Congratulations to the folks from the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement's Center for Self Determination in Greenville, SC on the launch of the first community-run radio station in Greenville County, WMXP-lpfm on Sunday June 10, 2007- the Malcolm X Experience. Thanks to all of you who led workshops, transported others, cooked a meal, washed the dishes, raised the antenna, and wired the studio- among so many other behind-the-scenes work to help keep the barnraising moving.  

If you couldn't make it to the WMXP barnraising, and want to check out some sights and sounds from the weekend (June 8-10, 2007), check out some of these links:

We would also like to thank those who participated and facilitated a very important discussion on race and gender privilege awareness in the media justice movement. Please read Prometheus Radio's statement on the key points of that very important discussions by clicking on the read more link below.

Again, thank you truly from all of us for pitching in to help another community gain a new voice on the airwaves!

Love,
Prometheus Radio Project

It's time to educate our legislators, and to ask them to cosponsor these vital bills. To write a letter to them now, visit http://cu.convio.net/community_radio from Consumers Union, or http://www.freepress.net/lpfm from Free Press. Need more details? Want to help more? Visit http://prometheusradio.org/volunteer/ to volunteer and http://prometheusradio.org/join_us_lpfm.html to sign up for our lists, and to get involved with the fight for more low power FM radio. Donate to this fight by clicking here: http://www.prometheusradio.org/donate. And to call your legislators today, read below, or Take Action here!

Many of the citzens who spoke during the two open microphone sessions asked the FCC to expand low power FM radio by passing the Local Community Radio Act of 2007. Their testimony did not go unheard - one of the commissioners even specifically acknowledged it at the close of the hearing. Thanks go out to all who came out to speak, with extra-special thanks to panelists Dennis Ross of WJZP in Portland and Tim Stone of WSCA in Portsmouth, as well as Dave Patterson of WJZF in Standish, Emily Sapienza of WRFR in Rockland, and everyone else who spoke up for low power FM.

Of course, you don't have to travel to a hearing to speak up for low power FM. You can contact your congressmembers any time! To find out more about how to support the Local Community Radio Act, take a look at http://www.commoncause.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=2904379.

Links to press from the hearing:

• Maine Airs Its Views on Media Changes
• Mainers Have Say on Media Outlets
• Portland Speaks Out for Local Media, Against Consolidation
• FCC Holds Localism Hearing as State Promotes Rural Broadband
• Maine Media Put Under FCC Microscope

Audio from the hearing:

• Weekend Voices 7/07/07 WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill

Congressman Mike Doyle, a 7th-term Democrat from the 14th Congressional district of Pennysylvania, represents one of America's more urban districts -- the city of Pittsburgh. On May 3rd, on behalf of his city, and of all the cities across America, Congressman Doyle spoke out in support of low power FM radio. When he heard that a group in his district -- Penn State’s Greater Allegheny McKeesport Branch and their internet radio station, WMKP, The Roar -- had their license application cancelled as a result of Congress keeping low power FM out of major metropolitan areas -- he decided to speak out.

At Wednesday, May 2nd's Future of Music Coalition Technology and IP Policy Day, Congressman Doyle praised low power FM, saying he was looking closely at the issue and questioning longtime claims from big broadcasters that low power FM could interfere with full power FM stations. He wondered "why -- if a full-power broadcaster can have digital stations that don’t interfere with their main channel, even if the two are right next to each other on the dial -- a low-power broadcaster will interfere with a full-power station that’s 3 channels away."

Prometheus congratulates Congressman Doyle for speaking out on LPFM, and thanks him for looking at the issue. We hope he'll introduce a bill to expand low power FM to Pittsburgh and beyond! You can thank Congressman Doyle, and ask him, or your Congressmember, to introduce a bill to expand LPFM, by signing this petition at Petition Online, or by visiting ExpandLPFM.org right now.

Read our congratulatory statement and Congressman Doyle's LPFM comments here, or a plaintext version of the statement here, and read Congressman Doyle's full comments on low power FM and many other important media policy issues here.

We've got good news and bad news. Bad news: on January 19th, the FCC changed the procedure for Full Power Stations to change their community of license (CCOL). This means that more of our low power FM stations around the country, will be threatened with encroachment- the possibility that their station could be knocked off the air. Learn more about encroachment here .

But there is good news too: Here are some steps you can take to defend your station, a station in your community, or stations all across the country that might get knocked off the air!

Additionally, you should visit SaveLocalFM.org ; another resource for threatened LPFMs.

The Federal Communications Commission is at it again.  In 2002 and 2003, community radio activists from far and wide filed comments at the FCC, fighting a round of media deregulation that would have cut our voices from the airwaves and given companies like Clear Channel free reign over what we hearrd every day.  Because of your work, we forced the FCC to take back its terrible rules -- and together we won Prometheus vs. the FCC, the lawsuit that sent them back to the drawing board.

On June 21st, the FCC will put forward another set of rules -- and community media rabble rousers will lead the way once again.  As we get ready to tell the FCC how homogenized, corporate media hurts our families, and how community media empowers us to lead in our communities, please read this statement from Prometheus founder Pete Tridish.

And stay tuned -- there's a hot summer ahead for low power FM radio, community media, and the fight for our airwaves in the United States and around the world.

A printable version of the statement below can be found by clicking here .

 
Astrodome Radio and Hurricane-Affected LPFMs
Emergency Low Power Radio Station Went On Air

Volunteers from across the grassroots radio world worked furiously with Houston Indymedia to build a low power radio station to serve evacuees at the Astrodome. KAMP (Katrina Aftermath Media Project ) was on the air for a week, using an experimental low power license issued immediately by the FCC, when they were asked by local activists. The station broadcast information and programming relevant to the thousands of peopled evacuated to the Astrodome.

The six watt microradio station broadcast from an Airstream trailer in the parking lot, after Astrodome officials finally denied organizers permission to broadcast from within the Dome. Learn about KAMP and its troubles getting on the air , listen to audio from the station, and read about the project in the Village Voice .