Filed under: Media
Free Press is currently seeking ideas for sessions and presenters for the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform on June 6-8 in Minneapolis. Please help us plan the conference program by providing your input or offering to lead a session.
We encourage you to submit your suggestions and proposals as soon as possible so that we are able to consider your ideas. We’ll review suggestions and make program decisions on a rolling basis through Jan. 4. Please note that the earlier you submit your proposals, the more likely we will have space and time available to include them.
Visit http://www.freepress.net/conference/CFS/ for details and to submit ideas and proposals.
Filed under: Media
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2007
NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
Mary Diamond (202) 418-2388
FCC ADOPTS RULES TO PROMOTE THE GROWTH OF THE LOW POWER FM RADIO SERVICE
Washington, DC – The Federal Communications Commission (Commission) today adopted a wide-ranging series of ownership, eligibility and technical rules and sought comment on additional technical matters in the Low Power FM Third Report and Order (Order) and Second Noticed of Proposed Rule.
In this Order, the Commission adopts a number of rules and policies designed to foster and protect LPFM radio service which creates opportunities for new voices on the airwaves and to allow local groups, including schools, churches, and other community-based organizations, to provide programming responsive to local community needs and interests.
The Commission’s action today includes changes to strengthen and promote the long-term viability of the LPFM service, and the localism and diversity goals that this service is intended to advance.
The ORDER:
- Allows the transfer of LFPM licenses subject to significant limitations.
- Reinstates the Commission’s rule that all LPFM authorization holders be local to the community and limits ownership to one station per licensee.
- Clarifies that repetitious, automated programming does not meet the local origination requirement.
- Encourages voluntary time-sharing agreements between applicants.
- Imposes an application cap on 2003 FM translator window filers.
- Limits the responsibility of LPFM stations to resolve interference caused to subsequently authorized full-service stations.
- Establishes a procedural framework for considering short-spacing waivers and a going-forward displacement policy for LPFM stations.
In the Second Notice of Proposed Rule-Making, the Commission:
- Seeks comment on technical rules that could potentially expand LPFM licensing opportunities.
- Tentatively concludes that full service stations must provide technical and financial assistance to LPFM stations when implementation of a full service station facility proposal would cause interference to an LPFM station.
- Tentatively concludes that the Commission should adopt a contour-based protection methodology to expand LPFM licensing opportunities.
- Intends to address the issues in the FNPRM within 6 months, and that the next filing window for a non-tabled aural licensed service will be for LPFM.
- Recommends to Congress that it remove the requirement that LPFM stations protect full-power stations operating on third adjacent channels.
Action by the Commission November 27, 2007, by Third Report and Order and Second Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 07-204). Chairman Martin, Commissioners Copps, and Adelstein with Commissioners Tate and McDowell approving in part and dissenting in part. Separate statements issued by Chairman Martin, Commissioners Copps, Adelstein, Tate, and McDowell.
Filed under: Opportunities
Title: Program Manager
Reports to: Vice President and Director of Federation Services (VP/DFS)
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters is a national alliance of stations, producers and others committed to community radio. NFCB advocates for national public policy, funding, recognition and resources on behalf of its membership while providing services to empower and strengthen community broadcasters through the core values of localism, diversity and public service.
Overview
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters is expanding and enhancing its services to members. We seek a full time Program Manager to assist the VP/DFS in the development and management of programs and services. These include the annual Community Radio Conference, one or more grant-funded projects, and consulting services on new media and new technology issues.
NFCB seeks an energetic, enthusiastic and collegial individual who has a deep interest in and some experience at a Community Radio station and a knowledge of and facility with new media technologies (podcasting, streaming, HD radio, web applications, etc.). The position requires the ability to work independently and multi-task with a high degree of efficiency. Ease with people and technology a must. This is a position with room for growth. Specific responsibilities are detailed below.
Responsibilities
* Assist the VP/DFS in all phases of planning and implementing the 2008 and 2009 Community Radio Conference, with the goal of assuming full responsibility for 2010.
* Manage NFCB’s “New Technology/New Music” project
* Advise NFCB staff and member stations on new media/new technology issues
* Develop webinars and other training events on new media/new technology issues
* Develop and administer group buys
* Assist the VP/DFS with other projects as needed
Qualifications
* Minimum 2 years experience at a Community Radio station
* Strong commitment to independent media
* Knowledge and understanding of new media/new technology issues and applications
* Creativity and flexibility in developing approaches and problem solving
* Highly developed listening skills
* Ability to simultaneously focus on the big picture and the small details
* Effective verbal and written communication skills
* Ability to multi-task and work well under minimal supervision by taking initiative, ensuring successful project management and timely completion; ability to maintain quality work standards with a high volume of work
* Willingness and ability to travel
* Experience with databases and data entry
Timeframe: Position is open until filled. We seek to have someone in place before January 30, 2008.
