The Democratic Underground Low-Power FM Radio Network

<snip>

But something unexpected happened on the way to the dial diversity the left thought it was getting: Low-power frequencies have been gobbled up by Christian organizations. Church groups make up roughly half the 344 applicants licensed by the Federal Communications Commission for stations with a broadcasting range of about five miles.

<snip>


The loosely affiliated network of Calvary Churches has been one of the leaders in rallying church groups to get low-power licenses. Church officials say 140 Calvary Chapels nationwide either have or are pursuing low-power licenses. Many rely on small donations from their congregations to support low-power stations, which typically cost $15,000 to $20,000 to get started. In 2003, it cost an average of $2.5 million to acquire a commercial station, according to McCain's bill.

<snip>
One nonchurch outfit that badly wants to do its own shows on a low-power station is San Francisco Liberation Radio. For 10 years, it broadcast on a pirate basis over a 100-watt station, airing programs on topics ranging from Cantonese music to tenants' rights.

<snip>

The low-power dream lives on at KFOK, a 2-year-old station in the middle of El Dorado County. It's the picture of the community-based radio that advocates envisioned. Beaming from Georgetown, about an hour and a half east of Sacramento, the station airs "Democracy Now," a left-leaning public affairs show; Calvary Chapel music on Sundays; a heavy-metal show; and a program called "Hillbilly Humor with Shaun."

More:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/02/28/SMALLRADIO.TMP



See also:

FCC
Low Power FM Broadcast Radio Stations
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/lpfm/

This page contains information about the Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service, which was created by the Commission in January 2000. These stations are authorized for noncommercial educational broadcasting only (no commercial operation) and operate with an effective radiated power (ERP) of 100 watts (0.1 kilowatts) or less, with maximum facilities of 100 watts ERP at 30 meters (100 feet) antenna height above average terrain (HAAT). The approximate service range of a 100 watt LPFM station is 5.6 kilometers (3.5 miles radius). LPFM stations are not protected from interference that may be received from other classes of FM stations. A construction permit is required before a LPFM station can be constructed or operated.

LPFM stations are available to noncommercial educational entities and public safety and transportation organizations, but are not available to individuals or for commercial operations. Current broadcast licensees with interests in other media (broadcast or newspapers) are not eligible to obtain LPFM stations.


LPFM stations must protect authorized radio broadcast stations on the same channel or frequency (cochannel), as well as broadcast stations on first, second, or third-adjacent channels above or below the LPFM station's frequency. This protection is accomplished through the use of minimum distance separation requirements, which are set forth in 47 CFR 73.807 .

February 2, 2005
# FCC Announces Agenda for Low Power FM Forum To Be Held February 8, 2005, DA 05-288, released February 2, 2005.
PDF http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/audio/DA-05-288A1.pdf
WORD http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/audio/DA-05-288A1.doc
VIDEO http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/publicforums.html


NPR : Low Power FM Movement Makes Waves
... making waves. Low Power FM radio is being touted as an alternative to generic, commercial programming. Skip Navigation. NPR Home Page ...
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4489224

lowpowerradio.org: best sites for RADIO
lowpowerradio.org, Home. Sun, 27 Feb 2005 GMT. ...
www.lowpowerradio.org

The Micro Radio Implementation Project
... Welcome to the Microradio Implementation Project, created to help you learn more about low power FM radio. Because we were called ...
www.microradio.org/

The Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc.
Low Power FM Radio, LPFM: The People's Choice LPFM: The People's Choice, a documentary produced by the UCC's Office of Communication ...
www.ucc.org/ocinc/lpfmradio/

DIYmedia.net - History of LPFM Part 1
... What is LPFM? LPFM stands for Low Power FM radio broadcasting. In the United States, the lowest minimum wattage a licensed FM radio ...
www.diymedia.net/feature/fhistlpfm.htm

AMERICANS FOR RADIO DIVERSITY: Senator McCain Issues New Low Power ...
... The bill would allow the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to license low-power FM radio service, while at the same time protect existing full-power ...
www.radiodiversity.com/archives/000816.shtml

and should be taxed. I'm soooo tired of being preached at by that bunch.

. . . into the hearts of America.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

of people who hate? Never. Been there, done that. Churches talk and cause hatred toward certain groups of people unfairly. They should be taxed like the rest of us. Case in point. Pat Robertson and all the money he makes tax free. Yet, the only thing he brings to the table is blaming gay people for everything from bad weather to 9/11. No thanks.

