There are those that would have you believe that if the radio you hear does not speak to your values, then you are just wierd and should join the mainstream. Besides, that's just the "marketplace" at work and there isn't any more room on the dial. So buck up, shut up and go along to get along!!

Hmmm. Sound a lot like what I imagined Rosa Parks heard when she saw empty seats at the front of the bus! There is a lot of static on the Richmond Radio Dial that seem like suitable places for some diverse stations to appear!

The Radio Free Richmond Project is here to turn that energy into a reality!

Radio  For The Rest of Us!! The Rest Of Us who are unserved by the existing commercial, religious and noncommercial radio stations. The Rest Of Us who are deemed "fiscally unviable" by the commercial radio stations. The Rest Of Us who weren't born with the right spoon in our mouths to have any influence down at WCVE 88.9FM "Public" radio!

THE GOAL:

The broadest possible spectrum of human experience, ideas, sources and culture represented and exchanged in the media.

THE METHOD:

A Community Radio Station that operates 24hours a day, 365 days/year is the best solution. In the true American Tradition, if you don't find satisfaction in existing services ... create your own!

• Create a community radio station using traditional methods and current FCC rules:
• THE POSITIVE:
• A stable phone number and location for the members of the community to find when they want to get involved. This is the essense of community radio is that it be available to the communities that are pushed away by other radio stations! For this you must be able to get involved in the station without being part of a "clicque" or "in-crowd."
• THE NEGATIVE:
• Will cost about $200,000
• Will take about two to three years
• THE SOLUTION:
• SUPPORT CHANGING THE FCC RULES!
• RM-9242 is the title of a "Proposed Change of Rules" that would change the way the FCC defines "interference" to account for the fact that radios are perfectly capable of separating stations that are two or three "adjecencies" apart. For 88.9 "Ethyl Radio", that would be 89.1 and 89.3FM.
• The Important Features of RM-9242 are:
• Opens up second and third adjacencies for legal broadcast=ACCESS!
• Restricts Ownership/Control of these new frequencies to board members/ business owners that live within 50 miles of the antenna=LOCAL REPRESENTATION!
• Provides enough power (300 Watts=10 diameter coverage) that it can reach enough people to subsist of the communities donations ... yet not so large that it prevents the next community from having their station.=INDEPENDENCE!
• Gives preference to Civic Organizations and small businesses that DO NOT ALREADY HAVE FREQUENCIES=DIVERSITY!!
• TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN PEOPLE MUST WRITE TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS so that they will tell the FCC that this proposed changes in the rules is supported by the people that write the wage checks to the FCC people ... who are supposed to answer to you and I. If the people don't speak up, than he only voice the FCC/Congress will hear will be the National Association of Broadcasters.

• Finding and passing along current existing channels to greater diversity, SUCH AS:
• MediaOne Inc. Cable FM Feed ($3/mo.) Yes, there are radio stations coming down the television cable! Just plug the MediaOne Cable Co. cable into your FM reciever and ... TADAAA! FM signals. WHRV from Norfolk is available at 90.9FM on the Cable FM Feed. Also available is the Virginia Commonwealth University carrier current "radio" station as well as rebroadcast of WDCE from the University of Richmond.
• An Excellent antenna will also bring you WHRV 89.5FM from Norfolk as well as WTJU 91.1 (in the West End) and in  NorthSide (or from a tall building) you can get Washington DC stations WAMU 88.5FM, WPFW 89.3FM (it should also be noted that this is the model station for WRFR) as well as WCSP 90.1 C-Span Radio.
• Getting Involved in Cable Public Access Programming.
• Pressuring existing radio stations to have greater diversity until we get WRFR
• Demonstrations and letter-writing campaigns to underwriter/advertisers as well as members of the boards of directors. A partial list of possible goals includes:
• More PSAs during drive-time that inform us of solutions for our lives OTHER than in the marketplace. Self-Reliance, community etc.
• More time for candidates to express whatever may make them different from the other Tweedledee
• More Public Affairs programming when people are awake!
• Such as Talk Of The Nation, Fresh Aire, Democracy Now Living Room, Pacifica News and Hightower Radio.
• With LOCAL talk show hosts to bring in LOCAL activists, movers-and-shakers and citizens to bring the issues brought up on those national shows down to Richmond's level. EVERYDAY! Not just once in an unnanounced while.
• Support of RM-9242 by existing media outlets who are not afraid of competition!
• "Radio Pirate" Solution. A "radio pirate", Pete Tri Dish of "Radio Mutiny" made an excellent point at the 10/5/98 Microbroadcaster's Mobilization in front of the FCC and the NAB. Tri Dish said, "Those proposals wouldn't be on the table if we hadn't broken that stupid law." There is little doubt that if Rosa Parks had "gone along to get along", America would not have gotten the Civil Rights laws of the 1960s.

We have chosen to go the harder road (in the short run) of building a legal second public community radio station because there are many people who are unheard-from, who have a something to add to the "telling of the story of civilization" that we would be enriched to hear ... but will not get involved in illegal broadcasting.
Ironically, many of the people best served by radio are those who do not subscribe to newspapers (maybe they cannot read, or don't have the spare time), do not have cable, do not own a TV (due to philosophical reasons or poverty or mobility) and those who do not own a computer or have reliable internet connections.
It is ironic because the critics of the community radio movement say we don't need spaces on the radio dial to spread diverse culture and views, supposedly we can use the Internet and Cable Television.
We want a radio station where as many different people who are not served by the other radio stations can get a chance to have an impact on their surrounding society, to be acknowledged and to matter. To achieve that, we must be accessible to as many as possible, which means that we must be legal.
• Support from representative groups for diversity such as resolutions from City Council, the Lion's Club, the PTA etc for RM-9242 or it's later equivalents.

TV SHOWS :

Call 649-WRFR              and you can email to Wrfr@aol.com

GOTO DECEMBER 1998 NEWSLETTER

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