Home Page of FM4U.S.

restates it in layman's terms


 
• Principles

 
• Solutions Summary.

 
• LPFM is the best thing that ever happened to the FM dial

 
• Republican architect of 1996 Telecom Act is in favor of Low Power Television.

 
• Column explaining loss of freedom caused by DAB-IBOC much like Nazi single-station radios....

 
• Frequently Asked Questions ...

 
• Comments entered into the Congressional record regarding HR3439 hearings on "Spectrum Integrity" 

and the Effects of DAB and LPFM
 
• How Digital will not serve listeners and thus will not restore the 12% of lost listenership during the 1990s ... and will reduce, not increase, profits for most radio stations (all but the largest will lose money).

 
• LPFM is cited as a threat to existing radio stations by NPR and the NAB ... is it?

 
• Letter to Technology Investor Magazine discussing how  DAB plans to turn the FM dial into a fancy beeper network offering subscription Wireless Broadband Internet services, a.k.a. "auxiliary services."

 
• Wireless Internet on your FM dial ... you the listener is replaced with subscription mobile ISP services as a source of money for Clear Channel Inc. Communications . etc.

 
• Table of research showing that Classical Music is commercially viable

(and therefore a violation of the founding reasons for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting).
Abstract to "Public Radio in the United States: Does it correct market failure or Cannabalize Commercial Stations?"
Read also on why the CPB is oft called the Corporation for Petroleum Broadcasting
 
• President of NPR, Kevin Klose, changes his tune ... tempers earlier opposition to LPFM by saying that LPFM will serve as a "training ground" for professional broadcasters like NPR. Also states that they plan to reach out to a "younger" (less critical? and/or less Classical musically oriented?) audience.

 
• Television & Entertainment column on why you should care about diversity in the Free Press.
• discussion.

 
• discussion.



Defending your ability to hear more of your favorite programming before The FCC: Request for Extension of Reply-Comments Period for 99-325 (IBOC-DAB proposal) due to failure of FCCs ECFS system that is used by general population and smaller radio stations for research of other's comments.   Request for Extension of Reply-Comments Period for 99-325 (IBOC-DAB proposal) due to need for further research on  test station WJFK's IBOC signal. Massive interference of WJFK on 106.5FM from Baltimore already detected on most minimal version of IBOC. ALso , using most minimal version of IBOC violates whole point of comment process.   Initial Reply-Comments regarding NAB Comments on FCC's DAB-IBOC Proceedings   Reply-Commnets regarding Greater-Media's comments on DAB-IBOC   Reply-Comments regarding the Small Business Administration comments ... (Re: Suggestions for nationwide tests of DAB-IBOC stations that would be heavily promoted to the public to actively invite public participation and comment on whether Digital is worth the sacrifices.   Reply-Commnets regarding Sony's comments on DAB-IBOC Defending your ability to hear more of your favorite programming before Congress: Initial entry into the Congressional record for the hearings on "Spectrum Management Policies" held 2/17/00  the House Committee on Telecommunications Reply-Counter Testimony regarding misleading testimony by the National Association of Broadcasters. Contains sound files that show how the NAB testimony was misleading.

FCC Commissioner Tristani "Keeping the local in local radio"   FCC Commissioner Tristani," Broadcast Views"   FCC page on the Low Power Radio Service   FCC Chairman Kennard    Kennard's Speech to NAB  re: LPRS (25 min in)  (Note] Very interesting that the RealAudio recording of his speech was cut off RIGHT AT THE LPRS comments!   (RM-9242) Proposal to the FCC (tech discussion) Radio Will Never Be The Same Excellent discussion of the Low Power FM situation. Dead Air: When the FCC destroys "pirate" community radio, it also destroys the community KIND Radio: An example of a "pirate" radio station helping the community.   Duncan's RadioReport."Danger Signs for Radio" details the 12% drop in listenership over the 1990s ... and cites "villains [such as] lack of programming innovation."

Overview of United Church of Christ efforts to diversity media voices. UCC sponsored an excellent study by Dr. Rappaport of the NAB "interference" studies as well as providing his own interference study.   Excellent discussions held here. One of the intentions of corporate-controlled media is to instill in people a sense of disempowerment, of immobilization and paralysis. Its outcome is to turn you into good consumers. It is to keep people isolated, to feel that there is no possibility for social change."  -- David Barsamian        Join the Free Radio Network (email discussion group) to get in on a regular discussion on these subjects.  Email microradio@lists.tao.ca with "subscribe" in the subject line and body of email.

