Communications Minister David Cunliffe talks to Wammo about small stations on low power frequencies or stations that have out grown their position or license moving to either the new commercial or non-commercial frequencies. A student station like bFM could be an example of this.

The Government plans to auction the commercial frequencies with conditions yet to be finalised. David Cunliffe indicates that the new radio stations should not compete in the same markets as existing big players and therefore would not be subject to the market pressures as previous auctions where frequencies have been sold for millions of dollars.

However, the Minister does not rule out that Canwest or the Radio Network will still be able to bid for these. Other changes will see low power FM stations in the guard band able to double their transmission power. This may have implications for commercial broadcasters and the bnet stations who already compete with low power broadcasters on a very local level.

KiwiFM Audio: Wammo talks to Communications Minister David Cunliffe about the announced FM station broadcasting plan.

ALSO:

KiwiFM Audio: Wammo talks to bNet legend Russell Brown about what he makes of the Government's plan.

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Wammo 10am till 2pm weekdays - KiwiFM 102.2FM Akl 102.1FM Wgtn 102.5FM ChCh

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