Tuesday, July 31, 2001
The Problem with Alternative Radio on Shortwave: WBCQ
Shortwave radio station WBCQ is one of the 20 or so broadcast shortwave stations in the US, and amongst those one of only a few that aren't exclusively religious or evangelical. Started by pioneering radio pirate Allan Weiner, who took to the seas with Radio New York Int'l during the 1980s, WBCQ was intended to offer alternative programming by shortwave to a nationwide and international audience. While it does offer programs like the Tom & Darryl show, which focuses on progressive uses of technology, and "Off the Hook," produced by the hacker journal 2600, the station has also come to increasingly rely on paid programming with a striking right-wing Christian perspective.
Int'l shortwave broadcaster Radio For Peace Int'l tracks the activity of the right-wing on shortwave on its program "Right Wing Radio Watch." Randi Steele is guest onthe June 13 edition of the program. Ms. Steele served as WBCQ's operation manager during the initial start-up of the station and discusses the rise of right-wing programming at the station, and how the hostility and hate being aired on those programs eventually motivated her to leave the station.
posted 7/31/2001 06:21:02 PM [link
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DIY: Home Real-Time Video Editing
Tom's Hardware has a very comprehensive review of the Matrox RT2500 digital video editing system. It seems like a good system to consider if you want to do more complex projects than possible with just a plain ol' firewire card.
posted 7/31/2001 02:57:48 PM [link
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Sunday, July 29, 2001
Legal Unlicensed Ultra-Low-Power Radio -- Ground Level Grassroots
Many folks don't realize that it is possible to put a very low-power radio station on the air in the AM and FM bands without a license and without breaking any federal regulations. Under the FCC's rule part 15 you can broadcast at low power levels in broadcast bands, which is what makes possible those little transmitters made for routing your portable CD player to your car radio. While transmitters of that type don't go much further than across the room, with some clever engineering you can still broadcast to an entire neighborhood, all while staying completely legal.
In the past I've mentioned some part 15-compliant stations like WY2K in Springfield, IL and Allston-Brighton Free Radio that operate on the AM band, where the rules are less stringent than on the FM band. Just today I stumbled on this Master List of Part 15 Radio Stations of North America. It's a very comprehensive page that gives links to known stations operating on broadcast and shortwave bands, in addition to an explanation of part 15 broadcasting in each band and links to manufacturers of broadcast transmitters and equipment intended for part 15 operation. For each station there are comments and descriptions of the stations, how they operate and their programming. If you're interested in trying out broadcasting without taking the risks involved with unlicensed low-power/micropower FM, then this is something to check out.
posted 7/29/2001 09:29:39 PM [link
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KOPN Hangs in There: A Small Community Radio Station Struggles to Survive in Mid-Missouri
John Tarleton writes at his Cybertraveler site, "KOPN is one of the nation's oldest listener-sponsored, community-access radio stations. In the late '70s it flourished as the center of Mid-Missouri's alternative universe. However, by 1997 KOPN was on the verge of financial collapse. Community activists rescued it at the last moment. Now, four years later, they are fighting an uphill battle to revive the station" (via Urbana Indymedia). Go to the link.
posted 7/29/2001 03:13:41 PM [link
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Very Independent Media
Global Indymedia features links to reports and information on the the North American Street Newspaper Association gathering in San Francisco. Street Newspapers, like Chicago's Streetwise, are published by people who are currently or have been homeless, which they frequently sell on the streets to help earn subsistence. Such newspapers are also frequently a forum for challenging journalism informed by a perspective which is foreign to most of us, and that we also frequently avoid confronting. The IMC posts these reports where a visiting NASNA participant has witnessed everyday police harrassment of poor people and documented it at the People's Newsroom, an IMC space set up for the gathering--along with a report from Friday's events.
posted 7/29/2001 12:46:25 AM [link
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Friday, July 27, 2001
The Local Impact of an FCC Deal
Yesterday I wrote a short commentary for our local Indymedia site where I try to assess the potential local impact of the News Corp. decision by the FCC, with specific regard to my hometowns of Champaign-Urbana, IL. If that sort of thing interests you, give it a read, and maybe weigh in with your own comments.
posted 7/27/2001 04:10:46 PM [link
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Stay Underground
I stumbled upon this near-manifesto about 'zines called "Fuck quirky; Zines are dead, long live zines,"
by Jim Munroe, on the Mass Culture website. It's a good analysis about how at its height mainstream media coverage of the 'zine movement focused on the safe, quirky zines and publishers--typically cute girls and safe white boys--while leaving untouched any real historical perspective. He gives praise to Doug Holland who publishes the "Reader’s Guide to the Underground Press," previously known as "Zine World," because Holland's emphasis is to provide a real guide to 'zine producers and readers, rather than charting the underground for the passive consumer. Something that Munroe critiques the former "Factsheet 5" ("Guide to the Zine Revolution") for doing, with its distribution to major bookstores, glossy cover and fairly uncritical reviews.