The Unfortunate History Of Radio ...

And "now, for something completely different"
(from the mainstream media):
You may find yourself wondering either:

• a) Why does most media leave me feeling like a "Stranger In A Strange Land" and/or ...
• b) why are there any unserved people at all? Why has not the market system reached out to these people? Why are 13,000 people going to the considerable trouble of asking the FCC for a frequency to start their own radio stations?

In the February 1997 American Demographics article "The Emerging Culture",  Paul H. Ray argues that one of the reasons that media in general and especially radio ignores so many Americans is that those who make the programming decisions are either ignorant of the desires and needs of them, or downright antagonistic. Those who make the programming decisions for the media that most Americans receive are ignorant or antagonistic to the values and interests of those Americans classified by research as "Cultural Creatives."

"Despite their numbers , Cultural Creatives tend to believe that few people share their values. This is partly because their views are  rarely represented in the mainstream media, which is mostly owned and operated according to the Modern world view.  Little of what they read gives them any evidence of their huge numbers."

"It's not too far off to say that Moderns see the world through the same filters as Time magazine."

"A major change has been growing in American culture. It is a comprehensive shift in values, world views, and ways of life. It appeals to nearly one-fourth of American adults, or 44 million persons.
People who follow this new path are on the leading edge of several kinds of cultural change. They are interested in new kinds of products and services, and they often respond to advertising and marketing in unexpected ways.

This emerging group has been labeled Cultural Creatives by American LIVES of San Francisco. In numerous surveys and focus groups, we have seen that Americans live in three different worlds of meaning and valuing. Each world creates distinctive contexts for a wide array of consumer purchases, political convictions, and civic behavior. And within each world are class divisions that create different subgroups that share the same broader views.

The first world view is Traditionalism. It is the belief system for about 29 percent of Americans (56 million adults) who might also be called Heartlanders. In America, traditionalism often takes the form of country folks rebelling against big-city slickers. Heartlanders believe in a nostalgic image of small towns and strong churches that defines the Good Old American Ways. That image may owe as much to John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart movies as to any historical reality, but for them it is a powerful reminder of how things ought to be.

The second world view is Modernism. It holds sway over about 47 percent of Americans, or 88 million adults. Modernism emerged 450 years ago as the governing world view of the urban merchant classes and other creators of the modern economy. It defines modern politicians, military leaders, scientists, and intellectuals. Modernists place high value on personal success, consumerism, materialism, and technological rationality. It's not too far off to say that Moderns see the world through the same filters as Time magazine.

The third and newest world view goes beyond Modernism. Its current adherents are the Cultural Creatives, who claim 24 percent of U.S. adults (44 million). Trans-Modernism began with esoteric spiritual movements such as 19th-century American Transcendentalism. It gained strength as Western intellectuals discovered the diversity and coherence of other religions and philosophies. It caught fire in the 1960s, as millions of young people joined "movements" for human potential, civil rights, peace, jobs, social justice, ecology, and equal rights for women.

Conservative commentators often believe that each of the social movements listed above exists in isolation and is important only to a few. But from women's issues to environmentalism, the emblematic values of the 1960s are being embraced by more and more Americans. Few in the media recognize it, but these ideas are coalescing into a new and coherent world view. When Cultural Creatives look at Modernism, they see an antique system that is noisily shaking itself to pieces."

The majority of radio programming decisions are carried out by Modernist oriented stockholder corporate beancounters, or by the Heartlanders that populate the Christian Coalition etc. etc. The Modernists and Heartlanders are either uninterested in serving the Cultural Creative market, or outright hostile.
Patrick Buchanan was often referring to Cultural Creatives when he said that America was "in a cultural war."

Ironically, much of Buchanan's distaste for NAFTA and GATT's corporate takeover of the world's resources finds a sympathetic audience in Cultural Creatives.
Either way, there is little programming to cover the convergence of these cultures.

This is the source of the discomfort with the condition of American Radio today.
 

