Feature:
The WNFC Manifesto, p. 2
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III. The FCC's role. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was created by the 1934 Communications Act, and was charged with administering our nation's airwaves in a manner which serves "the public interest, necessity and convenience." On this fundamental quote rests the concept of the "public airwaves," enshrining the notion that we citizens own this property and that we alone legitimately determine its function and use. In reality, of course, the most powerful corporate interests in our nation exert an influence over the FCC which almost entirely overshadows the efforts of the few tiny media public-interest groups in existence. Thus, the FCC has historically bent to the will of corporate America, and consistently drafted regulations which helped create the awesome mass-media empires which currently dominate our politics, culture, education, recreation and so many other facets of life. Our public airwaves remain incalculably valuable in terms of communication, commerce, culture, civics and beyond. Yet we have lost control over our own property -- our airwaves are monopolized by select private interests for their personal commercial gain. If the FCC worked as its original creators intended, the public interest would always prevail over the corporate interest on our nation's airwaves. Although it rarely works that way, our victory in 2000 proves that the public interest can still prevail at the FCC, at least with sufficient public demand. At this present time, we cannot expect this government agency to withstand the awesome influence and pressure from corporate America on its own. In order to defend the public interest, citizens need to exert pressure, too. There seems to be no end of space on the dial for mindless commercials and the same ten songs heard in every city in every state across the country. Surely there must be a sliver -- one tiny spot on the dial -- available for Ferndale citizens to use. It is so clearly and obviously in our public interest, necessity and convenience. Therefore, it is the duty of the FCC to make it possible. It is our duty to make the FCC understand that. IV. The Problem. After extensive effort over several years, we appear to have exhausted all normal legal avenues for creating a radio station which specifically serves our community. At the core of the problem is the matter of a relatively congested radio dial, and enormous competition over that bandwidth. The situation is complicated in Detroit by international treaties with Canada. a. Existing legal options. * Buying an existing full-power station - Needless to say, this is not practical for the kind of local entrepreneur who might eke out a humble living by running a Ferndale-specific radio station. Existing stations are multi-million dollar investments. * Influencing existing full-power stations: We've lobbied the local commercial stations with rallies, letter-writing campaigns, etc. with some success, to broadcast some token "local music" shows, usually ending up on the graveyard shift. This, of course, is not a substitute for a station with a truly local focus. * Leased time: Some of us lease time on local stations such WPON-AM in Pontiac. * College/high school stations: Some of us also participate in college and high school radio. Again, these are no substitutes for a Ferndale-specific station. * Internet radio: We utilize Internet radio -- but the medium excludes Ferndale citizens who don't own a computer, don't know to use it, or don't want to use it. However, everyone can afford and knows how to use a transistor radio. * Ham/shortwave/CB radio: Of course, these options are unrealistic given the relatively few Ferndale residents who use them. * Part 15: The FCC provides for stations so small and of such little wattage that they do not require licenses (known as "Part 15" stations). These are often found at car dealerships or in houses for sale, to provide information for potential customers who might drive by. We've invested a great deal of time, research and testing into "Part 15" options, both AM and FM. But our engineers tell us these are simply not feasible in downtown Ferndale -- likely only able to broadcast effectively about 20 or 30 yards, even from the best location downtown. b. Our efforts to reform the system. Beyond exhausting these options, we have also attempted -- and succeeded -- at reforming the system, and convincing the FCC to change its own rules to allow for more local broadcasting. But even this has not brought us any closer to a legal Ferndale radio station! *
Convincing the FCC to create LPFM radio stations required
a monumental national effort over a period of about five
years. The victory was won by a movement with two major
prongs: Those engaging in civil disobedience
in the form of thousands of "pirate" stations
across the country, and those engaging in mainstream
lobbying of government and educating the public
at large. (The Michigan Music Campaign was exclusively
