Airwaves & Liberty

Position Summary:

The Project Director is responsible for coordinating the establishment of the Latino Public Radio Consortium organization in conjunction with the LPRC Board. In conjunction with the Board, the Director will develop LPRC’s strategic goals and business practices, and is responsible for securing long range, ongoing funding for the LPRC. The Director plays a leadership role in collaboration with the LPRC Board in disseminating LPRC’s Brown Paper to Latinos in public broadcasting and to the public broadcasting community at large and in soliciting feedback from them. In conjunction with the Board, the Director is responsible for developing collaborative ties between LPRC and other public broadcasting organizations seeking to strengthen diversity in the U.S. public broadcasting system. The Director will work to help Latino public broadcasting organizations and professionals gain greater visibility and influence in the public broadcasting world and in the U.S. media landscape. The Director is responsible for responding to news media inquiries and for preparing public statements on behalf of LPRC. The position is a four-fifths time, home-based telecommuting post.

Principal Position Accountabilities:

1. Develops and submits for LPRC Board approval a three- to five-year Strategic Plan to guide LPRC’s growth and stability.

2. Commissions and oversees development of a three- to five-year Business Plan, including a Financial Model for LPRC, subject to LPRC Board approval.

3. Develops and executes a strategy for dissemination of LPRC’s seminal Brown Paper in ways that foster a public dialogue within the public broadcasting system and Latino communities nationwide and that advocates for strengthening the role of Latinos in public broadcasting.

4. Fosters and secure partnerships and collaborations among public broadcasters supporting the goal of diversifying public radio at the local, regional and national levels.

5. Travels to industry gatherings such as the PRPD, DEI, Public Radio Regional Conferences and National Association of Hispanic Journalists and UNITY Conferences.

6. Coordinates other activities as necessary to comply with the terms of LPRC’s contractual agreements with funders, including the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

7. Manages other grant writing and administration.

8. Supports the LPRC Board.

9. Works with stations and national organizations to determine needs of Latinos in public broadcasting.

10. Identifies and encourages Latino public broadcasting leaders at the local and national level.

11. Identifies potential partners at the local, regional and national levels in advocating for greater Latino participation and presence in public broadcasting.

12. Oversees the recruitment and hiring of LPRC personnel and consultants as necessary.

13. Conducts performance reviews of personnel as needed.

14. Other duties as assigned.

Desired qualifications:

1. Demonstrated experience in management of nonprofit organizations.

2. Demonstrated experience in managing budgets.

3. Familiarity with the mission of public broadcasting.

4. Excellent knowledge of U.S. public broadcasting institutions, norms and ethics.

5. Extensive knowledge of U.S. Latino public broadcasting organizations, audiences and potential audiences.

6. Excellent communications skills. Ability to communicate clearly with a variety of individuals in a wide range of demographic settings. Strong verbal and writing skills.

7. Knowledge of Latino communities and cultures required.

8. Excellent English and Spanish verbal skills required.

9. Excellent English and Spanish writing skills strongly desired.

10. Ability to work independently.

11. Job travel required.

12. Working knowledge of computerized environments, including budgeting, data management and desktop publishing strongly desired.

Compensation: Competitive salary based on experience and qualifications.

To Apply:

Email letter of interest and resume by March 21, 2008 to: LPRC@NFCB.org

There is some overlap between Pacifica/community radio listeners and Air America listeners, so you may be interested to know that Air America’s ownership is changing again soon. Air America is, of course, a commercial radio operation, but it does provide a progressive megaphone, particularly in the moments when it manages to transcend its reputation of being Democratic Party apologists.

This text originally from the Huffington Post:

Charlie Kireker, a former political official and creator of Pendulum Media will succeed Stephen L. Green, the New York real estate CEO who helped lift the company out of bankruptcy, as chair of the board. The move will be finalized in mid March. Mark Green, Stephen’s brother and Democratic activist, will remain as Air America’s president.

“We look at what Steve and Mark Green have done as the transition role of saving and stabilizing the business and now we think it is a good opportunity to expand upon that,” Kireker told the Huffington Post. “The company has made a lot of progress, we have consolidated operations, and streamlined things to be more efficient. We are yet to profitability but we are heading there.”