(Notice that in most mainstream news stories about news and cultural content available on the Internet [especially discussions of audio content available on the Internet] WebActive.com is typically omitted from the discussion, as is www.pacifica.org and even npr.org!)     Special Effects; The silver screen's most convincing illusion may be its warped portrait of real life    Age of the Mega Alternatives    Media Maverick, Stephen Dunifer; One Watt Wonder    The Incredible Shrinking Liberal Media: How Washington's "Pinko Commie" Journalists really vote    What's so great about public TV?    Utne Reader Online: All the News not fit to print

CovertAction Quarterly: ABC Hatchet Job on Mumia

EXTERNAL LINKS:
NONE of the organizations on this page have anything to do with the creation, existence or promotion of this page. They are listed here for your education only.

http://www.nber.org/digest/jan98/w6057.html
"Does Public Radio Compete With Commercial Radio?"
Yes it does especially with such commercially viable products like Classical Music.
Click here for more information, tabular research demonstrating that commercial classical is fiscally viable, and therefore classical music is a violation of the purpose for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

http://www.loe.org/archives/971219.htm
Ethyl is the pied piper 
for Richmond Virginia "public" radio:

• This is the edition of Living On Earth (LOE) that carried a story critical of MTBE.
• MMT is a product of Ethyl Corporation. MMT is a gasoline additive designed to make gasoline usable by modern hi-compression gasoline engines and reduce pollution due to gasoline's inherently filthy nature. MTBE is a gasoline additive also designed to reduce the pollution of gasoline.
• Stories that show that there is no way to clean up the pollution caused by gasoline other than replacing gasoline with alternative transportation options, alternative fuels or electric cars do not help Ethyl's profitability.
• LOE was carried by WCVE88.9FM "public" radio in Richmond Virginia. After this story, LOE was not long for the world on WCVE. It was canceled shortly before Earthday 1998.
• The Chairman of the Board of Directors for WCVE's parent corporation, the Central Virginia Educational Telecommunications Corporation, is A. Prescott Rowe.
• A. Prescott Rowe simultaneously served for many years as the "Vice President of External Affairs" for Ethyl Corporation, headquartered in Richmond Virginia.
• That's "Public Relations" for the rest of us ... a job whose purpose is to manipulate the media to create a favorable impression of Ethyl to create more and more profitable conditions with the public and their elected officials. Distributing news that creates knowledge of problems of Ethyl's products is counter to his employer's interests. Public radio programming appears to have been impacted by corporate agendas.

---

LINK-O-RAMA---
Here is a rundown of any and all links likely to have quality information for those interested in the issue of our right to communicate with those whose votes affect our lives:
This is a fairly comprehensive list, however, if you feel there are links that have important information to pass on on this issue, please let us know.

---

Radio Mutiny (good run-down on the situation)

Rebel Radio

FoxBGHsuit

Click on Hightower, then the commentary then archives...

San Francisco Liberation Radio

Radio Mutiny

Pirate Radio Network

Free Radio Network

Mid-Atlantic Infoshop

Micro Kind Radio, San Marcos TX

Radio 4 All - Spotlight on NAB

Free Radio Berkeley

Free Radio Press: formerly Radio Resistor's Bulletin

Program: The Food Not Bombs Radio Network

Black Liberation Radio

Paper Tiger Television

Legal stations cause more trouble for aircraft than pirate radio ... (scroll down)

Microstation Broadcasting: The Long-Overdue Service

Micro-power Radio News

The Microradio Bust Response Network --Fight Back!

Radio Listenership at All-Time-Low (In spite of more stations than ever!)

FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani's Homepage_

Check Out "Keeping the Local in Local Radio"+"Speech before FCC Bar Association"

FCC Showdown

National Microbroadcaster Demo

"Ironically although they are major consumers of news ...[though they are 25% of the

population] ... they feel isolated because the media does not acknowledge them..."

Comments of Media Preservation Foundation

Opposition by National Public Radio to diversity in Radio Licensing

Comments of the NC Association of Broadcasters and the VA Association of Broadcasters

Media Access Project Website

U.S. Telecommunications Bill

U.S. Telecommunications Bill

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Media Programs

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation: Media Programs

Welcome to Americans for Radio Diversity

87X

The Free Radio Network

Dark Alliance: The Story Behind the Crack Explosion

The A-Infos Radio Project

Radio Free Allston

Alternative Radio

Making Contact Home Page

Grassroots News Network

Radio For Peace International

The Consortium

Radio Free Conscience

Arm The Spirit - For Revolutionary Resistance!

