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this is micropower radio: we want the airwaves! by Nick Mamatas (nillo@agoron.com) - July 28, 2002 |
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| The dipshits with their dot.coms may be surprised to hear this, but it is true. Not everyone has access to the World Wide Web. Given the racial/class divide between Internet users and non-users (surprise, users are white and richer!) much of the online Counterculture ends up sending its subversive messages to bleary-eyed potheads with trust-funds (not you, of course). There is a real alternative though: radio! Radio receivers are as cheap as an oatmeal box and a crystal, or a five dollar transistor set. Radio transmitters can be made from parts at 'Radio Shack', and can cover blocks or even several miles on the FM band. There was only one problem: FM broadcasts of under 100 watts were illegal, and broadcasts of over 100 watts require licensing, big transmitters, and a lot of capital. You also don't keep a 50 000 watt transmitter in one's bedroom. This isn't an old law: micropower stations were legal until 1978. After 1978, deregulation and paperwork simplification all but turned over the public airwaves to the largest companies. The ownership rules were further relaxed in 1996. It is now possible for a few companies to own nearly all the radio stations in a small market. The official reason for shutting down micropower stations is that they can cause interference. However, compression devices can easily keep that from happening, and are cheap enough that the government could give them away if they wanted to, to micropower stations. The 'pirate' stations that do exist haven't actually been found guilty of interfering with or blocking another station's signal, but that hasn't stopped the fines and even arrests from rolling in. But in 1995, a crack appeared in the wall sealing off the public from its own airwaves. Stephen Dunifer began Radio Free Berkeley after the Persian Gulf War, in order to challenge the statutes against microradio. After a series of highly publicized broadcasts by Free Radio Berkeley in 1993 and 1994, the FCC fined Dunifer $20,000. Dunifer filed an administrative appeal raising a variety of legal arguments, and the FCC failed to respond for over one year. Because Dunifer remained on the air throughout this time, the FCC eventually asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction to stop Dunifer's micro radio broadcasts. Since 1978, thousands of micropower stations have taken to the air, and hundreds of them have been shut down by the FCC. In October 1998, the FCC began working on a new micropower proposal. The news isn't all good though, the FCC is considering allowing commercial micropower stations, which would allow a large broadcaster to buy every frequency on huge blocks of the band and play the same material on all of them. This would have the small benefit of allowing drivers to keep the signal tuned in for a longer time, and the pesky little disadvantage of destroying the last possibility for free speech on the airwaves. Additionally, the FCC ruling allows 1000 watt commercial stations to nudge real micropower stations off the air at will. Non-commercial and community micropower stations would also be limited to the left end of the dial, allowing for ten times as many commercial low power stations as non-commercial low power stations. And this is still considered good news! Slightly better news is that in January 2000, the FCC proposed that it would license 1000 and 100 watt stations and announced that it would accept comments on low power FM stations running between 1 and 10 watts of power. So what are we waiting for? Well, the FCC hasn't even finished developing the license for micropower radio yet, and every freak, revolutionary and church group in America is already getting online, but our day is coming soon! Sell the barbecue and mow the lawn, Barry, we'll need room for the antenna! The views expressed above represent the writer and not necessarily those of The Disinformation Company Ltd. |
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Lutz Community Radio Radio Free Conscience IWW Radio Network Prometheus Radio Project Pirate Radio.org The Committee On Democratic Communications Of The National Lawyers Guild FCC Authorizes New LPFM Service Free Radio Berkeley Radio 4 All Steal This Radio Mycal's Micro Radio Page Free B92! Disinformation Dossier On The Pacifica Radio Crisis Radio Destiny Network Pirate Radio UK Low Power Radio Coalition The Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act National Association Of Broadcasters |
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