Within the Band: The competition among migrating AM-FM broadcasters for space in brazilian radio

Abstract

The article proposes an observation of AM-FM migration by tracing the historicity of the process, amidst convergence, focusing on the reverberation of broadcasters who do not feel accommodated in the extended band. These frequencies were used in analog TV and were the solution found to accommodate migrant AM broadcasters in congested spectrum areas.  The study is guided by Andrew Feenberg's Critical Theory of Technology, proposing an analysis that overflows the changes triggered by technological devices. Thus, technology affects the sociopolitical context, since mechanisms and solutions do not only concern equipment, but an efficiency built by social and political interests. To this end, there is an analysis of the documentation sent by broadcasters to the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), in which they request a frequency change to within the so-called conventional band (87.5 to 108 MHz) instead of the extended FM band (76 to 87 MHz). The request for "changing the basic FM plan" is made via the Electronic Information System (SEI) to Anatel, which after technical analysis authorizes the frequency change. As requests can be denied and then resubmitted, the analyzed set involves 81 requests from 43 broadcasters, with 34 having their requests granted. Companies need to prove that they can occupy a certain frequency above 88 MHz without interfering with other existing FM broadcasters in nearby regions. With the documentation obtained via the system, analysis categories were established to understand the change process: how many requests were made, from which states, how many times each company made these requests, and how many times the return was positive from the government agency. It is noted that AM-FM migration interferes with how the public receives these broadcasters by noting the attempt not to be in a band that is not receivable to older receivers. In this way, the study also highlights that Brazilian radio arrived in the 21st century with new definitions, such as expanded radio (Kischinhevsky, 2016) and hypermedia (Lopez, 2010) and proposes that the bottleneck may be in the non-realization of the transmission digitalization process. Such a path - defining which digitalization format the country will follow - could minimize the critical situation in which dozens of broadcasters find themselves, which, as the study points out, to survive, bow in request to the regulatory agency.