[00:00.000 --> 00:00.400]  Alright.
[00:02.300 --> 00:07.840]  Let's get started and slow down on the projectiles real quickly.
[00:08.140 --> 00:10.920]  This is Anthony Mazza with the Prometheus Radio Project.
[00:12.440 --> 00:15.120]  I've been a contributor to these guys for a while.
[00:15.760 --> 00:23.860]  They have been fighting a very difficult fight and that is to get radio stations on the air that don't suck.
[00:25.580 --> 00:27.300]  And fighting...
[00:32.230 --> 00:36.810]  fighting what has effectively been the takeover of the public airwaves.
[00:37.070 --> 00:44.210]  These guys have fought a long, hard fight and they've put, just in their barn raisings, they've put ten stations on the air.
[00:44.350 --> 00:47.450]  They send out some great literature every now and then and tell you how it's going.
[00:48.090 --> 00:53.390]  As opposed to some other causes that just send you letters that go, holy shit, we need so much money.
[00:54.450 --> 00:56.810]  And then have a picture of a puppy that is crying.
[00:58.710 --> 01:03.550]  So, on the panel we have number 38, which is Dharma Dailey.
[01:04.050 --> 01:06.190]  Number 25, which is Andy Gunn.
[01:07.010 --> 01:08.950]  Number 53, raise your hand.
[01:09.650 --> 01:11.310]  That is Hannah Sassaman.
[01:12.150 --> 01:19.430]  And Pete Tridish, who is one of the founding members of the Prometheus Radio Project, if I am correct, or if not the founding member.
[01:20.150 --> 01:20.890]  Bernie S. turned me on to these guys a long time ago.
[01:22.570 --> 01:28.330]  So, I cannot recommend enough sending these guys a donation.
[01:28.770 --> 01:32.210]  10 bucks a year, 15, 50, whatever you can afford.
[01:32.450 --> 01:34.150]  They're doing really grass root stuff.
[01:34.830 --> 01:39.790]  So, hunt them down and support this cause because they have a lot of rubber bands they've got to buy.
[01:44.470 --> 01:48.070]  Oh, we need more MCs like you to introduce us.
[01:48.230 --> 01:48.930]  That's excellent.
[01:48.930 --> 01:50.790]  Pete, speak more in the mic.
[01:51.650 --> 01:54.810]  My name is Pete Tridish.
[01:54.910 --> 01:56.810]  I'm from the Prometheus Radio Project.
[01:58.110 --> 02:08.850]  We started back in 1996 or so as a bunch of pirates that were running a pirate radio station in West Philadelphia.
[02:09.270 --> 02:27.010]  We were basically like peace and social justice and housing and AIDS activists that, you know, we would spend all of our time like putting together, you know, these elaborate anything, you know, anything we could do to get onto TV and get the messages across.
[02:27.010 --> 02:31.550]  We would dress in bunny costumes and hold signs that said, don't do this.
[02:31.690 --> 02:32.470]  Stop that now.
[02:32.710 --> 02:35.690]  And that was about as much as we could get into the media.
[02:35.750 --> 02:41.970]  And we heard about these pirate radio operators that could actually start radio stations.
[02:41.970 --> 02:46.650]  And none of us had ever been on the radio.
[02:46.850 --> 02:48.550]  None of us knew anything about radio.
[02:48.750 --> 02:51.070]  We had no technical background whatsoever.
[02:51.090 --> 02:55.850]  But we decided that we were going to teach ourselves how to start a radio station.
[02:56.890 --> 03:05.790]  And, well, we bought one of these little radio kits and we put it together and we plugged it all together the way it said in the instructions.
[03:05.790 --> 03:10.690]  And then, like, we turned it on and, you know, it just did absolutely nothing.
[03:11.930 --> 03:16.470]  And then we bought another one and, you know, a little smoke or whatever.
[03:16.610 --> 03:18.930]  But then that did nothing either.
[03:19.350 --> 03:29.020]  But then finally, after nine months, we finally managed to, like, make a working FM transmitter that could go a couple of miles around our house.
[03:29.020 --> 03:47.820]  And after many, many years of organizing in different anti-nuclear movements and anti-apartheid movement and, you know, all kinds of different activism, I never saw a project take off so quickly with so many different kinds of people get involved.
[03:48.460 --> 03:53.340]  There was... we had a show from a guy who had come from Africa.
[03:53.500 --> 03:56.940]  He had bought in the war against apartheid and lost his leg.
[03:56.940 --> 03:58.780]  And he did Africa Report every week.
[03:58.960 --> 04:07.600]  And there was a guy that had just gotten out of jail who did Incarceration Nation, which was a weekly update on the prison industrial complex.
[04:07.880 --> 04:17.800]  There was this woman, the condom lady, who did safe sex health tips every week intermixed with KTEL Classic Disco from the 70s.
[04:19.060 --> 04:20.780]  It was an amazing radio station.
[04:20.880 --> 04:23.060]  It was nothing like anything else that we had ever heard.
[04:24.260 --> 04:29.980]  We ran it for a while, for about a year and a half before the FCC started chasing us down.
[04:30.220 --> 04:35.340]  And what we found, as cool as it was to be radio pirates, and it was cool.
[04:35.480 --> 04:38.240]  I mean, we had a really, really great time running the radio station.
[04:38.780 --> 04:43.680]  What we found was that... and at our peak, we had like 80 programmers.
[04:43.880 --> 04:45.060]  We were on seven nights a week.
[04:45.080 --> 04:47.100]  It was just an amazing station.
[04:47.100 --> 04:56.640]  But what we started to find was that for every DJ that we had, there were like five other people that really wanted to be part of our station, but that just couldn't.
[04:57.200 --> 05:02.100]  And, you know, the one that broke my heart was this Ethiopian journalist.
[05:02.720 --> 05:05.340]  She had actually been a journalist in Ethiopia.
[05:06.140 --> 05:11.060]  And she wanted to cover like all the issues of all the Africans moving into our neighborhood.
[05:11.060 --> 05:16.380]  And just the day before her first show, she was like, I can't do it.
