Editorial: Back to the future with Low Power FM

Holiday gift idea for next year: your own hyperlocal radio station. It's a gift from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Non-profit community radio stations, which broadcast in a range from a few hundred yards to about three miles, can be a mode of self-expression, a valuable provider of town information and an antidote to radio homogenization up and down the broadcast dial.

The FCC has just established new rules governing the application process, authorization guidelines and operating conditions to encourage Low Power FM (LPFM) stations, and will be reviewing station proposals a year from now. Given radio's nearly undiminished clout in the face of media encroachment by all kinds of digital news and music platforms, LPFM represents a back-to-the-future power play on behalf of independent programmers.

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Filed under: Misc, Wireless

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