Category: LPFM

WTUL Returns; Brattleboro Community Radio Plans Launch

Good news in New Orleans: after apparently having to make an emergency move earlier this month, Tulane University’s student radio station went back on the air last weekend from makeshift space. WTUL is live during the day and automated at night.
In Brattleboro, Vermont, the community group holding a construction permit for an LPFM station on 107.7 MHz has announced its intent to begin broadcasting next spring. Vermont Earth Works just kicked off a fundraising drive to raise more than $10,000 for Brattleboro Community Radio (BCR)’s basic station infrastructure needs. Continue reading “WTUL Returns; Brattleboro Community Radio Plans Launch”

Scene Reports: Illinois, Louisiana

Illinois: It seems that a group of folks headed out after the WRFU barnraising to pay a visit to Springfield, the home of Mbanna Kantako‘s Human Rights Radio. They found Kantako and the station in good spirits, albeit at extremely low power, thanks to a blown amplifier, which is now under repair.
Kantako celebrates his 18th nearly-uninterrupted year on the air in five days – a large portion of which has been archived on tape. Continue reading “Scene Reports: Illinois, Louisiana”

WRFU: We're Really Functional, Usually

When Prometheus comes to town to throw down a barnraising, they’re not so much building a radio station as they are planting seeds for collaborative media production. This is because it’s really impossible to fully build out a radio station in three days, even with 100+ of your closest friends. Which means, after the weekend work-party, you still have a sh*tload of work to do.
The process of initial construction is merely the hefty push that launches the collaboration. WRFU’s transmitter and antenna are fully secure – it’s everything else that’s left to finish.
Hence I am remiss both at posting frequently and documenting the experience. Fortunately, lots of others did that: Continue reading “WRFU: We're Really Functional, Usually”

Radio Algiers Visited By FCC; Send Shouts to WRFU

FCC agents reportedly  paid a visit (32:39, 15 MB, thanks V-Man and Indynewswire) to Radio Algiers in New Orleans on November 2. The station is off the air indefinitely; plans are to try and utilize the facilities of WTUL to help those desiring to speak truth to power acquire a spot on the local radio dial. Please note the irony: the FCC can make the rounds but FEMA is still missing in action. Hopefully the gear will stay in circulation.
More than 120 folks have signed up to help build our little LPFM station in Urbana this weekend. Registration will be accepted on-site, so it’s not too late to get involved. Even if you can’t make it, you can still participate in our inaugural broadcast. Visit this page and follow the instructions to give WRFU greetings, which we’ll broadcast as part of our inaugural smorgasbord show Sunday evening.

Barnraising in My Backyard

Just in case posts are light for the next month or so, you have been duly warned.
No longer content to engage & enthrall scores of volunteers with a plain old radio barnraising, Prometheus and the UC IMC take the mammoth task of building a radio station over the course of a singe weekend in stride. We’re not stopping at the FM AIRWAVES; we’re setting our sights on freeing the whole SPECTRUM for use by democratic communications as we look to the future of radio! … While some of us construct the studio & raise the antenna to get WRFU on the air, others will set up access points to expand and protect [an] open source community wireless network!
Registration for all of this fun closes on November 6. We can use all the help we can get.

LPFM Expansion Bill Introduced in House

Overlooked in the hurricane fury: this month Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) introduced the “Enhance and Protect Local Community Radio Act of 2005.” It’s a companion bill to Senator McCain and Leahy’s (R-AZ / D-VT) legislation, although it adds a substantial twist on the translator issue. Continue reading “LPFM Expansion Bill Introduced in House”

KAMP: Over and Out

The emergency LPFM station set up in Houston to serve those displaced from New Orleans by Katrina ran for just five days. Due to the consolidation of the remaining evacuees into one of Reliant Park’s smaller arenas, on-site media were asked to move to a different parking lot. Instead of deal with the hassle, KAMP volunteers decided to pack it in after power was cut to the station Saturday morning.
A KAMP spoke has nothing but high praise for the local authorities (a somewhat surprising turn of events), and wants to make sure they suffer no blame for the station’s premature sign-off: Continue reading “KAMP: Over and Out”

Scene Reports: Louisiana, Texas

Louisiana: The microradio station in Algiers is broadcasting community information, survivor stories, and any Katrina-related content it can find online on 94.5 FM. It’s desperately in need of volunteers to collect and broadcast news, as part of a larger community media center that’s opened up in the neighborhood.
The heart of the station is a 10-watt lunchbox transmitter donated by KRRR, an impromptu outlet that participated in an anti-Clear Channel protest last year in San Antonio, Texas. That is feeding a homemade dipole antenna held up by a mast fashioned with wood scavenged from damaged/destroyed buildings. The signal gets out pretty well, although with just 10 watts its primary coverage is neighborhood-level, not citywide by any stretch. Continue reading “Scene Reports: Louisiana, Texas”

LPFM For Houston Displaced On Air

KAMP 95.3 began test broadcasts late Monday and will officially go on the air today. It plans to be a place where the displaced can relate their experiences directly, as well as share information with each other. The FCC approved a minor amendment to special 90-day authorization which allows the station to broadcast from a trailer in the Houston Astrodome parking lot. Continue reading “LPFM For Houston Displaced On Air”