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News :: Media |
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Mosquito Fleet Ready To NAB Back The Seattle Airwaves |
Current rating: 0 |
by Paul Riismandel
Email: paul (nospam) mediageek.org (unverified!)
Address: Champaign, IL |
11 Sep 2002
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A fleet of unlicensed micropower radio stations is readying to take back the FM frequencies stolen by the FCC and Nat'l Association of Broadcasters (NAB), while the NAB's radio conference ( http://www.nab.org/conventions/radioshow/2002/ ) meets in Seattle. |
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Responding to a call put out by microradio.net (http://www.microradio.net), microbroadcasters from all over the US have descended upon Seattle to bring voices of liberation to every empty space on the FM dial. In the Fall of 2000 the US Congress slipped language into an unrelated appopriations bill that cut back th FCC's roll-out of low-power FM radio stations. Congress' intervention requires that low-power stations, running at 100 watts or less, obey the same spacing on the dial as stations as much as 1000x as poweful. Because the radio dials of most urban areas (even Champaign-Urbana) are already full of big kilo-watt stations, this means that new low-power stations have been effectively shut out of our cities. This, despite the fact that radio engineers and activists contend that there's plenty of space to fit in low-wattage stations intended to cover neighborhoods or small cities, rather than blanket entire metropolitan areas.
Most tragically, this means that the democratic potential of inexpensive, noncommercial community-based low-power FM stations cannot be realized by the disenfranchised urban and inner-cities communities that need them most.
This Mosquito Fleet of low-power transmitters ( http://www.microradio.net/upcoming.htm ) intends to vividly demonstrate that the open frquencies blocked off by Congress are completely appropriate for low-power stations, without intference to big kilowatt stations, by putting stations on those frequencies thoughout the city of Seattle. This all happens while the NAB's Radio Show ( http://www.nab.org/conventions/radioshow/2002/ )meets in the city's center.
Preparing for this week's broadcasts microbroadcasters, DIY-engineers and IMCistas have been busy building and tuning transmitters and antenas. #file_1#
On Tuesday night, one enterprising broadcaster even set up a station operating out of a hotel room, broadcasting progressive public affairs and news for about a five mile radius. #file_2#
The Mosquito Fleet action coincides with the Reclaim the Media rally and conference ( http://reclaimthemedia.org/ ) that starts Thursday, Sept. 12. The conference kicks off with a rally in Seattle's Freeway Park, located across from where the NAB is holding its radio conference. Here independent mediators, media activists, radio listeners, and average citizens will come face-to-face with the media bosses rsponsible for consolidating, homogenizing and gutting our radio dials.
The Seattle IMC is the sponsor and main epicenter for the conference and many conference events.
#file_3#
Seattle was the site of the first ever IMC, put together to cover the protests surrounding the WTO meetings there in November 1999, now known as the Battle in Seattle. IMCistas from IMCs all over have converged on the Seattle IMC to take part in the conference and to cover it.
I will be posting reports from Seattle to the U-C IMC Newswire, and to the mediageek website (http://www.mediageek.org). I will be reporting from Seattle on the mediageek radioshow (http://www.mediageek.org/radioshow.html), airing this Friday, Sept. 13, at 5:30 PM on Community Radio WEFT 90.1 FM (http://www.weftfm.org).
For more news and info, stay tuned to Seattle IMC -- http://seattle.indymedia.org |
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See also:
http://www.mediageek.org
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org
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Tune In To A Mosquito Live From Seattle |
by wxm & sb
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
11 Sep 2002
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seattle mosquito fleet member system p is streaming on the web tonight, in addition to FM.
Tune in at:
http://www.shoutcast.com/sbin/shoutcast-playlist.pls?addr=www.live365.com/play/176822&file=filename.pls |
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Re: Mosquito Fleet Ready To NAB Back The Seattle Airwaves |
by gus
gusl36 (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
05 May 2005
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Why is this posted here now? It's from 2002. |
