{"article":{"id":145548,"heading":"ampb report #70","author":"Paul Griffin","created":"2006-01-27 01:31:39","modified":"2006-01-27 01:31:39","last_modified":"Fri, 27 Jan 2006 09:31:39","article":"

Dear Readers,

The following is taken from the December 21 issue of Radio World

magazine featuring a big article on page one titled,\"The Low-Power Radio

Movement Wants More\". The article has huge bias and needs a response so

here goes...

(Quotes from the original article receive my commentary. My words are in

bold type)

Hundreds of community groups, churches and schools from the first wave of

low-power FM licensees have their stations on the air. Many are in rural

areas of the country with a reach of approximately 3.5 miles and broadcast

at 100 watts. In November, 690 LPFMs were on the air. A total of 1,260

construction permits had been granted, according to FCC data.

What this raw data doesn't mention is that most of the applications were

from evangelical groups and no licenses have been given to people in urban

areas.

\"LPFM has been extremely successful to this point in the limited areas

where it has been allowed. Still to be addressed is how to get more of the

stations on in urban areas,\" said Pete Tridish, one of the founders of the

Prometheus Radio Project, a non-profit resource center that helps guide

LPFM broadcasters through the launch process. \"We feel the FCC has done a

very good job of clearing out the backlog. However, they should adopt some

form of flexibility to work around the current unjust limitations and

encourage growth.\"

Of course Pete has been playing nicey-nice with the feds for years now and

has turned his back on \"pirate\" radio.

The LPFM service was launched Jan. 20, 2000. It turns six next month. An

FCC spokeswoman said the agency is pleased with the progress of the

service. \"LPFM operators are telling us how much their communities rely on

the information they are broadcasting. It has opened a wealth of local

opportunities and voices that otherwise would have a hard time being

heard,\" the spokeswoman said.

Who is this unnamed spokeswoman and why doesn't she want her name mentioned

in the article? If she's a FCC employee, don't we have a right to know her

name?

Former FCC Chairman Bill Kennard, who pushed for the LPFM service, declined

to comment on the program's effectiveness.

This simple sentence speaks volumes. The original LPFM plan that Bill put

forward was actually pretty good, until the NAB and the corrupt politicians

got their hands on it.

Nickolaus Leggett, one of the original petitioners for a low-power FM

service in 1997, said, \"LPFM has been worth the work and effort to make it

happen. There was some disappointment for some that several evangelical

groups grabbed up so many of the LPFMs. I think it just needs fine-tuning,

and there is a need for another window of application.\"

The original filing window was ridiculously short and came up with very

little advance warning for the community groups who might have wanted to

get a license. By all means there should be a second chance.

As reported last spring (RW, March 16), the potential glut of thousands of

new FM translators has LPFM supporters concerned about future growth of the

relatively new low-power service, especially in heavily populated

areas.Proponents want the FCC to give LPFM stations primary status and give

them precedence over translator applications. Opponents note that

translator applications are pending while no open \"windows\" to file more

LPFM applications are on tap. To give LPFMs priority over translators would

be unfair, they feel. The agency needs to address the translator issue,

Leggett said, because of the natural conflict between the two secondary

services. \"LPFMs broadcast local content to a local audience. (LPFM) was

intended as an outlet for the little guy, as a voice of local democracy.

Translators, are by nature, only relaying broadcast material from outside a

community,\" said Leggett, who works as a political analyst.

Let's be clear here. Translators are low power radio stations used to

expand the range of stations that are already putting out a high-power

signal from a different place. They serve to help clog up the radio band

with more of the lame crap that's already all over the dial. Then the

industry groups say there's no room for community radio. Do you see what's

going on here?

