I
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 initi-
ate rulemaking proceedings to improve multilingual radio
broadcasting, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Multilingual Radio
Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds that—
(1) there are large populations of United States
residents whose assimilation as citizens would be
eased by access to information on employment op-
portunities, cultural affairs, governmental services,
and general public affairs;
(2) radio broadcasting provides an accessible
and convenient method to meet this public need;
(3) there are no current assurances of future
broadcast services of this nature to such multi-
lingual, multiethnic populations; and
(4) authority should be granted to the Federal
Communications Commission to enable it to estab-
lish at least three demonstration frequencies for the
purpose of providing multilingual, multiethnic broad-
casting services to the substantial diverse popu-
lations of the designated metropolitan areas.
SEC. 3. RULEMAKING ON MULTILINGUAL BROADCASTING
DEMONSTRATION FREQUENCIES REQUIRED.
The Federal Communications Commission shall,
within 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act,
begin a rulemaking proceeding to prescribe such regula-
tions as may be necessary—
(1) to establish demonstration frequencies for
the purpose of providing multilingual amplitude
modulation radio broadcasting services to large met-
ropolitan areas with large multilingual populations;
(2) to require that such a demonstration fre-
quency be licensed in the New York City metropoli-
tan area;
(3) to create other demonstration frequencies, if
possible, for other cities in which the Commission by
rule finds that large multilingual populations would
be benefited by multilingual radio broadcasting;
(4) to make such frequencies available for ex-
panded services through the use of that portion of
the amplitude modulated radio band between 1605
kHz and 1705kHz;
(5) to require that the licensee of such a multi-
lingual operation—
(A) to devote at least 75 percent of each
broadcast day to programming in at least 5 lan-
guages other than English;
(B) to program in at least 20 languages
other than English during any broadcast week;
and
(C) to carry at least one hour of English
language instructional programming during
each broadcast day.
SEC. 4. LICENSE AWARD.
The Commission shall establish the demonstration
frequencies described in section 3 as not-for-profit oper-
ations and award the license for such frequencies by com-
parative hearing to nonprofit groups with substantial ex-
perience in serving the unique needs of multilingual and
multiethnic communities. The public service orientation of
this broadcast service shall be reflected in the experience
of the licensee. Not-for-profit status and experience with
multilingual and multiethnic broadcasting shall be given
weight equal to any other comparative criteria used by the
Commission.
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