"Though puny, LPFM has enormous potential: To beam to underserved localities, to provide a forum for voices that existing broadcasters ignore, to rededicate a sliver of the spectrum to community service, to validate local realities and plans, to remind us all that the cornerstone of U.S. broadcasting has for 75 years been something called localism, the geographic counterpart to the federalism that is praised as rapturously as it is ignored."
From Portland Press Herald, by Justin Ellis:
"Call it Radio Free Maine.
In contrast to the around-the-clock "super hits" and "straight talk" of the larger FM radio stations in the state, some Maine entrepreneurs are staking a claim in small-market radio.
Three low-power FM stations are trying to make a home for themselves in a largely corporate radio landscape by offering material that feels genuinely local.In Standish, the station for WJZF-LP 97.1 FM happens to be in Dave Patterson's house. Patterson is president of the Standish Educational Organization, the group that was one of the few to receive a low-power license in 2000.
In what was once a master bedroom now sit several computers for automated broadcasts, five CD recorders, two CD players, a reel-to-reel machine and an on-air production console."We're only limited to the creativity of the people around us," he said."
From Josh Silver at FreePress:
"Right now, Congress is considering a bill that would give thousands of communities across the country access to their own truly local, community Low Power radio stations — and we need your help. There's never been a more critical time to raise awareness of this issue.Our ally, the United Church of Christ, has produced a fantastic one-hour documentary, "Low Power FM: The People's Choice." It shows firsthand the amazing work these stations do across the country. (Visit this link for more info about the show.)
It has been offered to NBC TV stations nationwide as part of the "Horizon of the Spirits" series and will air starting this weekend. But only 17 NBC affiliates have agreed to play it.
We need you to make a call to your local NBC affiliate and tell them you'd like to see "Low Power FM: The People's Choice." It only takes a minute, but local actions like this are effective and will make all the difference.
Click here to see if the documentary will be aired in your town.
If your NBC affiliate has no plans to air it, find your local station in this PDF list of NBC affiliates (if you don't have Adobe Reader, click here, fill in your zip code and look for your local NBC station).
Call the station and ask for the program director. Tell them you'd like to see the "Horizon of the Spirit" program called "Low Power FM: The People's Choice." Tell them that it's running on many NBC stations across the country and you want to see it on yours.
Together, we can increase opportunities for local voices in communities across America. For more information about Low Power radio, be sure to visit the homepage for the Prometheus Radio Project, the leaders for low power radio across the nation."
By Bill Virgin in the Seattle Post Intelligencer:
"Low-power FM stations are what the name suggests — limited-range, non-commercial broadcasters. LPFM was opposed by established broadcasters who said the dial was too crowded to accommodate new stations that likely would interfere with their own signals. LPFM advocates say the existing broadcasters simply didn't want the competition and that they'll provide the local content most radio stations have given up.The Federal Communications Commission Web site lists just two applications granted in Washington state for low-power FM stations, in Spokane and Kettle Falls. Another 18 construction permits have been approved, for locales such as Coupeville, Olympia, Morton and Aberdeen. Still more are pending.
Slowly but surely, though, more LPFM operations are making it to the air. One that hopes to do so in the first two months of 2005 is KMRE-LP (102.3), to be operated by Bellingham's American Museum of Radio and Electricity."
The Prometheus Radio Project gathers hundreds for barnraising, builds LPFM radio station in a weekend!
"During the weekend of September 10th-12th, hundreds of community radio organizers from New England, and all over the world, will gather together to bring a brand new community radio station to the air, as the Prometheus Radio Project partners with Portsmouth Community Radio for its sixth Radio Barnraising!As volunteer technicians build everything from the studio to the tower, producers, engineers, and organizers from all over the United States and Canada will teach dozens of workshops on everything from how to record and edit a news show, to how to navigate the intricacies of FCC regulations. Earlier radio barnraisings have been with civil rights groups, farmworkers organizations, environmental groups, Native American tribes, and community groups.
''We wanted to help build a station right in the state of the man in the Senate, Senator Judd Gregg, who has done the most to oppose community radio, '' said Prometheus Radio Project Technical Director Pete Tridish. ''Seacoast Arts and Cultural Alliance (SACA, the parent organization of Portsmouth Community Radio) is an exemplary group, which has shown even before they have gotten on the air how a local station can help to pull diverse interests in a town together. We hope that upon seeing the great work of this station, Senator Gregg will drop his opposition to community radio."
"The National Association of Broadcasters said Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), a former broadcaster himself, will introduce a bill Thursday to allocate $800,000 to further study interference issues related to low-power FM radio.Professing a fear of undue interference, NAB is trying to put the brakes on a legislative effort that would expand LPFM's into urban markets by loosening interference restrictions."
