[MLB-WIRELESS] [Fwd: Reclaim the Media Microradio events]
dwayne
dwayne at pobox.com
Fri Sep 13 01:45:19 EST 2002
vaguely on-topic.
Dwayne
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Reclaim the Media Microradio events
Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2002 18:45:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: nathan at dancesafe.org
To: leri at daft.com
press release
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
for immediate release:
===========================================================
microBLAST! 2002, a microRADIO broadcasting festival
of direct action audio on the FM dial
September 5th through 15th, 2002 Seattle WASH.
dedicated to the twin notions:
'small is beautiful, and 'radio is magic'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.microradio.net click 'tune-in'
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org for broader context
WHAT: *** microBLAST 2002! ***, a microRadio
broadcasting festival of Direct Action FM
WHY: to RECLAIM THE AIRWAVES, and BLAST the NAB! this is a
direct-action virtual 'sit in' on the FM dial to protest
the exclusion of non-comercial comunity users from existing
available open frequencies on the FM dial, and the failure
of the FCC to act in the public's interest.
WHERE: in multiple neighborhoods in Seattle, up and down
the FM dial on an array of neighborhood sized Micro-FM
stations on 13 Interference-FREE "2nd Adjacency" OPEN
FREQUENCIES: 87.9, 89.1, 93.7, 94.5, 95.3, 96.9, 97.7,
99.5, 101.1, 101.9, 102.1, 104.1, and 107.3.
WHEN: 10 days in September 5th-15th, w/ special emphasis on
the 12th-14th when the National Association of Broadcasters
will be in town to hold their annual 'Radio Show'
Conference.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Thursday, September 5th 9:00pm, local broadcast on 96.9
DODI fm
LIVE from Belltown's Jewel Box Theater, featuring
performances by locals DODI (the band), DOWNSOUND, DJ Tim
Paul, and Elvisibeth, the First (Queen of Rock), as a
benifit for Dodi, the former owner and bartender of the
Rendesvous Tavern and Cafe a longtime Belltown watering-
hole, who is recovering well from a recent heart attack.
Wednesday, September 11th, NOON: 'a Day of Radio Silence'
to allow for a respite from the corporate mass-media deluge
of delivered opinion and manufactured consent, and to
create open mental and spiritual space for _unmediated_
personal introspection on this day one year after the
criminal events of last year, and our collective human
failure of respoding to the senceless loss of life with
even more bloodshed. The second intent of these strong
silent signals is also to give radio listeners a chance to
scan the dial for newly 'quiet spots' on the their local FM
dial for the next day's 'Big Turn-On'
Thursday, September 12, DRIVE TIME: 'The Big Turn-On' a
declaration of radio freedom through the creation of a city-
wide MAZ array, a living network of Microradio Autonmous
Zones in solidarity, and in virtual 'lockdown' on the FM
dial by simultaneous mass-action broadcast from
the 'Electronic Mosquito Fleet' (EMF), a freedom loving
anarchic ensemble of micro-broadcasters assembled from
across the country who will celebrate the power of
_micro_radio with coordinated simultaneous broadcasts from
across the city, up and down the entire FM dial, from the
bottom to top.
Second Week of September: intermitant 'SWARM-casting'.
Multiple broadcasts from mutiple locations on multiple
frequencies.
==========================================
background for the upcoming event
==========================================
"Study new uses for radio, provide for experimental uses of
frequencies, and generally encourage the larger and more
effective use of radio in the public interest" -- from the
US Code, FCC powers and duties.
Starting with the first antenna installation this first
week of September, and continuing to pop up on the local FM
dial like so many mushrooms after a good hard fall rain,
start listening on the Seattle FM dial for a buzzing tiny
new voices; what you hear just might not be white noise, it
could be the EMF, or the 'Electronic Mosquito Fleet'. The
EMF is a small fleet of micro FM transmitters in town for a
few days in September broadcasting before, during and after
the National Association of Broadcasters has their annual
radio convention in town. What is more, these 'mosquitoes'
broadcast with such low power, if you can tune them in, it
just might be becuase they are broadcasting from somewhere
in your neighborhood.
By hewing strongly to the original purpose and intent
of 'maximum creative use' of public spectrum 'in the public
interest', and by crafting their relatively inexpensive
radio gear with these 4 engineering guidelines in mind:
1) respect for all existing broadcasters by responsible
broadcasting only on open '2nd adjacent' frequencies
with '1st adjacency protection' on both sides
2) solid audio and radio engineering to stay
discretely 'on frequency', and not 'bleed' or 'splatter' or
drift
3) broadcasting only at low power, with signal strengths
that typically range in the single digits, say from 1-4
watts (equivialant to a bathroom nightlight) or up to as
much as 75 - 150 watts, the power level of a standard
household lightbulb.
4) include appropriate filters to remove harmonic
frequencies
Partipants in this "Mosquito Fleet", a gathering of MicroFM
and LPFM activists from around the country have converged
in Seattle to 'pump up the volume' and are demanding "non
interference" from the NAB and NPR stations so that they,
and thousands of other comunity-access non-comercial
broadcasters like them across the country can 'get on the
air' via micro FM stations, and experience the joys of free
speech on the public airwaves to members of their own
comunities.
