Prometheus Radio Broadcast: September 2009

Prometheus would like to thank our new Sustaining Funders! Sustaining Funders give Prometheus $50, $25, or even $5 a month. As a thank you for making our work possible, you will receive a limited edition copy of our 10th Anniversary Zine (featured below). Our goal is to have 25 Sustaining Funders by 2010. Sign up today!

Glenn Beck Attacks Localism, Diversity, and Mark Lloyd

Led by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, rightwing media personalities have been drumming up controversy about new FCC Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd. Their fabricated claims about Lloyd’s policy positions—spurred by a genuine fear that a diverse and locally accountable media system would cut into their profit—demonstrate why media reform is such a critical fight.

Continue reading Glenn Beck Attacks Localism, Diversity, and Mark Lloyd.

New FCC Commissioners Support Local Community Radio Act

In the first Congressional oversight hearing since the three new FCC Commissioners took office, all five Commissioners endorsed the Local Community Radio Act HR 1147/S 592, unanimously reaffirming the FCC’s continued support for the bill. FCC Chairman Genachowski and Commissioners Baker and Clyburn expressed support for the Local Community Radio Act in a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. This is the third time that the Commission has unanimously requested that Congress return authority to the FCC to manage “third adjacent channel restrictions” on Low Power FM radio.  The passage of the bill is the next step in the FCC moving forward with community radio.

Read the full press release HERE.

Low Power Radio in the New York Times

Earlier this month, the New York Times featured an article about the Low Power FM station KXZI in Creston, Montana. The station is run out of Scott Johnson’s 90-year-old farmhouse, and broadcasts an eclectic mix of bluegrass, jazz, folk, and blues to the surrounding community and online though a live web stream.  The Time’s portrait of Johnson’s station brings attention to the need for more community radio.  As the article points out, the Local Community Radio Act would double the number of LPFM stations to approximately 1,600. Kirk Johnson, the author of the article, could have written about almost any of the 800 LPFM stations currently on-air, each of which has a unique story, history, and community.  If you live in an area with an LPFM station, write to your newspaper and encourage them to take notice of your community’s radio station. Read the article HERE.

  Photo by Jim Watson/New York Times

10 Years of Flame Flinching, Wave Snatching, Peopled Power Radio

For over ten years Prometheus Radio Project has been organizing and fighting for more community radio. In this 37 page zine you will find a collection of rare archived materials from Prometheus's history including newspaper clippings of Prometheus's early days, barnraisings, and battles with the FCC. The collection of articles and images tells the story of a ten-year-long struggle for participatory, community-run radio. From the zine's introduction:

"The following articles tell the often-subjugated stories of unlikely groups operating their own radio stations. While articles in daily newspapers about each new community station tell a lovely tale, it is the collection of these pieces together that tells the story of a movement. This is the story that we wish to share with you; an explosion in community-controlled participatory radio stations over the last decade. Our small part in this has been a process of collaboration and alliance building with organizations that are making sparks. We simply work to add air to the sparks."

Join us in celebrating ten years of people powered radio! Get your copy of Prometheus's 10th Anniversary Zine HERE.

Bringing it All Back Home: Summer In-District Campaign

With raging debates surrounding healthcare reform, it has become increasingly clear that we need local media outlets for information, debate, and organizing in the face of important policy matters.  As we prepare for the Local Community Radio Act to move through the Energy and Commerce Committees in both houses of Congress, it is essential that Senators and Representatives hear from their constituents about how local community radio would benefit their community. As Congress left Washington for the summer recess, the Prometheus Campaign unleashed its summer plan of action: in-district meetings with seven key senators about the low power radio. In Mississippi, Gary Galloway, who helped broadcast emergency information in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, had a successful meeting with Senator Roger Wicker.
 
Click HERE to read more about Galloway’s meeting in Mississippi, and other in-district meetings around the country.