Communications Research in Action: Scholar-Activist Collaborations for a Democratic Public Sphere

14. The Public FM Project: Supporting the Licensing of New Noncommercial FM Radio Stations for Student and Community Usage

CHAPTER 14 The Public FM Project Supporting the Licensing of New Noncommercial FM Radio Stations for Student and Community Usage todd urick Common Frequency’s Public FM project dealt with organizing and disseminating information concerning the licensing of new noncommercial radio stations. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened a limited filing window in 2007 for entities to apply for some of the last remaining reserved educational FM radio channels. Since the opportunity was not well publicized, and the vacant frequency locations were not disclosed by the government, this presented an information gap for those desiring to start a radio station. The Social Science Research Council provided a small grant for the nonprofit Common Frequency to work with students at the University of California, Davis. The project involved researching FM frequency availability for new community radio stations, and organizing that data for public usage. The second part of the project was an exercise in outreach, group communication, and progressive organizing. The overall exercise provided insights into the field of grassroots media organizing, especially outreach techniques and media literacy. The project also displayed how a grassroots organization with limited funding could accomplish a signi ficant amount by partnering and using resources wisely. background It is not widely known that any domestic nonprofit can apply for its own noncommercial FM radio station free of cost from the federal government (FCC 2008). These are the same FM frequencies National Public Radio uses, ranging from 100–100,000 watts, on frequencies 88.1 FM to 91.9 FM. 271 272 t o dd u r ic k The FCC refers to these licensed entities as noncommercial, educational (NCE) stations. From the 1950s through the 1970s it was possible to launch a noncommercial radio station from scratch; this is how many college radio stations got their start. In the 1980s and 1990s it became a legal and monetary burden to attempt to license a new station. Often, groups found it necessary to hire an attorney to fight for a frequency because of competing interests from religious groups and NPR. This effectively priced-out smaller, local community and educational groups. From 2000 to 2007, there was a freeze on new applications due to disputes over changes to the method of processing of new station applications. The key disagreement was over what to do with mutually exclusive applications —cases where two or more parties have applied for conflicting frequencies in specific areas. Prior to 2000, comparative hearings in court were used to settle these conflicts until the FCC determined that this was an arbitrary method for choosing the superior applicant (FCC 1995). In the 1990s, the FCC was swamped with applications primarily from national religious broadcasters. As frequencies started to become scarce, with comparative hearings under increased scrutiny, the FCC was pressured to develop new criteria to determine who receives a station license when there is more than one applicant for a single frequency in a specified area. It took several years to finalize this new set of criteria—now referred to as the point system—which is a set of deciding conditions based upon contour engineering, locality of the applicant, number of facilities and applications credited to the licensee (Federal Archives and Records Administration, 2001). The point system, compared to the comparative hearings, makes it feasible for smaller groups to apply and obtain radio stations since it bypasses costly, formal hearings. Approximately seven years after the declaration of this point system, the FCC set up an application filing window (October 12–19, 2007)—the only time a group could submit an application to claim one of the last remaining available NCE FM frequencies (FCC 2007). You can imagine the difficulty of communicating how to apply for a free radio frequency to organizations across the country mere months before the deadline. Consider the hurdles: How do you contact and educate groups across the country? The FCC does not tell you what frequencies are open, or where they are located; you need to hire a broadcast engineer to tell you if any frequency is open near you. You have an eight-day window to apply. A group would need to hire a specialized radio engineer and communications attorney to properly file the application. Applying for a frequency does not guarantee you will get one. You may have competitors and may need to spend more money to fight them off. How...