Skidmark Bob’s 
Mega Media Illusion Mix (6:56, 6.4 MB) takes the doc’s theme song, blends it with Beale, Byrne, Chomsky, and McChesney, and sprinkles that mix with infotainment detritus. Takes the critiques leveled by KGB-TV and Scott Walmsley to the next level.
For those in New York on Wednesday, you’d be crazy to miss the premiere of Michael Lahey’s excellent microradio documentary Making Waves. It happens at 8pm at the Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue (at Second Street). free103point9 will be on hand to conduct a Radio 4×4 performance, which should most definitely set the mood.
Category: Journalism
Be the Media! Blog Resurrected
In preparation for the second National Conference for Media Reform, the Be the Media! blog is back online. The blog served as a venue which provided attendees of the first NCMR a chance to report critically on the proceedings. The 2003 Be the Media! blog archives have been re-established (though all the comments were lost, sorry).
Although I may be biased, I think the blog did a better job of covering the ’03 proceedings than any of the mainstream media reportage that surfaced, although it was kind of a last-minute project and admittedly catch-as-catch-can. This time around it would be great to have more attendees participating: if you’re going to NCMR ’05 and would like to help create an independent archive of coverage about it, contact Paul@Mediageek for details.
Rockin' the Boat Sails Again
After an eight-month hiatus, during which he produced plenty for Free Speech Radio News, the V-Man is back in the saddle at Free Radio Santa Cruz. Rockin’ the Boat returned to the air yesterday: unlike last time the show is a weekly affair.
This incarnation, says the V-Man, will be “a…mishmash of sounds. One week I might rant for two hours, the next could be all music. One week, I might pick a topic…and cover as much ground as possible about that, or I might just open up the phone lines another week. Expect the unexpected…”
Freak Radio recently celebrated its 10th birthday with choice cuts from the archives.
Media Minutes: Behind the Scenes
Things will be static around here until the new year; in the meantime take a tour of the Media Minutes production space I cobbled together.
The initial plan called for utilizing the facilities of the university’s public broadcast complex, but the radio stations are woefully behind the times technologically (nearly-abandonware audio editing systems and no network capability within or between studios). Plus, during pledge drives I’d find myself with no place to work. Going the DIY route is not bad, especially when you’ve actually got a budget to work with and expert advice available. Continue reading “Media Minutes: Behind the Scenes”
Religious Broadcast Executive: Good Work If You Can Get It
Someone who calls themselves “a former employee” of the Educational Media Foundation (corporate parent of the K-LOVE and AIR-1 radio networks) sent along some interesting information about the salaries of the heads of various religious broadcasting institutions.
The original message lamented the fact that EMF Broadcasting’s president, Dick Jenkins, pulls down somewhere between $250-280,000 per year, apparently the highest in his peer group. Other chief executive numbers offered for comparison (can’t vouch for their accuracy, they were reportedly pulled from charitynavigator.org): Continue reading “Religious Broadcast Executive: Good Work If You Can Get It”
IMC Raid Update
New info available: the request to seize the server running 20+ Independent Media Centers originated with agencies in Italy and Switzerland (see the comments attached to the story for more good info); the FBI and UK authorities were only complying out of respect for a multi-lateral law enforcement assistance treaty. Still, the treaty in question was written to cover some specific crimes, like “international terrorism, kidnapping, and money laundering” – none of which the targeted IMC was involved in.
The application of law for the sake of convenience strikes again….
Indymedia Under Attack (Again)
Today FBI agents seized a server that hosted several Independent Media Center sites. None of the story makes any sense: the actual confiscation took place in London – reportedly as a matter of “professional courtesy” that originated with a request from Swiss law enforcement officials. That request has something to do with pictures posted to an IMC of undercover Swiss police working a protest in France.
In a single strike several IMCs in Europe and South America, as well as IMC-Radio, were wiped out (although some have since been restored thanks to quickly-rigged backups). It was a nicely-timed raid, too, as the European Social Forum takes place next week. Continue reading “Indymedia Under Attack (Again)”
Media EmergenC: Confronting the NAB in San Diego
The National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show kicks off in San Diego in less than two weeks and media activists of all stripes will be ready for their arrival. A coalition of groups has organized a counter-convergence: Media emergenC. Continue reading “Media EmergenC: Confronting the NAB in San Diego”
Viacom v. WIN(S): Goliath Just Won't Quit
More than a year ago I vented about how a radio news service I helped found began getting pressure from one of radio’s biggest bullies. The Workers Independent News Service (WINS) found itself potentially facing a lawsuit from Viacom due to the fact that Viacom’s radio subsidiary, Infinity Broadcasting, owns 1010 WINS-AM in New York City. Viacom alleged that “our” WINS was a trademark infringement on “their” WINS…as if listeners might get confused between a full-time full-power AM radio station in a single market that reminds listeners of its call letters at least every 20 minutes and a nationally-syndicated headline news show fed to its affiliates once a day.
We appealed directly to the AFL-CIO for help, since our news was union-friendly. It was completely lukewarm to the idea and initially very hesitant to get involved in our defense (which says a lot about the backbone of the American labor movement, but that’s another rant). After successfully stymieing Viacom’s lawyer-folk for several months the company pressed the issue and threatened to begin the sueage for-real. Continue reading “Viacom v. WIN(S): Goliath Just Won't Quit”
Farewell, Fair Wisconsinite: We Hardly Knew Ye
Madison’s alt-biweekly free newspaper, the Wisconsinite, folded up shop last month after a scant dozen issues. The group that founded and produced the paper included members of the Madison IMC collective (but was most definitely not a print project of the IMC itself). It was positioned to the left of the city’s tired alt-weekly, which now targets “affluent hipsters” compelled to spawn. Very respectably progressive, the Wisconsinite had some meaty stories on interesting stuff, was fairly well-laid out, and was even printed on higher-quality newsprint stock than the Isthmus.
Then Madison’s dominant daily announced it would be starting a free “alt-weekly” of its own, and the state’s largest paper shortly followed suit. It is apparently a growing trend in the mainstream newspaper marketplace to use the “alt-weekly” trick in hopes of luring a younger demographic – both for their disposable income and to entice them into the habit of reading a paper, something going lost on the under-25 crowd. Continue reading “Farewell, Fair Wisconsinite: We Hardly Knew Ye”