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Announcement :: Civil & Human Rights : Health : Housing : Media |
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FCC Approves Emergency Relief Radio Station for Astrodome Residents [Updated Again!] |
Current rating: 0 |
by via Prometheus Radio Project
(No verified email address) |
07 Sep 2005
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Subject: RELEASE: FCC Approves Emergency Relief Radio Station for Astrodome Residents
With FCC Go-Ahead, Only Astrodome Bureacracy Keeps Technicians from Saving Lives
Prometheus has been working with Radio Free Urbana for years to put a LPFM station on the air in Urbana. This project is now trying to get on the air as a U-C IMC working group. Watch for announcements on how you can help with that or go to www.wrfu.net
Please consider helping this high priority project that Prometheus and Houston IMC are working on. We had hoped to have the first legal IMC LPFM operating here at U-C IMC, but Houston or New Orleans need that distinction far more than we do.
ML |
From: Hannah Sassaman <hannahjs (at) prometheusradio.org>
Subject: RELEASE: FCC Approves Emergency Relief Radio Station for Astrodome Residents
Contact: Professor Tish Stringer, tish (at) rice.edu, (713) 478-4559
Contact: Hannah Sassaman, hannahjs (at) prometheusradio.org, (215)-727-9620
print this release here:
http://www.prometheusradio.org/katrina_ten_thousand_radios_release.doc
Relief volunteers and Independent Media organizers in Houston, Texas, in
collaboration with residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina, have gotten
permission from the Federal Communications Commission and the City of
Houston, Texas to build a 30 watt radio station to serve the people and
families currently living at the Houston Astrodome and adjacent
buildings. But a lack of final permission from officials at the
Astrodome is keeping the station -- set to launch at 95.3 FM -- from
going on the air.
The radio volunteers, led by a community media publishing group called
Houston Indymedia, are working with volunteer professional engineers and
technicians from all over the United States to get this station on the
air. The FCC acted on Saturday to approve the station, and quickly, the
City of Houston gave the project a letter of offical support. The
Prometheus Radio Project, a not-for-profit organization that builds Low
Power FM radio stations all around the United States, has worked
throughout the weekend to facilitate the legal and timely launch of this
radio station.
"Families are putting up notices on the walls to find lost parents and
children, and then crying themselves to sleep at night, as they start to
let the weight of the past week bear down on them," said Hannah
Sassaman, an organizer at Prometheus. "This station will provide
critical information for people putting their lives back together, as
well as the comfort and power of programming made by local Houston
volunteers and Astrodome residents. We need to cut through this red
tape and start delivering information to these families."
The Houston Indymedia volunteers, who produce a radio program on
Pacifica radio station KPFT, are moving their whole studio to the
Astrodome and working with volunteers from as far away as Portland,
Oregon to get the station, which they are calling Kristina Aftermath
Media Project, on the air right away. Besides official permission
from the Astrodome, they'll need more equipment -- radios for as many
potential listeners as possible -- to make this possible.
"The FCC, the City of Houston, and the people living at the Astrodome
want this station to go on the air," says Rice University professor and
Indymedia organizer Tish Stringer. "But the Astrodome staff won't let
the station launch until we have enough radios for all the families. We
have the radios ready to go, and all the equipment too. We're ready to
start delivering this essential service."
The telecommunications industry and the grassroots media justice
community are mobilizing to build communications infrastructure for the
displaced people of the Gulf. But some broadcasters wish there had been
more options for emergency relief before the storm and its aftermath hit.
Tom Hanlon, a volunteer with a property owners' association in Baton
Rouge that has been waiting 5 years for their Low Power FM radio license
to come through, said this about the exodus from New Orleans to Baton
Rouge: "A lack of accurate information, coupled with the time spent
tracking down false rumors, did more to delay the mobilization of Baton
Rouge than any hurricane. We need more LPFM stations in our cities to
help with these crises in the future."
To donate to the Houston project, please call the Prometheus Radio
Project at 215-727-9620, or visit them online at
http://www.prometheusradio.org, or visit http://houston.indymedia.org. |
This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license |
Comments
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Astrodome emergency radio station has been blocked |
by repost from Houston IMC
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Sep 2005
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by Jacob Appelbaum Wednesday September 07, 2005 at 05:25 PM
jacob (at) appelbaum.net
At 16:29 (CST) today, RW Royal Jr. Incident Commander of the JIC (Joint Information Committee) has denied Austin Airwaves the ability to run the emergency low power FM radio station inside of the dome.