[05:16.740 --> 05:24.460]  You know, like if I'm there when the FCC busts in there, then they're gonna like haul me away and send me back to where the war is.
[05:24.600 --> 05:34.820]  And so we had this sort of realization, which is that as cool as pirate radio was, we didn't believe that community radio should just be for the reckless.
[05:34.820 --> 05:41.140]  we believe that it should be for everybody and that there should be radio stations in every town in every community.
[05:42.700 --> 05:44.900]  And so we kind of had this realization.
[05:45.200 --> 05:53.280]  And at the same time, the FCC came and they, after six tries, they came and they kicked down the door and they took away the pirate radio station.
[05:54.320 --> 06:15.520]  And, but then sort of surprising really no one more than us, The same week that they kicked down the door and they took the radio station out of our house, they announced that they were getting ready to change the rules, that there were over a thousand pirates on the air,
[06:15.580 --> 06:24.580]  and that as bad as they claimed that pirate radio was, that our complaints about the ownership of the media were legitimate.
[06:24.580 --> 06:32.940]  And that any group that wanted to go for a legitimate community radio license, they were going to make a way that that was possible.
[06:35.060 --> 06:52.560]  So, Prometheus Radio Project started in the fall of 1998 to be the vehicle of the legalization of community radio and to go out and capture those licenses that the FCC was offering for progressive groups around the United States.
[06:53.200 --> 06:54.920]  We battled for several years.
[06:55.260 --> 07:01.880]  We did tens of thousands of dollars worth of studies and all kinds of jumping through hoops with the FCC.
[07:02.160 --> 07:09.360]  But in 2000, they actually passed a new set of rules that allowed for neighborhood community radio stations to go on the air.
[07:09.660 --> 07:13.320]  And it was the first time they'd really given out licenses in over 10 years.
[07:13.980 --> 07:16.460]  And so it was really, really exciting for us.
[07:16.460 --> 07:30.820]  And so while we had been in the habit of like traveling around the country and helping people set up pirate radio stations, our job got a little more boring because we went around the country and started teaching people how to fill out paperwork and get radio licenses.
[07:31.400 --> 07:37.740]  But it paid off because several years later, the licenses started to come out.
[07:37.940 --> 07:40.760]  And we've been building radio stations ever since then.
[07:41.020 --> 07:45.280]  We built the first radio station that's ever been licensed to a civil rights organization.
[07:45.540 --> 07:50.200]  The first radio station that was ever licensed to a environmental group.
[07:51.220 --> 07:59.240]  We've built a radio station that's used by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a farm workers group in Florida.
[07:59.640 --> 08:12.920]  And so it's really exciting work for us to be putting radio and the broadcast microphone in the hands of these groups that otherwise would be, you know, almost completely powerless and voiceless.
[08:14.340 --> 08:15.740]  We had a couple of
[08:20.460 --> 08:25.120]  setbacks though.
[08:25.420 --> 08:39.500]  While we convinced the FCC to allow low power radio stations and to give out more licenses to these small grassroots organizations, the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio were absolutely furious.
[08:39.500 --> 08:43.100]  And they decided they were going to do everything in their power to stop it.
[08:43.280 --> 08:53.700]  And so they got a bill passed in Congress, which took away about three quarters of the possible low power radio licenses and all of the licenses in the major urban areas.
[08:54.000 --> 09:06.700]  So under the FCC's rules, according to FCC's engineers, we would have been able to build about 25 new radio stations in the top 10 urban areas in the United States.
[09:06.700 --> 09:18.440]  But Congress actually overruled the FCC, took away three quarters of that, and left it so that there were actually no radio stations in the top 50 urban markets in the United States.
[09:18.680 --> 09:30.100]  And so the places we've been building radio stations for the past five years are places like Appaloosas, Louisiana, like Immokalee, Florida, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
[09:30.980 --> 09:50.640]  And while that pisses us off, on the other hand, it's actually been really, it's been important work because while there may be several pretty decent radio stations in Los Angeles, maybe, there has never been a decent radio station in Appaloosas, Louisiana,
[09:50.980 --> 09:54.420]  until the civil rights group brought one.
[09:54.420 --> 10:02.280]  And when you look at those red state, blue state maps and all that sort of thing, and we're building radio stations in all these places.
[10:02.420 --> 10:10.460]  And what I've learned, being a city selector, you know, from Brooklyn originally, is that there are progressive people in every single town in this country.
[10:10.700 --> 10:18.140]  But the problem is that they're voiceless, and they're invisible, and they have no power, and they have no way of really communicating.
[10:18.140 --> 10:34.820]  So, it's been really important for us to be doing all this work in these really, really small towns where, where, you know, these elections get decided, where, where, you know, people live and work, but they're not really exposed to anything but the evangelical radio stations of the,
[10:34.820 --> 10:35.620]  of the Christian right.
[10:36.860 --> 10:48.340]  So, um, uh, the one other thing, ever since we started building radio stations in the United States, we started getting a lot of requests from countries around the world.
[10:48.580 --> 10:50.120]  I hear you build radio stations.
[10:50.300 --> 10:53.480]  Do you want to build a radio station in Czechoslovakia?
[10:53.660 --> 10:56.400]  You know, can you help us build a radio station in Nepal?
[10:56.880 --> 11:01.980]  And, you know, we started, like, gosh, you know, us and what army?
[11:01.980 --> 11:05.100]  I mean, like, what, you know, how are we gonna do that?
[11:05.460 --> 11:09.680]  So, mostly what we've done so far is we've done some technical support over email.
[11:10.120 --> 11:14.060]  And, and a lot of these places are places where there, there is no Internet yet.
[11:14.360 --> 11:17.640]  There is no, uh, there, there, there's really nothing.
[11:17.800 --> 11:19.660]  People live on a dollar or two per day.
[11:20.340 --> 11:26.860]  And, uh, and so radio is, is a, is a much more central form of communication than it, than it even is in the United States.
[11:27.400 --> 11:34.840]  So, um, I have a quick clip from a radio station that we actually did get to build in Tanzania, uh, last summer.
[11:35.140 --> 11:38.040]  And, can we, uh, can we roll it?
[11:39.640 --> 11:41.560]  That, uh, that first one, the Tanzanian?
