Tom Roe on free103point9′s New FM Station and Microradio Past

Tom Roe, program director for free103point9, was my guest for last week’s radioshow where we discussed that organization’s approach to transmission arts and how they were able to obtain a rare noncommercial full-power FM broadcast license. That show is now available for downloading or listening online.

In the second half of the live broadcast version of the show Tom and I talked a little about the fact that free103point9 actually started out as an unlicensed micropower station in 1997, before deciding to go online only. This makes free103point9 one of only two contemporary broadcast stations to have roots in unlicensed radio. The other one is shortwave station WBCQ whose operator, Allan Weiner, was the man behind the infamous Radio New York International, a station which in 1987 attempted to emulate European pirates by operating off-shore. Weiner wrote a memoir of his pirate radio days called Access to the Airwaves: My Fight for Free Radio. Unfortunately the publisher, Loompanics Press, went out of business in 2006, although it looks like new and used copies are still available online.

Fully indulging in the tangent, after the jump you can watch a compilation video of news coverage of Radio New York International from 1987.
Read more »

Occasionally There Is Justice: free103point9 Receives an FM License

There are so few open frequencies for new full-power noncommercial radio stations in the US, so it’s all the more exciting to learn that the great folks at free103point9 have received a license from the FCC to start a 3,300 watt FM station in New York’s Hudson Valley.

free103point9 is an amazing group that promotes transmission arts, located at the intersection of music, experimental sound construction and radio. Over the last 10 years they’ve maintained an online presence with a live audio stream, while catalyzing the creation of new sonic arts through programs like the residency program at their Wave Lab on 30 acres in upstate New York. free103point9 also sponsors performances and concerts, releasing many of these recordings through their Dispatch series.

I’m so jazzed about free103point9′s FM license because it promises to be a station that is dedicated to and a participant in the creation of art, sound and music, not just merely playing existing recordings on air. With 168 hours a week to fill, I’m sure that the station also will be playing recorded music, along with important news and public affairs show. But the connection of an FM station to a non-profit group already engaged in the production and promotion of sonic art is both new and promising.

Indeed, I think that the sonic and transmission arts represent a fruitful new frontier for radio as the medium transcends being just a music jukebox (no matter how eclectic). Now, this sort of artistic experimentation has happened on community, college, public and even commercial radio stations for decades, but rarely has taken center stage — Public radio’s This American Life arguably is the best known example of a radio program that breaks out of the typical confines of radio genre and format. However, more often programs that truly play and experiment with sound and transmission are relegated to overnight hours and not often long-lived.

I also think it’s great that free103point9 started life as a microbroadcasting collective, that turned into an internet broadcaster, and is now bridging to the airwaves. Each medium has unique constraints, advantages and audiences and the future vitality of radio will rest on the fruitful use and bridging of multiple methods like these.

I’m scheduling Tom Roe, Program Director of free103point9, to be on the radioshow in the next few weeks. I’ve wanted to feature more transmission and sonic arts on the radioshow, but the move to Chicago this year and limits on my time and energy have kept this idea on the back burner. But hearing about free103point9′s license gives me motivation to re-engage with it.

On this week’s radioshow: White Spaces Are Go!

On this week’s radioshow I’ll be speaking with Tim Karr, Campaign Director at Free Press and a contributor to the Huffington Post. We discuss the Tuesday vote at the FCC approving the use of white spaces for wireless broadband, along with a brief look at what an Obama White House means for media reform.

The show airs live tonight, Thursdays, 9 – 10 PM Central time on WNUR 89.3 FM Evanston-Chicago, IL and online at WNUR.org. You can catch it on Friday at 5:30 PM on Community Radio WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign-Urbana, IL, which also has a live stream.

If you can’t catch the live streams, the show will be available at the radioshow website this weekend, and airs on thirteen other community stations next week.

On tonight’s radioshow: Chicago Independent Radio Project

While there is a lot of good non-commercial radio in Chicago, one thing the city lacks is a true community station, programmed entirely by community volunteers and funded by community donations. Of course, it’s great that college stations like Northwestern’s WNUR and University of Chicago’s WHPK actively open their studios to community programmers. However, even great college radio is not quite the same as community radio.

That’s why an intrepid group of media pioneers are trying to get a true community station on the air in Chicago, with the Chicago Independent Radio Project. The effort required is more mammoth than other smaller cities because Chicago has no vacant frequencies for a full-power or low-power station anywhere near the city. So besides the significant task of fundraising and organizing necessary to get a station on the air, CHIRP has to take on the FCC and Congress to have rational LPFM channel spacing, allowing some new community stations to join Chicago’s and other cities’ airwaves.