I'd have to say that I agree with Munroe. Despite my belief that the subject matter and approaches expressed through 'zines are really needed in the mainstream, I can't not recognize that the mainstream press nonetheless puts most material under a homogenizing steamroller that presses most truly critical matter right out. Thus, mainstream exposure, as Munroe makes clear, rarely quite works out being what you'd want it to be. It's usually way too safe.
posted 7/27/2001 03:40:46 PM [link
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MSNBC publishes this article that is critical of the recent FCC decisions under Chairman Powell. Writer Eric Alterman, who also writes for the Nation, says of the News Corp. deal that "Powell, like Murdoch, is being more than disingenuous," in his claims that the new triopoly (two TV stations and a newspaper) will not threaten news diversity in the NYC market. Alterman points out that while Murdoch defends the triopoly by saying there are 25 daily newspapers in NYC, he also fails to mention that 22 of them are not in English.
posted 7/27/2001 12:54:37 PM [link
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Thursday, July 26, 2001
Lighting-fast Deregulation and Consolidation: FCC Approves Fox/News Purchase of Additional NYC TV Station
As the New York Times reports, the FCC approved, with commissioner votes cutting entirely down party lines, News Corp.'s purchase of Chris-Craft, which includes many more TV stations, most notably another TV station in the New York City market, where News already owns one. FCC rules restrict there being a duopoly in a market where a TV station and daily newspaper are co-owned. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. was given a waiver on this years ago when the owner of the NY Post was given permission to buy WNYW-TV. Now he's been given another waiver allowing him to also own WWOR-TV, with the limit that he must comply within 2 years. However, given that FCC Chairman Powell has made it abundantly clear that he intends to see the duopoly rule done away with, this move seems more like a first step in deregulation rather than a temporary waiver.
According to the Times, News Corp. is considering plans to combine management and marketing staffs between the two stations, although leaving the newsrooms separate, aside from some "sharing of talent." The LA Times takes note of the division on the FCC over this ruling, where all Democrats voted against the sale. Dem. Commissioner Gloria Tristiani said of the deal, "Today's decision further diminishes the marketplace of ideas. This decision also shows the lengths the commission will go to avoid standing in the way of media mergers."
What's interesting in reading coverage of this type of deal is how much attention is paid to the advantages News Corp. will gain in having more power in the TV & print news market, and how maybe it'll take greater risks in news programming--though, sensationalist tabloid TV like "A Current Affair" and "America's Most Wanted" are given as examples. But, yet, no real articulation of reasonable positive gain for viewers, readers or citizens is given at all. The only defense from the standpoint of the public is given by Chairman Powell, who claims that long-term effects of this waiver will "outweigh any temporary impact on diversity and competition and is in the public interest." Gee, that's a great claim, is there any evidence, or maybe even a good argument to back that up?
It's amazing to recognize for just a moment that the real presumption here is that "whatever is good for News Corp is good for America." Trickle down is alive and well, and I think I'm being pissed on.
posted 7/26/2001 05:57:00 PM [link
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Wednesday, July 25, 2001
Comments Anyone?
I just put this little java app called Reblogger on the page which allows you folks to comment on any of the posts and read any of those comments. Just click the [post/view comments] link at the bottom of each post. I saw it in use on boingboing and thought maybe a little interactivity was in order here on mediageek, too.
posted 7/25/2001 03:35:21 PM [link
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Ay, More Consolidation? AOL and AT&T in Talks to Merge Cable Operations
This is according to CNNfn. After rebuffing an offer from Comcast Cable, the 3rd largest US cable company, AT&T, the largest US cable operator, is apparently in talks to merge its cable TV operation with AOL/Time-Warner, the second largest, leaving AOL in charge of the whole she-bang. This would create a company reaching almost 29 million households, which is around half of the entire US cable TV market. I can't even work up the energy to comment on this one. Both companies have owned my local cable TV operation, and I can't think of one nice thing to say about either.
posted 7/25/2001 11:55:49 AM [link
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Now It's Clear How Puff Daddy Is a Star
Salon continues it's cutting journalism on the seedy underbelly of the broadcast industry that no properly consolidated media conglomerate would dare do, for fear of cutting off it's nose and biting it's hand. In the article "Payola City" author Eric Boehlert uncovers how dominant cash payments have become in establishing hits in urban/black radio. Boehlert shows that the corruption in this market segment is more personalized -- whereas payola money in top 40 and other white radio typically goes to a station's bottom line, in urban radio the money is going directly into the pockets of individual programmers and consultants, 1950s style.
