(IsraelNN.com) For the many radio listeners who suddenly found themselves without anything to listen to over the past year: Not to worry, a solution appears to be on the way.

First it was Arutz-7. On Oct. 20 of last year, the Supreme Court convicted ten Arutz-7 employees of broadcasting without a license - despite their bosses' expensive efforts to broadcast from outside Israel's territorial waters - and within two hours, the managers took the station off the air. Though Arutz-7 continued to broadcast via the internet and phone, this was not an option for most listeners. The B'Sheva newspaper at the time collected responses from disappointed listeners, including, "I no longer turn on the radio at all... I've lost my oxygen... This station was the soul of my life. It was my lifeblood, and now I have to keep switching stations, hearing all the junk, and turning it off... We are attached to the station especially on Fridays, when we're all home. All the preparations for Shabbat are accompanied by the special atmosphere that Arutz-7 gives. The children come home and hear the songs for Shabbat and the [Sabbath eve] programs. This is an atmosphere that no other station has..." and the like.

Earlier this month, the same happened with the hareidi religious stations. They were suddenly cut off, on the whole, when the Knesset passed a law banning advertising on pirate radio stations. Veteran hareidi broadcaster Shmuel Ben-Attar said today, "People are crying, calling us up, bothering us night and day... They don't want to listen to the secular stations, and they simply have nothing to hear."

Relief may be in sight. Moshe Galili, the Deputy Director-General of the Communications Ministry and the man responsible for frequencies regulation, explained today that no fewer than three different laws will hopefully be passed by the end of this year to provide additional frequencies and radio platforms.

"There are three issues here," Galili explained to INN's Hillel Fendel today, "laws, technology, and licensing. The law currently provides for two types of radio permits: national/public, which must reach the entire country; and regional radio, which is privately owned on a commercial basis. What we want to do now is to create a new entity: commercial national radio. For this we need new legislation."

For various reasons, there are currently three laws on the table or in the process of being prepared - one for each of the various types of technology. Two years ago, legislation was introduced to create three new national radio stations - analogue, not digital - for specific target audiences. Galili said it was understood at the time that one of them would be for Arutz-7 and one for the Shas Party's listening public, "though in the end, the precise allocation will be decided by whatever coalition happens to be in power at the time." The law was held up for various reasons, though now it has passed its first reading and is being dealt with by the Knesset Economics Committee. Galili explained that Committee Chairman Shalom Simchon (Labor) asked for a reform in the bill, leading Communications Minister Ehud Olmert to decide on the establishment of a public committee to look into the proposed reforms. The committee has not yet been appointed.

In any event, in the two years since the above law was proposed, technology has advanced to the point where Israel is no longer so narrowly restricted to available frequencies. Digital technology can enable between 24 and 30 radio stations on just one frequency, while currently 18 stations are available via an American satellite circling over our region. These options are covered, respectively, in two other pieces of legislation currently being improved upon or drawn up.

Terrestrial digital radio would be run by private investors who build a digital platform - 10-15 transmitters erected throughout the country. "It would likely be a BOT (Build, Operate, Transfer) operation," Galili said, "in which the investors build the infrastructure, make their profits from selling the rights to use the platform for broadcasting, and then turn it over to the government after 15-20 years."

The satellite option involves an American satellite on which originally 80 channels were available - and of which only 18 now remain. "No one is waiting around for us," Galili said, "but if we act quickly, then let's say 15 will remain for us... The cost per station is around $350,000," which he said is "presumably higher than what a digital station would cost to run."

Galili explained that the profitability of such enterprises would of course be dependent on the availability of affordable radio receivers: "There are currently many different radios on the market - some that receive only AM/FM, some that also receive digital, some that receive satellite, and some that receive all combinations of the above. The cheapest of the digital/satellite receivers costs $150. The assumption is that as demand increases, the prices will go down."

The third issue is of course the most significant: Who will be authorized to broadcast? Although the problem of lack of frequencies will be solved, "there is no telling how many new stations will want to apply to operate stations," Galili said, and therefore the issue of how to distribute the licenses has not yet been determined. "There are two types of permits: licenses and concessions. Licenses are offered as they are at present, given the paucity of frequencies," and only to those that fulfill the most rigorous conditions and are then approved by the government, "while concessions are offered to almost anyone who applies, as long as they fulfill certain basic conditions." The all-important question of who will receive what type of license will be decided by the Communications Minister at a later date, Galili said.

Asked why digital/satellite radio stations cannot be treated as newspapers, such that anyone who can afford to operate one can do so without a license, Galili explained that the law states that radio stations must be licensed - and that digital/satellite stations are considered "radio" for this purpose.