Prometheus Press Center

News Articles

Low Power, High Intensity
The Columbia Journalism Review

Prometheus has played a significant role in the struggle by community groups to establish low-power radio stations - a struggle that has involved the FCC, the National Association of Broadcasters, and National Public Radio.

Read the Q&A with Petri

Opposition to Big Media
could invigorate low-power FM radio.
Salon.com

As the political backlash against media consolidation mounts on Capitol Hill, one of the issues that first sparked the movement is back in the news: low-power FM radio, or LPFM

"Low-power radio stations
give voice to diversity of 'underserved' towns"
The Denver Post

"People-powered radio" came to town, in a literal sense, in the form of a 25-foot antenna carried by two bicyclists down Main Street.

Shortly after that spectacle last January, KHEN, 106.9 on the FM dial, went on the air with the clucking of a chicken, beginning a sometimes bumpy, often entertaining and always unpredictable life as a low-power community radio station

"A radio station is born with test
Low-power buffs hope WRYR becomes south Arundel forum"
The Baltimore Sun
February 17, 2002

"With the can-do spirit of true believers, more than a hundred self-described media activists descended yesterday on a riverfront campground in Southern Anne Arundel County for a "radio barn raising" to help launch WRYR - 97.5 on the FM dial."

Little Guys Get Airtime as Low-Power FM Debuts in Region
The Washington Post
February 19, 2002

"Shay is being helped by a band of former radio pirates who once flouted the law by broadcasting from warehouses and back porches across the country. The pirates and the puppet maker attracted an eclectic mix of radio aspirants to Deale this weekend for a three-day gathering they dubbed a 'Radio Barnraising.'"

"Arundel group to launch low-power radio station";
The Baltimore Sun offers a preview of our upcoming Radio Barn Raising

South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development (SACReD) "is organizing a radio "barn-raising" for early next year to get the station on the air. The event will bring together volunteers from Prometheus and from other organizations interested in starting low-power stations. Over that weekend, the participants will literally put the station together and flip the switch at WRYR. "This is a grassroots organization," said Deale resident Joe Gibson, the station's volunteer program director. "That's where all good things start, with the heart of the people."

Read the article

Frequency Free-for-All
Getting a legal, low-power FM station on the air is easier said than done

"Paul Saunders is a rarity: an applicant for a license to run a low-power FM (LPFM) radio station who actually stands a good chance of being awarded one by the Federal Communications Commission."

"No Power to the People"
Scientific American takes a look at the low-power FM debate

Scientific American studies claims that Low-power FM radio will cause unacceptable interference and concludes that "congress may have been reacting more to political pressure than technical data, which suggest that whatever interference LPFM stations generate will be too low to matter."

American Journalism Reivew
Nov 14-20, 2000

Inside.com
June 23, 2000

New York Times
January 10, 1999

"Radio Pirates Drop Anchor Together; Seeing Chance for FCC Support, Advocates of Low-Power Stations Share Advice"

Etown
December 16, 1999

"Digital Radio Wars Heat Up; And why do people hate low power FM stations?"

The Times Union
February 24, 1999

'Pirates' a threat to commercial radio stations?

Prometheus Articles

Special Interest Noise
The NAB/NPR attempt to dupe Congress on interference

The Next FCC Giveaway:
Digital Radio

What could have been a forum for lively political debate is now more likely to end up as a clutter of CD promos, streaming sports scores, and other trivia.

Ralph Nader on
Low-Power FM
July 9, 1999

"What's the use of free speech if noboby can afford it?"