But who pays for all this? The artist, since the cost of promotion is almost always written into the contract as being the artist's liability -- it comes directly out of their royalty payments. This means they don't see a dime until this cost is covered. And if it's never covered, well don't expect to stick aroud.
Tell me again how hard work and perserverence pays off in the music biz? Who's really cheating the artists--the mp3 downloader? Please...
posted 7/25/2001 12:44:00 AM [link
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Tuesday, July 24, 2001
Disgusting: Italian Interior Ministry Admits Indymedia and GSF Raid Were "Revenge."
The Guardian of London reports that "Evidence emerged that the assault early on Sunday morning, in which 61 people were injured, had been a vendetta by police officers seeking revenge for the rioting at the G8 summit," which has led the parliamentary opposition to demand an inquiry into the action.
Honestly, I'm left confounded about how this can be allowed to happen and how the cops can feel justified in needing revenge for violence that I'm sure wouldn't happen if the Summit weren't already extremely militarized. When you treat people like violent criminals it's hard not to expect them to live up to expectation. Clearly, Genoa was in a state of lawlessness throughout the weekend, only that was far more the result of lawless police taking the opportunity to leverage their clear advantage of force and weaponry against a mostly peaceful assembly.
The mainstream media's depiction of protestors as violent and riotous based up on the actions of a small percentage is outrageous given their assumption that police--in Italy or elsewhere--are mostly law abiding, even though at least as large of a percentage every year are convicted of crimes, usually an abuse of their power. To find the bias, follow the power.
posted 7/24/2001 06:45:31 PM [link
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Indymedia Releases Response to Police Raid on Genoa Social Forum and IMC Italia Offices
From their press release: "The Independent Media Center Network (IMC) (http://www.indymedia.org) demands that independent journalism and journalists be protected from state repression. We also demand this incident of grave repression be given the full investigation and scrutiny that it deserves. Reports indicate that black clad provocateurs were working in conjunction with Italian Military Police in a vicious attack on peaceful organizers."
Read the whole press release.
posted 7/24/2001 04:47:47 PM [link
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Kill Those Pop-Ups!
I know this isn't quite indy/grassroots-media related, but I have to share. I've been using a little app called Pop-Up Killer for the last two days and I'm in love. It's freeware that successfully closes those annoying pop-up browser windows--like the ubiquitous X10.com ones--automatically, while also giving you good control over which ones you want shut and those you don't--like those associated with useful java apps and the like. Has made my browsing experience much more pleasant.
posted 7/24/2001 03:55:03 PM [link
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Summary & Pathfinder for Genoa News
The Indymedia sites are great for getting very recent news, especially as events like the protests at the G8 in Genoa this past weekend go down. But sometimes it's tough to get a good overview of what's happened--there are just too many different reports, first-hand accounts and pointers to other stories to keep up with. That's why a group of IMCistas put together what they call a "News Blast," which serves as both summary and pointer to stories and accounts in an organized fashion. It's still a lot of information, but at least the organization helps you choose what to look at. Take a look at the News Blast on the G8 that was posted today.
posted 7/24/2001 03:51:58 PM [link
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Saturday, July 21, 2001
Italian Police Raid Indymedia Center!
Protests in Genoa, Italy against the G8 conference between the heads of state of the eight wealthiest nations of the world have been met by intense police violence. Friday afternoon a protestor was shot in the head, killing him, and then run over by police. After continuing demonstrations, resulting in more clashes with police, the studios of Radio Gap and the Italy IMC were raided by police around midnight Sunday, Genoa time. According to Global Indymedia, police fired tear gas around the IMC as they broke into the center. A police batton then charged inside the IMC. Ten people were reported beaten by police, with three taken away by ambulence. While in the IMC police confiscated various media recordings, including comptuer disks, minidiscs and videotapes.