On tonight’s radioshow Shawn Campbell, president of CHIRP, will join me to talk about the effort, its reason for being, its mission, and the challenges that lie ahead. Tune in live tonight on the radio or online at 9 PM CDT on WNUR 89.3 FM, Evanston, IL, or at 5:30 PM CDT tomorrow, Friday, at 5:30 PM on community radio WEFT 90.1 in Champaign, IL (also online). The show will be posted to the radioshow page by the weekend, and airs on a dozen other community stations, also listed on the radioshow page.

Post-First-WNUR-Show Recap

Just finished my first hour-long mediageek on the mighty WNUR. We had some phone system troubles during the first 10 minutes or so. First I couldn’t hear my guest, John, then he couldn’t hear me. But the very able producer/engineer Andrew figured out the glitch and got us up and working for the balance of the hour.

This is the first live show I’ve done since March and it reminds me how much I love live radio. I’m not a perfectionist, so I can roll with the little tech glitches. In fact, I think they remind the listeners that there’s a real human being working in real time behind the mic. Not a patchwork of pre-recorded segments with the occasional live break to give the time, traffic and weather on the eights.

For April through last week I’ve been recording the show podcast style in my home office on my MacBook. And while that provides a little more control, in that environment I find it hard to be inspired, nevermind focused and concise. It’s a matter of personality and preference I’m sure. But I started with live radio in college back in 1989 and that’s pretty much all I’ve ever done since. Certainly many of my interviews are pre-recorded because a lot of guests aren’t easily available during the live show time. But at least with another person on the line it’s a lot more spontaneous and lively.

So while the rise of podcasting and the easy access to high quality recording tools has leveled the playing field for people to produce their own radio-like programming, I am still convinced there is no substitute for a live multi-kilowatt transmitter. Perhaps live webcasting comes close–especially in terms of spontaneity–but the reach of a WNUR in terms of broadcast listenership could bankrupt someone with bandwidth bills on the ‘net.

Despite the minor glitches the WNUR studios are the nicest I’ve had the opportunity to work in and truly blow away most commercial stations aside from the major market leaders. And the staff at WNUR are a great bunch, and I’m having a great time getting to know them. It’s a true student run station–a dying breed, as we discussed on tonight’s show–and the students proudly put on an independent, challenging, independent and interesting set of programming.

And a big thanks must go out to Andrew Gothelf who stepped up and volunteered to assist with mediageek as soon as the show got scheduled one week ago. I’m looking forward to his contributions to the program.

A New Chapter for the Radioshow

In the best blogger style, I’m remembering to post this only hours in advance…

Beginning tonight at 9 PM CDT the mediageek radioshow begins a new chapter with a new station. Tonight is the debut of the mediageek radioshow on WNUR 89.3 FM, the radio station of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, serving the north side of Chicago and the North Shore suburbs. As I’ve mentioned on the blog and radioshow, I moved to Chicago back in April, saying a teary goodbye to the studios of community radio WEFT in Champaign, IL where the show got its start. Since then I’ve been producing the show at home, while it continues to air on WEFT and a dozen other stations.

Besides the change to a new station and city the show now moves to an hour-long format. Because the current mediageek affiliates only have a half-hour set aside for the program I’ll be doing the show in two segments. The first half-hour will be much like the current show, with news headlines and feature interviews.

With the second half-hour I’m planning to take a looser approach. When there are live guests who are willing to stick around the full hour I’d like to take live listener phone calls. WNUR has a live web stream, so this opportunity will be available not just to folks listening in the Chicago area. I’d also like to spice things up by featuring more audio collage, sonic art and broadcast things that have less to do with policy and regulation. I’ll post the second half-hour for podcast and online listening, too.

So, tonight’s the first trial balloon in the new approach. I’m glad that my pal and frequent guest John Anderson will be along for the ride via phone from Champaign.

Tune in tonight, Sept. 25, from 9 – 10 PM to WNUR 89.3 FM, Evanston, IL, and online at WNUR.org.

WTF? Pacifica Docks Free Speech Radio News $13 Grand a Month

Being kind of distracted the last few months, I missed the news that the Pacifica network has cut its contribution to the Free Speech Radio News budget by $13,000 a month.

For those not familiar with these two organizations, Pacifica is the nation’s first community radio organization, currently owning and operating five stations around the country, along with a satellite network interconnecting community stations. FSRN is a daily half-hour news collective the formed out of the ashes of Pacifica’s radio news program in the late 90s as a constructive protest against censorious policies being carried out by Pacifica during a protracted struggle over control of the network.

