TagYerit
http://www.tagyerit.com/
rich@tagyerit.com
tel. 413.256.0248

4/23/98

Office of the Secretary (1800), Room 222, FCC,
1919 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20554.
Concerning several petitions for creation of the low power AM &FM
RM9208 &  RM9242

I would just like to briefly say that I believe low power radio stations are not only necessitated by commercial stations inability to serve the public interest of only a portion of their audiences, but they are in fact inevitable.

As a musician, I can attest to the proliferation of a variety of recordings released yearly. Estimates for last year are near 30,000. Commercial radio has shown no interest in exploiting the potential of artistic statement. Maybe that's just as well, but there is no logical reason that local stations shouldn't exist to meet the needs of local artists.

There's no reason why communities shouldn't have the ability to discuss their needs on the airwaves, just as they can create local papers. There's no air space for Amherst citizens (my local community) to discuss smoking bans, bar hours, postering, or if a parking garage is what the town needs. This is in spite of the fact we have 2 college stations, one NPR station and many fine commercial stations. The mandate for regional news on WFCR our NPR station reaches a much broader audience, and would have no appeal to these types of issues that concern us here.

How you create it, in terms of technical equipment limitations, and other issues are not my concerns. But I do believe that they should be owned as a public trust, with a local governing board rather than on a "first come" basis. Possibly similar to the way public access television stations exist. The only difference, might be that they could have a commercial value to the community.

Once again I'd like to urge only that you do create a vehicle for low power broadcasting.

Sincerely

Richard Newman

By the way, I tried to gather info from your website, but found Acrobat to be a slow cumbersome means of gathering information. 2 meg files can take 2 hours to download with a 28.8 modem if you're lucky.