The Phoenix Preacher blog reports that discussions between Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, CA (the founding church of the Calvary Chapel phenomenon) and Calvary Chapel of Twin Falls, ID may avoid acrimonious litigation and instead end with a partial breakup of CSN. The scuttlebutt says the Idaho-based operation will end up keeping the network’s uplink, several full-power FM stations, and an undetermined number of FM translator repeater-stations. Continue reading “Calvary Satellite Network Lawsuits Near Settlement”
Author: diymedia_tu6dox
Enforcement Action Database Cracks 1,000 Actions
Just caught up on the FCC’s last two months of activity. It’s been a busy winter: 274 enforcement actions for 2006 and counting.
This includes fines, or threats of fines, of $10,000 against the transmitter-hosts of both microstations in San Diego, though escalating the enforcement process up to that level of severity remains mostly outside the FCC’s standard protocol (in related news, the agency’s Inspector General is planning an audit of its regulatory fee-collection process, something not done since 1999). Continue reading “Enforcement Action Database Cracks 1,000 Actions”
The State of Florida v. Rayon Payne, pt. ∞
Late last October, Rayon Payne was tooling along the highway in a friend’s car when the po-po rolled up and pulled them over. Both men were searched, and the cops found a loaded gun on Payne’s person. Payne was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He wrote me shortly after it happened but I neglected to further publicize the incident – not like the man needs any more negative spin to his life’s story. Continue reading “The State of Florida v. Rayon Payne, pt. ∞”
NCMR '07 Ahoy
This week the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform kicks off in Memphis, Tennessee. More than 2,500 folks are expected to converge and discuss the future of media over what should be a grueling but fruitful weekend.
The day before the official start of the NCMR, a media policy pre-conference is taking place, hosted by the Social Science Research Council. I’ll be presenting on the dangers of digital radio. The rest of the weekend I expect to be running around, mic and portable recorder in hand, to gather soundbites of notables for special daily editions of Media Minutes.
One of these years I hope to be more participant than observer….
The Merger of AT&T and BellSouth: Thanks for (Almost) Nothing
Right before the new year, without the benefit of a public meeting or vote, the FCC approved the corporate marriage of AT&T and BellSouth. With this $85 billion deal, Ma Bell is basically just two mergers away from being fully-reconstructed.
Harold Feld of the Media Access Project has already compiled an excellent summary of reaction to the deal, though his own perspective is much more optimistic than mine. I understand that AT&T’s commitment to the preservation of network neutrality is key concession made for the deal, but their 24-month pledge to the principle is six months shorter than the initial acquiescence it made when the FCC merger negotiation-debate began months earlier. Continue reading “The Merger of AT&T and BellSouth: Thanks for (Almost) Nothing”
Microradio, Today and Tomorrow
FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps were in Seattle on November 30th to take more public testimony on the agency’s ongoing media ownership rules review. Reclaim the Media, packed the main auditorium of the Seattle Public Library and provided the Commissioners with four hours’ worth of testimony.
Just two weeks before the FCC’s visit, RtM also organized the Northwest Community Radio Summit, which featured three days of workshops on a wide range of issues. One of those was on 
“The Case for Free Radio in the 21st Century” (1:00:34, 10.4 MB), hosted by members of the Free Radio Olympia collective. It provided a short overview of the history of unlicensed broadcasting and some of the more popular rationales for why it’s still advantageous to be a radio pirate in a post-LPFM world. Continue reading “Microradio, Today and Tomorrow”
U.S., U.K. Chart Spectrum's Future
Some interesting tidbits have been published recently that provide a nice point-counterpoint to the way countries are handling the use of spectrum in a digital world.
The U.S. Department of Commerce (the Federal Communications Commission’s parent department) has just established a two-year “Spectrum Advisory Committee” to offer “reforms that expedite the American public’s access to broadband services, public safety services, and long-range spectrum planning.” It would seem that this committee is to further the work of the White House’s Spectrum Policy Initiative, created three and a half years ago, which to-date hasn’t seemed to produce anything of substance.
As in the case of the first initiative, this committee will not report to the FCC, but instead to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which primarily oversees spectrum activities restricted to government use and international spectrum issues. Continue reading “U.S., U.K. Chart Spectrum's Future”
Making Waves, Pirate Radio USA Screening in SF
A unique chance to see the two newest documentaries on U.S. microradio and LPFM, both will be shown this weekend at the 2006 Anti-Corporate Film Festival in San Francisco.
Pirate Radio USA is the last film on opening night, while Making Waves will be shown on Saturday afternoon. Waves producer Michael Lahey will be on hand for a Q-and-A afterward, tag-teaming with San Francisco Liberation Radio‘s Karoline Hatch.
Both films cover microradio from very different perspectives, so if you can catch both I’d highly recommend doing so.
Second Recruitment Effort For New Full-Power Community Stations
RadioForPeople has launched in hopes of stirring up interest in building new non-commercial full-power FM stations. Sometime in early 2007 the FCC is supposed to open up a filing window for new station applications – something it hasn’t done in years. Continue reading “Second Recruitment Effort For New Full-Power Community Stations”
News Potpourri
A confluence of busyness this semester has swept aside my site-update time. I’m almost caught up with the major stuff, though the regularity of updates will remain slow for the foreseeable future, and more general site-maintenance is on hiatus. Which is funny, because back when this site actually paid for itself, I only updated it about once a week, though it was a lot smaller lo those nearly ten years ago.
That being said, here’s a highlight of things that are now up to speed: Continue reading “News Potpourri”