Powell: Unsure of LPFM’s Effect
by Leslie Stimson
The new Republican chairman of the FCC is speaking
in cautious tones about the LPFM initiative he inherited from
his Democratic predecessor.
In his first comments to reporters as chairman,
Michael Powell said that when he gave a qualified "yes"
vote on the low-power issue last year, he was "at a loss
as to whose version to accept," referring to engineering
data from the FCC, LPFM supporters and the NAB regarding potential
interference.
He said the LPFM technical debate calls into question
the FCC’s current system of technical assessment.
On wider issues, having served as an FCC commissioner
for three years, Powell seems comfortable handling a variety of
telecommunications issues, and says he will wait for matters to
come to him for decisions, rather than seeking out more issues
to regulate.
His more deregulatory approach would be a shift
from that of Democratic predecessors Reed Hundt and Bill Kennard,
during whose terms the FCC required TV stations to air more educational
kids’ programming and created rules for the planned low-power
FM service, respectively.
The FCC increasingly finds itself on what Powell
calls "Internet time," and he said the agency needs
to better handle uncertainty in the businesses it regulates. At
the press conference, Powell laid out general goals, such as restructuring
the agency, to better reflect the convergence of markets.
While he did not get into specifics about his plans,
he shared thoughts on a variety of issues:
LPFM – Powell still supports a gradual
roll-out of the new service, as he said a year ago when he voted
for it, although no official decision on the timetable has been
made. He believes language passed by Congress last fall directing
the agency to conduct interference tests and an economic impact
study resolves some of his concerns.
After listening to engineers debate the results
of four LPFM interference studies conducted last year, Powell
said, he was still unsure if the service would cause interference
to existing stations.
"That matter points out my concern about the
continuing ability to independently assess technological questions.
… Part of what I think we need is we need a greater independent
ability to assess those questions on the front end."
Powell also said some of the biggest LPFM opponents
he met when the issue was being debated were not big radio group
owners, but rather small independents.
"What you’re talking about often is the
viability of the lower end, marginal stations in local and smaller
markets who almost can’t afford to lose one more advertiser,
or one more listener, or it’s done for. What’s ironic
here is sometimes, these kinds of debates are presumed to be about
little guys and really big guys. Sometimes what it’s about
is one class of little guys vs. another class of little guys.
In many ways, the stresses of that issue are more there than they
are about big radio."
Telecom Act – Powell generally considers
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 a success. The resulting competition
and deregulation unleashed capital and helped get DSL "out
of the closet," in his words.
When asked whether cable re-regulation portions
of the act failed, he said higher cable prices are insufficient
justification to reconsider the act.
"Americans like TV, multichannel TV –
programming consumers seem to value highly," he said, citing
more than 80 percent penetration of cable and DBS-combined into
American homes.
The Internet – The Net will prove to
be just a "cool experiment" if product providers don’t
just give consumers interesting products, but also find a way
to make a profit, Powell said.
DTV transition – When asked what the
FCC might do to help the DTV transition, Powell said, "Whether
DTV succeeds or fails does not rest in the hands of the government,"
but in the hands of TV programmers and set makers. Consumer acceptance
of DTV, he said, still remains a "wild card."
Digital divide – Powell rejects the
notion of a so-called digital divide splitting the country between
those who have computers, Internet access and other telecommunications
services and those who do not. He joked that he has a "Mercedes
divide."
