Filed under: Media
Redefining Media: Media Democracy and Community Radio
A CKUT 20th Anniversary Event
!! AUDIO NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD !!
In celebration of Media Democracy Day on October 18th, CKUT hosted its first annual media conference from October 19th to 21st, 2007. The goal of this conference was to provide participants with a critical understanding of media democracy, diversity and representation in the media. It will focus primarily on community radio and the ways in which it can be used to provide the public with clear, accurate, and representational viewpoints and information, while actively combating stereotyping according to race, gender, ethnicity and other factors.
For panel and workshop descriptions, speaker bios, and locations, visit:
http://www.ckut.ca/redefiningmedia.php
SCROLL BELOW FOR AUDIO LINKS or VISIT RADIO4ALL.NET AT:
PART 1: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25198
PART 2: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25214
!! AUDIO LINKS !!
KEYNOTE: Amy Goodman
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=25198
Presentation by Amy Goodman, host and producer of the award-winning, New-York based independent news program, Democracy Now!
Part 1
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/newsnet@ckut.ca/1193-1-20071023-oct192007amygoodman1.mp3
Part 2
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/files/newsnet@ckut.ca/1193-1-20071023-oct192007amygoodman2.mp3
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Filed under: Media
The below article is from broadcastingcable.com. Also, you can download the FCC Commissioners’ full statements at this Free Press page.
I find two things particularly interesting in the below article: first, the fact that the Parents Televisoin Council, the Media Access Project, Bob Edwards (and AFTRA), and Reclaim the Media (not mentioned in this article) allseem to be on the same page when it comes to localism. The push for localism and community-responsive media really does span the political spectrum from the quite conservative (PTC) to the rather radical (RtM). Only big media owners seem to be on the other side. Oh, and FCC chairman Kevin Martin, I suppose.
Second, it’s sad to the point of amusing that Marcellus Alexander of the National Association of Broadcasters thinks the “heart” of broadcasters’ local service is to inform residents about crises and disasters. That should be considered the absolute basic service to communities, not the primary one. Inasmuch as the airwaves are considered part of our shared commons, decisions about programming should be based on local needs for communication, education, entertainment, and understanding.
The Federal Communications Commission got an earful on the effects of media consolidation on broadcast localism at a public hearing Wednesday, including from its two Democratic commissioners.
According to the Parents Television Council, media consolidation has led to the “destruction of the concept of community standards.” Andrew J. Schwartzman of Media Access Project said most TV stations aren’t operated in the public interest, and radio has abandoned public service altogether. A familiar radio voice, former National Public Radio host and American Federation of Television & Radio Artists officer Bob Edwards, told the FCC not to “fast-track” its consideration of the effects of consolidation.
That was a reference to FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s decision to fold a separate localism inquiry into the general reconsideration of primarily deregulatory ownership rules sent back to the FCC in 2004 by a federal court asking for better justification. Martin wants to vote on those new rules by mid-December, according to FCC sources, although that timetable could be pushed back given the pushback from legislators and others on that timetable. Hill Democrats, at least one Republican and numerous activist groups have complained that Martin is rushing the vote.
When Democratic commissioner Michael Copps said he wanted a sense of what the outcome of the localism inquiry would be, Martin responded, “Both a notice of proposed rulemaking with specific recommendations and a timetable for actions are the kind of things that I think we are going to be committed to end up doing.” It was not immediately clear whether or not that would include Copps’ proposal for a 90-day comment period on any proposals, which would push it into next year.
“Mark my words,” Edwards said in testimony prepared for the hearing. “If you further deregulate media in this country, networks, broadcast stations and newspapers will continue to consolidate, resulting in fewer voices heard by citizens … If commercial media are given the unfettered right to abandon their obligation to serve the public interest, they will do just that. Please do not let this happen.”
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Filed under: Media
The FCC has set the agenda and named the panelists for the sixth and last in its series of public hearings on localism and media ownership, set for Wednesday, October 31, at 9 a.m. ET in an FCC meeting room in Washington, DC.
On the agenda will be a presentation by the FCC’s Media Bureau, a panel discussion, and a period for public comment. 
Among the scheduled panelists: AFTRA National First VP Bob Edwards, former host of NPR’s Morning Edition and now host of The Bob Edwards Show on XM Satellite Radio; Capital Broadcasting President/CEO Jim Goodman; Rainbow/PUSH Coalition President the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Media Access project President/CEO Andrew Jay Schwartzman; and NABEF President and NAB Television EVP Marcellus Alexander.
