LPFM Is Added to Telcom Act Mix

It’s déjà vu with LPFM.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is resurrecting his language to drop third-channel protections of full-power FMs in order to carve out more spectrum availabilities for low-power stations.
The Prometheus Radio Project says McCain and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., plan to offer the language in an amendment to the Senate telecom act revision. Debate is expected today in a Commerce Committee mark-up.
NAB is urging lawmakers to defeat the amendment and “preserve clear radio signals for listeners.”
Its lobbying efforts include distributing to lawmakers e-mailed MP3 recordings of purported third-adjacent channel interference to WGMS(FM) at 103.5 MHz from WWZZ(FM) 104.1, a short-spaced station, that were recorded in 2004.
The recordings come from a Sony WM-FS421 Sports Walkman cassette player/FM stereo radio combination and Sony model SRF-M35FM stereo Walkman.
The amendment carves out an exemption for full-power noncoms that broadcast radio reading services on their subcarriers.
The Senate revision of the ’96 Telecom Act is expected to have 100 amendments proposed, according to Prometheus, which dismissed NAB’s CD as “misleading.”
NAB Spokesman Dennis Wharton replied, “There’s nothing misleading about the interference documented by NAB.”