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Radio Free Richmond Project
VIDEO and PSA DOWNLOAD PAGE
(Please have patience, this page is 63kbytes not including graphics)
Is Ready for National Distribution ... See below for the script to the video slide show and more detailed information as well as better shots of some of the pictures seen in the video. You can also email us and we can customize the video with your local contact information to create a very powerful organizing tool for you!
This "Video" can help us help you help us get Low Power FM stations on to the air! ...and help you organize citizens in your area at the same time ... When the Radio Free Richmond Project of the Virginia Center for Public Press ran a different version of this slide Show on Richmond's MediaOne Cable Public Access channel last year:
This video can begin your foray into Bypassing The Status-Quo-MediaFilter. The other wonderful advantage for you to the SlideShowSeries is that the video remains the same for several months ... but the audio can be changed every week or as often as you can create and edit audio content that is the same length as the video slide show. This way you can show off audio-radio shows and bands to people who would otherwise not hear them ! Directions:
Email us to arrange customizing SlideShow for your group, or just save time and immediately use the generic version provided on this website. If you decide to use the generic version on this website:
The best way is to use a gadget that converts VGA to NTSC video format (that your VHS videotape machine will read), such as this this Averkey iMicro PC/Mac-to-Video converter that is normally used for presentations. Method #2: find a good screen and simply point a camera or camcorder at the screen. The best way is to feed the video from the camcorder (don't forget to turn off any character generation features) into a VCR. I find that laptops are especially good for this with their flat active-element displays. Other than that find a monitor with a fairly high refresh rate to avoid too much "banding". Oh, another point, you can adjust the VGA converters to "overscan " or not and shrink or expand the image to smaller, or larger than the screen's physical size. You could also shrink the image in the PC monitor to slightly less than total coverage and get black around the screen shot in your video. This will be less distracting than if you can see the PC monitor screen body in the shot. Don't forget to turn the lights way down or off for the actual videotaping
if you use the camera-at-the-screen method.
Then run an adapter cable from the sound card into the sound in on the VCR. This is better because the VCR has a "line level" input whereas most Camcorders are designed for a microphone input only. The "impedance" of the microphone input is different enough from the earphone out or line level out of a sound card that you can get significant distortion. Even with the adapter cable running into a "line level" input on the
VCR, you will want to keep the volume low coming out of the sound card
to reduce distortion.
SCRIPT AND SHOTS FROM THE VIDEO WITH LINKS AND FURTHER EXPLANATIONS: How would your life be different if you had a radio station?
We created this video to help you grab this historic opportunity to get your voice, values and culture on the airwaves that you own! Hello! My name is Janet Lundy
You too can join our effort to bring new voices to the FM dial, your voice! Low Power FM, also called LPFM, was approved by the Federal Communication Commission FCC in February 2000. LPFM stations are specifically designed for NEW and NEW LOCAL nonprofit organizations with an educational mission to create programming "For The Rest Of US" whose values, culture, news and music are not aired on existing radio stations. The large broadcasters, represented by the National Association of Broadcasters,
or NAB and National Public Radio, NPR, oppose LPFM stations because they
allege LPFM stations will put signals on the air that your radio will not
be able to separate from theirs.
Their fear is that you will turn on your walkman or shower radio and
our world music or techno, polka music, or civic association talk show
will bleed into their station's signal.
The NAB testified to Congress that allowing LPFM stations would be a disastrous abandonment of strict regulations designed to prevent signals from mixing by competing for your receiver's attention in the guaranteed signal coverage areas. NPR also testified that LPFM stations would destroy the reading services for the blind. There is only one glaring problem with their testimony, if those were GOING to be problems with LPFM stations, then it would ALREADY have BEEN a problem for 30 YEARS!!!! Do you recall any such rancorous debate in the last thirty years? NO
of course not.
You see, there are already HUNDREDS of radio stations on the air right now that are just as close OR EVEN CLOSER TOGETHER as LPFM stations would be. It is that distance or buffer space, that is the center of this debate. These existing stations are called "SHORT SPACED" because they are closer
together than theory recommends in order for your radio to separate the
signals.
We live in a society that has become so reliant on technology for our
very survival that now political public policy debates are often DISGUISED
as technical debates.
This process is time consuming, but since Low Power FM is designed to be grass roots radio, it’s our feeling that we must take the time to educate the public on the details of this debate. So you may at times feel that this tape is a technical discussion and
say
Because while the real fight is political, it is disguised as a technical
debate
00:05:00 So allow me to briefly review the issue. There are two major points of contention: First, the NAB testified to Congress that your receiver would hear both
an LPFM station and a full power station and that it would sound like this
The problem with that testimony is that it was literally made up, manufactured
on the spot by a hired scientist (hired by the National Association of
Broadcasters) with a laptop. The hired scientist literally played two soundtracks
smoothly mixed together in his laptop PC.
As the scientist from the United Church of Christ Dr. Rappaport, who
is seen sitting to the right in the picture said, THAT'S NOT HOW FM WORKS!
