From the latest AMPB Report (site under construction):
The National Association of Broadcasters are holding their [annual radio] convention in San Diego the first part of October. A response and counter-convention is in the planning now. We are organizing a micro-power radio gathering on the world wide web for October 9. We hope to discuss all aspects of free radio, including technical, legal, creative and plan for the future. This will be presented in the form of streaming video, audio, chat rooms, phone calls and email with a live panel and participation from all interested parties. The website for this event will be: http://www.luver.com
Contact Paul Griffin for further details and how to get involved on the ground floor.
Month: May 2004
Powell AWOL at South Dakota Localism Hearing
The FCC’s ongoing “Localism Task Force” tour stopped yesterday in Rapid City, South Dakota – the hometown of Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. Only the two Democrats on the Commission (Adelstein and Michael Copps) bothered to show up. Chairman Mikey Powell was supposed to be there but backed out due to a last-minute “scheduling conflict.”
Funny thing, though: Powell managed to be in South Dakota the day before for a meeting with governor Mike Rounds on issues dealing with wireless technology. But I digress. Continue reading “Powell AWOL at South Dakota Localism Hearing”
Chopping Fox News Channel, F*cking the FCC Python-Style
FauxNews more than deserves treatment like this:
KGB TV (MP3, 4:59, 5.8 MB) – Courtesy of rx.
There are several threaded digs at the network’s spin laced in here, very cool. One of these days I plan to make more collage galleries, and one of those will be media collage on media. Continue reading “Chopping Fox News Channel, F*cking the FCC Python-Style”
Hams Consider Challenge to Florida's Anti-Pirate Law
Although it went down with little public notice or debate, a challenge is mounting to the state of Florida’s criminalization of unlicensed broadcasting. The new state law threatens up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for anyone who interferes with a licensed radio system (broadcast or otherwise).
The law was admittedly tailored to attack Florida’s pirate station “infestation,” but the potential to lock people up for causing interference has also apparently alarmed some in Florida’s amateur radio community as well. They feel that opening up radio regulation to entities beyond the federal level constitutes a slippery slope that in the long run may do more harm than good to the FCC’s overall enforcement authority. Continue reading “Hams Consider Challenge to Florida's Anti-Pirate Law”
More Busts Reported
In the last week or so two more pirate stations in New Jersey and Illinois have been silenced. These are unusual cases. According to the Associated Press the NJ station, “El Sol 95.3,” was raided on Wednesday. It was run “by a group calling itself the Moors. The group has claimed U.S. laws do not apply to it because its members are indigenous Americans who have lived on the continent since the beginning of time….A man who answered the door said the station was authorized under the ‘Great Seal’ and offered a homemade document signed by ‘Queen Ali.'” Continue reading “More Busts Reported”
Scene Reports: California, Montana, Michigan
California: Free Radio Santa Cruz issued a news release about the recent visit by FCC field agents David Doon and David Hartshorn, accompanied by a couple of bad photos of the duo in action. This supplements the audio clip captured by Skidmark Bob. Freak Radio is now operating at 101.1 FM and according to the Davids only merited a visit for their long-running unlicensed status, not because of any complaints of interference or spurious emissions.
Montana: The same morning as Freak Radio’s visit, FCC agents with armed backup executed a raid against Burton James’ mobile home microstation in Butte. His operation had been on the air for three years there and James claims to have been an active microbroadcaster for more than a decade in multiple states. He shrugged off the raid, according to the Montana Standard: “‘It really doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘The transmitter was eight years old. It’s on its way out. I was intending to get another one.'” Continue reading “Scene Reports: California, Montana, Michigan”
Digital Radio Moves Incrementally at FCC
Last month the Commission released a further 
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry on the implementation of digital radio in the U.S. When it first gave the nod to the rollout of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) in 2002, it admitted that it was not sure how it would work in the real world, but the intervening two years seem have provided the “evidence” necessary to move ahead with its nationwide expansion.
While the broadcast industry has portrayed the In-Band On-Channel (IBOC) DAB transmission system as ready for deployment, the truth is only the hybrid digital/analog “transition” system has actually been deployed, or is even close to ready. The National Radio Systems Committee (a joint effort of the National Association of Broadcasters and Consumer Electronics Association) has not yet tested the “all-digital systems.” Continue reading “Digital Radio Moves Incrementally at FCC”
Unlikely Mikey
Unabashedly stolen from Free Radio Santa Cruz, which is fleshing out a site redesign post-move. Its online home is now being maintained by Corporate Swine.
I really liked the animated banner about “PROVING FCC INCOMPETENCE” and was sorry to see it go, but bits like this more than make up for it.
(Clicking on the pic at right takes you to the station’s donate page, which contains the larger original.)
Mad props on the Photoshop! Continue reading “Unlikely Mikey”
Scene Report: California
Multiple tidbits of interest…
Santa Cruz: Freak Radio successfully moved to its new location recently, completing the entire transition in about five hours. It sounds like it was well-rehearsed, although Skidmark Bob reports their online stream needs “a little work.”
Victorville: On March 31 the FCC issued a $20,000 Notice of Apparent Liability to Stanley Mayo for operating unlicensed transmitters on both the AM and FM bands. Mayo’s “KSRX” first began broadcasting in the summer of 2002 on 660 KHz but was also later heard on 91.3 MHz. Mayo received at least four visits from field agents out of Los Angeles, as well as two warning notices, over an 18-month span before the FCC moved for the dough. Continue reading “Scene Report: California”
Point/Counterpoint: Godcasting and its "Persecution"
Last week Paul @ Mediageek received an excitingly strained e-mail from Don Mills, the program director of Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls’ Calvary Satellite Network. CCTF/CSN is the largest single owner of translator stations in the United States. Paul’s been critical of Calvary Chapel in the past and Mills wrote to rebut the allegation that his network is actively trying to scarf up LPFM stations to add to its empire (CCTF/CSN currently owns or controls 300+ translators, has applied to construct another 300+, and has dozens of full-power FM affiliates).
While several applications for LPFM stations around the country have been tendered under shady circumstances by “Calvary Chapels,” Mills stressed that those Calvary Chapels are not associated with his operation.
Most notable, though, was the missive’s shifting tone. It began with an intimidatory “request for copies” of anything Mediageek has written or recorded about Calvary Chapel. Then, following a justification of CCTF/CSN’s existence and expansion, the man who controls 300+ radio stations remarked to the guy with a blog, “It just seems that you don’t like the fact that Christians have a voice on radio.” Continue reading “Point/Counterpoint: Godcasting and its "Persecution"”