Or, seemingly, the blanket condemnation of church goers. Are we all "people who hate?"

Jerry Falwell and their blanket condemnation of gay people for everything that goes wrong, then yes, you are. If not, then you need to do a better job and do something about the right wing Christians making your religion out to be about hate. Period. No excuses. Do it and I'll commend you wholeheartedly. Otherwise, you aren't doing enough to prove your God isn't about hate.

You may as well condemn me now, since that will be the upshot anyway.

Don't you have enough faith that you can work toward doing that? Personally, I wish you would try to make it a little less hateful toward people who aren't able to march in lock step with people like Falwell and Robertson. If you wanna cop an attitude all because someone pointed out something you can do to make things better, then maybe you do agree with them on some level. If you have a guilty conscience over it, then is it true on some level?

But on this issue, I Feel pretty comfortable. Beyond being an open liberal and a person of faith, I'm not sure what more one can do. I certainly don't see myself becoming a rival to Fallwell and Robertson.

Here's a similar arguement, popular on the right wing. "If there are so many peace-loving Moderate Muslims why don't they wipe out the extremist terrorist muslims? Is it because secretly they support the terrorists? And if so isn't the idea of an innocent Muslim kind of naive?"

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

out. That's perposterous. I'm talking about simply using the Bible to point out to the right that they need to think about what master they are really serving, i.e. God or Satan. The point still is that there are loving Christians who don't speak up often enough. If more of you would do that somewhere besides in safe places like DU, you'd get a lot done. And I'd thank you for it.

Whether they live in North or South, go to church or not, they are progressive Democrats and do not represent those elements of the religious Pharisees that have been making us all miserable.

Yes, the religious fundamentalist hatemongers do seem to currently outnumber the more progressive and tolerant people of faith at the moment.

I'd suggest that maybe you might just want to consider using more specific terminology to differentiate between the evil religious and the progressive religious.

There is a big difference between Barry Lynn and Jerry Falwell. There is a big difference between The Unitarian Church and The Pentecostal Church. There is a big difference between The Universal Church of Christ and The World Unification Church.

Remember please-- even the religious people here are your friends, and everyone here on DU is playing on the same team as you are. The bad-religious people aren't here on DU. Only the good ones are here. They won't bite you, I promise.

There is a difference and I pointed it out in another thread. I refer you to

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3193179#3193454

The difference between the 2 debates comes down to someone starting to act defensive right away and someone simply talking to another person and clarifying things before jumping the gun. Someone who jumps the gun and doesn't try to discuss it will get the same reply every time from me, but someone who simply points out that they wish to eventually find a way to show the truth will always have my best wishes. That's the bottom line. It's all in the debate. If you want to win people over, it would do well for you to remember the saying about attracting more bees with honey than other things.

And, for the record, I did point out in my original reply in this forum that I was talking about the ones like Pat Robertson, who is definitely in the category of right wing hate monger.

He/she responded to the OP regarding an organized christian attempt to dominate LPFM broadcast frequencies, expressed distaste for religious intolerance and bigotry, and even then only to argue that organized churches who use the public airways to spread messages of intolerance should at least pay taxes like any other group with commercial interests. The other poster personalized the debate.

I appreciate a voice of reason from someone who WAS listening entering into the debate.

...that you cannot change the direction of christian ministries-- or at least the public face they present-- from one of condemnation of others to one of tolerance and acceptance. I'm happy to let christians worship whatever god they want, and to let them do it however they want, but if I don't moralize about christians I'd appreciate it if they'd stop moralizing about others. I'm tired of the numerous religions, including the christian church, being the primary conduits of social intolerance and hate in America and elsewhere in the world.

