What: Community Cable Public Access TV Channels And  Radio  stations	Why: We need competition.	How: Educate Organize	Who: YOU  (150-300 volunteer DJ/News/Talk hosts =300 different views/cultures.
See our plans in our application to the FCC for a Low Power FM broadcast license!

Radio Free Richmond Project ... excerpts and commentaries on Washington Post stories of interest to supporters of  eclectic radio. Click on the icon above to visit the current Washington Post.

             In other words, the media watchdogs are actually the lapdogs of the
             burglars they are supposed to barking at.
             The Fox is the henhouse guard.

                 McCain came to the home of the first primary
                  to declare that a new president cannot break
                  "special interest" government in Washington
                  without first destroying "a campaign finance system that is nothing less than
                  an influence-peddling scheme in which both parties compete to stay in
                  office by selling the country to the highest bidder."
                 SN:] Boy, he said it!!!!!!! He would know!
                                 Tauzin "Turns up the heat" on the FCC"
                                 As seen in this link:
FOLOWUP POINT: Naked Power Grab: A merger between two
               communication's giants have to get past three Federal agencies,
               the Federal Communications Commission (with President
               Clinton's appointment of  Mr. Kennard, the first
               African-American Chairman ever), the
               Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission
               (the last two essentially controlled by
                pro-corporate-power-concentration Republicans)

               (Bloomberg News 5/26/99) "Two influential Senators introduced
               legislation that would limit the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's
               authority to review mergers. The bill, sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee
               Chairman John McCain(R-AZ) and Senate Judiciary Committee
               Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-WA), would forbid the FCC
               from blocking a transaction that either the Department of Justice
               or Federal Trade Commission  has cleared. "

               The Federal Trade Commission is overseen by the Senate
               Commerce Committee (Chaired by Senator John McCain)
               and the Department of Justice is overseen by the Senate
               Judiciary Committee (Chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch).

                As if that wasn't bad enough!!
                R&R 9/15/99:
                Broadcast Ownership Reform Act' Introduced
                Though the aim of Sen. John McCain's bill is to "assure timely,
                rational and complete FCC resolution of all pending proceedings
                re-examining the current radio and TV broadcast station rules," it
                looks as though the bill will affect TV more than radio. The legislation
                would, however, eliminate the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership
                ban. It also seeks to raise the limit on the national TV networks'
                audience reach from 35% to 50% and allow the FCC to raise it further
                if public interest warrants it.
SN] What "Public Interest" is served by destroying all vestiges of competition?

McCain's support of the onslought of mergers is especially odd given:
                  Washington Post article continues, "He said the Telecommunications
                  Act of 1996 -- which he was the only senator to oppose on
                  final passage -- was written in a process where "every company
                  affected had purchased a seat at the table with soft money"
                  while consumers were left outside. As a result, he said "lower
                  prices that competition produces never materialized. Cable rates went up.
                  Phone rates went up. And huge broadcasting giants received for free
                  billions of dollars in digital spectrum property that belonged to the
                  American people."

                  "We are all shortchanged by soft money, liberal and conservative alike,"
                  McCain said. "All of our ideals are sacrificed. We are all corrupted."

Email your Congressman/Senator ... ask questions, when will they support the Low Power Radio Service??
 

                  A rave party "is a place you can go up and give somebody a hug and
                  introduce yourself and have no problem," says Steve "Elmo" Gordy, 19,
                  an art student from Frederick, Md. "People who are not accepted . . .
                  come to raves and their self-esteem is raised so high. The acceptance you
                  feel is life-altering."

                  The Channel 5 broadcast featured some Buzz-goers and a police officer
                  saying people were on Ecstasy, the popular name for MDMA, an
                  amphetamine derivative that induces euphoria. The ravers respond that
                  there is no more substance abuse per capita at a rave party than
                  elsewhere in society.

            "Name me one youth culture where there's no drugs," says Tiffany Melton,
                  18, whose family lives on Andrews Air Force Base. "Name me one frat
                  party where people aren't drunk."
                  Channel 5 officials did not return telephone calls for comment.

