Wired News has a story from someone on the ground in Houston who gives the impression that the emergency LPFM stations authorized for the Reliant Park complex have been “officially, finally denied” by local authorities.
Salient quotes:
1. Rita Obey, public information officer for Harris County Public Health and Environmental Services (HCPHES), who initially challenged the KAMP collective to come up with ten thousand radios: “I did not see the utility [of a radio station].” The Astrodome loudspeaker system and the occasional “newsletter” would suffice, she said. These don’t address the right of the displaced to communicate, but Ms. Obey is obviously too busy tending her patch to think about things like that.
2. From one KAMP “volunteer who declined to be named”: “Last week you could just go right inside (the Astrodome)….We should have just set up then and gotten permission later.”
3. From Harbeer Sandhu, KAMP volunteer: “We got caught up with the power behind us. We lost sight of the power we had.”
Amen to those last two. While it appears Houston officials seek to empty the mass shelters by the end of the month at the latest, there are some still committed to the radio route. A contingent from Free Radio Santa Cruz is en route to Houston to lend a helping hand.
In the interim, Pacifica outlet KPFT has devoted a chunk of its airtime to broadcasting information for the displaced.
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