Law Offices at 368 Hayes Street

KFJC 89.7FM information

Free Speech Internet Television

New Page 2

Welcome to Relativity's Web Page. Queen Anne Hill, Seattle

The MoJo Wire--Interactive Exposés and Politics

The Year 2000 Information Center - Year 2000 Press Clippings

Center For Media Education Home

Northern Light Search: RM-9242

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Home Page

FCC Cracks Down on Pirate Radio

GoTo Search Results: rm-9242

Low Power FM

MMWC

The LPFM Grapevine

Welcome To Lake County Radio

REC's 82-88 MHz Petition to the FCC

The LPFM Grapevine

Spokane.net - Dead air comes to you courtesy of the FCC

Beat Radio Network

ARD News

Radio (LPFM)

LPFM Comments

Pirate/Free Radio - Welcome from The Mining Co.

Free Radio Press: formerly Radio Resistor's Bulletin

Interest Groups Funneling Big Money Into Political Ads

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http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/sld/sld-1-09.html

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/rab/rab-8.html

http://www.wgms.com/promote.html

http://www.webactive.com

http://www.wclv.com/advantage.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/music/features/buzzoff0514.htm

http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html

http://www.ultimatetv.com/

http://www.udel.edu/nero/Radio/classical.html

http://www.reason.com/9906/fe.jw.radio.html

http://www.radiostation.com

http://www.radiodiversity.com/index2.html

http://www.radioblack.com/Virginia.html#black_owned

http://www.radioart.org/

http://www.radio4all.org

http://www.publicdisclosure.org/cgi-win/_pacpg.exe?C0000998598

http://www.pri.org/webfiles/Programs/NewAge.html#Afropop

http://www.pps.org/urbanparks/rrparkuse_earls.html

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/speeches/91197nabob.htm

http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/19981005.atc.17.ram

http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/19980930.atc.15.ram

http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/980715.atc.04.ram

http://www.npr.org/programs/atc/music/

http://www.npr.org/inside/vision.html

http://www.npr.org

http://www.nlgcdc.org/basic.html

http://www.nandotimes.com/entertainment/story/
0,1088,17712-29264-214251-0,00.html

http://www.nab.org/conventions/nab99/daily/wc_kennard.asp

http://www.multichannel.com/

http://www.motherjones.com/parrish/

http://www.mediahistory.com/teevee.html

http://www.marketplace.org/features/underwriting/

http://www.marketplace.org/features/radio_days/

http://www.marketplace.org/

http://www.loe.org/html/thisweek.html

http://www.loe.org/

http://www.lbbs.org/zmag/articles/feb95barsamian.htm

http://www.jimhightower.com/

http://www.indiana.edu/~aaamc/BlackRadio.html

http://www.igc.org/deepdish/index.html

http://www.hallikainen.com/lpfm/comments/NPR.html

http://www.hallikainen.com/lpfm/comments/NCAB.html

http://www.gavin.com/industry/radio/9904/92.shtml

http://www.frn.net/vines/

http://www.freespeech.org/

http://www.freedomforum.org/speech/series/radio.series.1.asp

http://www.freedomforum.org/speech/1999/2/19kennard.asp

http://www.freedomforum.org/

http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/spgt811.html

http://www.fcc.gov/Speeches/Tristani/spgt808.html

http://www.fcc.gov/mmb/prd/lpfm/

http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/kennard/speeches.html

http://www.fcc.gov

http://www.fair.org/military.html

http://www.fair.org/counterspin/index.html

http://www.dwguide.demon.co.uk/

http://www.duncanradio.com/comments.html#apr

http://www.disinfo.com/

http://www.demographics.com/publications/ad/97_ad/9702_ad/9702a29.htm

http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/01/28/fp3s1-csm.shtml

http://www.csmonitor.com

http://www.concentric.net/~Radiotv/

http://www.capcity.com/wpfwradio/wpfwlive.ram

http://www.cableworld.com/Articles/News99/1999032205.htm

http://www.bouldernews.com/extra/rave/

http://www.benton.org/cpphome.html

http://www.beatworld.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/enginfo/fm_recep/aer_inst.htm