This sort of attack is just the icing on the cake of unprecedented police violence against mostly peaceful protestors and independent journalists in the West. An attack on an Indymedia Center should not be viewed any differently than an attack on the BBC or CNN, and is even more awful because an IMC doesn't have the significant capital and legal resources to defend itself with that a CNN does. And yet, this is sickeningly consistent with the fact that the Italian prime minister is himself the nation's largest media mogul, akin to a Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner. This sad event is just one example of what is bound to happen more with the increasing consolidation of media conglomerates and their increasingly cozy relationship with government and legislators.
Updated news about this and other events in Genoa can be found at Global Indymedia and Italy IMC. The Belgium IMC and the UK IMC have also been very prompt with posting clear English accounts of events.
On tomorrow's edition of Radio Free Conscience, I will be discussing the events in Genoa and play audio from the raid and other reports. The program airs 10:00 AM Sunday (tomorrow) morning on community radio WEFT 90.1 FM, Champaign, IL. I'll post this audio as soon as possible.
posted 7/21/2001 09:49:40 PM [link
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Wednesday, July 18, 2001
All this bandwidth and access talk has me thinking about this little encounter I had on Monday night. That evening I was staffing our local Independent Media Center when a guy came in and asked where he could find Internet access. I told him he could use a computer at the IMC, he asked how much, and I told him it was free. But it was about 8:30, just a half hour before closing, and it seemed as though he was hoping to be on the 'net for longer than that. It turns out he was in town with a traveling carnival, and asked me what there was to do, but especially wanted to know if there was an Internet cafe or other place to get access. Sadly, after the libraries and the IMC close, there isn't any that I know of.
This struck me, since these two cities are very wired, and nearly everyone uses e-mail, even if they don't have a computer. A big part of this is that this is the home of the University of Illinois, and everyone with any relationship to the University has an account and good access to computers. On top of that there is good access in libraries, community centers and the like. But I was reminded that if you fall outside of this circle or don't get access at work, and especially if you're from out of town, there aren't too many options, especially once the libraries and centers close.
Over the last few years it seems like a few Internet cafes have come and gone, but none have stuck around too long or been successful. This is probably because access for most residents is pretty good, so there's little incentive to pay even a little bit for a few minutes access. But it does leave you out in the cold if you're not one of the wired, and that's kind of sad, especially for such a wired town.
That's why I'm involved in our local IMC, because it does try to provide such access--and we would be open later than 9:00 PM if we had volunteers to staff then. I realize that this, by itself, is not necessarily enough--more shared resources would help. Still, I did see how important this access is just last night, when a traveling group putting on free techno parties rented our performance space. The group came in three old school busses and had people from France, Holland, and all over the US. They converged on our few slightly-out-of-date public-access Internet machines and definitely put them to good use for the entire night while the party went on. So, somehow, we're getting there.
posted 7/18/2001 05:19:25 PM [link
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I alluded to wireless freenets yesterday, and today my pal Zach forwarded this link to an article about them in ISP-Planet. I appreciate that the article looks at the technology as an opportunity and not just a threat, noting that if high-bandwidth service were already resonably available, there would be less need for such freenets. Even so, I think freenets would be a good idea even if there were more ubiquitous bandwidth, since such 'nets could easily fill in the gaps where there's little service. And when you take into account that ubiquitous bandwidth is far from a reality...
posted 7/18/2001 05:02:54 PM [link
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Damn It's Gettin' Thick: Disney Prez Says Local Ownership not Necessary for Good Local TV News
Broadcasting and Cable reports on a letter Disney Corp. President Robert Iger sent to FCC Chair Michael Powell in which he argues that local ownership isn't necessary to do quality local TV news and public affairs programming. Iger instead says that, "The true measure of localism in broadcasting is not who owns the station but how committed that station owner is to the local community." The letter was sent to encourage the FCC Chair to reconsider current TV station ownership caps that prevent networks from owning stations that reach more than 35% of total households. The national broadcast networks are in a bitter battle with their affiliates over this, who see increased network ownership as a threat to their existence.
You know, I have to agree with that last quote, however it's that very commitment to the local community that I hold in great suspicion. I have seen absolutely no evidence in the recent history of rapid consolidation that there is any commitment to local communities on the part of these large broadcast conglomerates. In many cases it seems like they hold onto local stations only as investment opportunities, and keep them only long enough to make back a good profit on their investment--all the while putting little or no money into the actual operation.
