SUMMARY
A great opportunity may await the American public through the transition to digital radio. In the future, digital audio broadcasting could vastly increase the capacity for the transmission of radio programming and other services. The coalition of public interest organizations represented in these comments ("Public Interest Coalition" or "Coalition") commends the Commission for its forward-thinking FNPRM and endeavors to provide proposals to support the Commission's proactive exploration of public interest obligations for digital audio broadcasting. The Coalition's premise is that articulated by the Supreme Court in Red Lion, "[i]t is the right of the viewers and listeners which is paramount ."1 The Coalition strongly supports the creation of a second audio channel and other initiatives to expand the capacity of the public airwaves. Today, as always, many more people wish to speak than can be accommodated on the airwaves, and many audiences still await services targeted to their needs. Any technological initiative that can expand opportunities for public service must be fully explored.
The Coalition begins by describing how radio can best serve its communities. The Coalition presents a proactive vision of the goals we hope the FCC would like to achieve. The Coalition recognizes that at this early stage of digital audio development, it is better to start with our goals firmly in mind, and then construct a roadmap to achievethose goals. The Coalition hearkens back to historic aspirations for broadcasting in the hopes that the Commission does not lose sight of those ideals while developing the details of digital audio implementation.
Next, the Coalition advocates meaningful increased public interest obligations for terrestrial digital audio broadcasting. Digital audio broadcasters will use more spectrum and receive significant additional benefits through increased flexibility and increased opportunities for earning revenue. These opportunities will further increase, in all likelihood, upon transition to an all-digital radio environment. It bears emphasis that iBiquity's digital radio plans grant broadcasters permanent occupancy of the sidebands surrounding their current signals, and these sidebands will not be returned to public even in an all-digital environment. This more than justifies additional enhancements to public service. Moreover, uncertainty serves no one. Clear obligations help the public and help the broadcasters that are anxious to fulfill their obligations.
The Coalition outlines four areas in which the Commission should take action in order to adequately serve the public interest. First, the Commission should make explicit policy principles to serve as guideposts throughout the transition to digital audio. Specifically, the Coalition suggests the following six principles:
1) Free, over-the-air radio is a vital national interest that must be preserved and protected for civic, public safety, informational, and cultural reasons.
2) Broadcasters must add as much additional capacity for the provision of new and independent voices or for serving underserved communities as they add for other purposes, such as offering commercial services that increase format diversity or subscription services.
3) Radio must use digital technology to improve its offering of emergency information to all audiences no later than it deploys other new services.
4) Core statutory obligations must apply to all newly-created digital channels, and need modest alteration for a digital environment.
5) Benefits that accrue to digital audio broadcasters must be accompanied by specific public interest obligations enforced through Commission rules and renewal processing guidelines.
6) The Commission will utilize the technological development process to ensure that technology advancements support a broader benefit to the public.
Second, the Coalition identifies specific ways to implement the principles by suggesting the Commission should clarify the minimum public interest obligations that apply to every digital audio broadcaster. This includes applying broadcaster's statutoryobligations to the full new digital audio capacity and ensuring that both localism and civic discourse are well served by the new technology. In addition, digital audio broadcasters should document their compliance with these minimum requirements publicly.
Third, the FCC should develop a flexible menu of additional public interest obligations and impose additional obligations when a broadcaster chooses to implement subscription or other non-advertising based services. The Coalition strongly endorses the Commission's tentative conclusion that it should adopt policies that encourage more audio streams to enhance program diversity. This newly added digital capacity could be one of the only opportunities to add service for underserved audiences over a mass medium. The Coalition thus encourages the Commission to link new public interest obligations to subscription or other non-advertising based services. The menu should place the highest priority on offering capacity for audio programming to non-affiliated noncommercial programmers, "small disadvantaged businesses" (SDBs), and commercial programmers serving underserved audiences. The menu should also include options to offer additional news and public affairs programming, and to offer public interest data services.
Finally, the Coalition urges the Commission to adopt protections for consumer privacy, methods to collect appropriate and independent data on digital radio, and the adoption of a new rule for digital translators and boosters that promotes localism while preserving service to remote areas.
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1 Red Lion Broad. Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 364, 390 (1969).