Kireker is no stranger to the network. He was a minor investor in one of the companies that rescued Air America’s ownership from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last March. That year, the network — which was purchased by Green Family Media for $4.25 million — posted more than $13 million in losses. Sometime in 2009, Green said, he envisions that the network will be in the black.

Currently Air America has 65 affiliates, an estimated audience of nearly 2 million weekly, and is set to release a new web-based format for radio listeners.

“It took Fox News five years and a half billion dollar loss to get its feet, find its audience and become profitable,” said Mark Green. “We don’t have a ‘what’s his name?” [referring to Rupert Murdoch]. But, we now have secure funding and expanded management team, on-air talent and a business strategy that will get us where we need to be… Reports of our death were greatly exaggerated by the right wing zeitgeist that wanted us to go away.”

As for why the current team would leave the network on the brink of profitability, Green noted that his brother’s true passion was not in media but in real estate. “The Kireker group is new money, energy and new confidence in the growing of Air America. Steve was happy to be a bridge from phase one when we had financial difficulties to phase three when it is poised for takeoff…”

Both Green and Kireker said that the ownership change would have no effect on the network’s editorial content. “There are no programming changes at this time,” said Kireker.

Current political dynamics, however, could position Air America in unfamiliar terrain. Indeed, the network was conceived to be a response to the proliferation of right-wing talk radio. And since it was launched in march 2004, Air America has, for the most part, operated on a landscape of predominantly GOP power. With Democrats slated to expand on slim majorities in Congress and possibly take back the White House, the network’s affinity for railing against the powers-that-be may have to undergo an alteration.

“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” said Kireker. “We hope there will be a Democrat in the White House and we think the prospects are good. And we think the country is showing an appetite for a more progressive agenda. So yes, Air America will no longer be, as it was in its early years, fighting against the majority Republican forces, though that began to shift, of course in recent years.”

Pacifica Radio will provide summary coverage and analysis of tonight’s Barack Obama - Hillary Clinton debate in Austin, Texas: 10p-12m EST / 9-11p CST / 8-10p MST / 7-9p PST

In the Democratic race for President, Obama and Clinton have garnered nearly equal numbers of delegates. With Texas, Ohio, and other states voting in the coming weeks, Clinton and Obama have agreed to a debate this Thursday, Feb 22nd in Austin, Texas. Pacifica will air highlights of the CNN-sponsored debate, as well as analysis, guest commentary, and listener call-ins. As the campaign season continues, tune in for Pacifica’s critical analysis of what the candidates are actually saying. Hosted by Larry Bensky and produced by Max Pringle.

Streamed live at KPFA.org. KPFA’s site will also feature a live public blog for anyone to cruise by and contribute to the discussion. Some comments are read on air!

Please note that we are not airing the debate in its entirety, but rather the most relevant clips combined with critical analysis.

A report from the Benton Foundation posted today. Benton’s stated mission is “to articulate a public interest vision for the digital age and to demonstrate the value of communications for solving social problems.” ~N

For over 12 years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been considering how the transition to digital television technology - and the increased capacity it offers TV broadcasters - should impact the compact between television stations and the communities they are licensed to serve. By law and FCC rules, these stations are licensed to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity. Over the years, this has meant different things, but the overriding mandate has been that stations must serve the interests of local communities, not the station owner’s own commercial interests.

In December, the FCC adopted new media ownership rules allowing newspapers to own television stations in their local markets. As part of these new rules, the FCC noted:

[T]he Commission has concurrently adopted a Localism Report and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that addresses actions the Commission will take to ensure that broadcasters are meeting the needs of their local communities. With respect to other ideas raised in this proceeding, such as whether the agency should establish more specific minimum public interest requirements for licensees and how broadcasters could improve political candidates’ access to television, the Commission declines to take any further action at this time. We find the need to impose additional obligations premature in light of the Commission’s recent decision to require broadcasters to file enhanced disclosure reports about the programming they are providing to serve local communities’ interests and needs. Nevertheless, to the extent that circumstances change, we will revisit this decision and initiate proceedings as appropriate.

After much deliberation, the FCC has concluded that there needs to be improved communication between broadcasters and the communities they are licensed to serve. To facilitate improved communications, the FCC is asking for public comment on proposals to improve: 1) License Renewal Procedures and Processing Guidelines, 2) Renewal Application Announcements, 3) the Service Delivered to Underserved Audiences and 4) Remote Television Operation.

