| This page is in
support of Steve Dunifer's call for freedom
of low power radio. Curbs, shaped by interests
that work against the access of people to
their own media everywhere, need to be removed.
As is noted in other pages on this site,
the situation in India amd most of South
Asia is much the same as Steve has researched
in the US and UK. In India particularly,
the issues are obfuscated by the creation
of multiple agencies, any and all of whom
can block the use of low power radio without
cause or appeal.
Seize the Airwaves!
Break the Corporate Media’s Stranglehold
on the Free Flow of Information, News, Music,
Artistic Expression, and Cultural Creativity
Day of Mass Electronic Civil Disobedience
Celebrating International Media Democracy
Day
Friday, October 17, 2003
You go to the demonstrations, write letters
and email to Congress; and yet, you feel
as if your voice is not being heard. What
if there was a way for your voice, and the
voices of your compatriots, to actually
be heard? There is – it is called micropower
broadcasting or free radio.
Micropower broadcasting began as a means
to empower the residents of a housing project
in Springfield, Illinois in the late 1980’s.
By creating a low power FM broadcast station,
this community established its own voice
and a direct means to fight against police
brutality and repression. Unlicensed and
unsanctioned by the government, Human Rights
Radio, as it is now known, continues to
broadcast to this very day.
Since then, micropower broadcasting has
grown into a national movement of electronic
civil disobedience. Based on the principles
of Free Speech and Direct Action, micropower
broadcasting seeks to reclaim the electronic
commons of the airwaves – a public resource
and trust stolen by the corporate broadcasters,
aided and abetted by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) and other appendages of
the US Government.
Continuing in the rich tradition of the
struggle to speak freely and be heard, micropower
broadcasting has traded the historic soapbox
for the FM broadcast transmitter. Advances
in technology and design have allowed for
the creation of FM transmitters at a very
low cost in comparison to standard, commercial
broadcasting equipment. An entire FM broadcast
station covering a radius of 5-12 miles
can be assembled for $1000 or less.
Yes, there are legal risks involved. Such
stations are violating FCC regulations and
statutes, and are subject to possible legal
actions such as threatening letters or fines,
and sometimes seizure of equipment. Despite
this, at any given time, there are hundreds
of stations on the air across the United
States. Unfortunately, stations tend to
go on the air in isolation from one another,
making them an easier target for the FCC.
Despite the somewhat uncoordinated efforts
of the last ten years, hundreds of micropower
stations taking to the airwaves forced the
FCC to respond to a rapidly growing, ungovernable
situation. William Kennard, former head
of the FCC, admitted this is in a documentary,
LPFM – The Peoples’ Voice, produced by the
United Church of Christ’s Microradio Implementation
Project. (http://www.veriteproductions.net/html/awards.html;
http://www.current.org/in/in009LPFM.html)
Adding further legitimacy to the micropower
broadcasting movement, the FCC’s own study
on possible interference issues, The Mitre
Study (http://prometheusradio.org/release_71303.shtml),
failed to show even marginal interference
to full power broadcasters by low power
FM stations. It went further to recommend
the lifting of burdensome restrictions imposed
on the LPFM broadcasting service.
For years, the National Association of
Broadcasters (NAB), representing corporate
interests, has used interference as a red
herring issue in their attempts to stifle
the Free Speech Rights of micropower broadcasters.
Joined by National Public Radio, the NAB,
using bogus interference claims augmented
with political grease, succeeded in getting
a bill, ironically titled –The Broadcast
Preservation Act of 1999, passed by Congress
to severely limit the number of LPFM stations
authorized by the FCC when they established
the LPFM service in January of 1999.
Whether it was the Free Speech fights of
the Wobblies, folks refusing to go to the
back of the bus or hundreds of unsanctioned
low power FM taking to the airwaves, mass
movements creating ungovernable situations
do work.
Therefore, we are calling for a day of
electronic solidarity and direct action,
marking the beginning of a new chapter in
micropower broadcasting by raising the struggle
to an entirely new level of engagement.
