NPR on the side of Corporate Radio?

April 16, 2000 1:33 PM

NPR on the side of Corporate Radio? Bird on a Wire spotted this Salon story that says that National Public Radio, those bast...ions of freedom of speech, are siding with Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting to try and restrict the proposed Low Power FM broadcasting service to third adjacent channels (90.1 -> 90.7) instead of second (90.1 -> 90.5)...

a change that will cut the number of possible stations from thousands... to 75.
posted by baylink (4 comments total)

Unfortunately, NPR has been against the LPFM initiative since its inception. They believe themselves to be the sole source of "community, socializing, democratic radio" -- kind of monopolizing the airwaves, similar to the NAB's corporate monolithic control. The NAB, by the way, are winning their battles on Capitol Hill [with NPR's support]: the bill which effectively defeats LPFM [HR 3439] just passed the House of Representatives on Friday morning, 247-110. The Senate version [S. 2068] reaches the floor sometime in early May.

I work for two radio stations, one at my college [WMBC] and a pirate station serving Baltimore City [WMOB]. Both were in line to apply for low-power stations, so this has been a frustrating week for me. But alas! Piracy reigns.. I've been broadcasting news reports all day from the a16 IMF/WB protests on a station set up in a warehouse in DC. Democracy still survives, at the street level, through direct action.
posted by legibility at 2:53 PM on April 16, 2000

Indeed it does.

I wonder how long it will take until the government remembers they work for us, rather than the other way around...
posted by baylink at 7:16 AM on April 17, 2000

I think it'll take a long long time... The government forgets it works for us when all the cash in their pockets comes from good citizens like broadcasting conglomerates.
posted by owen at 10:01 AM on April 17, 2000

Thia might be of interest. Our station was shut down yesterday afternoon, while I was videotaping a parade downtown. We found out that the police had surrounded the building, and a group of about 300 protesters coalesced and marched en masse up 14th Street [a main avenue]. Lined up against the police, negotiated, and the police agreed to extricate themselves from the situation -- rather than raid the building, and invariably confiscate all our equipment. An incredible, spontaneous feeling! I can't wait to encode the videotapes for the IMC: winning back the right to public radio, one step at a time.

[Sorry for what probably sounds like activist propaganda. But this is what I've been about for the last few weeks, in preparation for a16. I suspect my normal habit of lurking around here without ever posting will return by next week.]
posted by legibility at 11:20 AM on April 18, 2000