In August 1978, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began studying the question of how to increase the diversity and coverage of television broadcast services either by modifying the television translator rules or by creating a new low power television service (LPTV). In Septemer 1980, the FCC finally adopted a "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" for this new LPTV service. In the months that followed, more than 6,000 applicants submitted requests for low power stations, and in April 1981, the FCC imposed a partial freeze on applications, since they were coming in faster than they could be processed. Processing began again in March 1982, when the final version of the LPTV rules was adopted. However, these rules pose potential problems for future LPTV services. The FCC's initial stated intention that LPTV would provide diverse, local programing in areas not currently served by television is threatened by the lack of any structural or behavioral regulation in the rules. The rules, in fact, favor the future domination of the LPTV services by already established media corporations. (Author/FL)