involved in the This led to a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission on Jan. 20, 2000 to create LPFM radio. These 100-watt stations have a range of just a few miles, and are intended to serve local communities. According to the FCC's rules, LPFM stations must be locally owned and operated. LPFM radio is not everything we wanted, but it is a remarkable step forward in terms of media democracy -- allowing average citizens to participate actively, instead of being mere passive consumers of information. (LPFM stations are just now beginning to broadcast, and about a thousand in all are expected over the next few years.) * However, months later, Congress rolled back the FCC's plan by about 90%, keeping LPFM out of all of the top 50 markets including Detroit. Congress was reacting to lobbying from the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio, which claimed the tiny 100-watt stations would grossly interfere with their 100,000 watt versions. (Naturally, we provided extensive evidence proving this to be false.) * However, Congress also mandated an independent study, the "Mitre Study," to determine the truth about the interference question. That study might never have been released without pressure from public interest volunteers -- but in July 2003 we finally learned that the Mitre Study had concluded that LPFM stations, as originally created by the FCC, would create no significant interference! Now, however, a new bill must be introduced, passed and signed by the President, in order to implement the Mitre Studies findings! This will be very difficult, considering the past history of LPFM. * And even if we succeed -- there still won't be room for a single LPFM station in all of Detroit (although many of the other top 50 markets will get one or two LPFMs)! Clearly the rules must be expanded well beyond what the FCC created in Jan. 2000, and far beyond what Congress has so far allowed. * We're now working to create LPAM radio in the exact same manner we fought for LPFM. Thus, we hope to bring Low Power radio to the AM dial. But such a potential victory is several years off -- and even if we succeed, the engineers already tell us, again, there will be little room for such stations in Detroit. THUS: We believe we exhausted every legal avenue for creating a Ferndale-specific radio station. Furthermore, we feel we have made an extraordinary effort to reform the rules which seem to be in conflict with the FCC's original mandate. Yet our community's need, interest and convenience remains denied. Thus, the FCC must again revisit their rules. There is simply no other option. V. Civil Disobedience. We're not criminals. We're responsible Ferndale citizens interested in bettering our community. We've invested years of our lives and gone into considerable personal debt in addressing the misappropriation of this invaluable public resource. We seek and demand respect, not condemnation. We regret having to break the law in order to conduct this demonstration. The national movement to legalize community radio was successful in creating LPFM radio in 2000 only because while the Michigan Music Campaign intensively lobbied our government, many others actively engaged in civil disobedience. Thousands of "pirate" radio stations operated in defiance of the FCC in the late '90s, and it was this combination of grassroots lobbying and broad civil disobedience which forced the FCC to concede the public's right to use the public airwaves. Democracy is well-defined as the active participation of a responsible citizenry who engage and help guide their government in setting policy. Democracy is about ordinary citizens playing a role in government. Civil disobedience is a traditional, proud, historic, recognized method for citizens to do that, by giving the citizen a subtle check-and-balance influence over our government itself. Civil disobedience has brought some of the very best things to America, and made this country much more honorable and just! We believe in following the law even when we disagree with it -- unless the law is so patently intolerable and unjust that it must be resisted. And even then, we believe in dignified, civil, and exclusively non-violent resistance. We respect the authority of the F.C.C. We welcome and appreciate the FCC's role in regulating and policing the public airwaves. We believe that an unregulated airwaves would be a catastrophe for democracy because those who could afford to build the most powerful transmitters would simply overpower all others. Our decision to severely limit the duration of our disobedience is intended to demonstrate our fundamental respect for the F.C.C.'s overall regulatory authority. We do not wish to embarrass or challenge the agency by manner of ongoing, flagrant violation of their regulations. Instead, we will broadcast for the briefest period of time necessary to conduct our demonstration. Then we will voluntarily go off the air. Every governmental agency strays from it's intended path from time to time, and makes mistakes. It is a proud role for citizens to engage an agency when it has strayed from its mandate. "Pirate" broadcasting is an especially unoffensive, unintrusive form of civil disobedience. Unlike even a mere sit-in or picket line, etc., which might actually inconvenience people -- if you hear a pirate station and don't like it, you can just turn your dial! We're not at war with the F.C.C. In fact, we've met plenty of people there who are committed to media democracy, and are doing their best to defend the public interest from within the agency -- and who agree with us! We can help these people do their job by demonstrating public demand. Wewant to help them implement programs like LPFM radio -- and we do it best by rousing the public to speak up and make it possible. We believe the next necessary step in our struggle to democratize the airwaves and compel the FCC to do its duty is to demonstrate what a Ferndale radio station might be like. Frankly, we appear to have run out of other options. VI. Our Plan to demonstrate the potential of Ferndale radio via a temporary unlicensed station. |