Vegas operators fight low-power radio plan

Wednesday, April 12, 2000 | 11:16 a.m.

Las Vegas radio industry professionals say a Federal Communications Commission plan to offer low-power FM radio stations to community groups is doomed to failure and shouldn't be implemented.

FCC Chairman William Kennard, speaking Tuesday at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas, criticized the radio industry for complaining to Congress about the FCC low-power radio plan.

Low-power stations are designed to provide local news and programming for small areas, usually a few square miles. But commercial radio stations say the pockets of low-power radio stations will cause interference that will disrupt their own signals.

The NAB show continues through Thursday and has brought about 115,000 people to Las Vegas for one of the largest conventions of the year. The convention is being conducted at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Las Vegas Hilton, the Sands Expo Center and the Venetian hotel-casino.

Kennard has championed the effort to offer low-power stations to churches, schools and other community organizations.

"Why in the midst of all this opportunity for broadcasters have you chosen to muster your considerable resources in Washington and around the country to deny churches and schools and community-based organizations just a little piece of the broadcast pie?" Kennard asked in his speech to industry leaders.

Kennard also said the radio industry has "squandered its goodwill at the FCC" by taking the battle to lawmakers. The House is expected to take up the issue within days. Two bills have surfaced in the House, one banning the FCC plan, another adopting a compromise if technical issues are addressed.

But two radio professionals in Las Vegas have joined the thousands in criticizing the plan. One says Kennard is obsessed with getting the policy through before a potential change in the presidential administration.

"It's part of a political agenda," said Lamar Marchese, general manager of KNPR FM-89.5. "The commission serves at the pleasure of the president so that means he (Kennard) could be out a job come January. He wants to get this low-power initiative through, but he's running out of time."

Marchese and Bill Croghan, chief engineer of Lotus Broadcasting, which owns four radio stations in Las Vegas, agree that low-power television is a good idea and they support the concept. But they also agree that there's too much potential for interference for existing commercial radio stations.

"When you begin messing with our signal, you're messing with our lifeblood," Marchese said.

Croghan explained that because of the high demand for the low-power licenses, stations will be assigned to adjacent frequencies on the dial instead of spacing them out as they are now. Neighboring frequencies tend to bleed over onto other signals and that disruption, Croghan said, can cost stations listenership and, ultimately, market share. Ratings are what drive advertising revenues.

"It's not so bad for large companies with powerful stations," Croghan said. "But it could hurt the little guys, like the ones with 3,000-watt signals."

Croghan also said he was concerned that the expansion of the FM universe could result in more "pirate" broadcasts by individuals operating without a license. Kennard said in his speech that he had shut down more pirate stations than any of his predecessors.

Marchese said KNPR is concerned about the impact low-power stations would have on the station's signal in rural Nevada. The station operates translators that boost and direct its signal to remote locations, but low-power operations could broadcast in entire communities in areas like Tonopah, Panaca, Pioche, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and Death Valley, Calif., where KNPR has a presence.

Marchese said he talked to Kennard at a dinner last year, but wasn't satisfied that he and the FCC would be able to keep low-power stations on their frequencies and from overmodulating.

"We're not against the concept of low power," Marchese said. "We're against the interference that could result. We just don't want to see the industry hurt by this plan."