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Radio Activists Win a Pathetic Sliver of the Airwaves For Neighborhood Radio!
By pete tridish, in the Summer of the Year 2000.
First Published in the Resist Newsletter
In late 1996, myself and four activist friends launched Radio Mutiny,
an all-volunteer, non-commercial, anti-profit pirate radio station in
West Philadelphia. We were tired of orchestrating elaborate media
stunts for the sake of getting a 5 second mention on the news, tired
of the endless prattle of corporate apologists and the soundbite
assembly line of commercial and public radio, tired of the
market-research driven playlists on the music stations. We saw that
the Telecommunications Act of 1996 would open the fl,oodgates for
media giants to buy up thousands of local radio stations. We knew
that this would decimate what was left of local radio and reduce the
public trust of the nations airwaves to an aetherial strip mall.
Inspired by the radio rebels of El Salvador and microradio pioneers
Steven Dunifer and Mbanna Kantako, we decided that we were ready to
face fines, searches and possible jail-time at the hands of the
federal government to take back a chunk of the publics airwaves for
our neighborhood.
Within a few months of taking to the airwaves, our numbers increased
from five to fifty and we soon were on the air seven nights per week
with programming unlike anything else on the dial. We had music
ranging from big band to western swing, cheezy French pop to samba,
klezmer to hip hop. We had weekly public affairs shows like Red Sun
Rising (news of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere),
Incarceration Nation (hosted by a former inmate and prison activist).
Sweet City Sensation- (health tips from The Condom Lady, mixed in
with K-tel Classic disco), and Africa Report (news of Africa as
interpreted by a former ANC party member and soldier from South
Africa). We discovered the miraculous outpouring of local talent that
surges forth when a neighborhood is given a new means of
self-expression. Our little radio station became a medium for telling
peoples' stories without regard for profitability or marketshare or
political expediency- the gatekeeping logic of the for-profit media.
Of course it couldn't last forever. When we had been on the air for
nine months, we got our first visit from the FCC. We struck back
three days later with a defiant return to the airwaves in front of
Ben Franklins' printing press downtown, a potent symbol of the
origins of the first amendment. At the same time the ACLU announced
that they would defend us if we went to court. This kept the FCC at
bay for months but some of our programmers were scared off. We had
many non-profit and immigrant groups that were excited to work with
us, but who ultimately could not afford the risks associated with
joining our station. Our station was divided about the next moves to
make. We knew that our days were probably numbered. We tried to make
the most of our demise by using the impending confiscation of our
radio station to further the cause of legal, neighborhood radio. As
fun as our station was, our vision did not stop at a radio station
for the daring and perhaps somewhat foolhardy- we wanted a station
that all of our neighbors could join.
By the time the FCC broke into our station and carted it away, the
combined efforts of hundreds of stations like ours had created a
public relations nightmare for the FCC. To improve the image of the
FCC, ChairmanWilliam Kennard announced that he was going to do
everything he could to create a legal community radio service. At
first we thought this was just a lot of spin-control, but eventually
it became clear that he was serious. Amazing everyone including
ourselves, our acts of electronic civil disobedience had actually
changed the minds of key decision-makers at the agency.
After years of public comment and engineering studies, the combined
pressure from media reformers and direct action activists prevailed
to win a partial victory. On January 26,th 2000, the Federal
Communications Commission voted to create a new low power FM service.
The new rules allow small non-profit groups, libraries, churches and
community organizations to apply for licenses to operate simple,
inexpensive local radio stations. Individuals can not apply for
licenses, but any group can apply, from your local chapter of ACT-UP
to the Rotary Club. The equipment costs of these stations can be as
low as a few thousand dollars. Perhaps thousands of non-commercial
microradio licenses will be given out across the country over the
next year. The technical standards of required distance between
stations are so stringent, however, that most cities will only be
able to have between one and five new stations. These standards
mandate enormous separations between radio stations, far more than is
necessary to prevent interference. Some of the largest cities, like
NY, LA and Chicago, will get no new licenses under LPFM. .Activists
are continuing the fight to open up more bandwidth in these places-
and pirates who are currently operating interference-free in these
places continue their civil disobedience.
Meanwhile, wherever there are frequencies available under the new
plan, Prometheus Radio Project is working to find activists and
community groups that want to start neighborhood radio stations. We
know first hand from our days of yore as pirates that almost any
neighborhood can support a good new radio station. Community radio
stations draw together activists and neighborhood folks from all
walks of life, creating the sort of public institution that gives
focus and expression to a community. Our assistance is free, and we
can walk you through the process of putting the station on the air
from your first application to building to pulling together your
programming.
Radio is a remarkable medium. It is cheap to produce, the receivers
are ubiquitous, and it is remarkably easy to do a better job at
producing informative and entertaining programming than the pros,
with all their MBAs and high tech studios. Kids love to produce it
and love to listen to it, creating one of the few activities in the
adult world that you can actually interest teenagers in. It can serve
as a great training ground for youth to learn to speak publicly, to
fix things, raise money, to plan ambitious projects. And every
neighborhood has someone who can do a beautiful weekly serial reading
of the Epic of Gilgamesh, someone with a giant collection of the
music of Lower Serbia, someone who can explain the news behind the
Western headlines about their home country.
The struggle for low power radio has already been won- the first
licenses will be issued within a month or so. As of now, everything
is moving ahead, but advocates of low power radio still face a number
of threats. The most pressing is the broadcasters lobby and NPR.
These incumbent broadcasters, commercial and non-commercial, have
combined forces to squelch their new competition. The House of
Representatives has passed a bill that will eviscerate the low power
radio initiative, eliminating 80% of the new stations that will be
allocated. If the Senate passes a similar bill, and the President
signs it, the new stations will never get a chance to go on the air.
We are pulling out the stops to make sure that Senators know how
important it is not to derail the FCC's plan. Activists are planning
a giant mobilization to shut down the National Association of
Broadcasters radio convention in September in San Francisco.
The other biggest threat comes from fundamentalist Christian radio
operators. All advocates of low power radio are advocates of freedom
of expression- we have no problem with Christian, right wing radios
stations. The Christian Right, however, has been particularly adept
at bending the FCC's rules to allow for nationwide repeater networks
built out of stations that are supposed to be allocated for local
use. In the first round of applications, these groups entered
hundreds of superficially local efforts that were obviously fronts
for a national religious programming network. It is deeply ironic
that progressives have fought so hard for this service, but right
wing churches seem poised to get most of the frequencies. It is all
the more ironic because these churches have put little or no effort
into establishing the service, and do not seem interested in
persuading their Senators to support it- they spend all their efforts
on getting as many stations as they can. Prometheus Radio Project
seeks to counter this trend by getting as many legitimate, local
progressive organizations and publicly minded institutions to apply
for stations as possible. There will be just one, five day
opportunity to apply for a low power radio station in your town,
sometime within the next months. If you ever wanted to have a
community media project- the time is now. Don't let this chance slip
by!
