Author: diymedia_tu6dox

Local Officialdom Stymies Houston Emergency Stations

[Donate to the KAMP Radio Project via Prometheus]
The situation in the Houston Astrodome sounds more like a detention center than shelter. Perhaps that is why the emergency LPFM station authorized to broadcast from there (actually, there’s three, covering most of the Reliant Park complex of which the Astrodome is a part) has been dismissed by local officials.
Organizers of “KAMP” 95.3 were first told they had to have 10,000 portable radios ready to distribute to the displaced before they could begin broadcasting. Not just any radio would do: they had to be of “walkman type,” listenable with headphones. Within a day that goal had been met. Now, authorization for the station has been denied by an “Incident Commander” on the scene. The reason? Not enough electricity. Continue reading “Local Officialdom Stymies Houston Emergency Stations”

Refugee Radio at the Astrodome

Houston Indymedia and the Prometheus Radio Project have secured emergency support from the FCC to set up a 30-watt LPFM station to serve those currently housed in the Houston Astrodome. Now they just need 10,000 portable radios for everyone to hear them.
Contact with any assistance (radios and batteries, especially): Tish Stringer or Hannah Sassaman. Or support Houston IMC and/or Prometheus directly. Continue reading “Refugee Radio at the Astrodome”

1069 FM Back On Air

Good news from San Diego: 1069 FM returned to the airwaves late last month with little fanfare, as confirmed by three sources in the area. It’s not clear whether the station followed through with its pledge to quintuple its power. Also no word on whether the FCC has followed up on its first visits, one of which singled out someone for further enforcement escalation. Here’s hoping the contingencies have been worked out.

NAB/NPR on LPFM: Forked Tongues

REC Networks has collected and posted summaries of several “constituency comments” (those filed by groups representing communities of interest), doing the thankless job of weeding through the auto-file form-fill spam.
The National Association of Broadcasters, predictably, opposes any changes to the FCC’s LPFM rules that might expand the service, continuing to peddle fully-debunked claims that 100-watt stations have the potential to cause “harmful interference” to stations 10 to 1,000 times their size in terms of power.
The comments – which took three NAB executives, three staffers (including former high-level FCC staff), and two law clerks to write and sign off on – also rubs the agency’s nose in the fact that it is prohibited by congressional fiat from relaxing channel-spacing rules to create space for LPFM stations in urban areas. Continue reading “NAB/NPR on LPFM: Forked Tongues”

Tactical Media Love Tour?

I’ve received some interest from people who attended the microradio workshop at the Allied Media Conference in June about taking the show on the road, as it were – demonstrating tactical media technology in hands-on style. I envision such events, being outside a conference atmosphere, also drawing heavily on Tetsuo Kogawa’s “radio party” model (without the soldering).
If this sounds like a great way to spend an evening, drop a line and details can be discussed. All that would be required in each location is a flat patch of ground, a power outlet, and some floor space to crash on. For the moment, such travels would have to be confined to the Midwest, given time and circumstance; Detroit is a go, Chicago and Indianapolis are possibles, and anywhere in-between is game. Spreading tactical media love by example isn’t just effective, it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

Truthful Translators: Where Are They Now?

Some interesting developments in the lives of a few of the talented collagists that have taken political rhetoric to new levels:
Norton Scooter made a pilgrimage to Crawford, Texas during the president’s vacation and spent time at the spontaneous peace camp that grew up outside the ranch. It ended in his arrest. As is his penchant, the story is told in audio – a priceless 30 minutes’ worth (29:55, 24 MB). Scooter is one of the most talented long-form storytellers working in the medium of sound today. Continue reading “Truthful Translators: Where Are They Now?”

Stat-Parsing

It’s been about nine months since this site moved to a properly-beefy server. One of the advantages of the move was regaining access to site stats. Having a somewhat consistent record to work with now, there’s interesting info to share.
At present DIYmedia serves up an average of ~80,000 pages per month to more than 20,000 unique users. Hit-wise, on a monthly basis, the number’s well over 300,000. This works out to nearly 700 visitors a day (on zero publicity). Continue reading “Stat-Parsing”

Radio4All Funding Crunch Redux

To those who may pooh-pooh the ability to run an incredibly successful public service on no budget, look no further than the A-Infos Radio Project. For more than seven years Radio4All has provided a repository for an amazing amount of aural information and charged its users nothing for the service. Since the mainstream arrival of the anti-corporate globalization movement the service has found itself under increasing demand, which now amounts to ~30,000 users per month.
Over the years Radio4All’s also weathered an amazing amount of crises, including emergency storage upgrades and bandwidth increases. Bandwidth alone now costs some $500 per month, and now its hosting provider wants those payments tendered quarterly. According to Radio4All co-founder and co-maintainer Shawn Ewald, “right now, our current balance will only cover this month’s bill.” There may be lots of sites out there offering similar services now, but none were developed in such bottom-up fashion and none have attracted the amount and quality of content as Radio4All.

Mikey Powell: Telecoms Investor

Not much surprise in the news of former FCC chieftain Mikey Powell going to work for Providence Equity Partners, which specializes in venture/vulture capitalism involving global media interests. Powell, as a “Senior Advisor,” will no doubt assist in the management of Providence’s ~$9 billion portfolio. His pinstriped suits should fit in very well there. Continue reading “Mikey Powell: Telecoms Investor”