In my opinion FSRN is the best daily half-hour of news on the radio in the US. Because it is worker-run we hear regularly from reporters all over the world who are from these countries and regions and in touch with their local issues in a way that no American or western reporter could. To me it represents the ideal of community radio, where people have the opportunity to speak for themselves and their communities rather than only have their voices represented by someone else. As a collective the editorial control remains in the hands of all members rather than being consolidated in just a few.

In the end a settlement was reached over control of Pacifica ousting the former board which apparently had improperly consolidated control and was considering selling one or more of its stations. With the election of a new board came a reuniting of FSRN and Pacifica, as the network began carrying the program on its satellite network and providing funding.

Relations between Pacifica and FSRN have not always been rosy. FSRN is worker-run collective that is not under Pacifica’s control, and I’ve often heard rumblings that Pacifica would like again to have its own daily news broadcast under its direct control.

However, I don’t know if this recent budget cut is representative of such an initiative, or just simply a result of fiscal problems.

According to an article in NYC Indymedia’s The Indypendent, there are indeed finance problems at Pacifica that seem to stem from earlier and ongoing conflicts within the network:

Pacifica has lost several lawsuits filed by former employees, with others still pending. Some of its own producers allege the network may be paying its legal fees by pulling money from reporters who gather the news.

“They are taking money we bring in, in order to pay for mismanagement,” said founding FSRN producer, Aaron Glantz, who helped produce the Winter Soldier Hearings, where veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars spoke out publicly, for Pacifica in March.

Now FSRN is actively trying to raise funds through donations and, possibly, grants. I hope that they are able to make up the shortfall in order to continue production. By comparison to most nationally syndicated programs FSRN gets by on a shoestring. The annual $156,000 that FSRN is losing from Pacifica looks like the coffee and bottled water budget for a recently canceled NPR program that aired on many fewer stations.

Good reporting takes time, and therefore it takes money. If we want to hear incisive, thoughtful reporting, especially from people and places less heard from in the mainstream, then it needs to be funded. Even if a reporter isn’t working full time, every moment she spends reporting is one that she’s not working making a living elsewhere. For all of the feel-good boosterism we hear about so-called citizen journalism we can’t forget that in-depth reporting is more than showing up on the scene of some event with a cell phone or digital camera.

FSRN doesn’t have the same (cult of) personality-driven allure of Pacifica’s more well-known syndicated news program, Democracy Now. It’s too bad, if not unexpected. Nevertheless, I can’t help but think that cutting FSRN’s budget is an enormously myopic move on Pacifica’s part. At the same time, it’s also an object lesson as to why remaining independent was a smart decision for FSRN. Pacifica can revoke their share of the funding, but they can’t just shut it down. FSRN started without Pacifica, and I’d like to think the show can continue and survive without Pacifica.

The continued survival of FSRN will require the continued support of the community stations that carry the program. Many stations–like my old home WEFT–started carrying FSRN from the very start, contributing money directly. Perhaps its time for this to happen again, for stations and their listeners to support FSRN directly so that it doesn’t need Pacifica’s money.

In my fantasy world this would allow stations to disaffiliate from Pacifica in protest while keeping FSRN on the air. However, this is truly just a fantasy since Democracy Now is perhaps the most sacrosanct program on community radio, and nary a community station can afford to threaten its ability to carry it by dropping Pacifica affiliation. To do so would spark armchair activist riots in college towns and progressive urban enclaves all over the nation. But I digress….

Right now Free Speech Radio News needs financial support, and I urge everyone who supports grassroots radio journalism reflective of the true spirit of community radio to contribute what they can.

Free Chicagoland Music

WFMU’s Free Music Archive–as discussed Friday on the blog and radioshow–is featuring a whole mess of music from artists around my new hometown of Chicago.

Happy downloading and listening!

Free Music Archive

On today’s radioshow I interview WFMU station manager Ken Freedman about the station’s very cool Free Music Archive project. The idea of the Archive is to take the fundamental idea of sharing Creative Commons-licensed music online, as seen with sites like Archive.org, and add a curatorial element. According to Ken, the goal is to replicate the editorial judgment inherent in radio, a record label, music venue or gallery where the artists, songs and pieces have been carefully chosen. Thus the Archive staff and affiliates are engaged in proactively inviting artists and labels to contribute music rather than just opening uploads to anyone.

