New legislation a boon to community radio

Larry Gerson, a longtime producer at now-defunct radio station WTAE-FM, laments the death of progressive rock on radio in Pittsburgh. "It's just not there. It was, but the Telecommunications Act of 1996 killed radio," said Gerson of Swissvale, one of about 50 people who attended a North Side workshop Saturday about starting a low-power FM radio station. A new law, the Local Community Radio Act, reduces the amount of bandwidth allowed between existing FM stations. The newly available bandwidth would be used to create noncommercial radio stations operating at a low power, 100 watts, and have a transmission range of 10 to 15 miles. As many as 2,000 new noncommercial stations are expected nationally beginning about 2013. Under the law, as many as five low-power stations could operate in Pittsburgh, which has none. More community stations could mean more coverage of issues as wide-ranging as school board meetings, high school football games, health, education, local music and literacy campaigns, said Brandy Doyle, policy director for Prometheus Radio Project, a small Philadelphia-based nonprofit that worked out of a basement for 12 years to get more noncommercial radio stations approved.