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!

Communities-Of-Interest:

What does "Community Radio" mean?
To explain that, you must understand two things.

• There are many different "publics" and "communities-of-interest" in a society,
• America is not a "melting pot".

It's a goulash of many cultures whose juices join in the American soup.
The individual ingredients retain their identity.

• The term "Public Radio" suggests "radio for the people",the masses, the public.

However, turn on most "public" radio stations andyou'll usually find elitistmusic, news, views and the culture of upper-classEuropean-Americans. Not the common masses.

This elitist programming follows only part of the conceptthe originial mission statement for the CPB:

"From its beginnings in 1967, the mission of public [broadcasting]has been to … reflect the diversity of the American public. The CarnegieCommission Report, which led Congress to pass the Public Broadcasting Actof 1967, argued that public [broadcasting] programming ‘can help us seeAmerica whole, in all its diversity,’ serve as ‘a forum for controversyand debate,’ and ‘provide a voice for groups in the community that mayotherwise be unheard.’"

Since the FCC's inception in 1934, there have always been forcesdemanding a powerful noncommercial broadcasting service to counteract the"baseness" of commercial communications. Commercial broadcast interestssuccessfully prevented any government sanctioned competition.

In 1949, a pacifist named Lew Hill started the first noncommercial andnonreligious stations, the Pacifica Network.
But without of the government protection from the marauding forcesof commercial broadcast interests, expansion of the Pacifica network wasexcruciatingly slow.

However, the pressure to reform broadcast programming built up untilthose who found Lew Hill's vision attractive successfully campaigned forthe creation of the CPB.

As you can see, the CPB was designed to be a refuge for ignored diversity.

Not all groups had the time and money to pressure Congress, but theCommercial interests did.

Thus a pyrric victory resulted; a CPB structured to give theappearanceof "radio for the rest of us", but actually providing free programmingfor the upper classes who had time to pressure Congress.

Unfortunately, those who had the resources and leisure to actually buildthe NPR stations were generally people who identified with European upperclass culture. The "rest of us"-also unserved by commercial broadcasters,but not of upper class European culture, were left out.

Ironically, since the government is so influenced by commercial interests,when the government threw broadcast reformists a bone through the CPB,this diluted the power of the grass-roots radio of Lew Hill's vision.

The Pacifica vision included those communities-of-interest that commercialinterests ignored.

So, the phrase "public radio" does not actually mean the entire public-it'shistorically a bit of a misnomer.

Just as "public" radio does not appeal to the all the different publics,neither does "community radio" mean every single community.

"Public Radio" is not "Community Radio":

The phrase "Community Radio" means "the community of people who showup."

If you turn on most of the 250+ radio stations that refer to themselvesas "community radio" stations across the United States, you will find that"Community Radio" refers to those people who need to be heard and haveno other outlet.

Therefore, they are motivated to invest their time, passion and moneyto create an outlet for that human need to communicate, to matter, to telltheir story.

However, these are the stories that do not have the money of the NPRaffiliated stations.
The CPB and NPR system are structured to minimize the less connectedcommunities of interest from enjoying access.
For example, to be a full NPR affilate and enjoy full access to alltheir programs at the lowest per unit cost, you must have 5 paid staffand a minimum $100,000/year operating budget.

The diverse coalition of minority subcultures that make up "CommunityRadio" stations rarely have that much money.

This explains why most community radio stations are an eclectic mix,a diverse coalition of "oddballs" who come from cultural and ideologicalviewpoints that challenge the Status-Quo such as:
 

Libertarians,  Environmentalists,  Small Business owners,  Home Schooling Parents,  Single Parents,  John Birchers,  Lesbians/Gays,

Ethnics : Asians,  Africans,  Indians Recently transplanted Europeans,  Hispanics  American Indians

Buddhists,  Quakers,  Moslems,  Hindus,  Athiests, Wiccans, etc

That is why Radio Free Richmond is "Radio For the Rest of Us" unservedby the other existing radio stations.
 
 

• Community Radio is vital to American Democracy for onesimple reason, America is not a "melting pot."

If all the parts are not represented in the media, the stories tolddo not include their experiences and needs.

The Low Power Radio Service enjoys broad support among those who knowabout it-from the far Right to the Far Left and all the other ignored voices because they can tell their stories.

Therefore, this list is only a selection of those groups that already work with the Radio Free Richmond Project OR are LIKELY to produce programming for such a coalition:

• Floating Folk Festival(A coalition of folk and folksy rockers who travel from venu to venu).
• Vegetarian Society of Richmond
• Richmond Animal Rights Network
• RABA (Richmond Area Bike Association)
• City Air Makes You Free (Celebrates and defends urban living from the perspective of "the little guy")
• And some other major groups that have written "Letters Of Intent" that they intend to create shows and Public Service Announcements on Radio Free Richmond. You can view our application to the FCC for our Low Power FM broadcast license to see these letters.
  Some of the groups that have signed on:
  • Richmond City Mayor Timothy Kaine
  • NAACP Richmond Branch (not yet scanned)
  • Richmond School Board Member Bill Lafoon (not yet scanned)
  • Falls Of The James Sierra Club
  • Virginia Sierra Club
  • Amnesty International (Richmond Chapter)
  • Richmond Jazz Society
  • AFSCME (Union) Va Council 27 (not yet scanned)
  • Richmond Peace Education Center
  • ACLU
  • Virginia Commonwealth University Professor David Croteau (not yet scanned)
    (nationally famous analyst of media from a Sociological perspective  in the book " "By Invitation Only: How the Media Limit Political Debate"  
  • Punchline Magazine (a local Richmond publication)
  • Richmond Coalition for a Living Wage
  • Virginia Treatment Center for Children (Children's Hospital) (not yet scanned)
  • Synergy

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

.......

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WHAT IS LPFM?
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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.)