Senate Commerce Committe To Vote on Restoring LPFM

Tomorrow is a big day for the future of low-power FM, when the Senate Commerce Committee votes on Chairman Sen. McCain’s bill to restore spacing requirements to the original level set by the FCC back in 2000, when the Commission originally approved low-power FM. If ultimately passed by Congress and signed into law, the bill would open up hundreds to thousands of frequencies for new low-power FM stations around the country, especially in major metro areas with congested dials that currently have room for no new stations.

According to e-mail sent around by the Prometheus Radio Project, the vote looks close and the NAB has been lobbying Commerce Committee members hard. So Prometheus is urging folks living in states with senators on the committee to call them and urge them to vote in favor of the LPFM bill. I’m including a list of these Senators at the end of this post. Prometheus also has a page of information on the bill.

The Commerce Committee meeting will be webcast from their website, and there’s a good chance that will be picked up by CSPAN2, but there’s no particular note of it on the schedule. Depending on my ability to get audio of the meeting, I may air highlights on Friday’s radioshow.

Here’s a list of Senate Commerce Committee members:

SENATOR STATE PARTY LEGISLATIVE AIDE OFFICE #
Maria Cantwell WA D Rick Rockwell 202-224-3441
Ron Wyden OR D David Sohn 202-224-5244
Olympia Snowe ME R Ray Krncevic 202-224-5344
John Sununu NH R Mike O’Reilly 202-224-2841
Ernest F. Hollings SC D James Assey 202-224-6121
Daniel K. Inouye HI D Margret Cuumisky 202-224-3934
John D. Rockefeller WV D James Reid 202-224-6472
George Allen VA R Frank Cavaliere 202-224-4024
Frank Lautenberg NJ D Rudy Brioche 202-224-3224
Conrad Burns MT R Jodi Peters 202-224-6132
Kay Bailey Hutchison TX R Mike Drobac 202-224-5922
Sam Brownback KS R Courtney Anderson 202-224-6521
Peter G. Fitzgerald IL R Andrew Heyerdahl 202-224-2854
John Ensign NV R Mike Sullivan 202-224-6244
John F. Kerry MA D Barry Lasalla 202-224-2742
Byron L. Dorgan ND D Daphna Peled 202-224-2551
Bill Nelson FL D Mike Sozan 202-224-5274
Trent Lott MS R Steven Walls 202-224-6253
Ted Stevens AK R Lisa Sutherland 202-224-3004
Gordon Smith OR R Wally Shsueh 202-224-3753
John Breaux LA D Andy Vermilye 202-224-4623
Barbara Boxer CA D Danny Scpulzeda 202-224-3553


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