"More low power FM stations would be permitted to operate in big cities under legislation approved Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee.The FCC recommended the change in February after a report indicated current rules requiring an LPFM to have at least two open channels between it and a full power station were unnecessary.
The bill also would eliminate the requirement from the 2000 legislation mandating further testing on the economic impact of potential interference from LPFM stations on full power FM stations.
As recently as last night, broadcasters, through former broadcaster Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) were trying to amend the bill to maintain the mandate for an economic impact study, but the amendment was voted down."
In celebration of independence day, and with all the recent (and well-deserved) victories in the struggle for low power community radio stations, let's revisit this fine article by Kate Duncan in Z magazine, reprinted at thirdworldtraveler.com. This article was written way back in 1998. At a book signing once, Robert McChesney wrote in my copy "La lucha continua." Yup.
"The movement for low-power community radio was relatively 10w-key until Stephen Dunifer founded Free Radio Berkeley with the intent not just to operate a small radio station, but to go to court in its defense. While the case lingered in the 9th Federal District Court, Dunifer used the protection of microbroadcasting's legal limbo to manufacture and distribute transmitters to fledgling stations, most of which broadcast between 10 and 30 watts and have a 2 to 5 mile range.... Until now, the microbroadcasting movement's strategy has grown organically, without conferences or formal roundtable discussions. Rather, they have used exponential growth, mass media exposure, and stubborn noncompliance with FCC "cease and desist broadcasting" letters. Pirates also adhere to the safety-in-numbers rule, helping establish and keep other stations on the air.
So far, these strategies have worked. Even USA Today, the New York Times, Time magazine, and National Public Radio have picked up the pirate radio story and given it an underdog "David and Goliath" spin. Pete TriDish of Radio Mutiny credits the movement's media presence for embarrassing the FCC into publicly admitting that radio pirates have a point. In a recent Radio World interview, FCC chair William Kennard stated that "They have a legitimate issue in that there are, in some communities, no outlets for expression on the airwaves, and I believe that is a function, in part, of the massive consolidation that we are seeing in the broadcast industry." He stated he was "receptive to hearing about" models for legal microbroadcasting.
...The FCC, if it approves anything, may compromise between pressure from the National Association of Broadcasters out to protect their market dominance, the belief that high-power stations reach the most people and therefore serve the public interest without qualification, and microbroadcasters' demands, and establish a one-watt license: nine watts less than the one they abolished in 1978, and far less than most microbroadcasters' power. That's why, says Pete TriDish, "We need to build a movement that is strong enough to reject, with solidarity, a bad offer from the FCC, and continue to defy the law until we get a fair settlement."
Paul Starr writes in the American Prospect:
"From the nation's founding, the United States has promoted communications through constitutional guarantees, favorable legislation, and extensive subsidies. There has been nothing sinister about this bias. Although the purposes have varied, the support — first for the press and later for other media — has helped to create a rich and diverse sphere of public debate and a dynamic and innovative industry. But the very success of that policy has also created a dilemma, as ownership has become concentrated in a few hands and the most powerful private interests have bent the law to their own advantage. Ideally, the media guard the public against abuses of power. It's not so clear how to guard against the power that the media themselves acquire.As a political lobby, the media are a daunting force. Corporations in most industries enjoy influence primarily through representatives of the congressional districts and states where company headquarters, facilities, and jobs are located. The media, however, are ubiquitous, and politicians are especially reluctant to offend them because of their own needs for news coverage and publicity.
The First Amendment also puts the media in a distinctive position in relation to campaign-finance laws. Only media corporations can make what are, in effect, unlimited contributions by promoting the candidates they favor. Rupert Murdoch can put FOX and his entire empire at the service of a candidate or a cause. That's his right. But hardly anyone else can put comparable resources to political use at election time."
Robert McChesney exposes four powerful media myths, and proposes solid solutions in this excellent article for American Prospect:
"Coming off the media-ownership struggle, there is extraordinary momentum. Scores of groups have emerged over the past few years — local, national, and even global in scope — organized around a wide range of issues. In the coming few years, expect to see major progressive legislation launched to restore more competitive markets in radio and television; to have antitrust law applied effectively to media; to have copyright returned to some semblance of concern for protecting the public domain; to have viable subsidies put in place that will spawn a wide range of nonprofit and noncommercial media; to have a wireless high-speed Internet system that will be superior and vastly less expensive than what Mr. Roth and Mr. Corleone (the cable and telephone companies) have in mind; to have real limitations on advertising and commercialism, especially that aimed at children; to have protection for media workers, so they can do their work without onerous demands upon their labor by rapacious owners. The list goes on and on."
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