Rita Obey is the person that told Austin Airwaves they had to have 10,000 radios before they could broadcast. We purchased a number of radios and while we’ve had some issues with this, it was just a meaningless golden egg. We called her bluff by getting the radios lined up to be purchased and they threw something else out.
At 16:29 (CST) today, RW Royal Jr. Incident Commander of the JIC (Joint Information Committee) has denied Austin Airwaves the ability to run the emergency low power FM radio station inside of the dome. This is contrary to the FCC licenses that have been issued to Austin Airwaves. However RW Royal Jr is a member of the JIC. He has decided to deny the request. When they asked why they were being turned down, they were told that the Astrodome could not provide them with electricity. When the Austin Airwaves team offered to run on battery backup, they were still denied.
This is an OUTRAGE.
The people on the ground I spoke with personally asked me why I was there. I told them that I was with a group helping to bring emergency radio information to them. Broadast from right inside the dome. Those people were overjoyed to hear that they would get a radio station with emergency information, with information on job interviews, food, housing, lost children, found person, clothing and other important information. It breaks my heart.
Why has this man denied this? Why is the government going out of its way to stop us from helping people?
This is a repost of my original article located at jacob.wordpress.com.
jacob.wordpress.com
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/43038.php |
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Copy of the denied proposal for a space to put the radio in the Astrodome |
by repost from Houston IMC
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Sep 2005
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Follow the link:
http://houston.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/43075.php
Lots more Katrina/Lake George coverage:
http://houston.indymedia.org/
http://houston.indymedia.org/features/katrina/
and of course, the unsinkable:
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/ |
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Houston Astrodome Radio 95.3 Finally Goes on the Air |
by via PRP
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
14 Sep 2005
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After a Week of Struggle, Radio Station Will Serve Thousands of
Displaced Families
Contact: Tish Stringer, 713 478 4559, tish (at) rice.edu
Contact: Renee Feltz, KPFT, 713 906 0407, news (at) kpft.org
Contact: Hannah Sassaman, Prometheus, 267 970 4007, hannahjs (at) prometheusradio.org
After a week of waiting, relief volunteers and independent media
organizers in Houston, Texas, have finally launched Katrina Aftermath
Media Project radio -- KAMP 95.3. This 6 watt radio station, which
recieved a license to serve the people and families currently living at
the Astrodome andadjacent buildings, will celebrate its official launch
at noon central time, on September 13th.
The radio volunteers, led by community media organization Houston
Indymedia, worked with a pack of volunteer engineers and technicians
from all over the United States to get this station on the air. The FCC
permit that the group is now using is the second permit the FCC approved
for the emergency relief station. The first never went on air, after
Harris County staff at the Astrodome and attendant buildings chose to
deny the organizers of the station access to the Astrodome facility.
Spokeswoman for the Astrodome's Joint Information Center, Gloria Romer,
told Renee Feltz of KPFT Local News, "The demands they required to do
this we could not meet... Elecricity supplies, phone lines, internet,
chairs and computers, we could not accomodate that."
"Though the communications office of Harris County claimed that they
didn't have the facilities to accomodate us, and that giving our
producers regular access to the facilities would pose a security risk,"
said station organizer Tish Stringer. "But the residents of the
Astrodome kept working with us, telling us the struggles they faced in
getting the information they needed. So we didn't give up."
The Federal Communications Commission approved a second license that
broadcast from the parking lot of the Astrodome complex this past
Sunday. This license, while broadcasting from outside the Astrodome
rather than right inside, will reach the thousands of residents spending
time in the parking lot outside the Dome, as well.
"A lot of the people don't know that they can come register for FEMA aid
at the Tech Center rather than waiting in line all day," said Adan
Medero, a volunteer working inside the Astrodome. "A radio station would
help to get that message out, because the paging system is not working
very well. A lot of times you can't hear it. So this would be great if
the radio would do that for folks in the Astrodome."
"Katrina Aftermath Media Project -- 95.3 -- is an essential tool for
families who really need communications right now," said Hannah
Sassaman, an organizer with Prometheus Radio Project, a group which
builds and supports community radio stations. "We will organize in
Congress to build more Low Power FM stations for every big city and
small town in the country."
To listen to some recorded audio from 95.3 FM, visit
http://evacuationradioservices.org, or http://houston.indymedia.org. To
learn more about Low Power FM radio, visit
http://www.prometheusradio.org. |
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