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103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 971

To require the Federal Communications Commission to initiate rulemaking

proceedings to improve multilingual radio broadcasting, and for other

purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 18, 1993

Mr. ENGEL (for himself and Mr. MANTON) introduced the following bill; which

was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce

A BILL

To require the Federal Communications Commission to initiate rulemaking proceedings to improve multilingual radio

broadcasting, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Multilingual Radio

5 Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 The Congress finds that—

8 (1) there are large populations of United States

9 residents whose assimilation as citizens would be
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1 eased by access to information on employment op2 portunities, cultural affairs, governmental services,

3 and general public affairs;

4 (2) radio broadcasting provides an accessible

5 and convenient method to meet this public need;

6 (3) there are no current assurances of future

7 broadcast services of this nature to such multi8 lingual, multiethnic populations; and

9 (4) authority should be granted to the Federal

10 Communications Commission to enable it to estab11 lish at least three demonstration frequencies for the

12 purpose of providing multilingual, multiethnic broad13 casting services to the substantial diverse popu14 lations of the designated metropolitan areas.

15 SEC. 3. RULEMAKING ON MULTILINGUAL BROADCASTING

16 DEMONSTRATION FREQUENCIES REQUIRED.

17 The Federal Communications Commission shall,

18 within 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act,

19 begin a rulemaking proceeding to prescribe such regula20 tions as may be necessary—

21 (1) to establish demonstration frequencies for

22 the purpose of providing multilingual amplitude

23 modulation radio broadcasting services to large met24 ropolitan areas with large multilingual populations;
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1 (2) to require that such a demonstration fre2 quency be licensed in the New York City metropoli3 tan area;

4 (3) to create other demonstration frequencies, if

5 possible, for other cities in which the Commission by

6 rule finds that large multilingual populations would

7 be benefited by multilingual radio broadcasting;

8 (4) to make such frequencies available for ex9 panded services through the use of that portion of

10 the amplitude modulated radio band between 1605

11 kHz and 1705kHz;

12 (5) to require that the licensee of such a multi13 lingual operation—

14 (A) to devote at least 75 percent of each

15 broadcast day to programming in at least 5 lan16 guages other than English;

17 (B) to program in at least 20 languages

18 other than English during any broadcast week;

19 and

20 (C) to carry at least one hour of English

21 language instructional programming during

22 each broadcast day.

23 SEC. 4. LICENSE AWARD.

24 The Commission shall establish the demonstration

25 frequencies described in section 3 as not-for-profit oper-
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1 ations and award the license for such frequencies by com2 parative hearing to nonprofit groups with substantial ex3 perience in serving the unique needs of multilingual and

4 multiethnic communities. The public service orientation of

5 this broadcast service shall be reflected in the experience

6 of the licensee. Not-for-profit status and experience with

7 multilingual and multiethnic broadcasting shall be given

8 weight equal to any other comparative criteria used by the

9 Commission.

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