On March 15th, a bill was introduced in the Senate called the "Local Emergency Radio Service Preservation Act of
2006." The bill requires the FCC to determine if satellite radio can continue to offer "locally oriented
services on nationally distributed channels." According to Billboard Radio Monitor, the bill's aim is to prevent satellite radio broadcasters from broadcasting
any form of “locally differentiated” content. NAB President and CEO David Rehr had this to say:"NAB applauds Sens. Snowe, Baucus and Lott for introducing legislation designed to preserve the rich tradition of local broadcasting. It is crystal clear that both XM and Sirius – with nearly $1 billion in combined losses last year and having failed as a national programming service – are skirting the intent of their original FCC licenses. This bill holds satellite radio accountable to those licenses." Mr. Rehr had similar remarks in a March 1 letter to the FCC opposing XM's acquisition of blocks of the WCS spectrum. I suppose we can't blame Mr. Rehr for his position - it's his job, after all, to look out for terrestrial broadcasters - but this is nothing but protectionism.