Geez, they managed to arrange quite a panel on five days’ notice.
Want to listen to or watch the localism hearing via webstream? The FCC only provides 200 free webstreams, and I imagine they’ll max out tomorrow. Go to the FCC’s A/V webpage before 9:00am, reload the page at exactly 9:00am and log on to a stream. Also, note that the only supported media player is Real Player. If you don’t care for Real Player (as I don’t), try out Real Alternative.
From Pacifica Outreach & Affilaites Coordinator Ursula Ruedenberg:
Dear colleagues -
Below is a report on Pacifica’s work assisting with the recent filing window for noncommercial licenses. At the onset of Radio For People, a national coalition of media democracy groups to promote community radio during the filing window, the PNB voted to participate in the effort. We at the national affiliates and outreach office have been busy with following through with this!
Now that the window has closed, we realize that the work and nationwide grassroots to this opportunity represents history in the making. While Pacifica helped in many parts of the country from New England to Hawaii, its most significant work was in the Midwest and the Deep South. 14 applications were filed as a result of the Pacifica project called Radio South, spanning through Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas,
Because of this outreach, Pacifica’s name has reached many people across the country and is more dearly loved. People are most appreciative of the help and interest shown by our network.
If you did not get a prior email from me with a link to the radio show we made, featuring some of the applicants voices, here is a link to it. It’s wonderful to gear the optimism and excitement.
http://www.pacificanetwork.org/radio/content/view/319/76/
We are finishing an hour-long version and will be posting it at Pacifica.org next week.
From October 12 to October 22, 2007, over 200 local community groups across the country submitted applications to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for building new community radio stations. They applied when, after much anticipation, the FCC lifted a freeze since 2000; on filings for Noncommercial Educational (NCE) radio Licenses.
The NCE frequencies, residing on the left side of the FM dial between 88.1 MHz and 91.9 MHz, are granted by the federal government to nonprofit organizations free of charge. “This is the last free spectrum,” said FCC attorney John Crigler, who helped community radio applicants. “This is the last opportunity to have a fight about values and how public spectrum ought to be used. There will be social consequences.”
Media democracy groups, who believe that this filing window was one of the last chances to obtain noncommercial frequencies for community radio, organized nationally in a coalition called Radio For People, to promote and help applications for community radio. Their motto was “Be the media!” They focused on helping community activists, grassroots organizations, Indigenous Tribes, schools, colleges, and progressive religious groups.
Coalition members include the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, Native Public Media, Common Frequency, Prometheus Radio Project, Public Radio Capital, Pacifica Radio, Free Press, Future of Music coalition, Democracy Now, as well as FCC attorneys John Crigler, Michael Couzens, and Alan Korn, consulting radio engineer Michael Brown, and other radio professionals.
Pacifica Radio participated in the Radio For People Campaign by helping to fund an initial study of available frequencies and by doing extensive national outreach and providing support for applicants. Pacifica hosted a weekly drop-in support meeting via conference call, where applicants were able to talk with experts and also give each other encouragement and information. Special efforts were made for outreach to the Midwest and the Deep South.
Pacifica received a grant from Public Radio Capital to help develop applications in communities throughout the South. Two field workers, David Beaton and Christopher Maxwell, traveled from Virginia to Mississippi, working with community groups. Fourteen applications were filed as a result of the Pacifica project called Radio South. Applicant groups were located in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Atlanta affiliate WRFG (Radio Free Georgia) partnered with Pacifica in this effort.
“As an early founder of community radio in America, Pacifica is obliged and privileged to help this new generation of community radio,” said Ursula Ruedenberg, Pacifica’s Outreach and Affiliates Coordinator. “These applicants are modern-day heroes in a very competitive media environment.”
The FCC opened the recent filing window since establishing new and fairer regulations for resolving competition between applicants. Radio for People Coalition and other media activists had called upon the FCC to establish regulations that give local community groups fairer opportunities for competing with national broadcasters who dominated NCE applications in the past.
According to Michael Brown, of Brown Broadcasting Inc., “In the last 15 years probably 80% of the applications for noncommercial stations have been by conservative religious national broadcast groups. Our emphasis was with the community groups whose main goals were secular progressive programming.”
“Community radio is extremely important,” FCC attorney Couzens said. “It’s a means for getting people the information they need to make judgments about news and public affairs and have entertainment options that aren’t provided by giant chains of non-local broadcasters.”