[11:41.780 --> 11:42.220]  Excellent.
[12:03.250 --> 12:04.330]  Wasn't that great?
[12:15.200 --> 12:20.840]  So, welcome, everyone, to the United African Alliance Community Center.
[12:21.160 --> 12:23.940]  We're, uh, better known as UAACC.
[12:23.940 --> 12:35.740]  Uh, UAACC was formally founded in 1991 by Brother Pete O'Neill and his assistant, yours truly, Mama Charlotte O'Neill.
[12:35.900 --> 12:45.840]  We are, uh, an organization that is, I like to say, a continuation of the goals of the Black Panther Party.
[12:45.840 --> 12:52.100]  I am a political exile, and have been so for the past 35 years.
[12:52.420 --> 13:00.200]  Our goal is to participate and become an integral part of the development of the communities in which we live.
[13:00.400 --> 13:18.080]  So, when you see our community program, when you see our computer classes, when you see our, uh, English classes, when you see our empowerment through the arts classes for women, these are things that we were doing in the 1960s in the Black Panther Party.
[13:30.250 --> 13:38.370]  One of the projects that the Indigenous Knowledge Class has been doing is going around, visiting the elders in the community, and interviewing them.
[13:38.510 --> 13:42.130]  So, this is going to be so good, even with the, the radio station.
[13:42.130 --> 13:47.790]  You know, they'll be able to actually reach many more people.
[14:02.550 --> 14:10.530]  Programming also means, also, just being sure that your station is communicating the message that you would want to communicate to your listeners.
[14:10.910 --> 14:15.930]  And that your listeners are as much as involved in the programming of the station as possible.
[14:15.930 --> 14:21.030]  I mean, gathering elders from villages, and trying to talk to them about music.
[14:21.510 --> 14:27.810]  Maybe they'll try to explain how, I mean, the music was all about, and during their time.
[14:28.170 --> 14:33.550]  And how is the, I mean, hip-hop, I mean, the impact of, I mean, hip-hop to the community right now.
[14:33.810 --> 14:38.490]  Like, from 4:20 to 4:30, they'll be like, a little bit news.
[14:39.370 --> 14:43.810]  And then, after news, they'll be from 4:30 to 4:50.
[14:45.330 --> 14:53.570]  Maybe somebody can come, like, a grandfather or a grandmother can talk about, maybe, health issues.
[14:54.010 --> 14:59.610]  For example, if they'll be like, issue concerning traditional medicine, that will be the end.
[15:00.270 --> 15:04.830]  So, that's the program of What's Up Was There.
[15:05.370 --> 15:06.570]  What's Up Was There!
[15:08.590 --> 15:11.970]  When you're going to be a producer for a show, you have to have an imagination.
[15:12.350 --> 15:16.150]  You must have the show in your head already, even before it goes on to air.
[15:16.670 --> 15:20.090]  And then, as a team, find ways to make it a reality.
[15:20.470 --> 15:21.210]  Something like that.
[15:21.630 --> 15:23.330]  Excellent work, group two.
[15:29.190 --> 15:32.330]  So, you have to remember it like a dance down.
[15:32.770 --> 15:38.030]  You go, iron, solder, solder, iron.
[15:38.610 --> 15:39.630]  So, did you find it?
[15:42.090 --> 15:42.930]  Right here.
[15:43.910 --> 15:44.330]  Yes.
[15:47.110 --> 15:47.890]  Oh, yeah.
[15:48.550 --> 15:48.850]  That's good.
[15:59.880 --> 16:01.780]  Brown, black, green.
[16:01.780 --> 16:10.080]  If you get to a dance, it will probably be a little more.
[16:10.120 --> 16:10.660]  Yes.
[16:13.360 --> 16:15.340]  Let's go ahead.
[16:23.150 --> 16:26.450]  Just by having different arrangements of pieces of metal.
[16:26.590 --> 16:27.730]  Just a little longer.
[16:28.190 --> 16:31.430]  Like, maybe two centimeters longer.
[16:31.990 --> 16:34.490]  And it's got another one in front of that.
[16:35.270 --> 16:37.590]  And this is the first sentence.
[16:42.050 --> 16:43.350]  And I made that.
[16:50.590 --> 16:51.710]  Alright, thanks a lot.
[16:52.250 --> 16:55.750]  There's more of it and it's really cool.
[16:55.870 --> 16:59.150]  We have a couple DVDs with us if you want to see it or you can get it off of our website.
[17:00.890 --> 17:04.950]  So, do you want to take it from here and talk about some of the current stuff?
[17:13.530 --> 17:13.970]  Hey.
[17:13.970 --> 17:14.950]  How are you guys doing?
[17:16.070 --> 17:18.650]  Yeah, so that's pretty exciting, right?
[17:18.830 --> 17:19.610]  Well, not my head.
[17:19.710 --> 17:20.510]  My head is less exciting.
[17:20.530 --> 17:23.250]  It's like a recursive loop of me pointing into infinity.
[17:23.790 --> 17:24.710]  It's kind of cool.
[17:25.170 --> 17:39.970]  So, what you just saw there is a barn raising and a little bit later Andy Gunn, who's our technical organizer, will talk about how to build a radio station with us later this summer and how we do these all around the country and all around the world.
[17:39.970 --> 18:00.370]  But while we would love to, for example, like climb up to the roof of this hotel, take the little transmitter kit that I have in my bag upstairs, solder it together, slap some piece of copper on it and start like Radio Free HOPE, unfortunately, just like because of the reasons Pete Tri has explained,
[18:00.430 --> 18:07.050]  we're trying to work at the FCC and in Congress in the United States to expand community radio.
[18:07.050 --> 18:20.930]  So, immigrant workers groups, so schools, so churches, so community organizations that can't risk being pirates because of their safety can have a station that they can use out of the closet.
[18:20.930 --> 18:23.950]  And we're all out of the closet here at the Prometheus Radio Project.
[18:23.950 --> 18:25.750]  It's just, you know, the way we are.