Dr. Rappaport has real world evidence on his side. We drove for three hours to find an area of a few hundred feet along highway 1-495 near the intersection of highway 50. We recorded this sample of a weak distant station
OK, time for guess that tune, what classic rock song was that?
During the debate at the Congressional hearings you see in the picture, one of the Congressmen kept asking, "What is 'acceptable interference'? You just heard it folks. This is acceptable because hardly anyone is listening, no-one cares enough to complain! We literally found the worst receiver we could find and had to search
for three hours to find this brief area of interference that was a few
hundred feet in length. Keep in mind that any LPFM stations would be a
tiny fraction of the power of the two stations sampled here and it is doubtful
we would even be able to hear an LPFM station at the distances used in
this test at all!!
As evidenced by millions of people struggling to hear tinny sounding Internet Radio stations, and thousands of pirate radio stations, what people really want is VARIETY of programming content. As you can hear, the manufactured NAB clip of alleged interference between
an LPFM and a classical station just does not sound like a real world example.
Any Congressmen could listen for himself.
For example;
Actually its not funny because the Congressman would be very hard pressed
to find any moment when the two stations caused his radio to have a problem
separating the two signals.
Let us briefly re-investigate this whole SHORT SPACED issue again.
Notice we are talking about TWO kinds of distance measured. FM radio jumps from station to station on the ODD numbered frequencies.
Let’s make an analogy. Suppose the radio stations are parallel parked on a street, and they park that way by pulling IN like a bus does. To prevent the bus from smashing into the cars parked on either side of the stop, there needs to be plenty of room in front and in back of the actual spot where the bus will be. Well, back in 1964, all that buffer space was considered necessary because the old vacuum tube transmitters and receivers would fidget all over the dial like a 6 year old on two cans of Pepsi! Well some of the kids didn't fidget that much and to follow the analogy, not all of the drivers (stations) were that sloppy. Some of them learned how to BACK into a parking spot that was easily between two other stations. These stations were allowed to continue violating the theoretically necessary spacing requirements because they were already there and no-one was complaining. This continued for thirty years. More stations were added when libertarian Federal Communication Commissions allowed stations to agree to interfere with each other or when a mountain was in the way and it was proven that the station on the other side of the mountain was just not going to be a problem. The FCC granted what were called "waivers" of these spacing rules for years ... and why not? In 1996, the National Association of Broadcasters themselves argued that their own "SHORT SPACED" stations on each other's "THIRD ADJACENT FREQUENCIES" be allowed to remain there. The NAB in 1996 also argued that these hugely powerful stations, such
as 22,500 watt WJFK106.7FM and 34,000 watt WRQX107.3FM which are ALMOST
next door to 29,000 watt WTOP107.7FM be allowed to continue violating the
theoretically necessary buffer space rules. Why? because in the NAB's own
words in the official record say,
The NAB went even another step closer to what is now called anarchy
by asking that these stations be allowed greater flexibility of movement,
to scoot their towers around like chess pieces when they lose their lease
on a tower or something.
Guess what? THE FCC AGREED! There are now hundreds of radio stations that are AS CLOSE OR CLOSER than a mere 100 watt LPFM stations would be ... BUT AT HUGE POWER LEVELS. Lets look at just one last example that illustrates this. Northern Virginia's WJFK is at 106.7 on the FM dial with 22,500 watts
of power.
By contrast, an LPFM station must have at least a 20 mile buffer all
around, not including the original spacing between stations AND an LPFM
station is only allowed a maximum of 100 watts.
Consider that contrast that if WRQX wanted to get on the air today, they would have to get a waiver from the FCC or they would have to apply under the LPFM rules, which would require that they move almost entirely out of Washington DC altogether as well as drop their power down 29 THOUSANDTHS , that is 0.0029 the current allowed power level of WRQX. Put another way, an LPFM station is just 1/15th the power of your hair-dryer! But the current WRQX is over 22 times MORE powerful than that hairdryer. Now really, does it not strain credibility to say that the laws of physics are going to work differently for LPFM stations owned by minority subculture educational nonprofit groups? If NAB full-power “Short Spaced” stations can be CLOSER together than an LPFM station would EVER be allowed at 340 TIMES AN LPFM STATION'S POWER LEVEL ... and not cause a storm of protest ... why would we? They have framed this issue as a purely technical debate, but as you can now probably see, we are only asking that we be allowed to enjoy the same benefits of technology as they are enjoying. IF new digitally tuned receivers allow WJFK and WRQX to coexist and at dozens of tens of thousands of watts, surely we can coexist with the power of your refrigerator light? The 14th Amendment to the Constitution says that we all have a right
to be treated equally by the laws of the land. The FCC did not give those
"Short Spaced" stations a waiver to break the rules just to snub us. The
FCC granted those waivers because it seemed like the right thing to do
at the time. Experience has proven that the FCC WAS doing the right thing.
