Making Waves June 1, 2002
FCC Releases Next Batch of Grantable Applications
West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, North Dakota and Virgin Islands
The FCC has released its list of "apparently grantable" applications for West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, The Virgin Islands, and North Dakota. These are applications that have undergone a preliminary technical review. There is a thirty day window for petitions to deny, and in a few months the construction permits will come dripping out one by one, like droplets of ice cream falling off the cone on a hot summer's day. If you are on this list: congratulations! It is a big step forward. But remember it can still take years for the actual permit to come out. The list is available at this site:
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-222743A1.doc
Want to Do More for Low-Power Radio? Join a Prometheus Workgroup
We are now forming workgroups comprised of members of low power stations and their sympathizers. These workgroups will be involved in developing educational literature, researching areas of concern and conducting our political battles. If you join, working on a workgroup will help to keep you abreast of what's going on, develop your expertise and put your head together with other low power radio stations to solve the problems we all face! Since we are all spread out, we will do our basic work on the internet through carbon-copy (cc:) lists. For those who can make it, the workgroups will have face to face meetings at the low power radio barnraisings.
Technical:
The technical working group will develop technical manuals, evaluate equipment, and try to come up with appropriate solutions to the many tricky problems that low power stations face. Likely first project: finishing up the soon-to-be released multimedia guide, " Audio Processing On The Cheap. "
Contact petri@prometheusradio.org to join.
Fundraising:
The fundraising working group will be be on the look-out for possible funding sources for low power stations. It will work to constantly improve our fundraising handbook, and will develop a shared database of funding opportunities for community radio stations.
Contact Caroline@prometheusradio.org to join.
Studio Transmitter Link working group:
the STL has been working for the past 8 months on developing cheap solutions for low power fm. The Philadelphia subsection of this group is meeting on Tuesday nights, testing out streaming audio over wireless Ethernet at long distances.
Contact petri@prometheusradio.org to join.
We will launch more in the coming months as interest from you manifests itself: look out for activism, programming and administrative working groups in the near future especially as more stations get on the air!
New Service From Prometheus: Putting It All Together!
Until now, we primarily offered free phone support and materials for groups building stations, but we only helped build the lucky few who were chosen as hosts to the radio barnraisings. But starting this summer, we will offer direct services in building stations with construction permits! One to three of our technical folks can come to your station and help you build it. In order to sustain this new part of our work, we will charge a sliding scale per day fee to stations that need us to actually travel out there and help put things together. Unlike most ( though not all) radio professionals, we like working with volunteers. The whole point is to teach as we go, and we see no point in hoarding knowledge.
To schedule a Prometheus team to come help set up your station, contact petri@prometheusradio.org If you'd like us to come, but can't figure out how you could afford to pay us, contact Caroline@prometheusradio.org and we will help figure out a joint fundraising plan that will help you get the assistance you need.
