FROM YOUR PALS AT: NONPROFIT ORG The Prometheus Radio Project U.S. POSTAGE P.O. Box 42158 PAID Philadelphia PA 19101 PERMIT NO. 6799 www.prometheusradio.org PHILADELPHIA, PA RETURN SERVICE REQESTED Hey Hey,Ho Ho, KYRS BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: doesn’t have to Go! CONTENTS Congratulations to our friends at KYRS Holdin’ it Down in the Pacific and who get to stay on the air after the Northwest!..........................12 FCC approved their bid for a change of Amy Dalton reports on the developments frequency! of an amazing network of community radio stations of Greenville, South Carolina n Wednesday, October 25, 2006, the O FCC approved the Spokane, WA low- taken off the air. Daum put in long hours Participant Democracy in Present A Community Barnraising power FM station’s bid to move from 95.3 to help the FCC see the value of allowing ...................................... FM to 89.9 FM. This change allows KYRS, KYRS this reasonable, but unprecedented Effect! 11 More details coming soon! Stay up to date through Dharma’s report on community participa- Prometheus and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Thin Air Community Radio, to continue their solution. The Congressional Research tion in the FCC hearing in upstate New York website: broadcasts of progressive arts, cultural, Service, in a report called for by Cantwell, www.mxgm.org and music programming. determined that KYRS’s bid for a frequency Tech Corner..........................7 change was not in violation of current low- For over a year, KYRS had been under Andy tells us stories about building wireless power FM rules. The FCC, with the verdict networks on rooftops threat of encroachment by an out-of-state of the report, approved the frequency full-power commercial station, from Idaho. change. Announcements H In September of 2003, KPDN was granted N W F o, we keep telling you all a construction permit from the FCC that Another thank you goes to KEWU radio E S L S about our barnraisings and how you and KHQ TV, two stations that agreed to New Voices...........................12 would allow them to build a new broadcast all should be there right? Many facility to strengthen the station’s signal waivers when they saw that the tiny zones of The J-Lab at UM provides seed grants for innovative community news ventures to And Now. Here Are the Winners! of you have been to one or more at 95.3 FM and expand their range of interference that could be caused by KYRS of our weekend-long radio station foster community journalism in the United broadcast into the Spokane market. Due to ( a few dozen feet) were in a completely (of the Handbook Contest) barnraisings, but if you haven’t had States FCC rules that allow full power stations to unpopulated area. They wrote to the FCC ack in June, we sent out a call for submissions to stations around the country, asking the chance to get out to one of them you can now check out some short interfere with low-power FM station signals with letters of support that were essential the real community radio experts (you guys!) to help us out with a new project. After PRP’s Handbook Project........3 B films on three of our barnraisings (but not vice-versa!), the new antenna to the successful granting of the waiver. reading a number of excellent proposals, and hours spent on deliberation, we finally selected would be fatal for KYRS which would have Check out the winners from the first round on our website! That’s right-- go Cantwell, a member of the Senate the stations who will write our new radio Handbooks. From Automation, to Fundraising, to www.prometheusradio.org and had to move ten miles farther out of town of handbook grants, and read about the top- C o m m e r c e these practical guides will help future (and present) generations of community broadcasters click on the Library section (KYRS is already 10 miles out of town in ics for the next round C o m m i t t e e , tackle the unique challenges of running a community radio station. We’d like to thank to see three community radio order to protect KPND’s original signal), or praised the FCC everyone that entered, and encourage anyone who didn’t get a chance to look out for more barnraisings including WRFN-lp in KYRS would have to go off-air. Updates decision. “This competitions in the future. Without any further ado, we’d like to introduce and congratulate Nashville TN, UAACC community our passionate and talented winners! (find out who the winners are on pg. 10) radio in Arusha, Tanzania, and The FCC decision required two waivers, is especially PCUN and Prometheus...........6 KPCN-lp in Woodburn, OR! one to allow KYRS to be sandwiched i m p o r t a n t Building farmworker community radio in We’re working hard here at Prometheus to keep you in the know! And you can show between 2nd adjacent stations, the other during