Getting Howard Stern off NPR

After last Christmas, public radio stations across the country were inundated with complaints from listeners who were shocked to hear Howard Stern interrupt "Morning Edition" or their classical music lineup.

The portable satellite radios, iPods, and DVD players that people had received as gifts were playing on FM frequencies that interrupted broadcasts at the left end of the radio dial, in violation of federal regulations.

After a year of wrangling among broadcasters, regulators, and device manufacturers, public radio listeners and officials are in a holding pattern, waiting to see whether the problems the new media created for old radio have been corrected before deciding whether to take further action.

"One of the keys, frankly, is going to be what happens after the holidays," said Mike Starling , chief technology officer for NPR Labs. "It was after the holidays last year that this surfaced as a problem -- there were a bunch of flashy satellite radios" that hit the roads. "We want to see if indeed the FCC's actions have had the necessary effect on ensuring compliance with the consumer manufacturers."

At the center of the controversy are FM modulators -- low-power transmitters that broadcast the audio from portable devices onto airwaves that can be picked up by a car's stereo system. The devices are required by the Federal Communications Commission to operate at low power so that the radio signal tapers down to a low level within a few yards, to avoid interfering with licensed stations.

But that is exactly what 88.1 WMBR Cambridge listeners began to notice at the beginning of this year, as Howard Stern on Sirius Satellite Radio would "bleed" into the music line up on shows like "The Breakfast of Champions" when they were stopped in traffic.

A study commissioned by the National Association of Broadcasters this summer found that 13 of 17 devices that were tested were illegal, transmitting a stronger signal than is allowed by the FCC. Six of the illegal FM modulators exceeded power levels by more than 2,000 percent; one by 20,000 percent.

An NPR Labs study released a month later found that a third of the modulators observed in a roadside study exceeded power limits. The study estimated that 3.4 million devices were sold in 2005.

The FCC began to make inquiries into the issue, and this summer Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Inc. both acknowledged that some of the FM transmitters in their radios did not comply with regulations and began working with the commission to devise technological solutions to the problem.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this summer, Sirius suspended manufacture and shipment of non compliant devices earlier this year and told manufacturers to bring radios into compliance.

All "gifts that might be available at retail, headed for Christmas trees" are compliant with federal regulations, said Patrick Reilly, head of communications for Sirius.

Chance Patterson , vice president of corporate affairs for XM said the company had worked with the FCC to devise solutions to its noncompliant radios, and new radios were approved by the FCC in August.

Lucas Binder , a satellite radio analyst at UBS, estimated that air-shipping the new units to the shelves probably meant XM spent $4 more per customer. Both companies "had to spend money and put in efforts toward resolving the interference issue," which were now mainly resolved, he said.

Even as companies have introduced solutions, there are still "thousands, if not hundreds of thousands" of these units out on the roads, Starling said. They are not only illegal, but also may be broadcasting obscene programs that do not comply with the FCC's indecency rules and could be mistaken for a licensed broadcaster's programming.

Locally, Henry Holtzman, chief operator of WMBR, said the situation is "worse than ever." A few listeners call to complain each week, and "our DJs who tend to listen to our station say they get interference on a daily basis on their commute. They'll have their listening interrupted half a dozen times."

This fall, the National Association of Broadcasters urged XM and Sirius to recall noncompliant receivers. In a sharply worded letter sent in October, NPR's chief executive Ken Stern asked the FCC to take non compliant products off the market, initiate a re-examination of the certification process for the devices, and implement a moratorium on certifications to companies that knowingly manufactured noncompliant devices.

"These unlawful modulators pose a substantial risk of objectionable interference and have contributed to a corresponding, unacceptable degradation of the audio quality of public radio stations," Stern wrote.

NPR is continuing to work with the Consumer Electronics Association on the problem, but will likely have to wait for the non compliant products to slowly disappear as electronics are upgraded or fail, Starling said.

The biggest nuisance will be dealing with continued interruption from illegal devices, since new products meet regulations -- and even then there are skeptics.

"It remains to be seen," Holtzman said, "whether or not these regulations are really designed to handle this kind of usage. I think when the FCC approved using these devices, they didn't imagine this would be typical fare in a car driving down the highway."

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson@globe.com.