Indigo Girls to celebrate low power FM

By: Declan McCullagh
Topics: Media ,; Politics

My esteemed colleague John Borland came out of the closet this morning as a fan of the 1980s band Twisted Sister.

Can I say the same about the Indigo Girls?

They're making a trip to Washington, DC as "special guests" of Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y for an event Thursday in the Rayburn House Office Building.

Slaughter is planning to announce legislation to, in her words, protect low-power FM (LPFM) radio stations "from an emerging pattern of abuse and encroachment by conglomerate media organizations."

According to Slaughter: "Apparently, many hundreds of LPFM broadcast licenses awarded to individuals by the FCC for their own use, were then sold for large sums of money to several owners who intend to broadcast content via satellite networks rather than use the licenses for the purpose for which they were intended: local voices articulating local issues and featuring local artists reflecting local culture and customs."

By way of background, low power FM broadcast stations were created by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000. They're designed to serve small communities with a broadcast radius of three to four miles.

Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
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