On the eve of the filing window, community radio advocates gained a victory when the FCC set a limit of 10 applications per group. The Commission explained that “our examination of the record confirms our concern that failure to establish a limit on the number of NCE FM applications that a party may file in the window would lead to a large number of speculative filings, creating the potential for extraordinary procedural delays.”
The applications from the recent filing window have not yet been published on the FCC web site (fcc.gov), but are expected within days. It is anticipated that thousands of applications were made for the NCE licenses and an unprecedented volume of information appears to have been submitted to FCC during the recent filing window.
Community radio applicants plan to build radio stations for addressing local cultural and social needs in their areas. “We plan to use the radio to benefit ordinary citizens,” said applicant Diane Brown in Fort St. Joe, Florida. “Now we have a chance to talk about what kind of future we want.”
Some plan to feature local music and theater, and oral histories, as well as indigenous languages at tribal stations. Other stated goals include emergency warning systems and relief aid, environmental protection, cooperation between rural communities for farmers’ rights, activities for disenfranchised youth, education for civic participation in local politics and policies, and on-air public discourse over policies and laws.
“We will hear the pulse beat of the people themselves,” said Charles Sherrod, applicant and civil rights organizer in Albany Georgia. “The officials say they hear people saying one thing and we say we hear them saying something else. But with a radio station, people can say it for themselves.”
Brett Gordon, in Iowa City, Iowa summed up why building community radio continues to be important. “Now is the time to imagine a citizen media that monitors and deconstructs,” he said, “that opens the phone lines to listeners and lets us in the Hinterlands chew, swallow and digest our own information and listen to our own pundits. We are participating in democracy itself and doing what our founding fathers said must be done if democracy is to flourish.”
Filed under: Media
From the folks at Reclaim the Media:
We still don’t know when the Seattle FCC hearing will take place, but we expect it to be announced soon! Watch reclaimthemedia.org for updates!
With an FCC Localism hearing taking place tomorrow morning in Washington, DC, folks in the Northwest have been understandably confused about whatever happened to *OUR* Media Ownership hearing in Seattle?
We still don’t have a date for the FCC’s final media ownership hearing in Seattle. We know that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has been in a real hurry to hold this final hearing, presumably so he can ram through his plan to let big media companies control more of what we watch, hear and read.
On Halloween, the FCC is holding a hearing on localism, or local accountability in media. The public is NOT being invited to testify at that hearing, which the FCC is holding in its own basement in Washington. So Free Press and other media activist groups are holding a protest rally outside the FCC tomorrow morning. Watch www.stopbigmedia.com for coverage!
The Halloween hearing will not replace the Seattle media ownership hearing — that’s still yet to come. Chairman Martin has promised the nation six public hearings on media ownership, and he’s announced that the final hearing will be in Seattle. We’re expecting him to announce that soon. We’d like a decent amount of advance notice, long enough to allow folks from out of town to make travel plans. Unfortunately we have little reason to expect that kind of respect for democracy from this FCC Chairman. (The first of these ownership hearings was held in Los Angeles last year; Martin announced the hearing location just three days in advance.)
So what can we do? We wait. We prepare what we’re going to say to the FCC in our two minutes at the microphone. And we make sure that our friends, neighbors and coworkers are ready to commit an evening to showing up at this nationally important hearing, to send a clear message that Kevin Martin doesn’t want to hear: Big Media is Big Enough Already!
Keep watching www.reclaimthemedia.org for details.
Filed under: Media
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is secretly pushing through rules that would unleash a new wave of media consolidation. And he’s trying to do this without the public’s involvement or consent.
A public servant like Martin shouldn’t be allowed to give massive handouts to Big Media. You can help stop Martin by taking a stand alongside one of the most powerful advocates for the public interest: FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.
Commissioner Copps has agreed to join us in the Free Press Action Network for a live discussion:
What: Live Discussion with Commissioner Copps
Date: Monday, Oct. 29 Time: 7:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. PT
Location: www.freepress.net/action
Please help spread the word about this unique opportunity. Commissioner Copps’ initial posts will be available on Free Press Action Network the morning before the discussion. You can begin the conversation with other activists now by posting your comments at the Free Press Action Network: www.freepress.net/action .
This online interactive event is your opportunity to talk with the commissioner, connect with others and take the fight against media consolidation to the next level.
I’ll see you online.
