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February 7, 2008 A Message to Visitors: We’re Not Dead! A lot of people want to know — just what the heck is going on with our plans to bring a low-power public radio station to the Mon-Yough area? Well, to tell you the truth — so do we. And that’s why our website has become somewhat ... erm ... dormant lately. It’s been six years now since the Federal Communications Commission created the LPFM service, and five years since Lightning Community Broadcasting Inc. was chartered in McKeesport, Pa. But it’s been about four years since the U.S. Congress tacked a rider onto an appropriations bill that outlawed LPFM stations for all except unpopulated areas. Which defeats the purpose of a low-powered public radio service for urban areas, wouldn’t you say? Congress made its decision after being heavily lobbied by big-money corporate broadcasters, who are afraid of the threat that truly local, independent radio might be to their stations. (We don’t think that’s fair. We think competition is a good thing.) Since then, a study conducted at taxpayer expense has proved what everyone already knew — the restrictions that Congress wrote into the LPFM bill (over the objections of the FCC) were unnecessary and flawed. There also have been two efforts led by U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, to get the restrictions rolled back. In the meantime, Lightning CBI applied for a license — we even laid out what would have been a 24-hour, seven-day-per-week schedule of local programming for the Mon-Yough area. But we were rejected because of these restrictions that Sen. McCain is trying to get rolled back. The newest effort to save LPFM is called S. 312, the Community Radio Act of 2005. It’s being supported by McCain, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont. What can you do to help? You can write to your Senators and Representatives urging them to support S. 312. For McKeesport-area residents, that means a letter to U.S. Senators Bob Casey Jr. and Arlen Specter is in order, along with U.S. Representative Mike Doyle. You can also feel free to drop us a note at P.O. Box 847, McKeesport, PA 15134. We haven’t given up, but we have decided it would be inappropriate for us to raise any additional money until we know what the future of LPFM will be. We also understand that Penn State Greater Allegheny campus would like to get an LPFM license as an outlet for its Web/carrier-current station, WMKP. We don’t want to compete with them, and would like to work with them in any way we can, and that includes helping them raise money or organizing community volunteers. We haven’t heard back from them, but we’re hopeful. We still think there is a need for a non-commercial, public radio station serving McKeesport, White Oak, Duquesne, West Mifflin and the surrounding areas, and we will continue to pursue other opportunities if the become available. But to put it into the vernacular — we ain’t dead yet! So stay tuned.
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