Missives from Deep Wireless

I wish I had the time and money to go to the Deep Wireless Festival of Radio Art and Radio Without Boundaries conference up in Toronto which wrapped up this past weekend. The Festival is “a month-long celebration of radio and transmission art including performances, installations, broadcasts, workshops, (and) a Youth Radio residency.” It’s interesting that with the meteoric decline of commercial radio there seem to be an increasing number of conferences, festivals and events celebrating forms of mostly non-commercial radio and radio art.

At least I can experience elements of Deep Wireless vicariously via blog posts from free103point9‘s Tom Roe and Transom.org.
Unfortunately I missed most of free103point9′s live stream — I hope archives are posted soon.

Tom’s blog posts include (itemized because they’re otherwise not easily linked as a group):

• Andra McCartney on soundscapes
• Chris Brookes on the need (or not) for narration, “Oh, Shut Up! Who needs a narrator anyway?”
• Radio that reflects community, which Tom says “was preaching to the converted.”
• Soundscapes of the imagination: the grey area between fact and fiction

  Radio and transmission arts is something I’ve been interested in since I started in (legitimate) radio broadcasting back in 1989, and I’m really glad to see that the internet has only increased interest and helped unite and catalyze artists, rather than discouraging them. I’ve tried to cover the subject on the radioshow here and there, and hope to do more both on the show and on this here blog.

On Thursday’s Radioshow: New LPFM Bill & Journalism Town Hall

Another new Congress, another new low-power FM bill. In what’s become a tradition since Congress voted to stunt the growth of low-power radio back in 2000, a new Local Community Radio Act has been introduced. But this time around the bill arguably has the best chance of passing yet. We’ll hear from some of the bill’s sponsors and proponents.

Then we’ll hear some excerpts from the Chicago Journalism Town Hall that brought together a diverse panel and audience to discuss the future of local journalism.

The mediageek radioshow airs live Thursday night at 9 PM CST on WNUR 89.3 FM in Chicago, IL, and streaimng live online at wnur.org. The podcast will be posted this weekend.

Canadian Community Station Threatened by US Godcaster

In the US grandfathered Class D low-power FM stations (under 100 watts) and translator stations–which only rebroadcast the signal of a full-power station–are the only classes of broadcast stations that don’t enjoy any protection for their spot on the dial. If a full-power station wants to increase power, move its transmitter or make other changes where it would infringe on or take over a Class D or translator station’s frequency, then it’s too bad for the Class D. Apparently, it’s the same situation for some stations in Canada.

But it’s even worse for community radio CJAM at the University of Windsor in Ontario. This 1000 watt station never received “protected” status from the CRTC (the Canadian FCC) due to pressure from the FCC over interference concerns. Now its existence is threatened by a station soon to be licensed by the FCC south of the border on the same frequency, 91.5 FM, in China Township, Michigan.

This is the second such threat to the station’s existence. The first came from inside Canada when the CBC wanted to set up a station on CJAM’s frequency. That situation was resolved when the CBC chose a different frequency.

CJAM is now petitioning the CRTC to move to a different frequency, 99.1 FM, and receive protected status there.

To the best of my knowledge CJAM is the only community station in the Windsor or Detroit area, and it would be a shame to lose such a diverse community voice after 25 years of service. It would be especially tragic to lose CJAM to a cookie-cutter, statewide “positive hits” radio network repeater blaring in from the States. CJAM is asking listeners to send letters to the CRTC and Industry Canada on its behalf:

CJAM has identified a new signal – 99.1 FM – that could afford the station protected status and has moved forward with applications for this new signal to Industry Canada and the CRTC. The application currently before the CRTC is now open for public comment, and this is where we need you, our community of listeners, programmers and volunteers to make your voice heard. If you value CJAM and community radio in Windsor and Detroit, please express your support of our application.

Letters may be submitted electronically at the CRTC website , by fax at 819-994-0218, or by conventional mail to the following address: CRTC Ottawa Ontario K1A 0N2.

Live on WEFT this Afternoon – 5:30 PM on 90.1 FM, Champaign-Urbana, IL

I’ll be literally phoning it in to my old haunt WEFT, 90.1 FM in Champaign-Urbana, IL, at 5:30 PM to do a special edition of the mediageek radioshow for their pledge drive. Long time readers/listeners may recall that WEFT is where the radioshow got its start and where it originated until April of this year.

WEFT station manager Mick Woolf will be in the studio there while we discuss the Tribune bankruptcy, the Obama plan for media and internet and, of course, the still relevant vitality of community radio.

If you’re in the Champaign area tune in, and please consider a donation to WEFT. If you’re elsewhere you can still tune in online.

Spinning Indie, a College Radio Blog

Once in a while I get comments here on the mediageek blog, and it’s especially great when they aren’t grammatically disastrous ads for v1agrA. So imagine how glad I was to receive a comment on my post about college radio from Jennifer Waits, who writes the Spinning Indie blog which is all about college radio.

Jennifer is on a mission to visit or do virtual visits and interviews with college stations in all 50 states, and it makes for great reading. Apparently she made an in-person visit to my backyard at WNUR last month, interviewing the general manager, Taylor Dearr. I’m sorry I wasn’t around for her visit.

Thanks to Jennifer’s virtual tours I’m learning about lots of stations I’d really never heard of that are bringing great radio to places like Fargo, Fairbanks and Stony Brook. It’s helpful to be reminded of the common challenges that college and noncommercial stations face, whether it’s managing music libraries or the vagaries of streaming, and possibly picking up some new approaches.

I hope Jennifer keeps up the posting.

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.

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.