How is this possible? On the FM dial between the 'mega
media'or big radio broadcasters with signals up to 100,000
watts, there is often enough space on the dial between them
to squeeze in a tiny low-powered 'micro station' without
interfering with either big station on either side. This
is becuase when the fm dial was first opened up, all tuners
were analog, and so the FCC made sure there was plenty of
space bewteen the stations. Now 40 years later, we have
digital tuners able to select exactly on a frequency, so it
is time to open up more channels. On the Seattle FM dial,
which is typical of FM dials across the country, there are
a 'baker's dozen' of these small open spaces on
the 'bardos', or 'in between spaces' with '1st adjacency
protection' on either side, which in radio terms, means
they are available for broadcast by properly engineered
micro radio transmittes of less than 100 watts. It is time
for these 'second adjacent' frequencies to be opened up for
licence-free comunity use, and that is just what the EMF is
doing; reclaiming the airwaves.
Perhaps you have heard about LPFM, or 'low powered FM' and
the complaints from big broadcasters about possible
interference from little broadcasters. The real problem
with interference runs exactly the other way, for it the
big corporate broadcasters who are the big problem, and in
two ways. The first comes from simple bad engineering;
overdriven high-power signals on fullservice big corporate
stations that are absentee run as part of some massive
corporate network, like CLEAR CHANNEL, or INFINTY
BROADCASTING, and are broadcast from 'antenna farms' where
industry consolidation and economies of scale have created
clusters of dozens of high-powered signals on a handfull of
towers such that their frequencies blend and overlap to
combine and scatter across the dial, which puts radio noise
on what should otherwise be an open channel. The second
kind of interference corporate broadcasters produce
is 'political' white noise, where powerful national
corporate media lobbies like NPR and the NAB have combined
forces to strongarm congress, and overturn comunications
laws of this country to preserve and extend their control
of the airwaves, by among other things, keeping newcomers
off the dial through force of restrictive federal
legislation.
But other forces are at play here too, like the market
reality that for as little as $500 per setup, tens of
thousands of small grassroots organisations can affort to
take to the air, and hundreds allready have. Can every
micro FM station be squashed by the corporate mega media
monopolists, or have the corporate Goliaths met their swarm
of mosquitoes?
Seattle radio listeners are lucky enough to have a front
row ear at this contest, and can tune directly into the
SWARM-casting this Second week of September
called "microBLAST! 2002", to hear for themselves, and
decide for themselves if the mosquito fleet of advocates
for the 'triumph of democracy over capitalism' can score
another poke in the corporate media eye in the ongoing war
for access to the airwaves, by demonstrating there 'ain't
no power like micropower, and that micro power of the
people won't stop.'
...................................................
CONTACTS: jonathan jay, MicroRadio.NET
jonathan at microradio.net, 206.736.1305
mr. jay is a local artist and media activist and longtime
Seattle resident who has worked for over a decade on free
speech issues from a number of perspectives; TELEPHONEPOLE,
a guerilla street-level agit-prop postering campaign to
help repeal the Seattle Poster Ban, found on the web at
http://speakeasy.org/~wrld/TELEPHONEPOLE.html, FUCC 89.1 fm
and Free Seattle Radio 87.9, fm two 'infamous' pirate radio
outfits, and is co-founder of http:www.IndyMedia.org and
http://MicroRadio.net. two new media projects started in
1999.
"Where the FCC now says they recognise no new frequencies
available on the FM dial for non-comercial comunity-use in
urban areas, the fact of the matter is there are one dozen
open frequencies on the dial in Seattle, and we have
pointed them out for public use. There is a similar number
of open frequencies in every city across the country."
"Free comunication is the lifeblood of every healthy
society. Tens of thousands of non-comercial community-use
microradio stations in this country will greatly assist in
the eventual triumph of democracy over capitalism."
Dr Sandi Woodruff, Radio Engineer, and co-
founder of SAMBA, The 2nd Adjacency Micro Broadcasting
Association
435.557.7949
labiche at atoys.com
"Every town, burg, neighborhood and subdivision in this
country should have a radio station or two or more."
"While I encourage anybody and everybody to lobby those in
power for changes, analogous to the Civil Rights movement,
it's most likely going to take organized civil disobedience
to force the needed changes."
"Hush" of FMRX, a local free radio activist
hush at riseup.net
"We will be bringing sounds not often heard on the Seattle
FM dial, media made from the bottom up; local music and
voices from across the country, and around the world. We
are not lobbying congress, and we are not asking permission
from the FCC. This is direct action radio."
"General Strike", tactical coordinator for the
EMF, the Electronic Mosquito Fleet
radioX at riseup.net
"we are going to light up this town."
citation from the >US Code - FCC Powers & Duties TITLE 47 ,
CHAPTER 5 , SUBCHAPTER III , Part I , Sec. 303 TITLE 47 ,
CHAPTER 5 , SUBCHAPTER III , Part I ,Section 303...
excerpted below:
>Sec. 303. - Powers and duties of Commission Except as otherwise
>provided in this chapter, the Commission from time to time, as public
>convenience, interest, or necessity requires, shall -
>(a) Classify radio stations;
>-------
>(exterpted)
>-------
>(f) Make such regulations not inconsistent with law as it may deem
>necessary to prevent interference between stations and to carry out the
>provisions of this chapter: Provided, however, That changes in the
>frequencies, authorized power, or in the times of operation of any
>station, shall not be made without the consent of the station licensee
>unless the Commission shall determine that such changes will promote
>public convenience or interest or will serve public necessity, or the
>provisions of this chapter will be more fully complied with;
>
>(g) Study new uses for radio, provide for experimental uses of
>frequencies, and generally encourage the larger and more effective use
>of radio in the public interest;
=============================================
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