Ira Horowitz
Online Community Organizer
Free Press
www.freepress.net
The email below is from Jim Ellinger via the Grassroots Radio Coalition list. KAZI is a Pacifica affiliate.
Greetings from the AMARC MENA conference here in Rabat, Morocco. KAZI was never very involved with the national community radio scene, but was a good radio group serving well the local Austin African-American community. jim ellinger
Community Radio Loses Hero, Dr. John Warfield
Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 10:53:37 -0400
Hello Friends-
Thanks to Linda Lewis for forwarding the sad news of John Warfield’s passing. The email finds me at the AMARC MENA community radio conference here in Rabat, Morocco. (AMARC is the Canadian NGO that serves as the World Assocation of Community Radio Broadcasters.)
I too consider myself as part of the larger KAZI Family. I was just one of scores of Austinites who crowded into the original KAZI air room, when the “Voice of Austin” signed on to Austin airwaves at 88.7FM for the very first time.
I know firsthand that the station was the result of the tireless work of the Warfields and many others in Austin’s African-American community. The station really struggled during it’s earliest years, but never faultered. Now the station, is very much the Voice of Austin; with strong management, a great range of programming not heard elswhere on the dial and significant community support.
While hardly the only successful project of the Warfields, KAZI will certainly be one their most public, valuable and enduring legacies.
Since my early days on KAZI, I have carried on the banner of community radio, putting KOOP on the air, working with survivors in New Orleans’ 9th Ward, and evacuees in the Houston AstroDome. I have now traveled even further from the Lone Star State; working on a radio theatre project at a CR in Mozambique, and this week working with NGOs, media and human rights groups here in the Middle East/North Africa region.
I will return to Austin knowing that one of the founders, one of the visionaries of community radio has passed onto the airwaves.
Thank you John Warfield,
jim ellinger
AMARC MENA Conference
Rabat, Morocco
October 28th, 2007
Original Message:
Subject: Community Loses Hero, Dr. Warfield
JOHN WARFIELD: 1936-2007
Community loses one of its heroes
Professor fought for equality on campus and off.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF — Saturday, October 27, 2007 — Whether it was teaching students in his classroom or challenging the administration at the University of Texas, John Warfield lived life as an unapologetic crusader for racial and social justice, family and colleagues said Friday.
Warfield died Thursday of Parkinson’s disease. He was 71 and had been residing at an assisted living facility in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Friends and family said Warfield left a lasting imprint on the university by helping to ease racial tensions left over from the 1960s and by igniting pride and instilling knowledge in his students.
Believing that education was the best way to derail segregation, he helped found Austin’s first black community radio station, KAZI-FM, from his living room in 1982.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/10/27/1027warfield.html
Came across his post at the Broadcast Law Blog. It may seem a bit arcane to the non-radio programmers out there. But if you’re part of a show and you’re thinking of bringing on a candidate (presidential or otherwise), listen up. Besides, this is a somewhat more amusing way than most to absorb equal opportunity law (though admittedly that’s not saying much).
By David Oxenford
2007 – the year of the television actor who decides to become a Presidential candidate. We’ve already written about the issues under the FCC’s political broadcasting rules, particularly the equal opportunity doctrine, with the candidacy of Law and Order’s Fred Thompson, resulting in NBC replacing him on as the on-air District Attorney of New York City. Now, Comedy Central television host Stephen Colbert has announced his candidacy for the nomination for President – albeit only as a native son in his home state of South Carolina. While some cynical observers might conclude that the Colbert action is only a bid to get publicity and press for his new book (just think of all the publicity that he’s getting from this blog entry – Stephen, we want our commission on all the books you sell because of the promotion you get here), his candidacy does present a useful illustration of a number of issues that arise for broadcasters and other FCC regulatees subject to the political broadcasting rules – particularly issues that arise when a station on-air employee runs for political office. Questions that are raised include when a employee becomes a legally qualified candidate, does the candidate’s appearance on a bona fide news interview program exempt the station from equal opportunities obligations, and the amount and kind of time that is due to opposing candidates should they request equal time.
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41 Reps. Join Long List Targeting FCC Chairmans Mid-December Date
By John Eggerton — Broadcasting & Cable, 10/25/2007 3:17:00 PM
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6494494.html
And the hits just keep on coming: One day after a pair of senators (a Republican and Democrat) pledged to block Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin’s timetable for a December vote on new media-ownership rules, and on the same day that media-activist group Free Press blasted the move, 41 House Democrats added their voices to a call to the FCC to slow down.