is that there are far more of them who are brainwashed then anything. They just don't think for themselves. They listen to people like Falwell and Robertson. Sure, Robertson gets it on Iraq and that's good, but everything else he doesn't get it. If I was to go around my church and claim that President Bush is a thief, liar and murder I would be considered a freak nut job by people. Even though it's true they wouldn't believe me and I'd be seen as a "false prophet." There are still some people out there who can see through Bush. On this one Christian board I go on I was very relieaved to learn that a lot of people there aren't like some of these really hardcore right-wingers and they don't like a lot of what Bush has done. I've gotten a few Email messages saying people like what I had to say and I was there. It's a long hard battle but if we can get to people then they can maybe open their eyes and see their religion has been hijacked for years by Falwell and Robertson. I don't know too much about Billy Graham. I know he was friends with the Clinton's and was at his inaugration's. I haven't seen or heard anything about him for the past few years. :shrug: But I'm glad Dean is going around and wanting to reach out to these people. And I remember reading that he said he was Christian too so he knows how to reach to people. Hopefully as time goes on people will start to be hit by Bush's policies and realize the right-wing isn't for them.

and Bush are the real false prophets. If you merely point out one fact, you won't be calling anyone names or get considered a nut job. Point out that Jesus Christ never declared war from the cross when he was attacked and murdered. You know? Turn the other cheek. Love one another. That one simple fact would go a long way if you stood your ground on it.

I don't really know how to take Billy Graham. I know his son has made some anti semitic comments fairly recently and there are tapes from the Nixon years, I believe it was Nixon or Johnson, where Bill Graham made some anti semitic comments. They were aired on Cspan a couple of years ago. I can't figure out how to take that. I can see criticizing the Israeli government for some of the violence, because my personal opinion is that neither the Israeli government nor the Palestinian leaders are right to allow the violence to go on without giving enough support to peaceful attempts by coalitions of Jews/Arabs and they do exist. So on that issue, well, it's another debate altogether, but we should support that one town in Israel where they have an integrated community and no violence and their kids play together, go to school together, learn about each other's histories in school, etc. Like I said though, that is another debate.

I'd love to see as many people as possible get together and fight the hate and the violence specifically using the messages in the Bible to do that. It would be something that the religious community should be able to do. It would take debate and drawing up a game plan, practice debates, and hard work, but I see what you are saying about people being brainwashed and some of them sort of seeing through it. I wish you all the best if you can find a way to bring people together more toward ending hate and violence.

Sorry, I went further afield myself, too.

DemocraticUnderground Low-power FM Radio.

Or something like that.

because the gist of the story was that you couldn't get it because of...well, you know, I guess. And what kills me is that I was specific in my first post and people started taking it as some sort of slap against them.

To me it looked like someone else did, and I was just trying to cool things off. I was probably wrong on both counts.

it is just the truth. Like I said before, I did in the first post refer to Pat Robertson. And, of course, someone got defensive about that. It is a fact that an awful lot of churches do buy a lot of radio stations, acreage, and a plethora of other profit making businesses. They should be taxed instead of allowed to dominate. That's half the problem with religion as a topic. That is, the loudest ones are the ones who spew hate and the quietist ones are the ones who get defensive about a suggestion instead of seeing that they have the power and the faith to accomplish something, like making the world a better place. If I don't make them at least a little bit mad, then they won't see a valid idea as worth taking on. Eventually, people will quit misunderstanding me. I think. ;)

:grouphug:

loving each other to begin with, I don't think. Sometimes, the simmering gets stirred up and something gets understood when it wasn't before. If that happens more often, the left can do more to make things better. Personally, I think that the religious left is THE ONE group who has the most power to change things, but for some odd reason isn't doing it. What that reason is, I wanna know, so I can help them get heard. That was one of my original points.

I'm going to post a bunch of "Religious-left" links in another thread, so we can get this one here back on-topic, if that's ok...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=226x1183

with nary a peep of protest or a refusal to donate. They sit silently in the back of the pews and let extremists take over. Evil thrives when good men stay silent. They have no one to blame but themselves.

If we simply say, "Fine, we're going to tax the churches," then their gloves come off and they will become an even more powerful force to be reckoned with.

Part of the problem is that every Sunday millions of people go someplace where for a couple of hours they're told what God says they should do and what they should believe.

And then they bond with, coordinate with, and re-enforce one another.

And then they go home and seek "confirmatory evidence" on the internet(s), on the radio, and in the form of those rabidly hateful TV-preachers.

We need to start getting in on some of this action.

We need someplace for liberals to go every Sunday for a couple of hours. We need to use this to form a network of mutually-supportive activists. And then we need progressive internet, television, and radio networks.

Maybe we start with The Unitarian Church, and whether you "worship" there or not, use it as the starting point for an explosion of liberal progressiveness.

