FCC Gets Earful in Monterey; LPFM Bill Advances from Senate Committee

First the news from Washington: John McCain’s bill to expand the FCC’s LPFM service cleared the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday, but not without some last-minute chicanery – an amendment has been added that exempts the state of New Jersey from any expansion (if it occurs).
Now it must clear the full Senate and House of Representatives, where the odds are not as good. However, Prometheus reports that some of the religious LPFMers are leaning on GOP congresscritters pretty hard, so there’s still some hope.
More fun was definitely had in Monterey, CA during the FCC’s Localism Task Force hearing Wednesday. Skidmark Bob’s culled several clips from the public comment period – my favorite comes from an “unknown pirate”:
Go back to D.C. and make your rules; we’ll continue to break them.” And the crowd goes wild! No word yet on whether or not anyone actually broadcast from the event.
Freak Radio recently got a pretty fair shake in a local TV newscast, of all places. Bob’s copy of the audio track even contains some halfway friendly and somewhat knowledgeable closing chatter from the anchor. You really can’t knock that kind of exposure.