Airwaves & Liberty

KPFA/Pacifica, with assistance from Pacifica affiliate KBCS, will provide live coverage of the FCC’s final public hearing on its media ownership rules.

DATE: Friday, November 9, 2007
TIME: 6:00 PM ET – 2 AM ET

Listeners can tune in at http://kpfa.org – click on “Listen Online.”

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:
6:00 PM – 7:PM ET — Pre-show interviews and protest coverage
7:00 PM ET — Hearing Begins – Coverage re-id’d for stations picking up the feed
2:00 AM ET — Hearing is scheduled to end, but may run over. Coverage will continue until the next hour break.

ANCHORED BY:
From Seattle’s Great Hall, Larry Bensky, KPFA/Pacifica.
Co-anchor to be confirmed.

DESCRIPTION OF EVENT:
Live broadcast with call-ins during intermissions, and interviews with expert guests.

LIST OF GUESTS:
Congressmembers, FCC Commissioners, independent media advocates, and more. Specifics to be confirmed.

Why this is important:

The Federal Communications Commission has scheduled its final public hearing on media ownership rules for Friday, November 9th. The hearing will clear the way for the FCC to make dramatic increases in the amount of broadcast and print media one company can own. Most notably, the Commission’s Republican majority is expected to lift rules on newspaper and television station cross-ownership, setting the stage for a new wave of mergers and corporate media consolidation.

The hearing has been called on five business days’ notice, prompting a sharp critique from the Commission’s Democratic minority, who wrote: “Clearly, the rush is on to push media consolidation to a quick and ill-considered vote. It shows there is a preordained outcome.”

But the hearing will also take place in Seattle, Washington—a stronghold of the media democracy movement. Community members and independent media advocates from all sides of the political spectrum will flood the hearing to speak out against allowing further consolidation.

KPFA, with help from Pacifica affiliate KBCS in Seattle, is sending in a team to broadcast the hearing live, in its entirety, and distribute it to Pacifica’s 100+ affiliate radio stations. Veteran Pacifica broadcaster and Polk Award winner Larry Bensky will anchor from Seattle’s Great Hall.