[18:25.950 --> 18:43.970]  So, what I'm going to talk to you a little bit about, it's pretty boring and, you know, you might not want to do it, but it's about some of the pieces of legislation that are on the table right now that can help expand this kind of service to thousands more community groups across the United States.
[18:43.970 --> 18:49.270]  And maybe a little bit later we can talk about setting up these kinds of policies around the world.
[18:49.610 --> 19:01.790]  So, Pete Tri introduced how the National Association of Broadcasters and National Public Radio actually pretended like there was a technical problem with low power FM.
[19:01.790 --> 19:23.470]  They said, well, if you have a smooth jazz station owned by Clear Channel at 100.1, let's say, and in the same town you wanted to build a low power FM station, the National Association of Broadcasters and NPR got together and they convinced Congress that you wouldn't be able to build one of those stations at 100.3,
[19:23.690 --> 19:29.070]  which is the first adjacent channel to 100.1, or at 100.5, right?
[19:29.070 --> 19:31.010]  That's the second adjacent channel.
[19:31.250 --> 19:35.710]  But they also said that there wouldn't be any room at 100.7 FM.
[19:36.050 --> 19:37.410]  And the same way back, right?
[19:37.490 --> 19:43.470]  If you're at 100.1, 99.9, you couldn't build a low power FM, 99.7.
[19:43.650 --> 19:50.770]  But they also said we couldn't build at 99.5, the third adjacent channel to 100.1 FM.
[19:51.170 --> 20:06.930]  Now, there were many decades of engineering history and experience proving that there was plenty of room, but, you know, Congress members really don't care about what's true, but they do care about who pays for their political junkets and who donates to their campaigns.
[20:07.230 --> 20:17.620]  So, they were able to limit low power FM using a bill that I find very ironically named the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000.
[20:17.620 --> 20:19.360]  I always think that's pretty funny.
[20:19.660 --> 20:30.280]  But we were able to push the FCC and Congress mandated that the FCC had to prove that there wouldn't be room for a low power FM station in Minneapolis.
[20:30.580 --> 20:36.520]  That there wouldn't be room for a low power FM station in New Orleans as well as thousands of other communities across the country.
[20:36.520 --> 20:44.960]  So, the FCC hired a defense contractor corporation, which, you know, is always really trustworthy and great, called the MITRE Corporation.
[20:44.960 --> 20:46.460]  It's M-I-T-R-E.
[20:46.620 --> 20:57.520]  And the MITRE Corporation studied with 2.2 million dollars and lots of engineering tests whether or not low power FM stations would interfere with full power broadcasts.
[20:57.520 --> 21:05.260]  And they proved, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there is plenty of room for low power FM all across this country.
[21:05.780 --> 21:08.100]  So, what can we do about that?
[21:08.440 --> 21:19.220]  Well, after the MITRE Corporation made that study and proved it, a number of Congress members started to introduce bills that would expand low power FM radio.
[21:19.380 --> 21:23.180]  So, this is when you take out your pen and your notepad and you write this stuff down.
[21:23.180 --> 21:33.280]  So, if you want a low power FM station in your hometown and you don't live in a really big city, like New York, it's almost impossible that we'll get a low power FM here.
[21:33.460 --> 21:43.180]  But if you live in almost any other major big city besides New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, we might be able to find a frequency if we expand low power FM.
[21:43.180 --> 21:44.440]  There's a Senate bill.
[21:44.560 --> 21:45.980]  It's Senate bill 312.
[21:46.740 --> 21:48.060]  That's 312.
[21:48.500 --> 21:53.820]  It was sponsored by John McCain, you know, interesting man from Arizona.
[21:54.060 --> 22:00.220]  And Patrick Leahy, who's from Vermont, and Maria Cantwell from Washington State.
[22:00.460 --> 22:04.920]  And that bill would expand low power FM to that third adjacent frequency.
[22:05.320 --> 22:10.360]  There's also a bill in the House of Representatives that was put forward by Louise Slaughter.
[22:10.360 --> 22:12.520]  She's a congresswoman from upstate New York.
[22:12.780 --> 22:15.580]  It's House bill 3731.
[22:16.560 --> 22:17.960]  That's 3731.
[22:18.600 --> 22:24.200]  So, right now, you can call your congress members, although they're probably, you know, not in the office right now.
[22:24.360 --> 22:34.920]  But you can call them next week and say, I want you to support Senate bill 312 or House bill 3731 to expand low power radio to my community.
[22:34.920 --> 22:38.640]  And then there's a number of other bills that are on the table right now, too.
[22:39.420 --> 22:44.760]  Senate bill 312 was recently amended to a huge telecommunications bill.
[22:45.000 --> 22:50.200]  You know, these t-shirts we're wearing, this wonderful quote, the Internet, a series of tubes, you know.
[22:50.760 --> 22:54.420]  But, you know, it always gets a laugh, at least in the next minute or so it will.
[22:54.700 --> 22:57.580]  You know, that was put forward by Senator Ted Stevens.
[22:57.580 --> 23:14.760]  Stevens just put forward a huge piece of legislation that would do everything from completely gut our ability to put packets, put information out on the Internet and get information back without worrying that it might get eroded by Comcast or Verizon because they own the lines that go to our house,
[23:14.960 --> 23:16.320]  you know, that net neutrality stuff.
[23:16.620 --> 23:23.340]  And it would also prevent community organizations that have fought for years to build public access TV centers.
[23:23.340 --> 23:28.220]  It would prevent them from being able to have the power to negotiate their own franchises.
[23:28.400 --> 23:33.360]  So it's a really terrible bill, but our legislation was just amended onto it.
[23:33.540 --> 23:39.160]  So you can also tell your Congress members that you support Low Power FM on this Senate bill.
[23:39.500 --> 23:44.320]  And there's also a House bill called the COPE Act that is like a companion bill to this.
[23:44.320 --> 23:57.520]  But you also have to understand that we're going to stay together to fight this bill if it doesn't make good net neutrality principles get encoded into law and if it doesn't let community organizations continue to fight for public access.
[23:57.780 --> 24:10.080]  So if you want to learn more about how Low Power FM sort of intersects with some of these larger battles for public access TV and for net neutrality, you can go to our website, which is prometheusradio.org.