The FCC recently published the filing schedule for the new, proposed localism rules. Comments are due Friday, March 14, 2008 and Reply Comments are due Monday, April 14, 2008.

In addition, the FCC will be updating its 1999 publication The Public and Broadcasting,(2) to provide viewers more straightforward guidance on how they can participate in a station’s license renewal.

I. License Renewal Procedures and Processing Guidelines

The FCC has tentatively concluded that it should “reintroduce guidelines for the processing of renewal applications for stations based on their localism programming performance.” In reviewing applications for renewal, the FCC’s Media Bureau would, under a proposed plan, process applications filed by stations that have met or exceeded prescribed minimum percentages of locally-oriented programming, while the full FCC would consider applications by licensees had not met the prescribed minimum.

The FCC is asking for public input on:

* Whether the FCC should give processing priority to stations that meet certain measurable standards;
* Whether these minimums should be expressed as hours of programming per week, or, as in the past, percentages of overall programming;
* Whether the guidelines should cover particular types of programming, such as local news, political, public affairs and entertainment, or simply generally reflect locally-oriented programming;
* What the categories and amounts or percentages should be;
* Whether guidelines should include breakdowns of the times of day local programming is shown; and
* How local programming should be defined (i.e. must programming be locally produced).

II. Renewal Application Announcements

The FCC seeks comment on whether the existing rules governing so-called “pre-filing and post-filing announcements” that licensees must air in connection with their license renewal applications should be changed. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on:

* Whether the same information that is currently required for on-air announcements about soon-to-be-filed and pending renewal applications should be posted on a licensee’s website during the relevant months (i.e., the posting begins on the sixth month before the license is due to expire and remains in place until after the deadline for filing petitions to deny);
* Whether to broaden the required language for these announcements, which currently provides the Commission’s mailing address as a source for information concerning the broadcast license renewal process, to include the agency’s website address and, where technically feasible, to provide a link directly to the FCC’s website.

III. Service Delivered to Underserved Audiences

The principle of localism requires broadcasters to take into account all significant groups within their communities when developing balanced, community-responsive programming, including those groups with specialized needs and interests. While the FCC has observed that each broadcast station is not necessarily required to provide service to all such groups, it has nonetheless recognized the concerns of some that programming �” particularly network programming �” often is not sufficiently culturally diverse.

The FCC has tentatively concluded that licensees should convene and consult with permanent advisory boards made up of leaders from the community of each broadcast station. In addition to informing broadcasters of issues of importance to their communities in general, such advisory boards should include representatives of all segments of the community, to ensure that those community elements have a continuing opportunity to communicate their group’s perceived needs and interests to their local broadcast station management.

The FCC seeks comment on a number of issues arising from this proposal, including under what circumstances a licensee with formal groups in place should be deemed to have satisfied this requirement. Specifically, the FCC asks:

* Will such community advisory boards be able to alert each broadcaster to issues that are important to its community of license?
* How should members of the advisory boards be selected or elected?
* Should the former ascertainment guidelines be a starting point to identify those various segments in the community with whom the licensees should consult?
* How can the advisory boards be composed so as to ensure that all segments of the community, including minority or underserved members of the community, would also have an opportunity to voice their concerns about local issues facing the area?
* How frequently should licensees be required to meet with these advisory boards?

IV. Remote Television Operation

The FCC is concerned about the prevalence of automated broadcast operations, which allow the operation of stations without a local presence, and the negative impact that such remote operation may have on licensees’ ability to determine and serve local needs. The FCC seeks comment on whether television licensees should be required to maintain a physical presence at their broadcasting facilities during all hours of operation.

V. You and Localism

When the FCC launched this proceeding, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said, “[O]ne can’t help but regard the prospects for quick implementation with a healthy degree of skepticism. If history is any guide, the odds are that the Commission will either neglect to finalize these proposals, or when it comes time to finalize them, they may be so diluted as to render them meaningless.” He added, “We need to put the meat in the sandwich we promised to deliver. It is high time we put this notice out for comment, but we should have actually implemented improvements to localism before we completed the media ownership item. Now that the Commission has acted to loosen the media ownership rules, it is all the more imperative we move immediately to implement some of the useful ideas broached here and others that we learn about in the comment period. We are already too late to have done this right.”