                  All the same, some ravers defend Ecstasy. At the rally, a 32-year-old
                  computer industry professional from Washington says his experiments with
                  the $25 pills have been positive. In moderation, he claims, the drug
                  produces heightened sensations and eagerness to communicate with
                  others. "It helped me reach an emotional state I've had trouble reaching."

                  The soundtrack of the rave scene is electronic dance music often called
                  techno. It can be pumping, spacey, mesmerizing. The stars are the
                  deejays, who construct endless instrumental dramas through the artful
                  selection and melding of tracks recorded on vinyl.

                  The music emerged in the 1980s as influences from black and gay dance
                  clubs of Chicago, Detroit and New York blended with the electronic
                  avant-garde of Europe. Aficionados favor particular subgenres, such as
                  trance, jungle, drum 'n' bass, happy hardcore, progressive house, etc. "

Radio Free Richmond
seeks to be a light unto those who are not illuminated by existing commercial, religious or public radio stations.

We will play the News Views Jazz and Blues techno and free-form other radio stations would rather not use.

In this way we will contribute to a stable and just society where everyone can become who they want to be. 

We seek to enable the weakest links in our society to become strong  so that no-one can thrive on the pain and weakness of others.

Get on the air before 2000: 

 

More information on LPFM

 

Effort to defend our ability to hear WDCE 90.1FM as well as any new LPFM stations.

The Fall 2000 "Murrow's Hope" newsletter is the Video SlideShow and Audio File (playing now on AT&T and Comcast Cable Public Access channels)... or you can read the script here.

 

Read more details on the LPRS in Spring'99 Newsletter "Murrow's Hope"

 

Subscribe to eMurrow's Hope

.......

------------------------
WHAT IS LPFM?
------------------------

LPFM stands for "Low Power FM". LPFM is essentially the re-legalization of small affordable radio stations for new entrants to create competition to serve audiences ignored by larger stations.

The Big Broadcasters have had the rules bent for decades to make room for their 40,000 and 100,000 watt stations to squeeze onto the dial and spew horrible morning shows and repeat the same music over and over and over ... 
for DECADES!

Now a few thousand churches, educational and community civic groups want to get the same deal and make space on the FM dial to build affordable radio stations to bring those stories, values, culture and music that the big religious, NPR and commercial networks can't be bothered with. 
Your stories, values, culture and music.

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) received 13,000 requests for a slot to 
build a station in 1997.

Thousands of "pirate" radio stations have taken to the air for $1000 each or less. 

The FCC received over 3000 formal comments in the Low Power FM hearings, more than any other issue in FCC history!!

And so the FCC created the "Low Power FM" broadcast service. Designed to be affordable (less than a new car) and protected from the big boys (only new and only new local ownership can apply for one).

LPFM has BROAD public support, half of the LPFM applicants are (often) conservative churches, half are educational organizations or radical change organizations. 

And the Big Broadcasters know this and can't stand the competition. The Big Broadcasters are trying to cut costs, cut jobs by running all their radio stations by remote control. They don't want to have to hire back that staff because some 98 watt LPFM weakling is doing a better job on local music, culture and news than they can remotely. 

And so here we are at the tail end of a Senate Session. They were due to adjourn last week. 
Many Senators want to go home and campaign for reelection.

The Big Broadcasters are working hard to get our Senators all lined up to kill LOCAL COMMUNITY AND CHURCH radio 
that would increase their expenses because they would have to compete with us for your heart and soul.

The Big Broadcasters hope that President Clinton will not follow through on his promise to veto 
any bill that harms Low Power FM.

We need to provide Clinton with the support he needs to veto anti-LPFM legislation no matter what.
 
 

ALSO: remind Clinton that you don't appreciate NPR President Kevin Klose going against his own NPR membership stations in opposing Low Power FM, using tax money to kick thousands of church and educational LPFM radio stations off the air.
 
 

NPR affiliate Brasher, "I felt a little like a citizen might feel if he woke up one morning to find that a new president had been elected, but nobody told him there was an election. Frankly, I really doubt that the position taken by the officers, and I understand, this Board, represents the true feelings of the men and women who work in National Public Radio and in our stations.!"  (Speaking to the NPR board about President Kevin Klose's apparently renegade attack on LPFM.)