Squeezing out National Public Radio - Worth Noting - relgious broadcasters accused of overpowering radio signals

Humanist, Nov-Dec, 2002 by Karen Ann Gajewski

* Using a federal law that allows noncommercial broadcasters with licenses for full-power stations to push out those with weaker signals, religious broadcasters across the country have been squeezing out National Public Radio by "stepping on their signals." Currently, there is vast growth in the national NPR audience and faster growth in religious networks like American Family Radio, with its 194 stations, eighteen affiliates, and applications, for hundreds more pending with the FCC. To counter this, public radio has established the national nonprofit corporation Public Radio Capital to raise money through tax-exempt bonds to help local public radio stations end their reliance on translators and buy full-power stations.

Karen Ann Gajewski is a consulting editor at the Humanist.