Then:
It seems that the development of Frequency Modulation (FM) Radio in the 1920s by Edwin Armstrong was always part legal controversy. Armstrong almost immediately finds himself embroiled in controversy with his former friend Sarnoff and this leads to legal issues. Despite the superiority of FM radio in the areas of removing static, higher signal quality and a way to get past night time broadcasting problems, Sarnoff was too invested in Amplitude Modulation (AM) financially to have a competitor so he for the most part stifled the development of FM radio and used the government to help him. Mostly this involved legal battles but the FCC did outlaw simulcasts of AM and FM together and the stations would stick with AM.
While it is easy to get caught up in the big legal battle the fact is that smaller low powered FM stations were always the subject of legal controversy and overbearing regulation. Initially the government in 1948 licensed smaller stations for educational and non-profit situations. These "Class D: stations were initially accepted on university and college campuses but later the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 forced smaller stations up to higher standards. This forced many smaller stations outside education to close and later in 1978 further government regulation to upgrade in power forced many smaller stations to shut down and in the earlier 1980s all but the university stations were pretty much gone. The regulations pretty much had crushed the smaller stations.
At some point though the public rebelled and many people began to start and operate small FM stations illegally. Mbanna Kantako in 1986 became famous by operating a small radio station in his living room and supposedly launched the 'micro radio' revolution. Kantako argued that his first amendment rights were being denied him because of the overbearing regulation that favored radio with purely commercial interests. He would have continued all the way to the supreme court except no major radio group continued with the prosecution so he never got to argue his case before the supreme court.
The final real case of the past that was related to Low Power FM was United States vs. Dunifer. Dunifer started his Low Power FM station in 1992 and was fined $20,000 for not having sufficient power. Dunifer argued that the law only stated that a radio station had to have sufficient power to broadcast and he demonstrated that low power FM stations had sufficient power to do just that. In the end the case basically became the catalyst of a micro radio revolution that created stations that went up faster than the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) could shut them down.
Now:
By 1998, there were more than 1000 illegal micro stations operating in the US. The FCC shut down about 250 stations at that time but it was become clear that they were losing. The problem was greatly increased by the fact that these illegal stations were using the new found organization benefits of the internet to avoid both fines and capture by the authorities. The public was soon learning the potential of low powered FM. Finally under tremendous pressure the FCC was set to create a regulations standard for Low Powered FM that would have allowed the licencing of 10000 low powered stations in 2000.
Congress itself intervened and the standards that y brought o bear pretty much limited the ability once again of small stations to gain traction. The lobbying for restricting of licencing had its effect as well and in the early millennium there were roughly 1300 stations classified as Low Powered FM. This has dropped as the increasing regulations have dropped this number to 500. However there seems to be a change in the winds that even now is being felt as FM stations as a whole turning to online broadcasting.
One might think this would be the answer, but the truth is that while internet radio does have some conveniences, statistics bear out that many people still listen to regular FM radio and statistics range from 10 to 15% percent of radio listeners listen to the online version. 93% of radio listeners still listen to conventional FM or AM radio and so the move to online may be slightly overstated as to its significance. That said if larger stations do move more online nad attract listeners that would open up more room for low powered FM to be less regulated and less controlled by the FCC and the government in general.
Changing technology is changing the game for Low Powered FM but it is doing so far slower than what might be expected. Then again what could be happening is that online broadcasting might be made more for the small radio market than the large scale FM stations. This is the shift that may actually be happening but the future is a little difficult to see. Although very recently there was a major victory in 2013.
According to Pew Research, pod casting has grown from 13% to 21% in the last three years (2013-2016) for the market of 21 years of age and younger. I mention pod casting because it may make the argument for or against low powered FM possibly irrelevant over time or provide a way where there might be a interesting or more balanced output between online broadcasters, Low Powered FM and the Large market broadcasters who are trying to stretch their market into online. Online broadcasting does not have many of the limitations of regular broadcasting but it seems not to be growing as fast as many thought it would. That said, the potential is there because you don't have frequencies to crowd the airways with online broadcasting so limiting radio stations or the number of broadcasters is unnecessary.
Part of this will of course involve the slow passing of time as older radio listeners give way to new ones. This would mean that online radio and pod casting might slowly overtake regular broadcasting. This might mean that Low powered local stations might begin to serve a role that is vacated by online broadcasting by being more locally oriented. So far, as stations have gone online they have become more generic and this is increased as the number of radio station owner has become more limited.
In this way, low powered FM may very much be a reflection of the long term battle FM radio has had as a general whole. It above all things has had to fight for its existence against the corporate power of RCA. The legal battles that have surrounded FM in the earlier days still surround low powered FM as it fights against the larger corporate and non-corporate stations. The thing that it now might face is peace as online pod casting might give voice to those who currently use Low Powered FM for that purpose.
In the end FM was designed to clear up problems that AM simply did not have the ability to fix, The irony is that despite its technical advantages it has long lived in controversy. Through its past. present and future, one of its children Low powered FM continues to live in that realm of controversy. I suppose Armstrong might smile and appreciate the irony that at least on of his technical children is still causing problems even though he created it in the first place to clear up problems. I know I certainly do.
References:
Opel, and Opel, A.
(2010). Low-Power FM radio (United States). In J. Downing (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social movement
media. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Retrieved from http://0-search.credoreference.com.libcat.ferris.edu/content/entry/sagesmm/low_power_fm_radio_united_states/0
Whittaker, R. (n.d.). The Dawn Of Radio History. Retrieved
September 26, 2016, from http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/frtv020.htm
Irvine, V. (2015). Topic: Radio
Industry. Retrieved September 26, 2016, from
https://www.statista.com/topics/1330/radio/
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