Still to be determined is the status of third-adjacent-channel protection

for existing full-power stations. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., earlier this

year re-introduced a bill that would drop the protections and open up more

opportunities for LPFMs. In 2003, the commission fielded nearly 11,000 FM

translator applications. The FCC has issued nearly 3,400 CPs for FM

translators. Approximately 7,000 applications are pending, according to FCC

data. According to its comment filing to the FCC, the Prometheus Radio

Project stated, \"The translator (filing) window has had an enormous impact

for those who would like to start a low-power station in the future and for

those who applied but were denied. The congressional imposition of

third-adjacent protection requirements for LPFM stations, along with the

unfortunate timing of the 2003 translator window, has utterly decimated the

opportunities for LPFM stations in the areas with the highest demand.\"

Ten thousand new translator stations but there's no room on the dial for

community radio? Is it any wonder why so many people are saying, \"Fuck the

FCC\" and just going on the air without any license? The people of this

country have a right to use the airwaves, and the agency created to protect

that right has become the lapdog of the big media monopoly. It's my

opinion that it's time to de-fund the FCC. What's your opinion? -Paul

Griffin

original url for the article is:

http:\/\/www.rwonline.com\/reference-room\/special-report\/04_rw_lpfm_3.shtml<\/a>

STATION ALERT

A New Year's Message from Ramsey Clark

Dear friends,

The year 2005 brought new hardships but also new hope to the people of the

world. Hope because the Bush administration has shown itself before the

world to be lawless, cruel and brutal but also inept and incompetent. In

Iraq the Pentagon has shown it is incapable of repressing a growing

resistance from the Iraqi people. Meanwhile the government has been caught

running torture camps inside Iraq and outsourcing torture around the

world.The people of the U.S. have decided the war is unjust and not worth

the price in Iraqi lives or the sacrifice of our youth. Young people are

refusing to enlist in the military in sufficient numbers to carry on the

illegal occupation and continuing assault on the Iraqi people. In New

Orleans the government did nothing for a week while the city drowned. Now

more than four months later tens of thousands remain homeless. More and

more of the population is outraged by the crimes emanating from the White

House and are enlisting in the campaign to stop those crimes. Our plans for

2006 are bold and challenging. An initial focus is March 18-19, 2006 which

will mark the third anniversary of the start of the Bush administration's

criminal war and occupation of Iraq, which has taken the lives of over

100,000 defenseless women, men, and children, and continues to bring

devastation of untold magnitude. The IAC is committed to peace actions in

New York City, and in cities across the country, coordinated with movements

and countries around the globe. All in concert on March 18-19 will call for

all U.S. troops to be brought home from Iraq immediately. We must stop the

Bush Administration from stealing Iraqi oil through oil production-sharing

agreements with the U.S. puppet regime-- giving the lion's share of oil

profits to U.S. oil companies; this is the real reason for the U.S.

occupation and regime change. To preserve our Constitution, we must impeach

President Bush and his principal cohorts in crime. This is a big agenda on

which the peaceful and humane future of our country depends. Working

together to end this criminal war must be our New Year's Resolution for

2006--our challenge and our commitment. The IAC will continue this work

tirelessly in the coming year. We depend on your help. Together we shall

overcome.-Ramsey Clark

Yahoo is Tracking Group Members

If you belong to ANY Yahoo Groups - including this one - be aware that

Yahoo is now using \"Web Beacons\" to track every Yahoo Group user. It's

similar to cookies, but allows Yahoo to record every website and every

group you visit, even when you're not connected to Yahoo. Look at their

updated privacy statement at

http:\/\/privacy.yahoo.com\/privacy<\/a>.

About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you will see a

link that says WEB BEACONS. Click on the phrase \"Web Beacons.\" On the page

that opens, find a paragraph entitled \"Outside the Yahoo Network.\" In that

section find a little \"Click Here to Opt Out\" link that will let

you \"opt-out\" of their snooping. Be careful! NOT toclick on the next button

shown. It is an \"Opt Back In\" button that, if clicked, will UNDO the

opt-out.

Note that Yahoo's invasion of your privacy - and your ability to opt-out of

it - is not user-specific. It is MACHINE specific. That means you will have

to opt-out on every computer (and browser) you use.

