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Congress has blocked a controversial plan that might have launched approximately 1000 low-power community radio stations. On Thursday, April 14, the US House of Representatives voted 274-110 in favor of a bill that would effectively kill development of about 80% of the stations. The vote was a blow to Federal Communications Commission chairman William Kennard, who has been a staunch supporter of the community radio movement, and a gift to the National Association of Broadcasters, which has long opposed low-power radio.

A single standard for terrestrial digital radio is still somewhere over the rainbow. Despite pressure from broadcasters to form an industry alliance, leading developers of the new technology are intent on pursuing their own courses, attendees learned at the 2000 National">http://www.nab.org/">National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas in mid-April. Executives from USA">http://www.usadr.com/">USA Digital Radio and Lucent">http://www.lucentdigitalradio.com/">Lucent Digital Radio, the two biggest players in the sector, told NAB members that their design and testing programs are still in early stages of development, too soon for accord.

For lifelike audio presentation in your living room, what could be better than the real thing? When it comes to putting the sound of a piano in your home, nothing comes close to, well, a real piano. For more than a century, several companies have marketed player pianos, first using rolls of punched paper, and most recently sophisticated MIDI programs. But if a real piano represents the ultimate audio performance in your living room, who has the ultimate real piano?

The struggle for position in the Internet-based audio downloading market continues unabated. On the format front, Sony has recently">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10716/">recently announced several deals to bring its ATRAC compressed-audio format to the Web, while IBMhttp://www.ibm.com">IBM; and Liquid">http://www.liquidaudio.com">Liquid Audio announced last week that they have entered into a strategic relationship intended to "advance the digital music marketplace" with content-management tools.

The age of downloadable digital music is showing signs of maturing. Territory that was explored by hobbyists, pirates, and startup companies eager to stake their claims will soon yield to the irresistible force of multinational conglomerates.

In an "increasingly complicated and competitive media environment," public broadcasting intends to be there. So declared the Corporation">http://www.cpb.org/">Corporation for Public Broadcasting on March 30, when it announced an almost $2 million investment in projects for National">http://www.npr.org/">National Public Radio and Public Interactive. CPB has long held the intellectual high ground in broadcasting, and its new investments are intended to continue that tradition. The goal of the program is to create "new content and services which will broaden the public square of ideas and civic discourse," according to a corporate press release.

Last week, JBL">http://www.jbl.com/">JBL Consumer Products (a unit of the Harman">www.harman.com">Harman Consumer Systems Group) and Korea's L.G. Electronics (manufacturers of Gold Star and L.G. Electronics brand products) announced that they have entered into a strategic alliance to jointly develop and market a "broad range of new consumer electronics products." The companies say that the partnership "builds upon the respective strengths of both manufacturers" and will enable both companies to expand their offerings into areas outside their traditional product categories.