A good point of comparison to TV station ownership is cable company ownership. For instance, here in Champaign-Urbana we have had now 4 different owners of our cable company in five years. In order, they are: Cablevision, Time-Warner, AT&T and Insight Communications. In the case of Time-Warner and AT&T there didn't even seem to be much local management, although there was some infrastructure upgrade so they could offer digital cable and cable modems. But at the same time there were pretty intense disputes between Time-Warner and the local cable commission over quality of service and forcing higher-cost services onto customers.
So, rather than simply saying that "local ownership is necessary for quality local service," it would be more precise to say "a local owner is far more likely to have a commitment to a local community, which in turn, is likely to result in better service to the local community, from public affairs programming, to plain old quality of service."
posted 7/18/2001 12:53:21 PM [link
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Tuesday, July 17, 2001
More on Consolidation: Congress and Industry Butt Heads over Ownership Limits
Today the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Chairman Sen. Ernest Hollings, held a hearing on broadcast ownership limits, which the FCC is scheduled to review later this year. Reuters reports that FCC Chairman Powell expressed that he is against more ownership limits except for preventing the major TV networks from buying each other, which drew ire from many lawmakers concerned about broadcast industry consolidation. Sen. Hollings voiced his support for diversity in broadcasting, and the president of the NYC PBS affiliate emphasized that diversity in ownership is the most important factor.
Although I shouldn't be, I am absolutely amazed at what greedy babies the major broadcasters and media companies are, begging for even more consolidation--like allowing newspaper and TV station co-ownership--even after the massive profits that have been racked up in the wake of the Telecommuncations Act of 1996. How much whinier can you get than Jack Fuller, CEO of Tribune Co., who complained that "Anybody, it seems, can own a television station except aliens, drug dealers and newspaper publishers," twisting the catch-all public interest rationalization to defend his complaint: "With cross-ownership, public access to high-quality local news increases. It does not decrease." Sounds great Jack, but what about proof? Show me how Rupert Murdock increased access to high-quality local news by being given an exception to own a TV station and newspaper in New York City.
And this is the same group that wants to deny little non-profits a tiny 10-watt low-power FM radio station in major cities. I can almost hear the whining: "Anybody, it seems, can own a low-power FM stations except aliens, drug dealers and broadcast conglomerates. Waaah! No fair!"
In a related note: Sen. Hollings announced plans to introduce legislation aimed at slowing media consolidation. The bill he is drafting would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from eliminating any regulations that limit the size of media companies until it has conducted a thorough study of the marketplace.
Of course, a "thorough study of the marketplace" can be construed in any number fashions. Instead I think what's needed is a thorough study of the political economy of the mass media and the public sphere -- let's look at what the media is actually doing, and how it is affecting the course of democratic debate. Are citizens really getting the opportunity to know the news that they need to make reasonable choices in their lives?
On second thought, Senators probably don't really want us to have that information in the first place -- it's an intellectually armed citizenry that most threatens their power.
posted 7/17/2001 04:43:39 PM [link
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Study Says Cable Modems Will Outstrip DSL--Does this Feed the Media Monopoly Monster?
Washtech.com reports on a Multimedia Research Group (MRG) study determining that DSL will lead globally, but that major investments in digital cable infrastructure will cause cable Internet access to lead. The study notes that last-mile DSL infrastructure--taking DSL to actual homes and offices--has lagged recently, and is way behind cable.
This certainly reflects my experience. Here in Urbana, IL, DSL is available, but fairly expensive to install, and costs about double the monthly cost of cable modems. Further, the least-expensive package, at about $75/mo., has lower downstream bandwidth than available from cable modems, in addition to only being available in the central part of town. But if you want to run a small server, DSL is your only choice, since you can get one or more static IPs, even if only 128 kpbs upstream. Servers are disallowed on the cable modem.
But the larger implication of this trend is that it puts significant control over the Internet-access market in the hands of the cable companies, which are led by large, consolidated multinational communications conglomerates like AT&T and Time-Warner. Thus, we have the threat of having most Americans' high-speed 'net access controlled by the same companies controlling the rest of their media--from TV and movies, to books and magazines. Can we really trust them to use this control fairly and responsibly? Or will these local monopolies seize more control over browsers and 'net applications, which might be used to place barriers in the way of accessing content not within the parent company's universe? Already, if you get an AT&T @Home cable modem they install an @Home version of Internet Explorer on your computer, that defaults to Excite @Home content. Of course a geekier customer (like me?) can choose not to install all this extra nonsense, but that probably excludes a fair majority of home Internet users who just want to get on-line and browse the web in the easiest way possible (and who can blame them?).