Salary and Benefits: Salary is $45,000-$50,000 depending on experience and includes excellent benefits.
To Apply: Please send cover letter and resume to:
Samson Reiny
NFCB
1970 Broadway, Suite 1000
Oakland, CA 94612
Or email samson@nfcb.org.
The National Federation of Community Broadcasters is an equal opportunity employer.
Filed under: Pacifica
I’m sitting in the WPFW Master Control studio as I type this, listening to the Pacifica Radio Archives fundraiser day. If you haven’t done so already, cruise by supportpra.org and make a donation to their “Sounds That Change the World” campaign.
Your contributions go to excellent preservation and programming projects like the “1968 Revolution Rewind Moments.” Info below. These modules from the archives will be distributed to Pacifica stations and affiliates, so listen to your local station for these terrific selections from a seminal year in American history.
–Nathan
The Pacifica Radio Archives presents a new series: “1968 Revolution Rewind Moments” for broadcast by Pacifica sister stations, and affiliates.
The series features short samples (between 2 and 4.5 minutes) of historic recordings from 1968. Many of these were only recently transferred from master reel-to-reel tapes and have not been heard since they were originally broadcast almost 40 years ago.
This series is being made available as the Pacifica Radio Archives unveils its “1968 Project” on Tuesday, November 27, 2007.
Priceless tapes, recording precious moments of contemporary history have been preserved as a result of yours and others’ support for the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project. Many historic, fragile and valuable tapes have been made available on the Archives web site, AudioPort, and through the Pacifica Radio Archives catalog.
Few years resonate in history as powerfully as 1968. The political assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy redrew the political profile of the United States of America, and reverberated throughout the world. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the convention and the demonstrations that the “whole world [was] watching” forever altered the script of American electoral politics.
Students rebelled, and took control of institutions from Columbia University in New York City, to the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Protesting students were gunned down in Mexico City by a government intent on providing a climate hospitable to the Olympic games. In the Peoples’ Republic of China, the Cultural Revolution was in full swing. The USSR invaded Czechoslovakia.
Black power and Red Power and Brown power were rising. The U.S. media were beginning to take notice of the Women’s Movement. Baby Boomers were embracing Eastern Religions, new drugs were altering the minds of both draft resisters and troops who found themselves fighting an imperialist war in Vietnam. There were be-ins, happenings, and stream-of-consciousness performances. Rock and Roll emerged from the shadows to become a commercial force.
In the middle of all of this was Pacifica Radio, before cable, before the web, before National Public Radio. Pacifica was the original, underground alternative media. Pacifica was often the only media reporting on the scene, providing first hand reports from the political struggles, social revolutions, and artistic frontiers of the sixties.
The Archives’ director and staff will produce and continue to make available more of theses historical shorts. Please sample these “1968 Revolution Rewind Moments.” Descriptions are provided below.
Transfers from reel-to-reel tapes were made possible thanks to listener donations and modest grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the GRAMMY Foundation, and the Ford Foundation.
Brian DeShazor
Archives Director
Filed under: Media
by Katy Bachman
Mediaweek
November 26, 2007
Excerpt:
“Arbitron put the roll out of its portable people meter ratings service on hold late Monday, delaying the commercialization of nine markets on its 50-market roll out plan. The radical decision follows a barrage of criticism from broadcasters and other groups over the PPM service, culminating in a recent ultimatum from Clear Channel, Cox Radio, Cumulus Media and Radio One that Arbitron fix PPM’s low samples among young demographics in Philadelphia, “or else.”
The decision means that the radio industry’s transition to electronic measurement will take a lot longer than expected. Until September 2008, the radio industry will only have two PPM markets, Houston and Philadelphia.
New York, Nassau-Suffolk, and Middlesex-Somerset-Union, scheduled to go live a week and a half ago, will be delayed nine months. Los Angeles, Riverside (Calif.) and Chicago will be delayed six months. San Francisco, San Jose and Dallas will be delayed three months. With the exception of Dallas, which will now go live in December 2008, all the other markets will go live in September 2008.
“We remain confident in the audience estimates that the portable people meter service is producing. However, over the past three weeks, feedback from our customers, the Media Rating Council and other constituencies has led us to conclude that the radio industry would be better served if we were to delay further commercialization of the PPM in order to address their issues,” said Steve Morris, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Arbitron.