Please forward this to your other groups. You might complain, too, but I'm

not sure if anyone is listening.. Realated article: Yahoo Web Beacons

Igniting Controversy Yahoo's current privacy policy is causing

consternation among some users who object to their use of so-called 'web

beacons'

Known in most circles as web bugs, these invisible images are embedded in

websites and email and

used to track your surfing - and even tell whether you've opened a

particular email.

http:\/\/antivirus.about.com\/od\/spywareandadware\/a\/yahoobugs.htm<\/a>

From: josesegue@hickswithsticks.com<\/a>

MEET THE NEW BOSSES AT PBS, NPR AND THE FCC

The news seems to be all about misdirection these days. Lately, for

example, it's been day after day coverage of ultra-right judges and

filibusters. The courts are something that the average citizen will never

deal with; week. Yet the neo-con conquest of the Public Broadcasting System

(PBS), National Public Radio (NPR) and the airwaves in general has happened

without a peep from Congress or the press.

Looking back, the strategy was simple and elegantly executed. First they

needed a demon which, given the government's track record in pointless,

over-regulation, wasn't hard to find. But deregulation hasn't always worked

as is the case in communications where lifting \"government burdens\" meant

removing limits on advertising, balanced editorializing and station

ownership, which in turn granted a few corporations the power to do as they

wished with the public's airwaves. Anyone looking for a reason why there's

nothing on television or radio, need look no further than deregulation. So

much for private sector communication. But what of the public sector, PBS

and NPR, which by law are free from private ownership and government

interference on programming? For this they would need a different demon and

the one they've chosen has been \"liberal bias.\" It doesn't matter whether

it's true or not, and it isn't according to a 2004 study by the media

watchdog group FAIR. The FAIR study found that 64% of NPR's news sources

are tied to the establishment as \"government officials, professional

experts and corporate representatives.\" NPR's mix of partisan guests showed

that \"Republicans outnumbered Democrats by more than 3 to 2.\"

http:\/\/www.fair.org\/index.php?page=1180<\/a>

But studies aren't as important as propaganda when you want to control it

all, and the neo-cons are the unquestioned masters of hype in our time.

They have been admirably successful at redefining the center as the left,

the right as the center, and the ultra-right as heaven itself. The media

moguls who benefit from consolidation have cheered them every step of the

way. Rupert Murdock's direct use of Fox News as an instrument of his

conservative ideology was delightfully, if frighteningly, exposed in the

documentary Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism. The documentary's

site, which goes beyond the film itself quotes Fox network reporter Eric

Shawn who says of the film, \"It's unfair, it's slanted and it's a hit job.

And I haven't even seen it yet.\" Some reporter, wot?

http:\/\/www.outfoxed.org\/<\/a>

Kevin MartinYet, like any special interest group that gets it all, they

want more, so into this mix come Kevin Martin and Ken Ferree. Martin is the

new head of the Federal Communications Commission, a man about whom Pat

Trueman of the Family Research Council, a Christian media watchdog group,

said, \"He is someone who understands what indecency is doing to the

culture. And he's certainly someone who we'd be happy to see as a

chairman.\" Indecency is one stick that is used to enforce censorship,

funding and ideologically-based management are others. To this end, Ken

Ferree now heads the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees

PBS and NPR. His job it appears is to erase the line between political

censorship and public broadcasting that was established in 1967. Jeff

Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, speaking

on NPR's Democracy Now! said, \"[T]here has been a takeover by conservatives

of... the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. There are very

arch-conservatives dominating the board and... Mr. Ferree, who has good

relations with key Republicans and conservatives... is a disaster. [I]f the

conservatives... want to destroy public broadcasting from within, they

couldn't have picked a better person than Mr. Ferree... .\" Bill Moyers, who

has won over 30 Emmys and is hardly a radical, is already gone from public

broadcasting. Others are sure to follow. If Amy Goodman of NPR's Democracy

Now! wants to stay on the radio, she would be wise to rename her show

Democracy Later! if y'know what I mean, Vern. Read 'em and weep at

http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/article.pl?sid=05\/03\/17\/1442219<\/a>

http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/article.pl?sid=05\/05\/16\/1329245<\/a>.

