BELFAST - The Federal Communications Commission is planning to accept proposals for low power FM radio stations next week for the first time in over a decade. Assuming the government reopens or otherwise makes good on the offer, the City of Belfast is hoping to get a foot in the door.

“Were not sure where we’re going to go with it,” said Manda Cushman, administrative assistant to the city manager and organizer of the current low power FM radio application, “but we don’t want to miss the opportunity.”

The opportunity is a two-week window, and the last one was 11 years ago. Today there are three low-power FM stations in Maine: WJZF 97.1 in Standish and WJZP 105.1 in Portland and WRFR 93.3 in Rockland.

Programming at the two Southern Maine stations is primarily music. Rockland’s WRFR leans toward a “community radio”-style mix of music and talk programs.

In initial discussions last week, Belfast city officials raised the possibility of using the low-power FM station to broadcast city meetings, similar to the videos that have run on cable TV since 2002 and more recently became available online and for live web streaming.

Like the current radio bid, the city’s cable TV broadcasts grew out of an opportunity from the FCC.

Since 1984 cable TV companies have been required to set aside public access channels in the municipalities they serve. The Public, Education and Government channels, or PEG as they are known, factor into unique franchise agreements in which the cable company gets easements for infrastructure in exchange for a fee or other concessions. 

Low power FM is probably the closest thing on radio dial to cable TV’s public access channels. The FCC created the LPFM designation in 2000 as a way for small stations with educational or public service content to broadcast at power levels below the 100-watt minimum for commercial radio stations.

City officials believe the Belfast station would cover a radius of up to 10 miles from the transmitter, depending upon the terrain.

Shortly after it was enacted, low power FM suffered setbacks in the form of Congressional legislation that favored larger commercial stations and loopholes that allowed remote nonprofit broadcasters — primarily Christian radio stations — to get local broadcast licenses. The latter, in some cases, ate into the narrow strip on the left-hand side of the dial (88.1 to 91.9 MHz) that is typically reserved for non-commercial radio.

The Local Community Radio Act of 2010 loosened restrictions on low-power FM stations. Other factors must also account for why the FCC is soliciting applications now, in October 2013.

Due to the federal government shutdown, however, officials at the agency could not be reached for comment.

In Belfast last week, Cushman was working with an engineer to find available frequencies — a requirement for the city’s LPFM application. If not for a tip from a resident, she could have easily never known about the application, she said.

Joe Steinberger, station manager for WRFR, said the short lead time was similar when he applied in 2002.

The citizen group had read that the FCC was planning to accept applications, Steinberger said, but the agency hadn’t said when. 

“Then all of a sudden it was like we had 10 days,” he said.

WRFR has two staff members, numerous volunteers, and in Steinberger’s words, “no overriding philosophy.” There are talk shows with liberal and conservative slants, music ranging from rock and roots to classical, each according to the tastes of the DJ. If there’s one unifying element, he said, it’s that all of the shows are all locally produced.

“The reality of radio is that there’s essentially no local radio anymore. The motivation for the whole thing [at WRFR] is about local culture, paying attention to people and issues that are here,” he said.

The Belfast station would be local, but in a different way than WRFR, where Steinberger said a clear separation between the radio and city government was a requirement from the start.

In his experience, city officials had gone out of their way to protect their interests to the point of censorship. But that was his city.

“I think Belfast has things together a hell of a lot better, politically, than Rockland,” he said.

The FCC’s call for low-power FM radio permits is open to the following groups: nonprofit educational organizations; tribes and tribal organizations; and public safety radio services (a category that can include state and municipal government bodies). Applications are due between Oct. 15 and 29, pending the reopening of federal offices.

Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com