a Woodburn, OR your support by visting our website (www.promemethusradio.org) and giving, here. to be close to a protected Ch. 6 TV station. time when It’s a quick and easy way to say thanks, and your thoughtful gift will will go a long our country These two stations on adjacent channels Spectrum Reform..................3 way in ensuring that Prometheus continues to fight for community radio and media signed letters of support for KYRS’s move is seeing a Dharma’s report on state-level organizing in reform. Thank you!!! in a show of support uncharacteristic to race toward Pennsylvania relationships between many broadcasters. mass media No waivers of this sort have ever before consolidation,” Full Throttle!!!....................4 been granted to an LPFM. This decision Cantwell said, “…because local, We’re getting closer to the NCE Full Power comes thanks to the relentless work of the community-based stations are key to Radio Application Window! Are you get- good folks at KYRS, the rad lawyers John preserving media diversity.” ting ready to get on-board? Crigler and Mike Couzens, engineer Mike Brown, and political pressure from U.S. You can visit KYRS online and listen to its International On the Road Again: Summer Media Megatour! Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Maria streaming broadcast at by Dharma Dailey Cantwell’s chief legislative staffer, Michael http://www.kyrs.org/. Thank Senator Prometheus in the Middle East This summer Prometheus went Daum, happened to be an engineer, so Cantwell for her support of low-power FM ...................................................5 ost media justice activists on the road in our home state of he was uniquely competent to understand radio at http://cantwell.senate.gov/. Siyade’s report on the AMARC9 conference Mwork hard on two important Pennsylvania to strengthen and grow the predicament of KYRS, and realize the in Amman, Jordan. And U. of Oklahoma’s areas of media reform: Creating a network of activists who can make injustice that would be done if they were Kristin Shamas reflects on the barnraising in accountability from existing media a difference for communication the Bedouin town of Risheh companies or creating our own rights in Pennsylvania. We met media. But there is a third area with LPFM stations, peace groups, Media in the Horn.................9 that fewer of us are involved in that indymedia makers, political What are the conditions for media activists can make a huge difference and activists, environmentalists, cable Spring is the time to plant (your station)! internationally? Siyade reports on Ethiopia. f you are like us community radio in Congress and at the FCC, that is changing the underlying access producers and grassroots here at Prometheus, holding our Radio Barnraisings to communications systems that we media reform groups from Erie to Iwintertime can be a help train and create more radio and media- use as outlets for our own media Philly, from Scranton to Pittsburgh. drag. Seasonal savvy groups, and galvanize the or to receive it from the usual We gave workshops on issues affective disorder and all movement. One thing we realize is that we sources. that are current in Pennsylvania- threats to community TV cable that. So - its time to find need to make our services available Politically speaking, it’s access and bad laws that hamper something to look with a variety of shapes and sizes. We are not a challenging to work for change of television community broadband internet forward to this spring! Did your station just get one-size fits all broadcast communication systems because from here. More importantly, we agreed its construction permit, and services / contracting company. we not only have to worry about coming to a to work together to make sure that need some help getting on the air? Do you have the hanky panky of Big Media and vote in the state We can build anything from the smallest community media has a future no some equipment that is plaguing the Telecomms (phone and cable legislature. studio in a basement closet to a matter how technology changes or your volunteer staff and in need of a spring companies) and their cronies in multi-studio broadcast facility. We are what this week’s business plan is for cleaning? Did you want to upgrade DC, but also the armies of lobbyists Prometheus that production studio, transmitter or anything willing to work with you on customizing media and telecomm industries. our services to fit exactly what you need. that lurk in our state capitals. A volunteers are that just isn’t working as it lot of important decisions about looking forward Maybe you have the studio taken care By the end of the summer, we should be? how we communicate happen to continuing to build of, but are mystified at the prospect of erecting already had a network of activists in state capitals.