Testimony of Mary Kathryn Rountree on media ownership, presented to the FCC in Seattle, Nov. 30 2006 [transcription]

Mr. Commissioners, I am Mary Kathryn Rountree from Radio Free Moscow in Moscow, Idaho. We are a low-power FM station, and we epitomize what local radio can and should be. We broadcast local candidate forums, call-in shows, public hearings, diverse music that commercial radio will not touch. Low-power FM should no longer be secondary to full-power FM stations that want to increase power or move in on our signals.

Low-power FM also should have priority over satellite-fed translator stations that are taking over almost every available FM frequency across rural America. They broadcast from thousands of miles away. Finally low-power FM should be allowed to exist on third adjacent channels -- making room for thousands of more community radio stations and, for the first time, allowing low-power FM into large- and medium-sized cities where it is needed most. The Congressionally-mandated MITRE study has shown the low-power FM on third adjacent frequencies causes no significant interference to full power stations. Mr. Commissioners, I urge you to let low-power FM flourish throughout the country.