of the station.

The commission will accept applications from qualified groups — non-profit organizations and local governments — at staggered intervals beginning this week and running through May 2001. The date when a charity can apply depends on what state its headquarters are in.

Proponents of low-power radio say the technology can give even small charities a powerful, low-cost way to inform, educate, and entertain the people they serve. The stations would work best for non-profit groups that want to get information to people who live within a fairly concentrated geographic area.

Low-power stations can provide a way to explore “niche issues,” such as homelessness or immigration, on a nearly full-time basis, supporters say, as opposed to the only occasional attention these matters might get on full-power stations.

What’s more, charities that run job-training and youth programs see the stations as a way to provide hands-on broadcasting experience, as well as some added self-esteem, to the people they help.

Many of the non-profit groups most eager to get their own stations are charities that have previously tried their hand at producing radio programs.

Noah’s Ark Baptist Church, in Naples, Fla., currently spends $1,000 a month to air a weekly talk show it produces on a local Christian radio station. The show is aimed at the church’s primarily Haitian congregation.

“But an hour a week is not nearly enough,” says Ed Lozama, a church administrator.

Mr. Lozama says a low-power radio station would be a godsend. Church members are hungry for updates about their native country, he says, as well as details about immigration and social-service programs.

Yet getting such information to them has been difficult. To augment its radio show, the church records a weekly audiotape of news and information and then makes copies for people who provide their own cassette tapes. The service is so popular that Mr. Lozama has had to limit the number of duplications he makes to about 90 a week.

Mr. Lozama says a low-power radio station would solve his problems. He estimates that the church could set up its own station with an investment of about $10,000 and then rely on volunteers, including doctors, lawyers, and local service groups, to help develop programs.

“Listening is a major part of how our Haitian brothers and sisters learn and pick up information,” says Mr. Lozama. “Unfortunately, many of them do not know how to read. So a newsletter is out of the question. And an Internet Web site — that’s a foreign language to them. What they do know and cling to is the radio.”

Many charities that are interested in low-power radio, however, may be thwarted in their efforts to get a station.

One big obstacle could be finding an available frequency, particularly in big cities. The Federal Communications Commission says that charities in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, for example, may find that the FM dial is too congested to accommodate any new stations.

Charities may also run into problems sorting out the technical and legal issues associated with starting up a radio station.

Several national organizations have hired lawyers and engineers to help.

The Microradio Implementation Project, which operates under the umbrella of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, has received $250,000 from the Ford Foundation to help the project distribute information to charities about low-power radio through workshops around the country and a Web site.

Other foundations that have supported low-power radio include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

Once licensed, charities may encounter problems in coming up with enough programming to fill their broadcast day.

Gigi Sohn, a consultant for the Ford Foundation, says developing high-quality content will be crucial. “If these stations turn out to be garbage, or the cable-TV access channel of radio, it’s going to be a very, very difficult road ahead,” she says. “We need really good-quality community programs.”

The F.C.C. encourages low-power stations to air mostly programs that have been produced locally. But stations would also be allowed to broadcast some shows recorded outside their immediate areas.

The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, is considering putting together programs that it could distribute nationally to help its member charities that get low-power stations fill their air time with quality productions

Even as charities make their plans to set up radio stations, some members of Congress hope to pull the plug on the low-power radio project.

The reason: The politically powerful National Association of Broadcasters, as well as National Public Radio, is arguing that the F.C.C. has taken insufficient steps to ensure that low-power stations do not interfere with the signals of existing high-power operations.

“The haste with which the F.C.C. is acting does not serve the public interest, because existing FM broadcasters do not know whether their signals will be protected,” says Kevin Klose, president of National Public Radio.

NPR has said that public radio stations are particularly vulnerable to potential interference from low-power FM stations, in part because they tend to be tightly crowded on the narrow “reserved band” of the FM dial — the part with lower numbers.

Another argument against low-power stations is that by the time they are up and running, technological developments may well have produced more attractive alternatives for charities in search of new ways to communicate with the public. For example, more widespread computer use may make broadcasting via the Internet a good option.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has also raised financial concerns. In comments it filed with the Federal Communications Commission, the organization noted that “there is a great deal of demand for limited public broadcasting funds (either private or public),” and it concluded that “a delicate balance must be struck between the number of public radio licensees and the availability of funds to support them.”

Richard H. Madden, CPB’s vice president for radio, says some low-power stations could be eligible for federal grants under the organization’s current guidelines. However, he says that worries about competition for money are a minor issue in the overall debate.

While groups on both sides of the debate have hired technical experts to conduct studies and have submitted reports that support their views, the House of Representatives passed a bill in April that would severely limit the low-power project, requiring the commission to further test the technology.

The Clinton administration issued a statement that it “strongly” opposed the House bill, but did not say whether President Clinton would veto the legislation if it passed Congress.

Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican, is promoting a compromise measure that would allow the F.C.C. to go ahead with the low-power licenses with some limitations. One would spell out the right of full-power broadcasters to sue any low-power licensee for causing harmful interference.

Some backers of low-power radio say they are encouraged by Mr. McCain’s bill. But others raise objections, saying the threat of being sued — and the associated costs — would scare away small charities from applying for low-power stations.

Many supporters of low-power radio say they feel stung by the critical reactions of high-power broadcasters, particularly fellow non-profit organizations like National Public Radio.

Cheryl Leanza, a lawyer at the Media Access Project, a Washington policy group that has played a lead role in pushing for low-power radio, calls public radio’s position “unfortunate,” one she believes is driven by a misbegotten fear of competition.

“There’s a tremendous opportunity for low-power radio stations to complement full-power stations and become a feeder service for public radio, both in terms of training new talent as well as building radio listenership,” she says.

The strong opposition from high-power stations has not only caused political tensions, but has also led to practical problems for charities that need technical help to set up low-power stations.

Norman Wain, a board member of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland and a former broadcaster, says that although he knows many radio professionals in the area, “the stations have told us in no uncertain terms, We’re not interested in helping anything that would take up part of the radio spectrum.”

Even if the proponents of low-power radio are ultimately successful in getting the program off the ground, radio listeners shouldn’t expect to tune in to the new local charity stations for a while.

Says Andrea Cano de Vargus of the Microradio Implementation Project: “People need to understand this is a fairly long process.” Because charities have up to 18 months after receiving a license to get their station on the air, she says, “it will probably be well into 2003 or 2004 before many of the stations even get started.”

Charities say they are poised to move quickly if they win approval from the F.C.C..

The Jewish Community Center of Cleveland says it already has much of what it needs to run a station, including its own studio, which it currently uses to tape a weekly radio show called “The Jewish Scene.”

“We have all the ingredients,” says Mr. Cahen, the center’s executive vice president. “Now we’re just waiting for the opportunity to do something with them.”

Additional information on low-power stations can be found on the Federal Communications Commission’s Web site at http://www.fcc.gov.