[24:10.440 --> 24:13.500]  And you can also go to savetheinternet.com.
[24:14.500 --> 24:33.880]  The last thing I want to talk about, which is going to lead in a little bit to some stuff that Dharma is going to say, is that one thing that Prometheus did was we were able to sue the FCC and win when the Federal Communications Commission tried to deregulate media ownership in the United States.
[24:33.980 --> 24:34.840]  And so what does that mean?
[24:34.840 --> 24:45.840]  So that means that a big company like Clear Channel or a big company like Viacom in 2002, 2003, they were fighting so they could own even more stuff in your hometown.
[24:46.080 --> 24:47.780]  So they could own the newspaper.
[24:48.000 --> 24:52.000]  So they could own both... like two major television stations.
[24:52.340 --> 24:58.840]  So they could own many more radio stations in a market where the FCC was keeping them just at a certain number.
[24:59.020 --> 25:12.080]  And so because activists like you guys, because people who understood technology, but also understood that it was important for that technology to get into the hands of community groups, you know, you guys are hackers on planet Earth.
[25:12.320 --> 25:15.760]  You're not hackers on planet bedroom or hackers in planet basement.
[25:16.020 --> 25:21.360]  You're here to make sure that this technology helps all of us to really have like a better world.
[25:21.360 --> 25:24.580]  So, you know, hackers on planet basement doesn't have as good a ring.
[25:25.040 --> 25:49.460]  So because of that, like because people just like you who really wanted low-power radio stations told the FCC in 2002 and 2003 that if there was media consolidation that they wouldn't be able to put their stations on the air, we were able to have standing in federal court to sue them because they hadn't listened to us and they hadn't listened to the two million people who had sent in comments.
[25:49.700 --> 26:00.460]  And so because we were able to be there, we, along with many other allies, especially the media access project, public interest law firm in DC, were able to sue the FCC and win.
[26:00.740 --> 26:02.280]  So that was really awesome.
[26:02.400 --> 26:07.400]  That means that Clear Channel doesn't suck as much as they possibly could right this second.
[26:07.400 --> 26:12.960]  However, the FCC is going to be trying to deregulate again this year in 2006.
[26:13.340 --> 26:29.340]  So if you want to make sure that they do not own everything in your town and they do not also own the nuclear power plant, the concert venue, and all of the tours of the worst musicians and just some terrible stuff, then you should also go to StopBigMedia.com.
[26:29.440 --> 26:32.260]  And Prometheus is going to continue to be involved in that fight as well.
[26:32.400 --> 26:35.440]  So that's all the stuff about legislation and regulation.
[26:35.440 --> 26:37.160]  I can answer questions later on.
[26:37.400 --> 26:45.600]  But we want to hear a little bit more from Andy now, who's going to tell you about our upcoming barn raising and how you can get involved with building radio stations all around the world.
[26:45.780 --> 26:46.060]  Thanks.
[26:52.890 --> 26:54.670]  Oh yeah, I'll mention that.
[26:55.750 --> 26:56.210]  Hi.
[26:56.210 --> 26:57.330]  My name is Andy Gunn.
[26:57.450 --> 26:59.990]  I'm the tech guy at Prometheus.
[27:00.050 --> 27:05.290]  I'm the most like an engineer of the people at Prometheus.
[27:05.290 --> 27:13.110]  So one of my big tasks is to sort of organize the technical portion of the barn raisings that we have.
[27:13.290 --> 27:15.230]  And we've had 10 barn raisings so far.
[27:15.490 --> 27:24.570]  And these are weekend long events where people from the local community and volunteers from all over the country meet.
[27:24.570 --> 27:36.050]  And there's a conference-like thing where there's panels and workshops and discussions on how to run a radio station, but also some of the technology behind it.
[27:36.210 --> 27:49.450]  And while that's going on, we also build the whole radio station from microphone to antenna, which includes building furniture, configuring all the equipment, putting up the tower, testing the transmitter, doing all that stuff.
[27:49.970 --> 27:56.010]  And the majority of it is all done by people who may have never touched any of that before.
[27:57.090 --> 28:05.210]  Probably the majority of it is done by volunteers who, this is the first time they've touched a soldering iron or a transmitter of any kind.
[28:05.210 --> 28:12.070]  And so it's really exciting to see, you know, the few texts that we bring out just not touching any of the tools.
[28:12.250 --> 28:14.970]  I scold them sternly if they touch any of the tools.
[28:15.090 --> 28:19.370]  And so I make sure that all the volunteers actually build the station.
[28:19.630 --> 28:25.210]  And it just shows that, you know, this technology behind radio, it's not that complicated.
[28:26.310 --> 28:31.910]  It's up to people like us in this room to show people that, you know, technology is not this scary thing.
[28:31.910 --> 28:35.090]  And it's really, we have to demystify it.
[28:35.170 --> 28:49.930]  So we can show that how it can be used for, you know, social justice and things that are good, instead of just, you know, toys and blinky lights and iPods and things like that, that are all very nice, but aren't necessarily doing anybody any good.
[28:50.710 --> 28:53.990]  So, let me see.
[28:54.310 --> 28:54.770]  Da-da-da-da-da.
[28:56.130 --> 28:56.630]  Right.
[29:31.850 --> 29:36.550]  And one of the things that I want to talk about is how we can take a little bit of that back.
[29:37.610 --> 29:45.670]  But before I do that, I wanted to mention our next barn raising is in Woodburn, Oregon, which is about half-hour south of Portland.
[29:46.030 --> 29:49.990]  And it's with P. Kuhn, a farm worker and tree planters union.
[29:50.350 --> 29:54.390]  And it's going to be a really, really amazing barn raising.
[29:54.390 --> 30:07.110]  We're doing some interesting technical challenges, like putting an antenna up on top of a water tower, trying to shoot the audio across with a Wi-Fi link, and then encoding and decoding the audio at each end.
[30:07.930 --> 30:12.690]  Also building some studios in a new way.
[30:12.830 --> 30:15.770]  And we're going to have a lot of challenges in that way.
[30:15.870 --> 30:24.570]  And if any of you speak Spanish, talk to me afterwards, because I'd really... I need Spanish-speaking bilingual techs and engineers and such.
