May I be frank for a moment? HTML sucks. For building a huge-ass website, it sucks. Problem is, it’s the only code I know.
For now, the plan is to resurrect the site in HTML, which is obviously taking longer than expected. Then we can experiment. I know the design needs work, but the priority here is resurrection, not eye candy. Take your info straight for a while. Continue reading “Summer Break?”
Where I've Been
I know there hasn’t been much new up on the site lately, but I have a good excuse. Madison, WI has been the site of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ national annual convention this past weekend. As a member of the Madison Independent Media Center, I’ve been heavily involved in covering the event and related street actions.
From the 10-plus pages of stories that have been filed about the event and the live internet radio webstream that we had up, it has been incredibly busy, yet incredibly exhilirating. I finally slept for 17 hours yesterday. Continue reading “Where I've Been”
FCC Watch: NALs issued, S. Florida Sweep Imminent?
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has pushed a little paperwork recently, issuing notices of $10,000 fines to unlicensed radio station operators in Michigan and Brooklyn, NY.
The NY case is interesting, because the accused is the Rev. Dr. Philius Nicholas, uncle of Abner Louima, the Hatian immigrant who was worked over by the NYPD in 1997, most infamously with a toilet plunger. It’s unknown what his radio station broadcast, but I’m willing to bet it had something to do with police brutality… Continue reading “FCC Watch: NALs issued, S. Florida Sweep Imminent?”
Little By Little
It might not look like much, but there are several sections of the links library now online. Most importantly, the stations and schematics pages are functional again! We’ve gathered tons of news and new links during the short hiatus offline, and we’ll be doing massive updates and additions once the existing content is available.
As an active member of my local Independent Media Center, we’re f*ckin busy right now preparing for the upcoming U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting and the expected protests that will surround it; this all happens a week and a half from now. It has been taking up a lot of energy, and keeps me away from more work here.
Police are playing up the threat of an invasion of “violent anarchists” from out-of-town, but that’s just an excuse to get militaristic and whoop some ass. They don’t call it “police violence” for nuthin’…
The Grind is Underway
This is going to take some time.
There’s five years’ worth of material not only to copy and paste into new templates, but we’re going through and doing some extra proofing, updating links, etc. The Radio Links segment takes precedence because it’s probably the most useful, but the process is pretty convoluted (not as simple as copy/paste, believe me).
Meanwhile, The Onion actually has something funny in this week’s issue:
Look Out, Corporate America, Here Comes My Pirate Radio Station Continue reading “The Grind is Underway”
Stimulus/Response
FCC Issues “Progress Report”
As new licenses for low power FM (LPFM) stations continue to trickle out of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency’s Enforcement Bureau continues to wrestle with the “problem” of “pirate” broadcasters.
Unlicensed activity appears to be running high on both the FM and Shortwave bands. Shortwave activity is booming at a level not seen in years. In the past month alone, nearly two dozen shortwave pirates have conducted broadcasts, some broadcasting multiple times per week. The FCC has not conducted an enforcement action against a shortwave pirate since 1998.
The same can not be said for the FM band, where the FCC has been very busy. In January, 2002, four microradio stations were contacted by FCC agents for broadcasting without a license. One was fined $10,000. On a year-by-year basis, enforcement activity of this level for the month of January hasn’t been seen since 1999.
The numbers might look unnerving at face value, but the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau is facing numerous internal challenges that may hinder its future activity. Continue reading “Stimulus/Response”
LPFM: Crowded Field, Slim Pickings
2001 has been a less-than-stellar year for the FCC’s newborn low power FM radio (LPFM) service. Nearly two years have passed since LPFM’s adoption, and it’s been a year since Congress eviscerated the plan, leaving the FCC to implement only a fraction of the new stations it was planning to.
It’s a long time to watch and wait, and so far there are less new LPFM stations on the air then there are fingers on two hands. Many potential station applicants are waiting patiently for a cooperative but hobbled bureaucracy to do the mountain of paperwork generated by thousands of filings.
Some are fighting for their life because of competing applications. Religious groups have snapped up just about half of the construction permits given out for new stations so far, but other major players in the race for the airwaves are state and local governments. Continue reading “LPFM: Crowded Field, Slim Pickings”
Microradio: Moving Forward
As the government increases its police powers to root out “terrorists,” the microradio movement has been waiting quietly to see what changes there would be on the battlefield of the airwaves. If recent events are any indicator, it seems to be back to “business as usual.”
Enforcement agents with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have been busy lately, making contact with stations in Virginia, California and Florida during the last three weeks. The terms of engagement do not seem drastically different than they did before 9/11 – visits and letters are still the primary weapons and the feared influx of SWAT-style raids has not materialized.
In fact, of the three most recent FCC actions, only one has resulted in a fine – the rest were seemingly just for intimidation purposes. Continue reading “Microradio: Moving Forward”
Target (market): Afghanistan
“Attention Taliban! You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death…”
Such begins another broadcast day on “Information Radio,” the U.S. military’s psychological operations arm of the so-called “war on terrorism” in Afghanistan.
Now that the military campaign is in full seek-and-destroy mode, a specially-equipped plane from the Pennsylvania Air National Guard is making daily flights over Afghanistan, broadcasting music and messages for 10 hours a day on at least two AM frequencies (864 and 1107 kHz). A shortwave station, probably located in the neighboring former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan, also relays the programming on 8700 kHz. Continue reading “Target (market): Afghanistan”
The Radio War in Afghanistan
America’s new so-called “war on terrorism” has some interesting radio wrinkles running through it. In fact, “pirate radio” may play a role in the outcome of the current action in Afghanistan.
To tell the truth, since the Taliban took control of the country in 1996, what media there was in Afghanistan was all but destroyed. As part of its rigid imposition of ultra-strict religious law, the Taliban went on a seek-and-destroy mission against all television sets in the country; turned the country’s central TV station into a military boarding house; and established dominance over all radio outlets.
More than a dozen radio stations are active in Afghanistan, all part of the Taliban-controlled “Voice of Shari’ah” (Islamic Law) network, broadcasting mostly on AM and shortwave.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, then, that the radio voice of the Taliban was one of the first targets hit when America began dropping bombs. Continue reading “The Radio War in Afghanistan”