Between now and October 17th, we are asking
you and your community to create your own
broadcast station to further empower your
vision of a just, humane, peaceful and sustainable
world.
Hundreds of new stations going on the air
all at once will be a powerful statement
to the corporate media and the government
that the airwaves belong to the people who
have chosen to seize them back, speaking
in one strong collective voice. With budgets
and resources stretched thin, the FCC will
be hard-pressed to respond to such an expression
of solidarity. This action will encourage
many more communities to set up their own
broadcast stations. Schools, centers for
the arts, housing projects, senior communities;
all could be empowered with free radio broadcasting.
Critical mass can be achieved within a very
short period of time.
To further amplify this collective voice,
a mass 24 hour broadcast of the same programming
by hundreds of micropower stations would
meld hundreds of small voices into one giant
shout for Free Speech Rights. Using the
existing infrastructure of the Internet
and audio streaming technologies that have
been employed by the Independent Media Centers
since 1999, a common audio stream would
be created for re-broadcasting. Individual
stations would work collectively to create
programming for this 24 hour broadcast.
Given the number of IMC sites in the US,
they could serve as hubs for the audio streams,
both incoming and outgoing. And, quite possibly,
stations outside the US would join in as
well, creating a global movement to reclaim
the broadcast spectrum.
Setting up a basic FM broadcast station
requires the following items. Approximate
price ranges are given.
Transmitter - $150 to $600
Power Supply - $35to $100
Antenna - $15 to $125
Antenna cable - $50 to $75
Compressor/limiter - $80 to $100
Audio mixer - $75 to $150
Microphones $25 to $50 each
Tape and CD players, go to garage sales
or get donated units
Donated 300-500 Mhz computer to work as
an MP3 sound file jukebox. Allows unattended
playing of program material as needed.
Transmitters are available as kits or fully
assembled units. Assembled units are mostly
available from vendors in the UK. A list
of vendors follows at the end of this article.
A very serviceable antenna can be built
from common 1/2 inch copper water pipe for
$15 in materials or a commercial unit, the
Comet 5/8 groundplane, costs $115-$125.
To facilitate the creation of hundreds
of new stations, weekend workshops will
be scheduled at selected locations around
the country between now and October 17th.
At the end of the workshop you will be able
to walk away with a fully assembled transmitter
and antenna. As an introduction to setting
up an FM broadcast station, Free Radio Berkeley
has a Micropower Broadcasting Primer available
as a PDF document either on their website
– www.freeradio.org – or by email request
– xmtrman@pacbell.net. Thanks to a collaborative
design effort, Free Radio Berkeley will
be offering a partially assembled 1-10 watt
variable output power transmitter kit for
$150. This transmitter can cover a radius
of 4-6 miles and will drive a higher power
amplifier of 75 watts that is available
as kit for $115.
With your own radio station, you will be
able to provide alternative programming
that is rarely heard in most communities
unless they are fortunate enough to have
a Pacifica station or an independent community
station nearby. Thanks to the Internet,
there is a wealth of programming available
in addition to what you will be able to
produce locally. A collaborative web site
- http://www.radio4all.net - established
by the micropower broadcasting community
in 1997 has over 2000 radio programs available
for downloading in MP3 format. New programs
are being uploaded daily.
Democracy
Now , Working
Assets Radio and Making
Contact , to name a few, offer extensive
archives of programs for downloading. The
Independent Media Center Radio
Site - not only has a large archive
of programming but lists other programming
sources, web streams from free radio stations,
and a variety of other resources as well.
To paraphrase “Scoop” Nisker, if you don’t
like the media, go out and make your own.
It is time to move from being a passive
consumer of media to becoming a co-creator
in a movement that gives voice to the voiceless.
If you can’t communicate, you can’t organize.
If you can’t organize, you can’t fight back.
And, if you can’t fight back, you have no
chansce of winning.
Stephen Dunifer
Free Radio Berkeley
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