Re: Seize the Airwaves!

Freak Radio Santa Cruz, Calif. 8 years without a license. Very
succesful with provocative programming supported by the city
council. May be a good resource if you want to speak to experienced
people about setting up a transmitter.

Streaming now at:

http://www.freakradio.org/




— "marc.garrett" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Day of Mass Electronic Civil Disobedience - October 17, 2003
> by Stephen Dunifer - Free Radio Berkeley
>
>
>
> Seize the Airwaves!
> Break the Corporate Media's Stranglehold on the Free Flow of
> Information,
> News, Music, Artistic Expression, and Cultural Creativity
>
> Day of Mass Electronic Civil Disobedience
> Celebrating International Media Democracy Day
> Friday, October 17, 2003
>
> You go to the demonstrations, write letters and email to
> Congress; and yet,
> you feel as if your voice is not being heard. What if there was a
> way for
> your voice, and the voices of your compatriots, to actually be
> heard? There
> is - it is called micropower broadcasting or free radio.
>
> Micropower broadcasting began as a means to empower the residents
> of a
> housing project in Springfield, Illinois in the late 1980's. By
> creating a
> low power FM broadcast station, this community established its
> own voice and
> a direct means to fight against police brutality and repression.
> Unlicensed
> and unsanctioned by the government, Human Rights Radio, as it is
> now known,
> continues to broadcast to this very day.
>
> Since then, micropower broadcasting has grown into a national
> movement of
> electronic civil disobedience. Based on the principles of Free
> Speech and
> Direct Action, micropower broadcasting seeks to reclaim the
> electronic
> commons of the airwaves - a public resource and trust stolen by
> the
> corporate broadcasters, aided and abetted by the Federal
> Communications
> Commission (FCC) and other appendages of the US Government.
>
> Continuing in the rich tradition of the struggle to speak freely
> and be
> heard, micropower broadcasting has traded the historic soapbox
> for the FM
> broadcast transmitter. Advances in technology and design have
> allowed for
> the creation of FM transmitters at a very low cost in comparison
> to
> standard, commercial broadcasting equipment. An entire FM
> broadcast station
> covering a radius of 5-12 miles can be assembled for $1000 or
> less.
>
> Yes, there are legal risks involved. Such stations are violating
> FCC
> regulations and statutes, and are subject to possible legal
> actions such as
> threatening letters or fines, and sometimes seizure of equipment.
> Despite
> this, at any given time, there are hundreds of stations on the
> air across
> the United States. Unfortunately, stations tend to go on the air
> in
> isolation from one another, making them an easier target for the
> FCC.
>
> Despite the somewhat uncoordinated efforts of the last ten years,
> hundreds
> of micropower stations taking to the airwaves forced the FCC to
> respond to a
> rapidly growing, ungovernable situation. William Kennard, former
> head of the
> FCC, admitted this is in a documentary, LPFM - The Peoples'
> Voice, produced
> by the United Church of Christ's Microradio Implementation
> Project. (
> http://www.veriteproductions.net/html/awards.html ;
> http://www.current.org/in/in009LPFM.html ) Adding further
> legitimacy to the
> micropower broadcasting movement, the FCC's own study on possible
> interference issues, The Mitre Study
> (http://prometheusradio.org/release_71303.shtml), failed to show
> even
> marginal interference to full power broadcasters by low power FM
> stations.
> It went further to recommend the lifting of burdensome
> restrictions imposed
> on the LPFM broadcasting service.
>
> For years, the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB),
> representing
> corporate interests, has used interference as a red herring issue
> in their
> attempts to stifle the Free Speech Rights of micropower
> broadcasters. Joined
> by National Public Radio, the NAB, using bogus interference
> claims augmented
> with political grease, succeeded in getting a bill, ironically
> titled -The
> Broadcast Preservation Act of 1999, passed by Congress to
> severely limit the
> number of LPFM stations authorized by the FCC when they
> established the LPFM
> service in January of 1999. Whether it was the Free Speech fights
> of the
> Wobblies, folks refusing to go to the back of the bus or hundreds
> of
> unsanctioned low power FM taking to the airwaves, mass movements
> creating
> ungovernable situations do work.
>
> Therefore, we are calling for a day of electronic solidarity and
> direct
> action, marking the beginning of a new chapter in micropower
> broadcasting by
> raising the struggle to an entirely new level of engagement.
> Between now and
> October, 17th, we are asking you and your community to create
> your own
> broadcast station to further empower your vision of a just,
> humane, peaceful
> and sustainable world.
>
> Hundreds of new stations going on the air all at once will be a
> powerful
> statement to the corporate media and the government that the
> airwaves belong
> to the people who have chosen to seize them back, speaking in one
> strong
> collective voice. With budgets and resources stretched thin, the
> FCC will be
> hard-pressed to respond to such an expression of solidarity. This
> action
> will encourage many more communities to set up their own
> broadcast stations.
> Schools, arts centers, housing projects, senior communities; all
> could be
> empowered with free radio broadcasting. Critical mass can be
> achieved within
> a very short period of time.
>
> To further amplify this collective voice, a mass 24 hour
> broadcast of the
> same programming by hundreds of micropower stations would meld
> hundreds of
> small voices into one giant shout for Free Speech Rights. Using
> the existing
> infrastructure of the Internet and audio streaming technologies
> which have
> been employed by the Independent Media Centers since 1999, a
> common audio
> stream would be created for re-broadcasting. Individual stations
> would work
> collectively to create programming for this 24 hour broadcast.
> Given the
> number of IMC sites in the US, they could serve as hubs for the
> audio
> streams, both incoming and outgoing. And, quite possibly,
> stations outside
> the US would join in as well, creating a global movement to
> reclaim the
> broadcast spectrum.
>
> Setting up a basic FM broadcast station requires the following
> items.
> Approximate price ranges are given.
>
> Transmitter - $150 to $600
> Power Supply - $35to $100
> Antenna - $15 to $125
> Antenna cable - $50 to $75
> Compressor/limiter - $80 to $100
> Audio mixer - $75 to $150
> Microphones $25 to $50 each
> Tape and CD players, go to garage sales or get donated units
> Donated 300-500 Mhz computer to work as an MP3 sound file
> jukebox. Allows
> unattended playing of program material as needed.
>
> Transmitters are available as kits or fully assembled units.
> Assembled units
> are mostly available from vendors in the UK. A list of vendors
> follows at
> the end of this article. A very serviceable antenna can be built
> from common
>