To A*C*E Members and Friends:

I'm certain some of you are wondering about the fate of The monthly ACE.

You may recall that both Lee and myself constantly tried to drum up input

from the members, and that the September issue contained a plea for

someone- anyone- to step up and volunteer to edit the DiaLogs column.

Normally the loss of a single editor wouldn't be a major problem but

DiaLogs is the heart and soul of the publication and without both a

dedicated editor and reports from the membership there really isn't

anything to publish. PopComm and MT cover features; the ACE is supposed to

be hard, breaking news. And an Association is not just one or two people;

by definition it's a group. In the time since the September issue was

mailed I've heard from a total of four people, including George Zeller and

Frederick Moe, two former writers who previously resigned because of the

lack of input from the membership for their columns.

Ironic, isn't it? Just a few years ago The ACE was \"on the cutting edge\" of

both technology and the radio hobby. We were the first club in the bobby to

use computers to generate the columns and transmit them to the publisher

(in the mid-80s) and we ran the ANARC\/ACE BBS for years (remember BBSs?)

Today we can't even find someone to edit a column. I was a \"charter member\"

of ACE and it hurts to write this, but... Given the declining membership

numbers, the declining support and input from said membership, and the

ever-increasing cost of doing business, The ACE is ceasing publication.

It's been a great run - all 23.5 years of it! I'm proud to have been a part

of it. I would like to solicit some feedback from you. What would you

suggest for the future of our Association? Would you be willing to support

a migration of some sort to the internet? You can contact me either

\"snail-mail\" or email. If we are to rise Phoenix-like in the future, we

need your insight and comments. Those who paid in advance for additional

years and those who just renewed before we hit the rocks will find refund

checks enclosed. We sincerely thank you for your support over the years.

Wishing you all great DX. 73FR John T. Arthur

AMPB LINKS ON THE WEB

Leonard Peltier has spent enough time in prison!

http:\/\/www.leonardpeltier.org<\/a> (the official website)

http:\/\/www.freepeltier.org<\/a> (the most up-to-date information)

Learn more about the american soldiers killed in Iraq.

http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-srv\/world\/iraq\/casualties\/facesofthefallen.htm<\/a>

Slave Revolt Radio now has a blog!