Broadcasters weren’t the only group circling the wagons. Urban broadcasters, alarmed with lower average quarter-hour ratings under the PPM, also took aim at Arbitron, claiming the service had an ethnic bias that threatened the future of Urban and stations. In New York, Inner City Broadcasting, owners of WBLS-FM and WLIB-AM and politically connected through its founder, former Manhattan borough president Percy Sutton, influenced the New York City Council to call the PPM service into question.
Adding to the pressure, Arbitron has yet to obtain Media Rating Council accreditation for Philadelphia, which uses a different
technique to recruit participants than in Houston.”
Read the rest of the story at
http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003677672
Dear Friends,
We are in the process of reviving the Building Bridges On Line web site and could use help, on an ongoing basis.
We need someone who can volunteer for 5 – 10 hours a week to help develop and maintain the site.
Knowledge of web programming is required as you would be working with an experienced professional webmaster. Some experience in graphics would be helpful. Please contact us if you are interested.
Thank you
Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
Please reply to
knash(at)igc.org
Filed under: Opportunities
Deadline: December 7, 2007 (Print media application); January 11, 2008 (Broadcast application)
A program of the Kaiser Family Foundation ( http://www.kff.org/ ), the Kaiser Media Internships Program is an intensive twelve-week summer internship for young journalists and journalism college graduates interested in specializing in health reporting, with a particular commitment to coverage of health issues affecting diverse and immigrant communities.
The program provides an initial week-long briefing on health issues and health reporting in Washington, D.C. Interns are then based for ten weeks at a newspaper/radio or TV station, where they report on health issues. The program ends with a three-day meeting in Boston to hear critiques from senior journalists and to go on final site visits.
Applications are invited from new journalists who can demonstrate a commitment and ability to report on health issues affecting diverse and immigrant communities. Priority will be given to journalists who are bilingual and/or bicultural, and to journalists who have studied or reported on health issues affecting diverse or immigrant communities. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the U.S.
The internship provides for travel and for training and accommodation expenses in D.C. and Boston. Interns are responsible for housing and other expenses during the ten weeks spent working at their host news organizations. The Kaiser Foundation provides a stipend — a minimum of $500 gross per week — matching the news organization’s own weekly rate, if higher.
Visit the Kaiser Family Foundation Web site for complete program information.
RFP Link:
http://fconline.foundationcenter.org/pnd/10009828/kff
For additional RFPs in Journalism/Media, visit:
http://foundationcenter.org/pnd/rfp/cat_journalism.jhtml
Filed under: Community Radio
Received via the Grassroots Radio Coalition listserv:
8 Nov, 2007, 1637 hrs IST, Shreya Biswas, TNN
NEW DELHI: It’s time to tune in folks! Ever since the government announced revised guidelines on community radio service (CRS), hordes of educational institutes and universities are hitting the air waves with their own versions of FM radio.
While FM radio service by some premier universities such as Delhi University, Jamia Milia Islamia in Delhi, University of Agricultural Sciences and Holy Cross College in the south have already gone on air, scores of others are planning to jump on to the bandwagon including IIT-Kanpur.
There are others such as IIM-Kozikhode and Lucknow that have chosen to launch Internet radio, a students only initiative to provide a live and interactive platform their community. While IIM-K’s K-dio is already operational, IIM-L is plans go live shortly.
In the last one year alone around 10 campus radio stations across the country have become operational. “The CRS initiative didn’t get as much response initially and institutes were reluctant to sign on due to some infrastructural issues,” says M V Vijayan, under-secretary, FM, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. “However, in the last one year, after the announcement of revised guidelines, they are responding well and institutions who stayed back due to lack of awareness are now coming forward.”
Delhi University’s campus radio, launched last month, has already got the students hooked. There have been three auditions for the various programmes and students create the content. While the number of students for the initial auditions was a mere 20-25, the fourth audition has attracted close to 100 applicants. “Almost 50% of the content will be for the students and the issues they are attached to and the rest will be for the community around the campus,” says Vijaylakshmi Sinha, head of the project for DU and former director-general, AIR. She adds that the response has been “great”.
The programmes are of general interest like girls’ safety or academic like career counselling besides softer genre programmes on junk jewellery, eating jaunts, music and discussions.
That’s exactly what the community radio initiative is aimed at, providing the students or the community an interactive platform to reach out to each other, discuss issues of common interest and provide a platform to develop talent.