http://www.afa.net/

http://www.adbusters.org/main/index.html

http://www.aclu.org/about/right3.html

http://wmbc.umbc.edu/engineering/lpfm/yahoo-microradio.html

http://whyy.org/freshair/

http://ravehousetech.miningco.com/msubresearch.htm?pid=2798&cob=home

http://ravehousetech.miningco.com/msubhistory.htm?pid=2798&cob=home

http://nscp.snap.com/main/channel/item/0,4,-7298,00.html?st.sn.sr.0.7298

http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/
768df0faa6d9ddab852564f1004886c0/d5f7f109cf5f4e9b8525673100818fe2?OpenDocument

http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/
768df0faa6d9ddab852564f1004886c0/1efbac34dbf42d9c85256752004fdc17?OpenDocument

http://artcon.rutgers.edu/papertiger/nyfma/str/MRkennard.html

http://artcon.rutgers.edu/papertiger/articles/article1.html

http://207.42.32.124/winegard.htm

http://207.42.32.124/skip.htm
 

Chairman William Kennard:

bkennard@fcc.gov

Voice: Ph# 202-418-1000

Fax # 202-418-2801

Commissioner Susan Ness:

sness@fcc.gov

202-418-2100

202-418-2821

Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth:

hfurchtg@fcc.gov

202-418-2000

202-418-2802

Commissioner Michael Powell:

mpowell@fcc.gov

202-418-2200

202-418-2820

Commissioner Gloria Tristani:

gtristan@fcc.gov

202-418-2300

202-418-7542

 

You can also enter your comments into the official 
FCC record on this affair:
 
  

 

If you want to keep updated 
SUBSCRIBE TO DAB4US-E-ZINE (FREE)

Contact Information for Congress HERE

Virginia Center for the Public Press 1621 W Broad St. Richmond, Va. 23220 804-649-9737

FREE DAB4US eZine

FM4U.S.

This site is designed to address efforts by a powerful minority to bend public policy to their aide and benefit at our expense and loss of liberty and access to the many voices of a healthy Democratic Republic.

Their Basic Plan: Force  a new standard for Digital Audio Broadcasting (IBOC-DAB) * that destroys the remaining stations that have resisted consolidation including any new LPFM stations that are started.
 
 

Please call your Congressmen and Senators ... make sure they know you know that you want to hear your favorite station on the radios you already own! 

Lookup 
Your Congressmen
and Senators
by ZIP Code HERE
 

Ask your Federal Representatives and Sentators to send a letter to the FCC Commissioners that we must:

1) Keep the FM dial FM
 (no "mandatory sunsetting" [prohibition] of affordable analog FM broadcasting)

2)  We want access to more choices in program values and sources [stations], not less.
Tell them to tell the FCC not to force a new standard for the FM dial for Digital Audio that will block your ability to hear the LPFM and smaller stations.

3) Help Digital Audio find a third separate "Digital Band" just as we moved FM to a different band from AM in the 1950s.

* What is "IBOC-DAB"? ("In Band On Channel--Digital Audio Broadcasting")
  

There are those who claim that your favorite station is threatened by the NEW Low Power FM service stations ... what about that?
 
 

1) "Goliath" will now  attempt to kill Community Radio with the Digital Radio Farce. First the monopolists will have to kill the Low Power FM radio stations that might use some of the spectrum they need to kill your favorite station! They will do this by passing laws against the recent FCC decision to create LPFM stations: HOUSE: HR3439 SENATE: SB2068 OUR RESPONSE TO THE HEARINGS: [VCPP Testimony on HR3439] [Resources on "Beeper Network" issue] [Dr. Rappaport's Testimony to HR3439]   FREE DAB4US eZine Subscribe for updates or CLICK HERE FOR UPDATES

A stable society 
is an inclusive
and just society.
 

Community radio is designed to encourage 
a diversity of cultures represented on the airwaves 

by encouraging a diversity of ownership/control. 
 

A diversity of people and organizations 
with different values and priorities 
will create a more inclusive media 
(and therefore government policy) 
because they will have different definitions 
of what is “newsworthy” and “viable” 
for sharing on the public's airwaves.
 
 

Index of documents
on this web site as 
well as the hundreds
of links to the outside 
world. 
 
 
 
 
 

A healthy democracy hears from everyone, not just the beautiful or profitable people.
 
 
 
 

 WHY doesn't the 
"Almighty Market"
 Serve Everyone?
 
 

Media is the 
lifeblood of 
a Free Society",

"Information is the  currency of democracy.", 
Thomas Jefferson
 
 
 
 

You have a right in a Democratic Republic for your story to be heard by those whose decisions affect your life ...