Broadcast Lobby Caught Red Handed With Red Herring

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

This was another case during my stay in DC where I saw politics creating
SCIENTIFIALLY BOGUS ³facts².  It was clear to me and many that someone was
fabricating the truth. I found it particularly interesting that NPR was one
of the strongest culprits.

Dave


------ Forwarded Message
From: Anthony Watson <atrigueiro () yahoo com>
Reply-To: atrigueiro () yahoo com
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 13:35:09 -0700 (PDT)
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Broadcast Lobby Caught Red Handed With Red Herring

of possible interest to the IP

hannahjs () babel serve com wrote:
> Subject: Broadcast Lobby Caught Red Handed With Red Herring
> To: hannahjs () babel serve com
> Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 15:46:24 -0400 (EDT)
> From: hannahjs () babel serve com
>
>
> Broadcast Lobby Caught Red Handed With Red Herring --
> "Oceans of Radio Interference" Proven To Be Puddles In Independent
> Study of LPFM
>
> Contact:
> Pete Tridish
> 215-727-9620
> 215-605-9297
> petri () prometheusradio org
>
> July 13, Washington, DC -- Results have been released from a long
> anticipated engineering study ordered by Congress -- a study designed
> to determine whether small community radio stations could cause
> interference to the signals of full power broadcasters. The study,
> conducted by an independent testing company called the MITRE
> Corporation, recommended the lifting of burdensome restrictions
> imposed by Congress in December of 2000 upon t! he new Low Power FM
> (LPFM) radio service.
>
> In its testimony before Congress, the National Association of
> Broadcasters (NAB) had complained that the FM radio dial would be
> drowned in "an ocean of interference." But the study authors found
> so little evidence of potential interference that they chose not to
> implement some later stages in the study -- such as an economic
> impact study and subjective listening tests -- that would only have
> been necessary if interference had been proven."
>
> "I hope that the wild goose chase for interference -- and the claim
> that a dinky hundred watt community station can cause this kind of
> problem for a 20,000 watt commercial station -- can finally come to a
> close." said Pete Tridish, Technical Director of the Prometheus Radio
> Project. "I know some lobbyists at the National Association of
> Broadcasters may not know what to do without Low Power FM radio to
> beat up on anymore, but I'm sure they ! can find gainful employment
> searching for other imaginary things like African uranium shipments
> to Iraq."
>
> A few key points from the MITRE study:
>
> -- As predicted by the FCC and myriad LPFM advocates, only small
> zones of interference directly around the transmitter site of the
> LPFM were found.
>
> -- No significant LPFM-related degradation to a full power station's
> signal was ever identified at more than 333 meters from an LPFM
> transmitter.
>
> -- New digital radio channels and Radio Reading Services To The
> Blind were tested, and no significant problems were found.
>
> -- Despite public notices and a 1-800 number, there were no
> complaints from the public related to any low power radio test site.
>
> -- In the very worst case found, .0013 of receivers in the service
> area of a full power station could be affected. As the report stated,
> "In most cases, this fraction is orders of magnitude smaller."
>
> The report made a! few suggestions for minor rule changes that could
> prevent even this tiny bit of interference, if necessary. Advocates
> believe that the more extensive complaint procedure already developed
> by the FCC is more than adequate for ferreting the out the few cases
> of interference that may occur -- especially for Low Power Radio. "As
> the result of these bizarre political pressures exerted by the
> broadcast lobby, the FCC has developed a more extensive complaint
> procedure for when you turn on a hundred watt station than when you
> turn on a 50,000 watt station. We proved in 1999 that the
> interference issue was a red herring, and MITRE has proven it again,"
> said Pete Tridish. "It is time to let low power radio into the
> cities."
>
> The low power radio service was launched in January 2000, but soon
> after was curtailed in most metropolitan areas by a debilitating Act
> of Congress requiring more study before most licenses could be
> issued! . Under pressure from the large broadcasting interests, key
> Congressmen slipped language into an appropriations rider -- language
> that eviscerated the FCC's new rules in November of 2000. Under the
> new rules, about 75% of low power FM opportunities were eliminated,
> leaving only 1 new station available in the top 50 American cities.
> Smaller towns, further away from major metropolitan areas and their
> concentrations of megawattage radio stations, were less affected by
> the bill and allowed to build.
>
> Over 200 Low power radio stations are on the air in small towns
> around the United States today, run by schools, churches, activist
> groups, unions and other civil society groups. If adopted by an act
> of Congress, MITRE'S recommendations would allow thousands of small
> community groups, in cities all across the US, to build these vibrant
> new neighborhood institutions of democratic media.
>
> The Prometheus Radio Project is an activist organization that fights
> for more democratic ownership and regulation of media. Prometheus
> advocates for community organizations that want to start radio
> stations, and has helped build the first radio stations owned by
> civil rights and environmental organizations in the United States.
>
> www.prometheusradio.org -- 215.727.9620 -- info () prometheusradio org


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/