IIT-Kanpur, which plans to come up with its own community radio by next March, wants to reach out to the community around the college besides the students. There are plans to air programmes on agricultural research, newer technologies and topics of general interest. “By March next year, the studio would be operational. It will operate within a radius of 15km, reaching out to the students and the people around the campus and addressing topics of their interest.” says Sanjay Dhande, director, IIT-K. Till now, competition from FM channel and limited reach has restricted the success of such community radio to a few. Pune University’s Vigyaan Vaani launched in 2005 is a case in point. The channel is received within a radius of 7km of the assigned 10km while majority of its target audience is in the centre of the city. Obviously, they can’t be reached.
Besides, the huge competition from FM channels has also been a cause of concern. “Unless we can reach out to more students and people, no one will know the utility of such an effort,” says Anand Deshmukh, director, Vidya Vaani. “Though there have been efforts to make it interesting, the efforts are noticed only if you reach out to them. What we have now done is to put up the programmes on the website of the channel so that it is accessible.”
The channel airs various programmes on issues related to student community, general interest and music where students perform. This, the institutes feel is a good way to nurture talent and give them an opportunity to connect with their immediate neighbours and come up with ideas for problem solution.
From Brian DeShazor at the Pacifica Radio Archives:
What do Jackson Browne, Cesar Chavez, Arthur C. Clarke, Angela Davis, Ossie Davis, Samuel R. Delaney, Duke Ellington, Allen Ginsberg, Robert F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Rosa Parks, Bonnie Raitt, Ayn Rand, Rob Reiner, Bobby Seale, Harry Shearer, Gloria Steinem, Alan Watts and dozens of other figures from our collective political, artistic and social heritage all have in common?
They will all be featured via Pacifica Radio Archives’ (PRA) “Sounds That Change The World – A Day For Pacifica Radio Archives” nineteen hours of mind-bending and extraordinary special programming that will be simulcast nationally on the Pacifica Radio Network on Tues., November 27 beginning at 7AM Eastern.
This beyond-special broadcast event celebrates the archives’ unparalleled audio treasury of America’s progressive memory from the latter half of the 20th century and Pacifica’s tradition of giving voice to independent thinkers who were often shut out of history books and mainstream media. Also serving as the 6th annual fund drive for PRA’s Preservation & Access Project, the 19-hour marathon honoring free speech, revolutionary thoughts, artistic musings and social consciousness pre-empts regular programming on all five Pacifica Radio outlets: KPFA/Berkeley, CA, WBAI/NYC, KPFK/Los Angeles, WPFW/Washington D.C. and KPFT/Houston.
PRA Director Brian DeShazor, also an award-winning radio producer, commented, “Nowhere else does this powerful documentation of United States history, culture, and art exist. It’s story-telling at its best, while giving us a keen sense of how we’ve come to be who we are as a nation. Every school, church and community group dedicated to our national principles of human rights and freedom of speech will be uplifted when they hear this rare material from American icons.”
Hour one opens with “Sounds That Change The World: Wake Up And Hear The History” and the final hour recaps the best of the 19-hour marathon. In between are in-depth blocks including: “Beat Of The Drum: The Power Of African-American Women,” “Battles Cry: Conscientious Objectors from World War II To Iraq,” “The Whistle Blown: Conversations With The President, 1973” (featuring dramatic re-enactments of the Nixon Watergate tapes), “Alan Watts: Preaching To The Unconverted,” “The Black Panther Legacy: Without Silencers,” “The Big Bang: Where Were You In 1968?,” “The John Coltrane Legacy,” “Things That Go Bump: Sci-Fi & The Star Pit,” “Ringing Testimonies: Women Of The World Speak Out,” “Malcolm X: A Voice Of Influence” and “Booming Industry: A No Nukes Reunion For A New Nuke Crisis,” featuring a 2007 conversation with No Nukes co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and Bonnie Raitt.
Based in Los Angeles, CA, PRA houses over 50,000 tapes, originally broadcast on Pacifica Radio stations, that help define America’s complex history – and often correct the historical record, giving equal time to diverse voices and minority perspectives challenging the status quo. Inclusive of oral histories, interviews, documentaries, debates, performances and war and peace reports, the vaults are a sanctuary for sounds that indeed changed the world. Dating back to Pacifica Radio Network’s 1949 inception, many of these profoundly irreplaceable sonic documents are disintegrating rapidly, awaiting restoration through a costly, labor intensive digitization process known as flat transfer. As “Sounds That Change The World – A Day For Pacifica Radio Archives” unfolds on Nov. 27 with priceless recordings that have already been saved, listeners will be encouraged to donate towards much-needed technical attention to the still-threatened bulk of PRA’s library.