The “meat” Commissioner Adelstein will likely come from the comments of public interest organizations and the general public. In testimony delivered before the FCC in 2007, Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman called on the FCC to:

* Develop a meaningful and much more transparent license renewal process based on much more detailed information about broadcasters’ actual program practices.
* Reduce the term of broadcast licenses to three years.
* Require every single licensee to carry minimum amounts of locally originated, licensee produced, programming designed to address local needs, tastes and interests.
* Expand the number of low power FM stations.
* Develop meaningful programs to double the number of minority and female owned broadcast stations within the next five years.
* Deny must-carry privileges to over the air TV stations which devote more than 12 hours per day to home shopping presentations.

Mr Schwartzman also stressed that effective local service requires “institutional and personal attachments to the community. It requires a diverse workforce that is capable of conveying the many different perspectives found in each community. There is no way to document the qualitative impact of having a station operated locally by individuals citizens who live in the community and expect to remain there.”

Thousands of people have already told the FCC that they feel some broadcasters are failing on their localism mandate. To ensure meaningful localism rules, it may take the collective voice of thousands to compel the FCC to act.

A few excerpts from an article on the matter posted at Broacastingcable.com:

The Federal Communications Commission gave about 40 ABC affiliates two days, until Feb. 21, to pay their fine — $27,500 apiece — for airing a bare behind in an episode of NYPD Blue, but it canceled the fines for about one-dozen stations initially cited.

The FCC cited a statute of limitations that had expired for a pair of stations because they had gotten license renewals in the intervening years, and others were let off apparently because the complaints had not come from the market in which the station was located.

It was only a little over three weeks ago — Jan. 25 — that the FCC issued the notice of apparent liability for the Feb. 25, 2003, airing of a show that has been off the air for three years. It was running up against a five-year statute of limitations on taking action against the stations if they failed to pay the fine, which likely explains why it asked the stationsto pay up by Feb. 21, or only about 52 hours after the order is being released.

The FCC rejected an argument by Gray Television that its translator station should not be fined in addition to the station providing the signal that it was essentially retransmitting, but the FCC said translators are not de facto immune from the fines.

And a few excerpts from a Matthew Lasar article at Arstechnica.com:

The NYPD Blue scene shows a pre-adolescent boy accidentally walk in on an older woman undressing in the bathroom. Viewers get a glance at the woman’s naked behind before he backs out and apologizes.

The FCC declared the scene indecent “because it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs in a lewd and titillating way — specifically an adult woman’s buttocks.” ABC attorneys defended the show, arguing that buttocks do not constitute a sexual organ. But the FCC declared that this defense “runs counter to both case law and common sense,” citing the agency’s
“two-pronged indecency analysis” defining “sexual or excretory organs or activities” as offensive.

In its February 9 appeal, attorneys for ABC and its affiliates revisited these arguments in their appeal. They offered the FCC
medical textbooks that defined sexual organs as “biologically defined,” arguing that “[t]he only external organs or structures of the excretory system are the penis in males, and the urethral opening in females, which appears between the walls of the labia.”

The agency today again turned down this reasoning. “The Commission has consistently interpreted the term ’sexual or excretory organs’ in its own definition of indecency as including the buttocks,” the FCC declared, “which, though not physiologically necessary to procreation or excretion, are widely associated with sexual arousal and closely associated by most people with excretory activities.”

The FCC reiterated the “clear and unmistakable” visual depiction in question. “Here, the scene in question shows a female actor naked from behind, with her buttocks fully visible at close range,” the Commission concluded. “She is not wearing a g-string or other clothing, nor are the shots of her buttocks pixelated or obscured.”

While I have enjoyed my visits to Wyoming in years past, I am suddenly very glad I don’t live there. ~Nathan

The utility road running to the top of Copper Mountain was drifted in with three feet of snow in some stretches. Three inches of solid ice covered most others. The top of the mountain was shrouded in clouds and a sustained 40-mph wind blew down the slope, flinging snow horizontally across the landscape. Wyoming Public Radio’s Thermopolis transmitter, KUWT 91.3 FM, was off the air. To fix it, Chief Engineer Reid Fletcher needed to get to the top, with tools and spare parts.