In a letter to Martin, whose mailbag is getting pretty full on the media-ownership issue, the legislators, led by Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), expressed “grave shock and dismay” over the news, reported last week by B&C, that Martin was looking to bring the 18-month review of media ownership to a close by the end of the year — a timetable that surprised some and angered many Democrats who do not favor Martin’s deregulatory course, which would lift the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership and perhaps loosen the rules on station ownership if Martin can still muster the votes.
“We believe such actions are reminiscent of the bad behavior that resulted in an intervention by the Third Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals in your agency’s efforts on media ownership three years ago,” the legislators wrote. “Therefore, we hope you will immediately take steps to resolve significant shortcomings in your plan regarding accountability, transparency and scientific integrity.”
They complained that the FCC has yet to hold its sixth and final media-ownership hearing — under Martin’s plan, that hearing would have been held Nov. 2 in Seattle, while a second and final localism hearing is slated for Oct. 31 in Washington, D.C.
They also echoed complaints about the 10 FCC-commissioned media-ownership studies and their peer-review process, as well as the inadequate time for public comment if the FCC adopted new rules by December.
Martin controls the calendar, and he already instituted the initial element of the timetable by scheduling the localism hearing, but it is unclear whether he will get that December vote.
Another element of the plan is for Martin to release his proposals for rule changes by Nov. 13 to allow for four weeks of comment before the vote, but the Senate Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing on the plan, which could throw a wrench into it.
Signing the letter were Democrat Reps. Peter DeFazio (Oregon), Ral Grijalva (Arizona), George Miller (California), Tammy Baldwin (Wisconsin), David Price (North Carolina), Tom Allen (Maine), Betty Sutton (Ohio), Sheila Jackson Lee (Texas), Mike Honda (California), Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), Lynn Woolsey (California), Gwen Moore (Wisconsin), Bob Filner (California), Barbara Lee (California), Adam Smith (Washington), Ed Pastor (Arizona), Carolyn Maloney (New York), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Steve Cohen (Tennessee), Louise Slaughter (New York), Jim Moran (Virginia), Nita Lowey (New York), Linda Sanchez (California), Al Green (Texas), William Lacy Clay (Missouri), Susan Davis (California), David Obey (Wisconsin), Diane Watson (California), Jan Schakowsky (Illinois), John Olver (Massachusetts), David Wu (Oregon), Anna Eshoo (California), Jay Inslee (Washington), Brian Higgins (New York), Earl Blumenauer (Oregon), Jim Cooper (Tennessee), Jesse Jackson Jr. (Illinois), Jos Serrano (New York), Darlene Hooley (Oregon), Sam Farr (California) and Mark Udall (Colorado).
Filed under: Pacifica
This is from Dan Siegel, Interim Executive Director, written yesterday (October 24). Interestingly, Indybay.org has also posted this letter as well as an announcement of a picket outside Siegel’s law offices. Sheesh, if you want to see some unfiltered vitriol, check out the comments section of those Indybay pages.
Dear Friends,
Pacifica’s local station board elections have taken a particularly nasty turn. A group of candidates running for the KPFA local board have issued statements that contain little more than personal attacks on their opponents and station staff. A candidate at WBAI engages in blatant race-baiting.
As a community and a progressive organization we must ask ourselves whether this type of rhetoric is acceptable. Pacifica has important challenges. We live in a nation whose leaders wage unjust and unpopular wars around the globe, attack our civil rights and liberties, oppose efforts to achieve racial justice and equality for all people, and pursue policies that widen the gap between rich and poor. The often toxic debate within Pacifica restricts our ability to respond to these issues, saps the morale of our hard-working and underpaid staff, and discourages people of good will from participating in our organization.
Many people are now calling for administrative and legal responses to abusive candidate speech. We are reviewing our options, but libel laws, difficulties in distinguishing between reasonable criticism and “personal attacks” (as well as deciding who should be empowered to make such judgments), and Pacifica’s tradition of support for free speech make such measures problematic.
In the end, Pacifica’s members will decide whether hate speech and hateful speech will be tolerated in our community. We need leaders who will work to improve our programming, broaden our listener base, and attract needed financial support. I urge all of you to carefully review the candidate statements and to cast your ballots for candidates who reflect both your views on how this organization should be run and your values on how democratic debate should occur in a progressive organization that reflects the diversity of our society.
Dan Siegel
Interim Executive Director
Pacifica Foundation
