Maria Cantwell: “I stand today to offer a bill to protect educational radio stations. Broadcaster Linda Ellerbee has compared radio to a…”

“I stand today to offer a bill to protect educational radio stations. Broadcaster Linda Ellerbee has compared radio to a national campfire: a place where a variety of voices bring us stories, news, opinion, culture and entertainment. But it seems these days that those representing the biggest business interests have the best seats at that campfire. Current regulations allow commercial broadcasters to move into the spaces of some, lower-powered educational stations. Last year the FCC ordered an educational station at a high school in Pennsylvania to be closed because a commercial broadcaster wanted to move into that space. That high school station had been serving the students and the community in Havertown, PA for fifty years. But no more. The high school station's voice was silenced. And that same FCC order also closed a radio station operated by a school district in Princeton, NJ. Both stations lost their licenses so a commercial broadcaster could get a frequency closer to the very profitable radio market in Philadelphia. In my State of Washington, a high school station that has served a Seattle community for 35 years is now threatened with closure.”