Another idea I had was a series of free Sunday movies with progressive, liberal, democratic activist themes. Free showings of movies like Fahrenheit 9-11, Bush's Brain, Outfoxed, etc.

Low-power FM radio could be one of those medium for reaching-out on a more local basis to recruit and coordinate.

So i heard two decades back. Is it still true?

Unitarians.. UU... good idea.

be aware some areas in the south have RW uu churches, split off during integration cnflidts in sixites.

Unity churches might also be good, not so sure of that tho. They are New Age, best as i can tell.
dont confuse with Moony's Unification Church, very RW. Rev sun myung moon, from Korea and insane. But a big billionaire donor to the GOP. Owns Wash. Times paper. Has a pundit on McLaughlin's talk tv show.

Pls explain more of the title, which has DU in it.. any reality yet, or just a dream, for DU fm stations?

If it looks like it's not a completely stupid idea, and if we can put some kind of working plan together here in the forums, I think we should submit a plan to the moderators.

I was thinking of a DU/IndyMedia collaboration and a pilot station someplace in a swing-city of a swing-state.

If it costs $20,000 to start a station, and we could get 2,000 people to each contribute $10...

It would also give DU a chance to reach a broader audience and also drive more traffic to the site.

you are the greatest!

keep at this idea.

{but pls dont divide our energies with a DU station in an area already served by AAR. we dont have the people and money to act in a divided fashion}

otherwise, a fabulous idea!

So yeah, a market not served by AAR would be best.


I'd also suggest providing free advertising and publicity to AAR. It could be in exchange for a certain amount of free AAR content.

But the goal wouldn't be to create a "Mini-Air-America-Radio" with the Low-power FM stations.

Chances are you will never hear AAR talking about your latest Town Council Meeting, what happened at last night's PTA Meeting, or the outrageous number of people who have lost tires hitting the same pothole for the past three months.

Have you watched your "local news" on TV? How different is the "local news" in your town from the "local news" in a town hundreds of miles away? The only real differences are the car accidents, house fires, and crimes. Change the place names, and would you know the difference between your local news and the local news from a town hundreds of miles away? After all, in a one hour broadcast, only about 10-15 minutes is even "local" to begin with.

Your "local news" is neither local nor news.

This is why we need low-power FM radios. Not so we can have Mini-AirAmerica, but so we can have DemocraticUnderground Cambridge, DU Allentown, DU Cherry Hill, DU Culver City, DU Lewiston, etc.

If you're in a market already served by AirAmerica Radio, then here is my prescription.

Have you guys ever listened to a station like 1010 WINS AM Radio in New York? Their slogan is, "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world."

You record a series of 30-minute news broadcasts in MP3 format and keep re-circulating them throughout the day. If breaking news comes up, you update the recording or break-in to the schedule. Most people would only listen to 30-60 minutes at a stretch, giving them plenty of time to tune back in to AAR.

In general, you could divide time something like:

0:00 - 20:00 Top stories- International, national, state, local, sports, weather, traffic
20:00 - 23:00 Commercials & PSA's
23:00 - 43:00 Local News (Town/City)
43:00 - 46:00 Commercials & PSA's
46:00 - 58:00 State and National News
58:00 - 60:00 Commercials & PSA's
60:00 - 62:00 Traffic and weather
62:00 - 63:00 Sports
63:00 - 70:00 Commentary and Editorials

That's off the top of my head, so I haven't had time to play with the schedule too much, or to compare it to other station formats.

But it's helpful if people know precisely what time to tune-in for traffic and weather, and then you use those as hooks to get people to listen to your commercials and other programing. I've seen some stations put a short commercial between traffic and weather as well.

That's just my "cocktail napkin" draft.

If it's only $2,000, I think we could raise that with a special collection effort. More difficult is getting experienced hosts to donate the time to fill out the schedule.

it still sounds doable financially. The creative part is a big hurdle, though.

than they are now. Trust me. They have tentacles in every sector of our lives, but then again, I'm down south where you can't walk down the street without stumping your toe on another church on every corner and some in between. It would bail us out of most of the problems W has caused what with his so called fiscally conservative policies (oxymoron). He's a spending liberal and a social neanderthal and so are most of his supporters. They got us into this mess. Let them get us out for a change.

they have radio shows and tv stations they should be taxed for that. Not just being a church. For a while my church had teamed up with this other church in town and had a thirty-fortyfive minute radio program where they talked about a scripter and story and just talked about it. It wasn't bad and wasn't too preachy. For whatever reason they stopped having it. But I think some of these big-time stations should get taxed. Why should they not but a station like AAR get taxed?