As someone who has tried to pick through numerous music sharing sites I have certainly been frustrated by trying to find artists and tracks that suit me. In our interview Ken points out that these open access sites tend to be dominated by people making electronic music or jam bands, which seem to be two groups inclined to be more inclined to use the internet or to share music than, say, modern classical composers and performers.

Over the last ten years WFMU has really solidified its reputation as a cutting-edge freeform music station driven by taste and artistic value. And it’s achieved that by carefully selecting the DJs it puts on air and giving those DJs full control over their programs. On top of that the station has been on the forefront of using the internet and webcasting to both better serve it’s local audience and to reach a broader, global audience.

As one might guess, much of WFMU’s aesthetic appeals to me, and so I am very much looking forward to the debut of the full Free Music Archive. Like a favorite record label, publishing house or rock club, I have come to trust that ‘FMU is likely to steer me towards interesting, challenging and appealing music that I might not otherwise encounter. Simply, I expect them to sort through the chaff and present to me the wheat, even if it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (to mix my metaphors).

I don’t think that the Free Music Archive is intended to be or will be a challenge, substitute or replacement for open submission archives. The internet continues to be a big place and there’s plenty of room for both approaches.

One delicious irony of the Free Music Archive is that it was seeded by a grant from the state of New York that comes from the money received in the big payola settlement of a few years ago. I love that an archive of Creative Commons music is being funded by the entertainment cartel RIAA-members.

The Archive is not yet online, though Ken says they’re currently planning for a launch date of November. However, they’ve been posting selected tracks on a project blog.

You can listen to my interview with Ken Freedman about the Free Music Archive at the radioshow page. To learn more about WFMU and the station’s unique approach to internet broadcasting listen to my first interview with Ken on the Nov. 11, 2005 edition of the radioshow.

Sirius/XM Merger an Opportunity for Openness & Access? LPFM for Satellite?

Matthew Lasar continues his excellent reporting for Ars Technica with an article on a recent letter from House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and Internet subcommittee Chair Edward J. Markey (D-MA) to the FCC urging an open platform for satellite radio if the Commission approves the Sirius/XM deal. What they’re calling for is the ability for any manufacturer to make Sirius/XM compatible satellite radios, without the ability for the merged company to prevent things like iPod docks or HD Radio capability.

Lasar also notes the gathering steam in support for setting aside some of the merged company’s channel capacity for noncommercial programming, similar to what has been required for direct-broadcast satellite TV. Apparently even Clear Channel wants 5% of capacity set aside for “public interest” programming, whatever Cheap Channel means by that.

I oppose the merger on the principled basis of the fact that such a merger was specifically prohibited as a provision of the original authorization of the service. Nevertheless, I recognize that principle rarely rules the day in DC. Therefore I very much support setting aside channel capacity for non-commercial broadcasters as a necessary condition if the FCC chooses to approve the merger.

Obtaining a non-commercial channel on Dish Network was vitally important for Free Speech TV and has allowed that organization to distribute its radically critical grassroots programming in a way that it simply could not before, feeding public access TV stations around the country.

Although internet distribution is still more practical for radio programming than for TV programming, having several nation-wide progressive and grassroots radio channels nonetheless would be a great opportunity, and could be of great service to community radio stations.

A channel I’d love to see is one built on an Indymedia type of model, mixed with Current TV. It would be fed by programming from independent producers and community stations, like the programs you find at the A-Info Radio Project and Radio Indymedia. But, like Current, it should be edited and curated. That is, I’d like to see things selected and knit together into a coherent program flow. Maybe a whole show would be carried, or just a particularly good segment. And then combine these shows and segments with regular hosts and other original content related to particular themes and topics.

In a way, this idea is a lot like what a lot of people over the years have hoped would come of NPR or Pacifica, that they would function truly more like networks connecting up stations than as program syndicators. But I do understand how the overhead of the kind of operations they need to run make playing that networking role more difficult.

That’s the beauty of having new channels on satellite radio — the overhead is comparatively low because you don’t have to worry about physical broadcast stations, licenses or signing up affiliates. Like an internet station, but with a different kind of reach, the low overhead allows more opportunity for experimentation.

Of course the kind of channel I’m envisioning is not necessarily well suited to distributing programming in the same way that Free Speech distributes Democracy Now to stations. That’s why we need to have multiple channels set aside, so there is room for multiple models. Compared even to satellite TV channels, satellite radio channel capacity is cheap. I don’t see any reason why the FCC can’t or shouldn’t make this a condition of approving the merger. It could be like creating LPFM for the nation.