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.
Microbroadcasters from around the country are donating equipment to the efforts: D.C.’s WSQT shipped gear to New Orleans. Another crew may be en route to establish communication with/for the Houma Nation, which has made a public appeal for aid.
Texas: KAMP 95.3 officially began broadcasts on Tuesday and will stay on the air 24/7 until Houston’s Reliant Park complex is vacated. Its 6-watt signal can be heard for about a mile. Some $9,000 has been pledged to keep the station on the air.
Local officials in charge of the housing effort itself continue their obstinance: they will not let the displaced cross a parking lot to access the station directly. This reduces the station to collecting recordings of evacuee stories for later airplay. Some appeal to evacuees to stand on a curb on the other side of the parking lot and wave to the station if they have something to say; then a volunteer can go over and speak with them (to pass along their message, or whatever).
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