Prometheus Press Center

Prometheus De-Livered

Our Periodic Newsletter

September 2000

Contents

[New Prometheus Email List]
[Radio Barn Raising in Opelousa, Louisiana]
[Slam the NAB in San Francisco]
[Application Windows]
[Don't Give Up!]
[Prometheus Launches Outreach Campaign]

Prometheus De-Livered Right to Your Email Box!

All of the laughs, compelling drama, rants, musings, and important news you've come to expect from this award winning newsletter. Prometheus has created a new email distribution list for Prometheus De-Livered, low-power fm announcements, and articles. This will be a very low traffic list, and only Prometheus staff will be able to post to it. Anyone can submit updates and articles to us for it (petri(at)prometheusradio.org), but Prometheus staff will be the only ones that can actually post stuff (we consider your inbox space precious- and will make sure that this is not cluttered up like some of the list-servs).

Radio Barn Raising!!!

		May [Channel Finder Chaos] [Making Changes to Meet the Diabolical New Congressional Rules] [Gglitches, Typpos and other Emmmbarrassments... ] [Beware! Sharks of the Airwaves] April [FCC's Report and Order] March [Amended Applications] [New FCC Chairman] [NPR Responds] [McCain's New Low-power Bill] January [My Frequency is Screwed] [Electronic Filing Injustice] [Petitions to Deny] [FCC releases first notice of low power FM licenses]

Prometheus is hosting a conference and master class in radio for new LPFMs and applicants. One of our favorite radio engineers will come to supervise a "radio barn raising," in which all the groups we've worked with come out and help put one of these stations on the air. At the end of the weekend, we hope to flip the switch and let one of the first LPFM signals fly! It will be a time where new programmers will meet, new stations can compare notes on fundraising and equipment, and broadcast professionals can share their skills with the new low power radio stations. We'll also plan the course for media activism for the next year, and plot for the continued fight to take back the media from the greedy corporations.

Conference cost: $10-$100/day sliding scale.
Meals and simple lodging included.

Tentative workshops include:

• Radio production,
  
• local news gathering,
  
• internet radio,
  
• applications,
  
• interference issues,
  
• new technologies,
  
• fundraising,
  
• media and democracy campaigns,
  
• the congressional fight and the courts,
  
• studio building,
  
• programming policy,
  
• media literacy,
  
• youth programs,
  
• outreach for your new station -
  
• and of course, the radio barnraising, with tips on selecting equipment, purchasing, and building a low power radio station from microphone to antenna!

[Register Online Now!]

Media Democracy Now

Act up, party down, raise hell, shout out.

The National Association of Broadcasters is the WTO of the broadcasting industry. It spends millions of dollars every year lobbying to keep the airwaves out of the hands of the public.

Join Media Alliance • Project Censored • Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting • Ella Baker Center for Human Rights • Micropower Action Coalition • Global Exchange • Prometheus Radio Project • Direct Action Network and others in protest!

We can thank the NAB and the media giants that it represents for:

Putting out the trash called commercial radio and TV

Stereotyping youth, people of color, and working class people.

Censoring and misrepresenting the issues we care about - from homelessness and immigrant rights to the environment and labor.

Pushing for legislation like the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which legalized media monopolies, creating The Gap and Starbucks of the airwaves.

Engineering the giveaway of billions of public dollars by handing over the digital TV spectrum to the corporate media

Fighting tooth-and-nail against grassroots media efforts like low-power radio that would bring hundreds of new voices and perspectives to the airwaves.

Bring your microradio transmitters, your dancing shoes, and your militant nonviolent attitude.

[Download this handy flyer in pdf format]
[Dig all the developments at www.mediademocracrynow.org]

Filing Window Reminder:

The filing window for Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Virginia, and Wyoming is right now! If you want to apply and haven't you must do so before the end of the day on September First! No ifs ands or butsŠand definitely no extensions. We're around for last minute help. The next window, for the end of November includes the following states: American Samoa, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Missouri, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin- So get out your ink pens and your phone book and start getting ready now.

Don't Give Up 'Til You Are On The Air!

Well, we hope your town is applying for a LPFM. If you hit any stumbling blocks, contact us and we'll see how we can help. Don't let any two-bit professional tell you that you can't apply- there is no group in this entire country that can't apply for an LPFM. Some groups have less chance of getting a license - former pirates, people in big cities, etcetera - but if you are determined, we will help you find away to get your neighborhood on the air. We get a lot of calls from people who have misunderstood the rules and think they are ineligible for some reason or other. Nine times out of ten, they are completely eligible! Even if you are ineligible, you should apply anyway and ask for a waiver of that specific rule. The big broadcasters ask for (and receive) dozens of these waivers every day of the year. Don't give up till you've called us! 215-727-9620 info@prometheusradio.org

Prometheus Launches Outreach Campaign

Perhaps the most ironic rumor we've heard going around is that the new low power radio stations are " not for groups like us- they are for the religious right churches." This was not the intention of the FCC when they created the service, and these organizations do not have any advantage over any other groups. If you are not a "non-profit organization that has been locally based for at least two years," you may want to find one to help sponsor your project, because any such organization- a school drama club, a horticututral society, a groundhog day observation organization- can be eligible for a point in the competetive licensing process. But you do not need to be in existence for two years to apply.

Give Us Your Money or Burn in Hell

The whole thing is a little depressing to us here at Prometheus. About half of the applicants in the first window were religious stations, and about half of them were nice looking ones, and the other half seemed like they were probably nasty fundamentalist give us your money or go to hell radio evangelist operations. As 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.

The Time is Now

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. We need your help. Visit our outreach campaign in the projects section of the web site to learn how you can plug in.