[30:24.750 --> 30:26.530]  So come talk to me after the panel.
[30:28.310 --> 30:31.150]  But that's August 18th through the 20th.
[30:31.750 --> 30:32.190]  So...
[30:32.190 --> 30:32.890]  Is that right?
[30:33.110 --> 30:33.410]  Yes.
[30:33.590 --> 30:33.950]  Okay, good.
[30:35.570 --> 30:36.990]  So it's coming up shortly.
[30:36.990 --> 30:39.690]  If you can make it out, it'd be great to see you all there.
[30:41.830 --> 30:48.490]  But the next upcoming chance to really get your hands on a radio station is what I want to talk about.
[30:49.110 --> 31:04.970]  And, you know, this isn't going to work everywhere, but in probably first quarter, second quarter, first half of 2007, the FCC is going to be opening up a new application window for non-commercial and educational radio stations.
[31:04.970 --> 31:07.730]  And these are FM, full-power stations.
[31:07.910 --> 31:11.210]  Anything from 100 watts to like 100,000 watts.
[31:11.730 --> 31:17.350]  So anywhere that there's space left on the dial is up for grabs.
[31:17.510 --> 31:20.810]  And that means probably not here in New York City.
[31:21.430 --> 31:25.990]  Usually, it'll be someplace a little more rural, small towns, small cities.
[31:26.570 --> 31:34.250]  I mean, there might be some surprises out there where, like, you might be able to catch the outer ring of a very huge city.
[31:36.110 --> 31:43.350]  But it's really, you know, it's going to be up to us, to all of you, to, you know, find someone that you may know.
[31:43.470 --> 31:45.670]  You may live in an area that's perfect for this.
[31:45.710 --> 31:49.290]  And if you're interested in starting a station, this is your big chance.
[31:49.510 --> 31:52.490]  And you should really, you should check out our website, Prometheus Radio.
[31:52.670 --> 31:54.210]  All the information is on there.
[31:54.390 --> 31:55.990]  Or talk to me afterwards.
[31:57.410 --> 32:09.470]  Because this is really, probably going to be one of the last chances that we have to get a radio station without buying it for $10 billion or something like that.
[32:09.910 --> 32:22.350]  And so, anyone out there that's interested in this, or you might have an uncle, or a sister, or a friend, or you know of a group in the Midwest that just really is awesome.
[32:22.550 --> 32:23.530]  And you should talk to them.
[32:23.830 --> 32:27.110]  And really urge them to, you know, hop on this.
[32:27.270 --> 32:29.250]  Because they don't have a lot of time to prepare.
[32:30.930 --> 32:32.410]  And it's going to run out.
[32:32.570 --> 32:35.610]  And then, you know, they better get a station while they still can.
[32:35.790 --> 32:38.190]  And get their voices and their messages out on the air.
[32:38.190 --> 32:40.050]  But one of the...
[32:40.050 --> 32:48.210]  The next thing I wanted to do was show a little video of one of our barn raisings that we had in Nashville with WRFN.
[32:48.770 --> 32:50.630]  And they're a bunch of great kids.
[32:51.190 --> 32:53.410]  And can we roll that or something?
[32:56.970 --> 32:57.730]  Tech guy.
[32:57.930 --> 32:59.230]  AV guy, you're leaving me hanging.
[33:00.650 --> 33:03.750]  This feature is the worst hair day of my entire life.
[33:04.530 --> 33:06.230]  You're all having bad hair days.
[33:06.970 --> 33:07.290]  Okay.
[33:07.730 --> 33:08.050]  Thanks.
[33:08.090 --> 33:08.650]  This is just crazy.
[33:09.110 --> 33:12.550]  It was a long struggle from the very beginning.
[33:13.870 --> 33:16.630]  A lot of support from people in the community though.
[33:16.750 --> 33:18.130]  And that really, really kept us going.
[33:18.470 --> 33:21.050]  Even when we were playing that game of hurry up and wait with the FCC.
[33:21.450 --> 33:23.390]  And there was no tangible progress.
[33:23.550 --> 33:26.890]  When you're asking people to help pay lawyer bills and engineering bills.
[33:27.010 --> 33:27.870]  When you're not a non-profit.
[33:27.930 --> 33:28.830]  When you don't have a radio station.
[33:28.950 --> 33:30.290]  You don't know if you're going to have a radio station.
[33:30.750 --> 33:31.470]  People were just...
[33:31.470 --> 33:33.630]  They always stepped up to the plate when they needed to.
[33:33.730 --> 33:34.890]  And that made a huge difference.
[33:34.890 --> 33:36.070]  And now with the barn raising.
[33:39.050 --> 33:39.650]  It's great.
[33:39.830 --> 33:41.570]  I mean, just to see people coming from around the country.
[33:41.690 --> 33:42.490]  And helping us do this.
[33:42.610 --> 33:44.950]  And people who believe in the same things that we believe in.
[33:45.010 --> 33:45.910]  And why this is important.
[33:46.510 --> 33:48.110]  And who want to see us succeed.
[33:50.530 --> 33:51.570]  It's really overwhelming.
[33:51.910 --> 33:53.030]  You know, nothing can faze us anymore.
[33:53.170 --> 33:53.950]  Nothing's going to stop us.
[33:54.050 --> 33:54.730]  Nothing's going to stop it.
[33:54.750 --> 33:55.770]  We're here.
[33:56.650 --> 33:57.430]  My name's Doug.
[33:57.430 --> 33:58.350]  I live in East Nashville.
[33:59.090 --> 33:59.590]  Oh!
[34:48.680 --> 34:50.300]  Oh, oh!
[34:50.300 --> 34:50.980]  Come on, oh!
[35:51.950 --> 35:52.180]  Oh!
[36:23.670 --> 36:26.630]  This is the transmitter for Radio Free Nashville.
[36:27.650 --> 36:30.210]  And we are in test mode.
[36:30.710 --> 36:40.210]  And we have audio in it and now we're just trying to improve the sound by messing with the knobs on a couple different things.
