The Prometheus Radio Project Recognized For Their National Work To Expand Community Media And Fight Media Consolidation

On September 25th, 2008 organizers from Philadelphia’s Prometheus Radio Project accepted the prestigious Parker Award.  Prometheus was recognized at the 26th Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture in Washington, DC, sponsored by Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ and the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC). With this honor, Prometheus was applauded for its ferocious campaigns to help communities across the US seize the power of the airwaves by winning broadcast licenses and building and operating their own participatory Low Power FM radio stations.

The Parker Award also recoginized Prometheus Radio Project for their tireless effort to expand Low Power FM radio, through “The Local Community Radio Act”—legislation introduced by Reps. Mike Doyle (PA) and Lee Terry (NE). Low Power FM (LPFM) is community-based, noncommercial radio that broadcasts several miles, perfect for neighborhoods and small towns. LPFM licenses make owning a radio station possible for churches, schools, labor unions and other community groups who are currently not able to apply for channels.

The Parker Award is named for Everett Parker, a minister and lawyer who assisted Martin Luther King in taking legal action against a TV station in Jackson Mississippi. The station had cut national news feeds of civil rights marches in Jackson, and was distorting coverage to help prevent the success of the civil rights movement. The court cases arising from this case established the rights of the public to fair treatment from broadcasters. 

Cory Fischer-Hoffman, Campaign Director at Prometheus notes, “Communities across the country are tired of being left behind as media further consolidates. Religious groups, youth and students, seniors, musicians, and activist organizations have convinced their Representatives to sign on to the Local Community Radio Act, demonstrating that expanding LPFM is a priority across the country and the aisle.” At the close of the 110^th Congress the Local Community Radio Act unanimously passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee and gained 100 cosponsors on the house version of the bill.

Rep. Mike Doyle noted, "Enactment of this legislation would improve the quality of life in communities across the country by providing new and different programming -- and especially programming addressing local interests and events -- to these communities. It will be one of my top priorities next year."

This year also marks ten years since Prometheus was formed by a small group of Philadelphia radio activists that came together to demand and organize for ambitious changes in the radio and media landscape of this country. In one decade Prometheus has grown into a formidable force fighting against media consolidation and advancing a proliferation of community-controlled independent media through community radio.

In its ten year history, Prometheus has built dozens and assisted hundreds of stations in the United States and around the world, from Opelousas, Louisiana to Kisumu, Kenya. Started from the ashes of Radio Mutiny, a Philadelphia pirate station based in West Philadelphia from 1996-1998, Prometheus has emerged as the leading national organization in the struggle to bring low power radio to more communities. The campaign of electronic civil disobedience spearheaded by radio pirates eventually led the FCC to change their policies and allow for legally licensed community radio stations, starting in January of 2000. Ironically, for most of its ten years Prometheus was unable to bring low power radio to its hometown of Philadelphia due to Congressional restrictions on low power radio created by the powerful broadcast lobby organizations.

In 2008 Prometheus had the opportunity to assist in the re-launch of WPEB FM, which was recently purchased by Scribe Video Center and is Philadelphia's only volunteer-driven and open-to-the-public radio station. Prometheus also recently assisted Sobriety Through Out-Patient (STOP) in the construction of an internet-only radio studio. Prometheus was thrust onto the national stage as the plaintiff in Prometheus versus the Federal Communications Commission, a landmark court case which prevented the FCC from allowing a massive round of consolidation in the ownership of major media outlets.