A very sad story about a 'public' radio station (owned by a 'public' university) going pure corporate. Sheri Herndon writes that this is a good opportunity to highlight the positive aspects of micro-radio. Well, I guess, sort of, maybe...but, no, not really.
Personally, although I support the idea of micro and am all for a thousand micro's blooming, it is no substitute for progressive programming on a serious (5,000 watts -- at least! -- or better) FM station. As Pacifica prepares to sell off its clear signal frequencies in the commercial band, as it continues to dumb down its programming (ironically, *except* on its two most lucrative frequencies, KPFA and WBAI), I hear folks saying "On to Micro, fuck Pacifica, we'll show them with our 50 watt transmitters!!!". Horseshit.
Micro will be legalized, regulated, and tolerated. So what? It looks like divide and conquer to me. I do the bulk of my radio listening in my car, as I expect most Houstonians do. Currently, I can listen to KPFT from Conroe all the way to Port Lavaca (get a map if you don't know what I mean -- it's a long way -- KPFT is a 100,000 watt station with a very nice tower location). With micro, I can get 20 different stations in the same bandwidth, each wirh a range of 5 miles. Gee, that would be great if one of those stations were 2 miles from my house (and followed me all over town), but I live in the sticks. So much for building any larger progressive community. Let's be like the reactionaries and retreat to our local 'communities'.
Fuck that. The radio spectrum is a public resource. The fact that Capital once allowed 20% of the band to be reserved to 'public' stations (like the god-awful local NPR affiliate that plays nothing but Vivaldi 20 hrs/day -- for corporate elevator music (cheaper than Muzak, I understand)) -- does not imply that they will be satisfied with that forever. Now they want the rest. BTW, Capital never paid a dime (other than pro forma license fees) for the privilege of using this resource, and now they want the rest of it. And micro, is no antidote to this rape.
Stick a fork in it, it's done.
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sheri Herndon [mailto:SHerndon at gsblaw.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, September 23, 1999 10:32 AM
> > To: Sheri Herndon
> > Subject: FW: ALERT: KCMU no more in 2 DAYS!
> >
> >
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > this is SAD SAD NEWS but unfortunately not surprising (i also just heard
> > that the Weekly is also up for sale???); but i see it as another good
> > opportunity for us to make some noise, especially about corporations and
> > people like paul allen's habits of turning public resources into their own
> > private profits, people in seattle know him for this and this
> > latest project
> > should become another shameful mark on his already bad record.
> > also another
> > opportunity to highlight microradio's rising potential and
> > necessity and the
> > need for decent communication for a democratic society. paul
> > allen and the
> > likes of him need to realize they can't get away with this kind
> > of behavior
> > without a fight from the public, the listeners, the community.
> >
> > Sheri Herndon
> > former KCMU News Director
> > and lover of free media!
> >
> >
> > Subject: [Fwd: ALERT: KCMU no more in 2 DAYS!]
> >
> >
> > Jeff Pearson wrote:
> >
> > Ed,
> >
> > I just heard through a KUOW souce that last Friday the UW quietly sold the
> > programming rights to KCMU to Paul Allens's Experience Music Project for
> > about 30 million dollars.
> >
> > Beginning this Friday, KCMU programming will become the property
> > of EMP,with
> > the UW maintaining the ownership of the liscense. KCMU'S move to the new
> > Ave. Studios will NOT take place (although paid for by now-duped KCMU
> > contributors), everyone will be fired or folded into KUOW and KCMU WILL BE
> > NO MORE!
> >
> > In it's stead a corporate-run public radio station(a first, I believe), no
> > longer beholden to even the pretense of community radio.
> >
> > Should Paul Allen be able to make our community radio station
> > another toy in
> > his toybox? HELL NO! Can we stop him? I guess we'll see how many
> > people see
> > this e-mail between now and Friday, but at least he should'nt get away
> > without a peep...hmmmm?
> >
> > Spread the Word,
> >
> > Jeff Pearson
> > Producer/Host
> > Deface the Nation
> > Thurs @ 11p, Ch. 29
> >
> > ______________________________________________________
> > > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> >
>
--
Joseph Noonan jfn1 at msc.com