Of course this concern doesn't cause me to give up my cable modem--having an always-on hi-bandwidth connection is like crack, I tell ya. It costs only about half as much per month as DSL, and there was no install charge, vs. a several-hundred dollar install fee for DSL. Yes, it works and it's cheaper! Isn't that the way the Wal-Marts of the world win?
One solution, I guess, will be to figure out how a community-based non-profit high-speed ISP might be set up. Public wireless netwoprk projects in places like Seattle have shown some promise, and may be workable even in a smaller, less-dense city like Urbana. It's not a cure-all, but at least may be a decent band-aid apart from significant economic reform of the US communications industries and infrastructure.
posted 7/17/2001 03:54:22 PM [link
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While many pundits and commentators have been sounding the death of Internet radio or bemoaning its quality, PC Magazine's John C. Dvorak praises Live365.com, for its user-supplied mix of eclectic programming. He especially likes the streams of old-time radio programs and 50s top-40 hits, but there are thousands of other channels to choose from.
I like Live365, too, especially since they provide an avenue for free webcasting--they pick up all relevant music licensing fees--using streaming mp3 technology. Anyone can set up a stream. The only caveat is that there's no on-demand listening and the listener has no control over the stream--just like regular radio, there's no forward or rewind. Their upper bandwidth limit of 56kbps for stereo music is still a little low for my tastes -- it's a fine bitrate for mono, but for stereo I think 80 - 96 kbps is really the bottom for decent audio quality. Dvorak notes that Live365 is burning through around $1 million a month, so I guess I can understand why they'd want to limit bandwidth somewhat. Of course, with that kind of burn-rate it's reasonable to wonder how they'll make a profit, and therefore how long they'll stick around. Enjoy it while it lasts.
posted 7/17/2001 03:07:30 PM [link
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A Different Face of Community Radio: Ethnic Stations in Suburban NYC
The New York Times has an interesting article today about ethnic and foreign-language radio stations popping up in the 'burbs. The articles notes that this is due to a demographic shift, especially in NJ, and also due to the consolidation of the NYC-based radio stations, which often change hands for $30 million or more. Broadcasting to Polish, Carribean, Korean and other ethnic communities, these stations attempt broad appeal within these populations, and so seem to sport more diverse programming than typical American radio, featuring music, news, talk and instructional programming. That's why these stations seem more like community radio stations to me, since they really do set out to serve a specific community with a broad range of needed programming, that's especially of service to recent immigrants trying to adjust to their new surroundings.
posted 7/17/2001 12:04:42 PM [link
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Sunday, July 15, 2001
Nation/World-Wide Panel on the Indymedia Movement, July 29
Duayne Wittingham of the Springfield, IL IMC group, in coordination with the Tom and Darryl Show, announces a radio roundtable and discussion on the Indymedia movement, to air on WQNA 88.3 FM in Springfield, IL, and to a national and world-wide audience on shortwave station WBCQ 7415 kHz and the W0KIE satellite radio network on C-band satellite Satcom C3 transponder 24 @ 7.5 mHz audio. They plan to have several local people in studio and should be able to take calls, have an Internet chat room, take e-mails, and also hope that other people from other IMCs around the midwest, nation and even world will participate.
I will tape this forum, and maybe participate. Tentatively it will air in 1-hour segments on my radio program on Sunday Aug. 4 and Aug. 18 at 10:00 AM on WEFT 90.1FM. There is no Internet-feed right now, but perhaps the Tom and Darryl show will archive this program on their site.
posted 7/15/2001 07:25:49 PM [link
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Free Radio Events in Berkeley and Chicago
For those of you close to these locales, I thought I'd make you aware in case you weren't already.
In the SF Bay Area Free Radio Berkeley will be hosting an Open House Party, on Sunday, July 22
5 PM to 10 PM at 2547 8th Street, Unit 24, Berkeley, CA. The party will feature Bay Area microbroadcasters, LPFM demonstrations and a screening of the documentary "Free Radio," by filmmaker Kevin Keyser.
This Wednesday, July 18, Chicago Free Radio will be hosting an Open Forum and Discussion on community-based Free Radio in Chicago. The event includes music, presentations from local microbroadcasters and a screening of the documentary "Around the Dial" by Christine Gilliand, which covers Free Radio West Town, the station that kicked off the micropwer movement in Chicago. The Forum will be held beginning at 8:00 PM, Wednesday July 18th at the the No Exit Cafe, 6970 N. Glenwood in Chicago.
