Anti-LPFM arguments refuted in Hill hearing

Support for easier licensing standards for Low Power FM stations is growing in Congress and at the FCC, according to reports [here and here] on yesterday’s House subcommittee hearing on the Local Community Radio Act of 2009. The FCC’s extensive experience in FM licensing “refutes the claim that elimination of third-adjacent channel protection requirements would result in pervasive interference,” Peter Boyle, chief of the commission’s Audio Division, told lawmakers in his written testimony. “In fact, the potential for interference would be limited to areas immediately adjacent to LPFM transmitter sites.” NPR has long opposed proposals allowing more flexibility in channel-spacing rules for LPFM stations.