Rural Radio Service

[seattlefollower]

From today's Taylor on radio-info, I'm afraid I don't follow the way that Mr. Taylor's written this copy.

Will the FCC’s new “policies to promote rural radio service” really do it?
The long-awaited NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) is out and Womble Carlyle attorney John Garziglia tells me “this proposal is in reality an abject display of protectionism in favor of larger market stations.” His conclusion – “if this proposal is adopted, no longer will broadcasters in larger markets have to fear additional competition from new stations.” Doesn’t that fly in the face of the very name of the item? After all, it seems to say that a proposal to license a new station in the technically-unserved suburb of a big-size market would no longer be given preference over allotting that same channel to a small town 40 miles away. That should be pro-rural radio, right? Garziglia says nope - “This is turning ‘public interest’ on its head.” FCC Commissioner and South Dakota native Jonathan Adelstein (who’s here at NAB-Las Vegas) is deeply interested in this topic. Is this one of those cases of “unintended consequences”? Read the FCC’s NPRM, with lots of moving parts about "urbanized areas" and "limiting moves of existing stations from smaller communities", here.

So does this mean, for example, that Lyman, Wyo. would have been protected in receiving legitimate service from KYLZ instead of a repeater of a station with studios hundreds of miles away? Same goes for Coalville, Woodruff, etc.

[dxstuboy]

I hope so CA. KJQN is terrible in and around Coalville, its COL.

[CAwasinNJ]

To give proper credit, that article was posted by SF.

The original article seems AWOL, but why is anyone worrying about COL's and station location and all that nonsense when most stations only pay lip service to their public interest obligations as it is? Get that fixed first. We'll worry about where the station goes afterwords.