I wish I could go to the Chicago Free Radio event, but I already have my own Indymedia commitment here in Urbana to tend to.
posted 7/15/2001 06:14:48 PM [link
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Friday, July 13, 2001
The Resurgance of Video Activism
Chicago's LiP magazine has an aricle offering a pretty complete overview of the recent growth of video activism. The author identifies the Indymedia Center movement as an impetus, providing a world-wide cooperative network that formerly atomized video groups and collectives can utilize to link up and distribute their works.
I do small-scale video production for a living, and have been dabbling in video for years. I sure wish I had more time to be getting out there, capturing footage and creating some pieces. I also wish someone could donate a video camera to our local Independent Media Center so that I could at least start teaching folks to get out there and do it themselves--believe it or not, I've never actually owned a camcorder. (hint, hint... e-mail me if you actually have a camcorder to donate to a kick-ass Indymedia Center).
posted 7/13/2001 07:27:22 PM [link
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Alternet Editor Says, "No magazine of opinion makes money on its own."
The Online Journalism Review has a nice article on Alternet, a syndication service for alternative weeklies and other independent publications. Alternet's website has experienced a spike in traffic since the coronation of King George W.. It's editor, Don Hazen, says that there's been a similar spike in interest for a variety of left-leaning and alternative publications. The most interesting thing Hazen has to say is that he thinks it's difficult to make a profit with a commentary-heavy content-based website. Instead, he thinks such sites need "a hybrid model of revenue and subsidies," like so many magazines, from the Nation to the New Republic have. Alternet also relies on such a model, as part of the non-profit Independent Media Institute.
Based on my own observations and experiences I would have to agree with Mr. Hazen on this issue. Mostly due to the skewed economics of publishing and the Internet (where revenue models are near-impossible to find outside of porn), it's tough to break even by simply selling your service/product to people. Actually, this is true for nearly all of periodical publishing--that $1.00 cover price does not come close to paying the real cost of the daily edition of the New York Times. Since big advertisers are both skittishly conservative and looking for the largest big-dollar demographic they can find, they're not typically too interested in being associated with pubs with challenging content. That gap in funding must be made up for somehow, which is why it you need to turn to membership models, grants, and similar things.
And in no way do I think this is a bad thing--first, it helps a publication retain independence, and secondly, people tend to be willing to support things they find useful and valuable, even beyond a purchase price of a few bucks. So, having primarily to satisfy your audience--rather than advertsiers--can be a huge incentive to stay on mission.
posted 7/13/2001 03:04:08 PM [link
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Thursday, July 12, 2001
Secret Service Calls Public Access TV Show
The Eugene, Oregon Cascadia Media Collective reports on the Infoshop.org News Kiosk that they received a call from the Secret Service in response to their July 4th edition of their public access TV show, "Cascadia Alive!" According to the CMC the agent who called said that their program was "over the edge," apparently due to the music video they aired for the song "Bush Killa" by the rapper Paris, originally written in honor of George Sr. The CMC describes the video thusly:
It "was edited for the show to include footage of Baby Bush's inauguration. Clips of historic Black Panther marches were interspersed with video of the New Black Panther Party march during W's inauguration. There was other video footage of cops brutalizing people during Civil Rights rallies in the 60's. What seems to have sparked the ire of the Secret Service was the clip of Hinkley's assassination attempt on Reagan. Or maybe it was the shot of the poster of W, a dumbfounded look on his face, with a gun pointed at his head which read '@ good start'."
posted 7/12/2001 02:53:50 PM [link
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Sunday, July 08, 2001
Independent Media Headlines
Considering how much time I spend on my radio show, it's strange that I don't mention it too much on this weblog. So here's a link to the headline news briefs I'll read Sunday morning. Some of this stuff already appeared here, others are new. The feature for the show is an interview discussion on the recent FCC indecency fine on Portland, OR community radio station KBOO for airing the feminist rap song "Your Revolution." The discussion includes the program hosts who aired the song and the song's writer/performer. Click here to listen or download the discussion from the A-Info archive.
posted 7/8/2001 12:40:23 AM [link
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Friday, July 06, 2001
Webradio -- a Slight Return
This year saw a massive decline in broadcast radio stations also broadcasting on the Internet. This is due to the recording industry association (RIAA) pursuing the payment of royalties for Internet broadcasts that they don't collect for conventional broadcasting, and due to questions about additional royalties owed union voice talent who appear in broadcast commercials. Currently the rates for Internet broadcast music royalties are being negotiated in arbitration, but the nation's largest radio station owner, Clear Channel, has just reached a deal to replace on-air ads using union talent with different ones specifically for the web, and therefore paving the way for the company to resume web broadcasts of at least 250 of its radio stations. The Internet-only ads will still use union voice talent--apparently the union's rates for Internet-only ads are cheaper than for ads intended for broadcast.