The creation of Pacifica Radio network, from which the Archives spring, was an act as revolutionary as the daring programming it presented. Founded by former commercial broadcaster Lewis Hill, a Quaker and WWII conscientious objector, this influential archetype of “people’s radio” – free of corporate governance and advertising – emerged in direct response to a war-weary world. Despite harassment and personal consequences, Hill and other pioneers brought debate and protest to the airwaves in an epic gesture towards public education and enlightenment. A passionate force for human dignity, social justice and the airing of alternative voices decades before NPR, PBS and the Internet, Pacifica Radio Network’s forum is more relevant, and more needed, than ever.
During “Sounds That Change The World – A Day For Pacifica Radio Archives,” PRA will give audiences nationwide – and worldwide via the Internet – the chance to experience rare treasures from Pacifica’s over five decades of historic broadcasts. At the same time, listeners will have the opportunity to support PRA’s Preservation & Access project to safeguard this audio history for generations to come by protecting the Archive’s immense resources through 21st century technology.
For more information on Pacifica Radio Archives, log on to www.pacificaradioarchives.org
For more information on Pacifica Radio Network, log on to www.pacifica.org
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Filed under: Pacifica
The premier ‘jazz and justice station’ in the nation’s capital WPFW- 89.3 fm is celebrating three decades of community and listener sponsored radio with a 30th Anniversary Gala that honors many of the political stalwarts in the movement for peace, social justice, civil and human rights.
The Honorable John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee will serve as the Honorary Chair for the evening along with Honorary Co-Chair Attorney Roscoe Dellums.
“We are especially appreciative to have Representative Conyers participate in this historic event. He has been a part of WPFW since it’s very inception,” said Acie Byrd, Station Board Gala Chair and longtime activist in the movement for civil rights and social justice. “Conyers’ love and appreciation for what’s been called African Americans classical music has been critical. He sponsored the congressional resolution HR-57 which establishes an appreciation for jazz as an American art form.
“This gala marks an historic occasion. WPFW is an outgrowth of a 58 year old network in which it is the junior station and most importantly it’s survived for 30 years. WPFW was designed specifically for special outreach to progressives in the African American community. Its birth was brought about during the civil rights era. In 1977, we were literally still marching in the streets. The initial petition for the station was filed in 1969 under the Nixon administration but the FCC continued to deny the application. It took us 8 years to make this concept a reality.”
The Gala will help raise funds for the purchase of a new, permanent home for WPFW that first opened shop with a couple of crates and some equipment in a room no bigger than a closet at Rap Inc. located in Northwest Washington, DC. The gala will be simulcast in Berkeley, Los Angeles, New York and Houston, where the four Pacifica sister stations will host special viewing parties for their listeners.
Recipients of the Pacifica Peace and Justice Award are:
Harry Belafonte, longtime civil and human rights activist, artist/producer
Dr. Dorothy I. Height, civil rights icon and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and Former President of the National Council for Negro Women
Howard Zinn, American historian, political scientist, social critic, activist and playwright, best known as author of the bestseller A People’s History of the United States
Dick Gregory, humorist, civil rights activist, author and social critic
Amy Goodman, recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the George Polk Award and host of Pacifica’s Democracy Now
Ron Clark, founder and President of RAP, Incorporated Drug Treatment Program
Theodore Walter ‘Sonny’ Rollins, Musician and composer
Delores Huerta, xo-Founder of La Raza, Latino rights activist (invited)
James Edward Olmos, screen artist and civil rights activist (invited)
The evenings’ entertainment will include performances by Tenor Saxophonist Sonny Rollins, Grammy Award winning, a capella ensemble, Sweet Honey in the Rock, legendary Jazz singer Gloria Lynne, Bobby Felders and the Big Band and a host of the area’s finest musicians.
A Silent Auction featuring jazz memorabilia and art items for purchase by guests will be conducted with proceeds going to the WPFW Building Fund.
* Interviews are available upon request
What: Gala 30th Anniversary Celebration
When: Saturday December 15, 2007
Time: 6pm VIP reception (invitation only)
7pm Gala
9:30 – 10:30 Peace and Justice Awards Ceremony
Where: D.C. Convention Center
Dress: Evening and Cultural attire
For further information, contact:
Acie Byrd – Gala Committee Chair
Local station Board
202-966-9853
Askia Muhammad
WPFW News Director
202-588-0999 x 351
Verna Avery-Brown
Washington Bureau Chief
202-588-0999 x 349
Ron Pinchback
WPFW General Manager
(202) 841-2218