Even a four wheel drive truck couldn’t reach the transmitter site. Fletcher had few options; locating a tracked vehicle called a Sno-Cat to rent would have taken several days; a snowmobile would be difficult to maneuver and impossible to pack with all his gear. He turned to Program Director Roger Adams, who had been concerned about a string of signal problems in the wake of severe winter mountain weather that all but prevented access to several sites. He worried that listeners would be without WPR for too long when transmitters on remote mountain sites went down. Earlier in the winter, Adams had offered a proven but never before considered alternative. He would guide engineers into snowbound sites on horseback - their tools and parts aboard a pack horse.

Read the whole story at the WPR site.

When: April 13-18, 2008.

Deadline to Apply: March 3, 2008.

USCs Annenberg School for Communication is calling for applications for its national health journalism seminars. Based in Los Angeles, The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships are open to print, broadcast and multimedia journalists around the country who have a passion for health news. This program explores the intersection between community health, health policy and the nations growing ethnic diversity.

Fellows receive free tuition, meals, travel, and lodging. Fellows editors or news directors are invited to a special two-day Editor/Fellow Workshop, at the programs expense. The program offers a $2,000 stipend upon publication or broadcast of a major fellowship project. To encourage collaboration between mainstream and ethnic media, preference will be given to applicants who propose a joint project for use by both media outlets. Each collaborator will receive the stipend.

For more information, visit www.reportingonhealth.com, call (213) 437-4419 or e-mail calendow[at]usc.edu.

A message from Tom Voorhees via the Grassroots Radio Coalition listserv:

The FCC 99-25 LP-FM file needs many more comments in support of community radio localism. Please take the time today to file a comment to preserve and expand LP-FM community radio per the below easy automated links.
Much thanks,
Tom.

Support needed for the proposed new FCC low power FM rules

The proposed new FCC LP-FM rules are now available for public comment. Your supportive comments are crucial to the re-establishment of broadcast radio and TV localism. Two automated response tools are provided below which you can add your own comments to if you want. Or if you are equipped to comment on the complexities check out the:
– Preliminary report of #99-25 LPFM rule-making [PDF]
– FCC requested LPFM, proposed rule making sections for comment [PDF]

FCC #99-25 automated response tools:
– Ask the FCC to make many more FM channels available for LP-FM community localism.
– Ask the FCC to protect LP-FM stations from much more powerful commercial stations.

It’s an election year, and the problems with the media are clear — just turn on your TV, and notice what’s on…and what’s not.

But how do we fix it? Where does change begin?

In Minneapolis on June 6-8, thousands of activists, journalists and policymakers will converge at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform.

If you care about the state of the media, this is the one event you can’t miss. Reduced-rate hotels and registration are limited. Sign up now.

Learn More about NCMR 2008 here. Or just register here.

If you don’t know what an amazing event this is, consider this: The first conference brought 1,700 people to Madison, Wisconsin. Then 2,500 came to St. Louis. Last year, 3,500 gathered in Memphis. And June’s event in Minneapolis is going to be even bigger and more exciting.

Bill Moyers, Dan Rather, Amy Goodman, Van Jones, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Senator Byron Dorgan, FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and many more leaders and luminaries will join thousands of people from across the country for an inspiring and unforgettable weekend.

The conference will offer bold strategies, new ideas and concrete solutions toward building more diverse, independent media, stopping runaway media consolidation, saving the Internet, and much, much more.

Don’t miss this special event. Register today, and we’ll see you in June!

Yolanda Hippensteele
Outreach Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net/conference

From the folks at FAIR:

We’re hoping the many media savvy folks on this list might be able to help us reach some serious, qualified candidates. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Job Opening at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting)
Position: Managing Editor/Writer

FAIR’s magazine Extra! is looking for a managing editor to be responsible for magazine scheduling and production, and to share assigning and editing articles. The position also involves writing media criticism for Extra! and other FAIR outlets. Applicants should be familiar with FAIR’s work. Web skills a plus.

The position is 40 hours/week with a starting salary of $35,000 (plus child supplement) and full health/dental benefits. People of color/women are urged to apply. Rolling deadline. No phone calls please. Send resume (with references), 3 published writing samples and cover letter to:

FAIR,
112 West 27th Street, 6th Floor,
NY, NY, 10001

OR

By email:
fair@fair.org
Subject line: Job Search