Of course, this still leaves open the question of the music royalties. This is the issue that forced many non-profit and small chain and independently owned stations to discontinue web broadcasts, since the rates are yet undetermined and the RIAA intends to charge stations retroactively once they are established. Many community stations like WEFT, where I volunteer, can't afford to take the risk of web broadcasting when they don't know how much they might end up owing, which effectively keeps these stations off-line. For a huge conglomerate like Clear Channel, which owns 1500 stations, this is less of risk, given that their profits are phenomenal. Thus, web broadcasting, if you do music, is starting to look more like conventional broadcast, with the price of admission already getting higher.
posted 7/6/2001 12:41:25 PM [link
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Thursday, July 05, 2001
Victory for Non-Comm Radio: No Auctions
The Media Access Project announces and celebrates their court victory with the DC Circuit Court of Appeals overturning an FCC decision to make non-commercial broadcasters compete at auction for spectrum space. As part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 Congress ammended the Communications Act (section 309(j)(1)) to specifically allow the FCC to use competitive auctions to resolve instances where two "mutually exclusive" applications are under consideration for a single license. Previously these situations were resolved by lengthy competitive hearings. In making its decision the Court relied upon what it sees as the explicit and unambiguous intention of Congress to except non-commercial broadcasters from this process (section 309(j)(2)). The FCC, however, iterpreted this dictate to mean that only licenses for spectrum space already allocated as non-commercial--such as 88 to 92 Mhz on the FM dial--were exempt from auction, and that non-commercial broadcasters would have to bid at auction for space outside this reserved area. The Court was unmotivated by the Commission's interpretation, finding that the Act's language intended to exempt non-commercial broadcasters from auction regardless of the particular space in question. This rule is therefore vacated, and the FCC ordered to review the rule, per a petition filed on behalf of National Public Radio, et al.
As far as I can tell, what this means in practice is that when a non-commercial broadcaster applies for license in the commercial band (92 - 108 Mhz FM) which is subject to competition from other non-comms or commercial broadcaster, then that dispute will continue to be resolved by hearing, rather than auction. What it also appears to mean is that pure economic might is less useful when trying to win a license away from a non-comm (although it nonetheless requires some economic resource to win a hearing, for which you need lawyers, engineering and other consulting).
posted 7/5/2001 12:57:38 PM [link
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Tuesday, July 03, 2001
DVD-R Mania
We just got a new DVD-R Recorder/Burner today at work, the $800 Pioneer DVR-A03. We've waited about 2 months for this unit, since the retail box version has been only available in smaller quantities. I believe the drive has already been shipping in the high-end Apple G4. For those who don't know, this drive is capable of recording DVDs that are playable in any DVD player (standalone or DVD-ROM drive), and so begins to offer the same level of easy recording and distribution for digital video that CD-R offers for CDs. Before anyone gets too excited, you need to know that you can't (easily) duplicate commercial DVDs like you can dupe CDs. But that's not what interests me. Instead, I see this device as potentially new way for independent videographers to distribute their work in a high-quality and interactive format, with minimal investment. While $800 is not cheap, it is not out of line with many digital video tools that many amateurs and independents use.
We only have on blank DVD-R and don't yet have a project to do, so I haven't tested it yet. But once I put it through it's paces, I'll report back here.
posted 7/3/2001 04:48:12 PM [link
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Monday, July 02, 2001
Who's a geek?
Just read a pretty useless article on CNN.com about a silly survey on supposed geek lifestyles conducted by the Industry Standard. Not otherwise blog-worthy, but for this tidbit: 9 percent own a minidisc player--a cool, useful and supported niche digital technology--and 6 percent have a laserdisc player--a cool, unsupported and recently obsolete niche analog technology. Yikes, I own both. Does that make me in the top 9% or bottom 6% of geeks?
I now return you to something more important...
posted 7/2/2001 12:01:06 AM [link
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