I’m still getting through by week-long backlog of e-mail, and here’s a piece of news I want to make sure doesn’t slip by:
The city government of Brattleboro, Vermont has come out in support of the cityÂ’s own local unlicensed radio station, Radio Free Brattleboro, known as RFB. In a 4 to 1 vote, on November 18 the Brattleboro Select Board – a body similar to a city council – approved a resolution to “support radio free brattleboro and the concept of community radio and encourage the Federal Communications Commission to work with radio free brattleboro and other applicants to obtain a Low Power FM licence which will enable them to serve the needs of the community and its members.”
The Select Board had previously rejected a similar resolution submitted by RFB members that asked the Board to “support the residents of Brattleboro in granting authority to radio free brattleboro to broadcast to the community.”
In an interview from the Oct. 17 edition of the mediageek radioshow, RFB volunteer Sara Longsmith explained that the stationÂ’s strategy for obtaining the local communityÂ’s authority to broadcast is to circulate a petition to be signed by the cityÂ’s residents. So far the station has more than 3000 signatures, within a town of only about 12,000 people.
The Brattleboro Select BoardÂ’s vocal support of the station comes in response to recent visits to the station by the Federal Communications Commission, which has threatened to shut the station down. The FCC last visited on Sept. 4, wherein agents threatened to return ten days later to conduct a raid with federal marshals. Three months later, the FCC has yet to return.
Radio Free Brattleboro has been providing open-access community radio to the community of Brattleboro for the last five years. You can find out more about the station, listen to it on-line, and sign their on-line petition at their website: www.rfb.fm
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