Mikey Powell’s giving up the ghost (don’t look back, buddy); Kathleen Abernathy may follow; and W. Kenneth Ferree, head of the FCC’s Media Bureau, is also done. Also, Michael Copps’ term expires in the summer. It’s unusual to have such turnover in a short time. Can we expect substantive change in the agency’s direction?
Probably not. The replacements will not be reformists: they’re straight from the farm team that breeds regulators. These being three primary sources: campaign contributors, congressional staffers, and those already in administrative positions. All of the (speculative) candidates for a Commissioner’s post hail from one of these places. Congressional staff are an especially fertile ground, seeing as it sometimes seems easiest for the two major parties to agree on the appointment of folks already within the family, so to speak. Continue reading “Churn at the FCC”
Author: diymedia_tu6dox
Black Boognish Project Online
Given my personal penchant for Ween, when I heard wxm had no online distribution for his mashup project I was quick to volunteer. Therefore, The Black Boognish now has a permanent home at http://wxm.diymedia.net/ and as each track is completed it will premiere there. Two tracks are in the can so far; a third, “HIV Problems,” is in production now. wxm says he hopes to finish a track a week, meaning the project will take three months minimum to finish. If you’ve got suggestions on mashup ingredients hit him up via e-mail.
KBFR Gone For Good: "FCC is trying some very scary new tactics."
Straight from the mouth of Monk:
Please report that we are, after almost 5 years on the air, indeed, shut down for good and out of business. Obituary coming out soon. Our yearly benefit [happening this Thursday] will become a wake/legal defense fund.
This implies that there’s a legal struggle brewing in the courts, details unknown – although a team of lawyers is on the case (including some from the Dunifer defense crew). I’m working on the details, stay tuned.
Inaugural Insurgency to be Broadcast, Relayed
Back around the holidays CNN ran a story about a pirate radio station in D.C. calling for “massive protests” during Bush II’s second inauguration (happening this Thursday, with the festivities running into the weekend). The unexpected exposure caused WSQT, or “The Squat,” to switch broadcasts from the AM to FM band. The station is now also semi-mobile, transmitting with a five-watt brick which it claims can be heard for several miles. There’s apparently quite the engineer behind this operation, as most if not all of the gear in use is homebrew and built especially for the job at hand.
WSQT’s also posted some new audio to IMC-Radio: snippets of public service announcements the station’s been running in the runup to the inaugural action. Other tactical radio projects may be in the works and any streams coming out of D.C. will be rebroadcast via microradio (check with your local station for times). It was the 2000 inauguration protests that really demonstrated the power of the impromptu radio network model, which has only grown more advanced in the last four years.
Pirate Radio USA Almost In the Can
The feature length film is currently in the touch-up phase with most elements locked into place. The producer tells me a trailer will be available most likely by next month, with the project itself to wrap by the end of February. Then the festival-submission process begins – one of the first copies will go to Cannes (cross your fingers). The soundtrack will include several properly thematic songs, including a few that have been featured as ear candy here.
Boulder Free Radio Off the Air
The transmitter location got a visit on Tuesday afternoon – coincidentally the one-year anniversary of “first contact.” Station founder Monk says, “this feels somehow different [from] other FCC visits.” That inkling is not completely new: the FCC began numbering the warning letters left in Boulder recently – perhaps an indicator that the agency is attempting to build a case against the station in preparation for stronger enforcement action. KBFR’s web site reads “RIP” but something tells me this isn’t the end just yet…
Just When Jay-Z Thought He Was Safe…
Last year it was all the rage: the acapella version of Jay-Z’s Black Album got mashed up with a plethora of unlikely accompaniment. There was The Grey Album (Beatles), The Slack Album (Pavement), The Double Black Album (Metallica), The Black and Blue Album (Weezer), The Black Album Unplugged (Nirvana), and many more.
The saga continues now with Jay-Ween. The album, The Black Boognish, may be late to the party and it’s still early in the production stage but one rough track is now in the wild. Enjoy:
Homo Service Announcement (MP3, 2:48, 6.5 MB)
Localism Backlash in Massachusetts
The Vox Radio Group is a regional player in the radio business, owning more than 30 stations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Like most broadcast companies it’s been culling staff over the last several years, but when it let go George Trottier, meteorologist of 32 years at WNAW-AM in North Adams, Massachusetts, some karmic line got crossed.
The station got pummeled with feedback from angry listeners – so much so that the WNAW’s general manager re-hired him less than a week later. Publicly: live, on the air, during the morning show. Continue reading “Localism Backlash in Massachusetts”
LPFM Day at FCC Confirmed; A Cocky Monkey
LPFM Day is February 8 at FCC headquarters. The event is akin to a “mini trade show,” a chance for advocates of low power radio to show off the technology and talk up its benefits to FCC staffers. The Prometheus Radio Project is organizing a mini-conference on LPFM for the day before. It is even rumored that Mikey Powell may grace the event with his presence – the least he can do for failing to accomplish anything substantive as far as advancing the rollout of LPFM stations.
SF Weekly has a new feature on Pirate Cat Radio. Since 1997 this “punk as fuck” station has, according to its founder, “Monkey,” received more than 120 warning notices from the FCC while operating unmolested in Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, and Los Angeles. So far it’s been on in the Bay area for some two years and nary a peep from the FCC. Telling tall tales? Consider this: he blames the October 2003 raid of San Francisco Liberation Radio on interference SFLR caused to Oakland International Airport – yet he chuckles about complaints from neighbors when Pirate Cat messes up TV reception, and it hindered reception of at least one Los Angeles station during its run there. Continue reading “LPFM Day at FCC Confirmed; A Cocky Monkey”
Like Food Stuck In Teeth
How to break news to a friend that they’re looking a bit uncouth? It’s not easy.
Recently I stumbled across the web site of a group called the National Association of Microbroadcasters. This sort of idea’s been tried before but, given the nature of the free radio movement in the United States, such groups have never lasted very long (and the few still in existence are very low-key). Not so the NAMB: boasting more than 40 “member stations,” “covering 194,000 [square] miles,” this is quite a boost from the blue, if true.
Further exploration of the site, however, tempered my enthusiasm. Specifically, the link off the front page labeled, “What is The Law?” This takes you to a page with eight links on it. Some of them are pretty benign, like links to the Communications Act of 1934 and various pieces of U.S. Code applicable to the FCC. Sprinkled in are links to dubious legal memoranda whose basic gist is that the FCC does not have the jurisdiction to license stations that do not broadcast over state lines. One link here even includes a scanned image of a letter one Eric Johnson of Everett, WA received from a functionary at the FCC: it claims that “intra-state radio communications may be regulated by individual states, and I would recommend contacting your State Utility Commission for further information.” Continue reading “Like Food Stuck In Teeth”