Gadget Bloggers

The National Association of Broadcasters has just sent off a nastygram to the Federal Communications Commission, complaining about those pesky satellite radios (the ones that are stealing business from over-the-air radio stations).  The NAB is particularly upset about satellite radio receivers (and mp3 players) that retransmit their signals onto FM radios, usually in people’s cars.

The NAB commissioned a study on these little re-transmitters - tested 17 different ones and found that 13 of them violated FCC rules about signal strength.  (One of them was putting out signals 20 times stronger than allowed by law.)  Many of the devices also violated rules about bandwidth - taking up too much space on the radio dial. 

The NAB is concerned about this because, for one thing, broadcasters don’t want their 50,000 watt signals to be interfered with by some guy with a satellite radio tuned to Howard Stern, rebroadcasting it over regular FM airwaves all over the highway.  (For another thing, broadcasters want to stick it to satellite radio any way they possibly can.)

The FCC has already been dealing with several complaints about these so-called Part 15 devices. This ongoing fight over these satellite radio receivers can have two potential effects:  1) increasing the cost of the receivers, to cover the cost of FCC compliance; 2) decreasing the signal put out by the satellite receiver, causing poorer quality audio for the satellite radio listener.  Both of these would be helpful to over-the-air broadcasters, and frustrating for satellite radio listeners.

Satellite radio listeners whose radios operate directly without retransmitting the signal onto FM are in no way involved or affected by all this.

[via Radio & Records, Billboard]

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