Send Your Radios to the Senate

After years of public comment and engineering studies, the combined pressure from media reformers and direct action activists prevailed to win a partial victory for community access to the radio airwaves. In January 2000 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to create new Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service. Since then thousands of excited folks in every state have invested precious time and resources engaging their communities to apply for local LPFM stations. Nearly 1300 applications have already been received by the FCC. However, after a long well-funded DC beltway insider campaign of lies and disinformation, the US Congress has tried o kill LPFM.

Prometheus Radio Project is calling for all LPFM supporters to SEND YOUR RADIOS to your Senators, along with a note telling them to tune in to constituent sentiment and turn off the static from the broadcast lobbyists. Earlier this week, the Senate attached Bill S.3020 to a large, unrelated appropriations bill to sneak it through without comment or hearings. We cannot allow this to happen! Pick up your phone today and call your Senator and demand that they unattach Bill S.3020 from any spending bills. Although LPFM service does not free the airwaves from corporate control, it is a start toward providing locally produced media to meet the needs, interests and concerns of local communities and neighborhoods. And there is likely a frequency available in your town. The dreams and hard work of thousands across the US will be for naught, however, if we allow the US Congress to bow to corporate pressure and kill LPFM!

Your Congressmembers have been sold a bill of goods by a team of twenty well-funded lobbyists from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) with support from National Public Radio (NPR). These finks have convinced your senators that Senate Bill S.3020 is compromise legislation. This is no compromise. It will dismember the LPFM service and neither you nor anyone else will have access to your airwaves. Bill S.3020, offered by Senator Grams (R-MN), would effectively destroy the LPFM initiative. It allows the FCC to create the new service, but allows only a handful of stations (instead of the 800+ expected) to be licensed. S.3020 masquerades as a compromise requiring field testing. While sounding vaguely reasonable, calls for field testing are just a political stalling tactic. The broadcasters real hope is that they will be able to do million dollar studies that grassroots organizations can not afford to counter. These engineering issues are not only clear, but were re-clarified by the FCC itself last week in a 78 page Memorandum of Reconsideration mandating conservative regulations and oversight of LPFM.

Send Your Radio To Your Senator

(Old, unused, or broken ones are fine- radios that are smashed up may be even better!) The Senate staff is really busy right now, brokering back room deals, and they are listening to regular citizens even less than usual. But imagine what happens when they open up that box and find your broken radio in it- you¹ll be the talk of the office for the week! Spend a few minutes writing and a few bucks in postage to make your voice heard loud. The airwaves belong to the people, not corporate interests. We have no time to waste. The Senate will only be in session for a few more days. Make your Senator think twice before duping you. The survival of Low-Power FM (LPFM) depends on your action right now.

The Honorable ________________
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510