[36:43.010 --> 36:48.130]  Yeah, we can, you know, I might do it later, but you can wire up like a little remote on the DB9 and get our drone back.
[36:50.350 --> 36:51.150]  Main program.
[36:53.110 --> 36:53.510]  Out.
[36:54.130 --> 36:55.490]  Get DRS right here.
[36:56.170 --> 36:57.010]  It's automation.
[36:58.170 --> 37:04.770]  If you think that you can make radio that sounds a little better than what you just heard just now, you can volunteer at this station.
[37:05.790 --> 37:08.690]  Go to RadioFreeNashville.org today.
[37:11.090 --> 37:12.870]  W-R-F-N Nashville.
[37:13.250 --> 37:15.810]  Actually, we're W-R-F-N PASQUO Nashville.
[37:16.570 --> 37:18.110]  A little power for a pin.
[37:26.720 --> 37:29.600]  98.9 W-R-F-N PASQUO.
[37:29.800 --> 37:33.500]  This is Radio Free Nashville officially with the Society of Orange.
[37:48.170 --> 37:50.230]  We've got audio going out over the air.
[37:50.850 --> 37:52.190]  It's sounding good, too.
[37:52.190 --> 37:55.770]  We're getting signal reports from parts of Nashville we didn't expect to reach.
[37:56.050 --> 37:59.570]  So, I think mission has been more than accomplished.
[38:00.450 --> 38:03.610]  Radio Free Nashville is now reaching the world.
[38:04.150 --> 38:11.410]  This is Radio Free Nashville, streaming live over a laptop computer, free through the airwaves.
[38:28.410 --> 38:33.090]  So, I just want to amplify a couple of things that the rest of my colleagues have said.
[38:33.590 --> 38:39.410]  First of all, if you get a chance to go to a barn raising, it's the most humbling and amazing experience.
[38:39.410 --> 38:46.690]  The first one that I went to was also a migrant worker station down in Florida.
[38:46.690 --> 38:57.610]  And to be able to do something that helps people who are fighting slavery, chattel slavery in this country, in the tomato fields of Florida.
[38:58.530 --> 39:04.650]  There's nothing that is, at one hand, the most empowering feeling you'll ever have.
[39:04.730 --> 39:06.990]  And also the humblest you'll ever feel.
[39:07.370 --> 39:10.530]  Helping people who are struggling against those kind of issues.
[39:11.610 --> 39:13.070]  My name is number 38.
[39:14.730 --> 39:16.030]  I was a teen mom.
[39:17.950 --> 39:19.230]  My mom was a teen mom.
[39:19.350 --> 39:20.330]  I grew up in projects.
[39:20.950 --> 39:28.890]  So, that makes me, along with my fallopian tubes, the most likely person in the room to be talking to people all around the country about an open spectrum.
[39:29.390 --> 39:34.230]  And the five kinds of white space, and grade B contours, and all kinds of other stuff.
[39:34.230 --> 39:43.610]  If that stuff turns you on, and you just love talking about it, and sharing your knowledge of that with people at the grassroots, then email me.
[39:43.750 --> 39:46.690]  We can talk later on dharma.prometheusradio.org.
[39:48.330 --> 39:51.450]  To be honest with you, I struggled to learn this stuff.
[39:51.570 --> 39:55.170]  I've been banging my head against the wall for about 12 years learning this stuff.
[39:55.170 --> 39:58.590]  Not because I care about it, but because I care about class war.
[39:59.190 --> 39:59.670]  Yeah.
[39:59.670 --> 40:01.570]  And ownership is power.
[40:02.110 --> 40:03.550]  The airwaves are ours.
[40:03.770 --> 40:08.670]  It's the most leverage that we have to get communications back into our own hands.
[40:09.010 --> 40:10.630]  And I care a lot about that.
[40:13.390 --> 40:16.010]  You know, I don't know what else I was going to say.
[40:16.190 --> 40:17.590]  I probably don't have anything else to say.
[40:18.930 --> 40:20.410]  I guess fallopian tubes.
[40:20.850 --> 40:21.790]  Fallopian tubes!
[40:23.070 --> 40:24.290]  The Internet is tubes.
[40:24.530 --> 40:25.550]  The Internet is tubes.
[40:25.750 --> 40:26.970]  Well, the Internet is waves.
[40:26.970 --> 40:33.690]  And, you know, I mean, you know, like Hannah said, I mean, the NAB, you know, they have their engineers.
[40:33.870 --> 40:34.770]  They have armies of them.
[40:34.870 --> 40:39.650]  It took us years just to get engineers into the room to say the obvious.
[40:39.970 --> 40:54.450]  That if you have a station that is putting out the wattage of the light bulb in your refrigerator, it's not going to do a damn thing to the stadium lights that a big megawatt station is putting out.
[40:54.450 --> 40:55.070]  All right?
[40:55.210 --> 40:57.010]  And we couldn't even get engineers in the room.
[40:57.170 --> 40:59.630]  For years it took us because they were afraid to lose their jobs.
[41:00.010 --> 41:00.590]  You know?
[41:05.560 --> 41:09.660]  I guess I talk a couple minutes about this.
[41:10.380 --> 41:12.120]  The rubber band thing, right?
[41:12.960 --> 41:26.580]  You know, the NAB shows up in Congress with a cool edit CD saying, oh, well, you know, there will be oceans of interference if we let people use their own airwaves.
[41:26.580 --> 41:32.940]  And Congress says, oh, well, you know, their engineers say this, so it must be true.
[41:33.280 --> 41:36.810]  We'll just have to outlaw everything and keep people off of the airwaves.
[41:37.260 --> 41:45.780]  And I was listening to the last panel and somebody at the last panel talked about the complete cessation of expression.
[41:47.040 --> 41:52.200]  And he was talking to people who already are on the air and are already using the air.
[41:52.360 --> 41:54.100]  And that doesn't include most of us.
[41:54.320 --> 41:54.860]  You know?
[41:55.080 --> 42:11.480]  So I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out for 12 years why people like us, and more importantly, beyond this room, because when I talk about five kinds of white space, and then I look around this room and I think, yeah, there's more kinds than that when we're talking about radio waves.