http:\/\/mysite.verizon.net\/res7dhyg\/slaverevoltradio.html<\/a>

http:\/\/www.WantToKnow.info<\/a>

http:\/\/www.unknownnews.com<\/a>

http:\/\/www.mindfully.org<\/a>

http:\/\/mysite.verizon.net\/vzeo9ewi\/idrissstelleyfoundation\/<\/a>

http:\/\/www.diymedia.net<\/a>



AMPB RECORD CHART FOR THE WEEK ENDING: 1\/14\/06

# TITLE - ARTIST - LABEL

1 ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE - VARIOUS - ATTAC

2 SONGS OF THE VOLCANO - BOB BROZMAN, ETC. - WORLD MUSIC NET.

3 DEMON DAYS - GORILLAZ - EMI

4 AT THE CENTER - MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO - THIRSTY EAR

5 PATTERNS OF WAR - DR. ISRAEL - ROIR

6 SIEG HOWDY! - JELLO BIAFRA WITH THE MELVINS - ALT. TENTACLES

7 THE TRINITY - SEAN PAUL - VP

8 THE 121 PROJECT - SONIC RADIATION - UNKNOWN RECORDS

9 NEW WHIRL ODOR - PUBLIC ENEMY - SLAMJAMZ REC.

10 ROLAS DE AZTLAN - VARIOUS ARTISTS - SMITHSONIAN

11 FOR A DECADE OF SIN - VARIOUS ARTISTS - BLOODSHOT

12 ASIAN LOUNGE - VARIOUS ARTISTS - PUTUMAYO

13 WEST NILE FUNK - EX-CENTRIC SOUND SYSTEM - INDIELAND

14 THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T FLY - KATE RUSBY - COMPASS

15 HAIL TO THE THIEF 2 - VARIOUS ARTISTS - GEORGE & JULES

16 RAW RAW DUB - BUSH CHEMISTS - ROIR

17 PROTEST: SONGS OF STRUGGLE AND RESISTANCE - ELLIPSIS ARTS

18 THE ESSENTIAL - RAVI SHANKAR - COLUMBIA

19 CEASEFIRE - EMMANUEL JAL&ABDEL GADIR SALIM - WORLD MUSIC NET

20 HAVE YOU HEARD - TOSHI REAGON - RIGHTEOUS BABE

21 SOUNDS ECLECTICO - VARIOUS ARTISTS - NACIONAL

22 THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO ARABIA - UNION SQUARE

23 THE COLLECTION - ALANIS MORISSETTE - MAVERICK

24 CELTIC CROSSROADS - VARIOUS ARTISTS - PUTUMAYO

25 BRIDGETOWN - JOHNNY B. CONNOLLY - GREEN LINNET

26 NEXT TO YOU - EDWIN YEARWOOD - VP

27 CASUALTIES OF RETAIL - ENTER THE HAGGIS - FIREBRAND ENT.

28 BABY - THE DETROIT COBRAS - BLOODSHOT

29 THE ROUGH GUIDE TO...BALKAN GYPSIES - WORLD MUSIC NET

30 ROYAL ALBERT HALL - CREAM - REPRISE

31 SACRED GROUND - VARIOUS ARTISTS - SILVER WAVE

32 DUB WARS - GROUNDATION - YOUNG TREE

33 DAILY BREAD - COREY HARRIS - ROUNDER

34 PUTUMAYO PRESENTS THE CARIBBEAN - PUTUMAYO

35 GLOBAL FUSION - EMAM & FRIENDS - ETERNAL MUSIC

36 SONGS FROM THE GUTTER - THEA GILLMORE - COMPASS

37 THE BEST OF - DIRE STRAITS - WARNER BROS.

38 STRICTLY THE BEST #34 - VARIOUS ARTISTS - VP

39 FREEDOM AND WEEP - WACO BROTHERS - BLOODSHOT

40 GLOBAL RHYTHM MAGAZINE FEBRUARY ISSUE - GLOBAL RHYTHM

CAPTAIN FRED'S WORLD CRUISE #63

HEAT FLASH-SONIC RADIATION

COUNTING OUT STONES-DR. ISRAEL

I WANNA BE FREE-FEMI KUTI

GOD BLESS AMERICA-BAAZIZ

FREEDOM SOUNDS-THE SKATALITES

BEAUTIFUL RABAUL-LIONS 2000 STRINGBAND

EL PICKET SIGN-EL TEATRO CAMPESINO

FLUTE THANG-MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO

DARE-GORILLAZ

DOUBLE DRUM-BUSH CHEMISTS

BAGHDAD-KADIM AL SAHIR

SOL-KINKY

GUA-EMMANUEL JAL & ABDEL SALIM

THE AFRICAN BEE-EX-CENTRIC SOUND SYSTEM

DISCOVERY OF INDIA-RAVI SHANKAR

ANGELS OF THE ISLAND-BALI LOUNGE

THE TRINITY-SEAN PAUL

I WANNA DESTROY YOU-DOLLAR STORE

VOTED OFF THE ISLAND-JELLO BIAFRA W\/THE MELVINS

SUPERMAN'S BLACK IN THE BUILDING-PUBLIC ENEMY

This show can be downloaded from the following sites:

http:\/\/www.radio4all.net<\/a>

http:radio.indymedia.org



AMPB REPORT #70

a publication by the Association of Micro-Power Broadcasters

AMPB

PMB 22

2018 Shattuck Ave.

Berkeley, CA 94704

ampb@california.com<\/a>

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