KCIL move opponent clarifies viewpoint

Dear Editor,

Thanks for Mike Brossette’s piece on KCIL’s possible move out of Houma and on my campaign to halt an 18-year exodus of FM stations from small and medium sized towns all over the country.

The story presented both sides of the issue, but omitted a couple of facts that might help your readers decide where the public interest lies.

According to figures in Sunburst Media’s FCC application, their new facility will broadcast to a population of 1.175 million, 4 1/2 times the quarter million Houma-area residents it presently reaches. The new community of license, Jean Lafitte, is home to less than 0.02 percent of its potential new listeners, fewer than 1 out of 540. By contrast, 50 percent of the new facility’s potential listeners live in New Orleans and Metarie, both of which it will cover completely.

It’s true FCC regulations require KCIL to serve its new community of license, but KCIL’s lawyer neglected to mention that nearly two decades of radio deregulation have left no measurable or enforceable dimension to that obligation. It’s like the law that motorists must yield to pedestrians. How many of us count on that law being obeyed? And yet Houma’s loss is justified by the gain Sunburst claims for Jean Lafitte.

Finally, General Manager Fletcher’s statement that KCIL’s license change is simply a “window of opportunity” depending upon the business climate runs counter to FCC regulations. KCIL’s license now reads Jean Lafitte, not Houma. Its FCC construction permit requires its move be completed by May 14, 2010 (though extensions are possible). Only another successful application to change KCIL’s community of license (or victory in my effort to stop such moves nationwide) could allow KCIL to remain in Houma permanently.

Bill Clay

Charlotte N.C.