[42:13.960 --> 42:14.640]  You know?
[42:15.520 --> 42:16.000]  Sorry.
[42:22.920 --> 42:37.200]  You know, we don't have all of the money that the NAB has, and if everybody that told us about how politics works, if we listened to them, then we would never have gotten one station on the air.
[42:37.600 --> 42:38.140]  You know?
[42:39.560 --> 42:45.360]  So, it's a little embarrassing to go around to a community group and try to explain to them why they can't go on the airwaves.
[42:45.460 --> 42:46.440]  I bring rubber bands.
[42:47.560 --> 42:48.040]  Alright?
[42:48.240 --> 42:51.080]  That's the tool that we can afford to bring to communities.
[42:51.500 --> 42:52.040]  You know?
[42:52.160 --> 42:56.160]  Because what we are told about the way that...
[42:56.160 --> 43:07.460]  The reason we can't use the airwaves is because everywhere else in the universe, radio waves are waves, but at the FCC they're property.
[43:07.840 --> 43:09.680]  And that's the only place that that's true.
[43:10.320 --> 43:12.920]  And it's the only place that it matters that it's true.
[43:13.260 --> 43:13.920]  You know?
[43:14.100 --> 43:15.740]  And that's what we have to fight against.
[43:15.960 --> 43:21.060]  And we need people like you to get into that discussion and take claim of that space.
[43:21.240 --> 43:24.240]  Because, you know, I don't care about access.
[43:24.240 --> 43:26.640]  I mean, I know that there's always somebody that...
[43:26.640 --> 43:28.620]  Like, we go in and we talk about old school FM.
[43:28.820 --> 43:36.280]  And, you know, why we love old school FM is because radio receivers cost more, cost less.
[43:36.440 --> 43:39.860]  I mean, more people have radios than have telephones.
[43:40.260 --> 43:40.660]  You know?
[43:40.960 --> 43:42.240]  And people forget.
[43:42.360 --> 43:45.880]  Like, every time I'll go to a talk and I'll come out and I'll be like, Look!
[43:46.520 --> 43:47.000]  Waves!
[43:47.500 --> 43:47.640]  You know?
[43:47.740 --> 43:49.120]  Energy travels in waves.
[43:49.340 --> 43:49.680]  It's true.
[43:50.020 --> 43:51.880]  No matter what kind of wave it is.
[43:52.040 --> 43:52.140]  You know?
[43:52.780 --> 44:05.220]  And try to give people these kind of dumb, stupid explanations about how this stuff works and try to demystify it so that people will have a sense of ownership over their airwaves and we can get some of this space back.
[44:05.860 --> 44:08.460]  And everybody knows that, you know...
[44:09.000 --> 44:12.380]  I hold up a cell phone and I ask people what it is.
[44:12.620 --> 44:13.020]  You know?
[44:13.180 --> 44:15.020]  And they'll say, Wow!
[44:15.180 --> 44:15.820]  It's a cell phone.
[44:15.840 --> 44:18.040]  And I say, No, that's a computer with a two-way radio.
[44:18.540 --> 44:19.060]  You know?
[44:19.700 --> 44:20.500]  And everything.
[44:20.660 --> 44:22.680]  Your cable TV is a computer.
[44:23.240 --> 44:24.860]  And your satellite's a computer.
[44:24.960 --> 44:25.500]  Blah, blah, blah.
[44:25.840 --> 44:26.220]  You know?
[44:26.260 --> 44:29.180]  We've got to fight for these emerging technologies and these new technologies.
[44:29.400 --> 44:31.020]  And they're old school.
[44:31.020 --> 44:31.660]  They're new...
[44:31.660 --> 44:32.640]  They don't...
[44:32.640 --> 44:33.320]  You know?
[44:33.480 --> 44:35.080]  You guys have been on them for years, right?
[44:35.380 --> 44:39.500]  And everybody stands up in the room and there'll always be somebody and be like, Well, why does FM matter?
[44:39.660 --> 44:41.420]  Because everybody's on the Internet.
[44:41.660 --> 44:42.740]  And I have to go, No.
[44:43.600 --> 44:44.040]  You know?
[44:44.180 --> 44:48.680]  And then somebody at the end of the talk comes up to me and they'll be like, Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.
[44:48.840 --> 44:50.480]  Nobody in my neighborhood has the Internet.
[44:51.000 --> 44:53.560]  And I'm trying to talk to them about how important it is.
[44:53.640 --> 44:59.040]  And we're trying to get some old crappy computers that somebody dumped on us to get them working.
[44:59.040 --> 44:59.860]  You know?
[45:00.100 --> 45:00.820]  And everything.
[45:01.160 --> 45:02.380]  And here we are again.
[45:02.760 --> 45:12.200]  The people who could use technology the most and benefit the most from communications are always the last ones to say how it's going to be used or what it's going to be used for or any of that stuff.
[45:12.740 --> 45:13.180]  You know?
[45:13.180 --> 45:16.680]  And I know you guys know what I'm talking about.
[45:17.340 --> 45:18.260]  Some of you do.
[45:18.520 --> 45:20.100]  Some of you are willfully ignorant.
[45:20.420 --> 45:25.970]  But I'm going to stop now.
[45:27.670 --> 45:28.790]  On that happy note.
[45:30.070 --> 45:32.830]  So we can take like maybe two questions.
[45:33.230 --> 45:43.630]  But also we have a hotel room here and have t-shirt making supplies if you want some Internet t-shirts like Dharm and I are wearing.
[45:43.870 --> 45:53.910]  And also if you want to talk about how we can use our actual, you know, minds and resources to get these technologies into the hands of communities like the ones you just saw.
[45:54.650 --> 45:56.950]  Okay, actually we have no time for questions.
[45:57.210 --> 45:57.930]  Sorry about that.
[45:59.710 --> 46:00.150]  So...
[46:00.150 --> 46:04.890]  Yeah, if you want to step to the side and ask these guys any questions.
[46:04.910 --> 46:09.490]  We have to end five minutes before each session so they can finalize the DVD.
[46:10.230 --> 46:15.730]  Coming up next will be 2600 meetings with Emmanuel and Bernie and some folks.