It has been a busy couple of days since we arrived into town…the Seattle Independent Media Center has been an awesome hub of activity, serving as a workshop, reception space and newsroom. At any given time you can find people sawing lumber, soldering equipment and making stories.
The Reclaim the Media! events got rolling in earnest last night, and they have been well-attended. The schedule of panels, workshops, rallies and concerts is an ambitious one, and kind of works against everyone meeting en masse in a single location. Rallies at Freeway Park have been relatively sparsely attended, but that will probably change as the weekend progresses.
I have been working hard trying to follow the Mosquito Fleet of microbroadcasters who are here in quite a significant contingent, but it’s dicey because operating locations are scattered throughout the metropolitan area and those running the operations are understandably low-key about disclosing information. Needless to say, though, that there’s people from all over the country here, and they’re all fired up about firing up. I’ll have lots more about this when all is over and the immediate risks have passed. Continue reading “Seattle is Radioactive!”
Screwed LPFM Applicants to get Second Chance
This week, the FCC announced a remedial window for LPFM applicants who applied for a license before Congress gutted the plan and disqualified many who’d already applied. These applicants were shafted when the channels that they applied for, which were initially considered open by the FCC’s initial LPFM rule, were suddenly declared off-limits by Congressional fiat. For more than a year now, these applicants have been in a sort of limbo, unable to amend their applications to account for the lower number of open frequencies.
A five-day window for those applicants will open in late October – but many have been permanently disqualified from an LPFM license thanks to the NAB/NPR shenanigans in Congress. Some of those who had applied have gone on the air anyway, and don’t have much interest in trying to re-engage the FCC in the licensing process. Even so, it’s a nice gesture on the FCC’s part. Continue reading “Screwed LPFM Applicants to get Second Chance”
Seattle or Bust
It’s packing time for the trip out to Seattle for the Reclaim the Media! conference next week, being held in conjunction with the National Association of Broadcasters’ own radio industry convention.
In addition to the panels, workshops, rallies and conferences, there will be plenty of time to follow the “mosquito fleet” of microbroadcasters who are mobilizng to send commercial broadcasting a strong message about media and democracy. Continue reading “Seattle or Bust”
LPFM Test Details, Radio Listening Hits 27-Year Low
More info is now available about the testing of third-adjacent channels (.6 MHz from other stations) for the new LPFM service. Comsearch, an engineering consulting firm based in Virginia (who lists its fields of expertise as “Microwave,” “Satellite,” “PCS,” and “Broadband”), has received the deal and was awarded six experimental LPFM licenses on August 30.
Comsearch’s 100-watt stations will operate in Winters,CA; Owatonna,MN; Brunswick,ME; Benicia,CA; Avon,CT; and East Bethel,MN. The full-power stations on the third-adjacent channels in those areas range in size from 23,000 to 100,000 watts. Continue reading “LPFM Test Details, Radio Listening Hits 27-Year Low”
A Hearty Middle Finger to the National Association of Broadcasters
Guess who stopped in this week for a look-see:
0.02%: foxtrot.nab.org
I’d just like to personally say hello to our visitors from the NAB and wish them a rambunctious time in Seattle come mid-September. Since the cat’s out of the bag, anyone heading there for the festivities should practice appropriate levels of personal and group security, as you may never know just who may be listening in on what you have to say. Continue reading “A Hearty Middle Finger to the National Association of Broadcasters”
Michael Powell Wants Regulatory Slaughter, New Microradio Documentary in the Works, Interesting Uses for LPFM
The FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force has just wrapped up a series of four “workshops” on how best the agency can divvy up our electromagnetic spectrum.
In remarks at the closing workshop (held Aug. 9), FCC Chairman Michael Powell outlined four goals he wants to see the FCC work toward when it comes to managing spectrum. Goal #2 is the one that almost made me lose my lunch: Continue reading “Michael Powell Wants Regulatory Slaughter, New Microradio Documentary in the Works, Interesting Uses for LPFM”
A/V Archive Unleashed, Launch Imminent, Random Notes
I hereby present to you the Audio Library, which contains more than four gigabytes of material. In addition to 40+ hours of shortwave pirate clips (many new to the ‘net), featured MP3s and all things Mbanna, there’s some worthy video for you to check out as well.
Examples include “Free Radio: A Video Documentary” and “Evil Empire,” an oldie but still goodie, especially with the pending NAB radio convention in Seattle (just a month and a half away) and Clear Channel’s recent higher-than-usual public visibility.
Remember: this stuff just represents what was previously encoded, plus a backlog of stuff I hadn’t gotten to putting online yet. And we haven’t even gotten to media collage! Based on this, it’s feeling about time to officially “launch” DIYmedia, which means getting back into the real swing of things, with regular updates and the like. Look for that to happen within a week or so, once we get a few more essentials online. Continue reading “A/V Archive Unleashed, Launch Imminent, Random Notes”
Mbanna Material Resurrected, Good Riddance Randy Michaels?, IBOC Surprise
A busy week. The Human Rights Information Network is back in action – all of Mbanna’s previous material is back online, and there’s 13 new episodes of the Human Rights Patrol, a new album of music from Ebony Kantako, and the start of a new archive of raw audio from the Human Rights Radio tape library. Mbanna now has more than a gigabyte of audio online, with plenty more sure to come.
There’s also new entries to the Enforcement Action Database – primarily a slew of NALs to operators in Florida, and one to the owner of a licensed station in Kansas who operated a pirate station on the same frequency out of a local nightclub. How smart is that?
We’ll be putting up the rest of our audio library and more features over the course of the next week. Soon, we’ll be back in business for real. Continue reading “Mbanna Material Resurrected, Good Riddance Randy Michaels?, IBOC Surprise”
Confronting the Corporate Media
In less than two months, the National Association of Broadcasters will hold its annual radio convention in Seattle, Washington. Media activists are mobilizing this year, much like they did two years ago in San Francisco, to confront the conference and strategize ways of reclaiming the airwaves from corporate domination.
From the looks of things, it looks like it will be a lot of fun. Heaven knows, another showdown with the NAB is long overdue.
Visit reclaimthemedia.org to get the full scoop.
Enforcement Action Database Online, Plea from a Colleague
It’s been tweaked slightly, and there’s still more improvements yet to come, but our world-famous (heh) FCC Enforcement Action Database is back online. One of these days I’ll write a FAQ. The restoration process should go much more quickly now that the two large jobs are out of the way…
On a related note, an online colleague, Lisa Nalbandian, a Master’s student at the UW-Milwaukee j-school, is working on a video documentary about microradio and LPFM. She’s looking for stations (both licensed and not) to speak with, preferably in the Midwest. You don’t have to be on camera if you don’t want to. Drop her a line if you want fame and enlightenment.