Especially the ones like Pat Robertson. Who seem to think they can own the Ice Capades and diamond mines among other things in the name of the church and not get taxed for it. It's the extra money making profiteering and hate speech that give churches a bad bad name.

And more to the point a cool one. Play some Pepe Deluxe or the Chemical Brothers and rattle soem cages.

ideas is better than waiting for only the highly motivated to click up DU on a regular basis.

Rush is doing passive feeding of millions. That is what works best. Fencesitters only have the energy and drive to take it in passively. They will not be reached by media that requires them to click up DU.

We need that free weekly e-newsletter to DU new registrarants.. if they want it. Need not be pol-spam. Let them sign up for it at registragtion or a constant button on our homepage.

Could be slapped together fm BEST THREADS page which already exists.

we are missng a golden opportunity to grab newbies and feed them ideas.

and i read many of them.

Sends it irregularly.

But it gets word to me, word i would not otherwise get..

because i just dont feel motivated to click up the official Dem site.

E-newsletter works for them.. it should be getting word out for DU too.

We are missing the boat on this superb effortless idea.

It is also free. FM is fine, but it costs money. Lets do both.

Low-power FM Radio
LBN RSS Feed
Email Newsletter
Freeway Blogging, Billboard Liberation, Tagging
Ipod, WiFi and Bluetooth broadcasting
DU Bumper Stickers with frequency for DU Low-Power FM Station
Personal billboards
Supermarket fliers

Radio is the single-most effective medium for driving web traffic.

You get the DU address on the radio, and it may drive more traffic to the site.

An average bumper-sticker is typically seen by 10,000 people per year (I'm not sure of that number or where I heard it).

Can we get someone from DU (moderator or volunteer) to give a "Daily DemocraticUnderground Report" on their local radio station?

Can we convince radio stations to syndicate "Daily DU Reports"?

Email News-letters can be created from the Late Breaking News or Greatest pages.

Citizens for Legitimate Government may be a good partner for creating a DU newsletter. I'm not thrilled with the format of their newsletter though.

How can we leverage our existing RSS feeds into more of a "push" media format?

Can we partner with http://www.ceruleanstudios.com to create a DU News Ticker for their Instant Messenger? Or with Mozilla with their browser?

Is there a way we can use our iPods and Bluetooth devices to broadcast DU content "on-the-move"?

You know those devices that are used to broadcast your iPod or CD-player to your car stereo? Do they have enough range to be heard a few car lengths away? Could those be used to broadcast DU programing over short distances (a bumper-sticker urging people to tune to the right frequency would be needed).

What about intentionally leaving semi-open Wi-Fi connection points available where people can use our computers to access DemocraticUnderground content?

Or even just using our WiFi Network ID on our home networks to advertise DU?

to have a station just for DU. Have news broadcasting's of important stories out there and possibly have a poll of and list some favorite and well known democratic leaning talk show's and maybe put them up on the show. :)

with priority given to community groups that have been around for a while- a private individual cannot get one.

What this means, from a practical matter, is this. It isn't a matter of funding ONE broacasting station but of getting community funding in every area where there's not already a LPFM station and the bandwidth is available, REMEMBERING THAT IT ONLY HAS A RANGE OF ABOUT THREE MILES. In order to keep it, the station also has to play a mix of community oriented shows. I've also read that, while corporate radio people seem to get going right away, there's often a long delay on getting approval for LPFM stations.

I read a story of one station that got started by pitching it to various groups and holding fund-raisers, because FOR EACH STATION IN A PARTICULAR COMMUNITY, one has to have broadcasting equipment, etc, and it isn't cheap.

Saying this because people saying they will contribute to LPFM is not meaningful-saying someone will contribute to *a* LPFM station in Podunk Tennessee is.

Or can you?

Anyway, I realize we'd have to pay for one license per transmitter.

I'd be willing to contribute cash for a station in Ratchetville, Arkansas or where ever. You've got to start with at least one, right?

Radio about it. It is a very underused resource that the left could be using to our advantage to counteract the conglomeration of the media.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3103059