Now a few years later, the same National Association of Broadcasters want you to believe that the FCC has “abandoned interference standards”. That is not true! The new LPFM regulations simply allows nonprofit educational institutions to apply for the same variance in rules that were allowed these hundreds of hugely powerful, politically influential and wealthy “short spaced” radio stations. How funny then that the NAB is NOW saying that if we are allowed to do what they do, it will be anarchy! 18:00 NOT including the clips played. In a very similar manner, National Public Radio NPR is alleging that LPFM stations will cause a destruction of the reading services for the blind. Again, it is a political debate CLOAKED as if it were a purely technical debate. And once again, if LPFM stations WERE GOING to be a problem for the reading services for the blind ... then it WOULD HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM ALREADY FOR MANY MANY YEARS. This brings us to the second point of contention:
Reading services for the blind are carried on what is called a "Subcarrier Channel". Pardon just one more time a technical description that we hope can help
you understand the issue.
Imagine that we are at a crowded party and that you are trying to follow this narration, or that you would rather listen to one or both of the party animals singing row row row your boat behind me. Your brain is able to pick out one of the voices and filter out the others. That is exactly what happens with the reading services for the blind.
An FM transmitter has generally at least four “voices” that are “singing”
and speaking all at the same time on the same channel … and the receiver
filters out just the voices it needs. Stereo is made up of three voices,
the tone that activates the stereo light and circuits. Those stereo circuits
then filter out the left and the right channel information that are on
two more subcarrier channels, or voices that get filtered out.
(now add a fourth “voice”, one of us frequency shifted into chipmunk range reading a newspaper) That is how many blind people get their reading services, the exact
same way that you get two stereo channels out of one radio signal, from
the subcarrier channels.
So anything that harms the subcarrier reading services would also harm
the stereo signal.
NPR also claims that their classical music is especially subject to
disruption.
And now, for one final point: There are companies that make a lot of
money selling information to businesses on those subcarrier channels.
Another example is Command Audio, that sells you a gadget to download certain programs like "All Things Considered" or Investment Discussion shows. The programs are stored in a special radio for your car or office ... and just like an MP3 player, you play those programs when you have time to hear them. Command Audio is like an MP3 player that downloads its programs through the subcarrier channels of a local FM station. If indeed LPFM or the hundreds of existing hugely powerful "Short Spaced" stations were really causing trouble for subcarrier channels, you would expect that these companies that use subcarrier to make money would be screaming to kill LPFM. No comment either way has been heard from these companies as of this taping. Furthermore, the technical expert who wrote the National Federation of Community Broadcasters comments to the FCC in FAVOR of LPFM is himself just such a subcarrier businessman! That's why NPR's complaints that LPFM will destroy blind reading services are misleading So as you can see, this is NOT a technical debate, it is about justice, about everyone getting the same treatment before the law. It is about access and taxation without representation.
23:00
Now we get to the part of the program where you can apply this new knowledge. The Big Broadcasters of NPR and the National Association of Broadcasters have ganged up to sponsor bills in the Senate that would destroy your ability to enjoy an equal opportunity to be heard! Two of these bills are generically referred to as the "Broadcast Preservation Acts". The bill numbers for the "Broadcast Preservation Acts" in the Senate is SB2068 and SB3020. The latest Senate “Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000”, now with a new bill number SB3020 is exactly the same wording as the house bill HR3439 that was passed by almost two thirds vote. SB3020 is touted as a “compromise” that allegedly allows LPFM to proceed while supposedly protecting current broadcasters. But SB3020, “The Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000” would only “preserve” the double standard that allows huge broadcasters like WAVA and WRQX mentioned earlier to create space on the packed FM dial of Washington DC by using “third adjacent frequencies… but denies us the same opportunity!! Thus SB3020 “Broadcast Preservation” would wipe out the vast majority of LPFM applications inequitably and unconstitutionally since we are guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, equal protection under the law. If we can’t use third adjacent frequencies, then WRQX and WAVA have to also come off the air. Or they let us on! This cuts the number of LPFM stations possible from hundreds to dozens
and NONE in major metropolitan areas!
These are the bills that must be defeated if your voice is to be heard
using Low Power FM radio stations.
Senate SB2068 simply makes LPFM illegal entirely.
SB3020 denies most LPFM applicants the same rules the big NPR and NAB stations enjoy. Thank-you for taking the time to consider this issue and act hopefully in an enlightened self-interest that the founders of the United States expected for its citizenry. I am looking forward to hearing you on an LPFM station soon. Time: 29:12 minutes
Radio Free Richmond
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. We are
Radio Free Richmond Founding Premises:
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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 ...
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.
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) received
13,000 requests for a slot to
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.
President@whitehouse.gov 202-456-1414 Voice 202-456-2461 Fax ALSO: remind Bush 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.
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Phone: 804-649-WRFR Addr: Virginia Center for the Public Press Radio Free Richmond Project 1621 W Broad St. Richmond, Va. 23220 |
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