Help build a community radio station in Portsmouth 9/10-12!
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Join the Prometheus Radio Project as we help build a new low power FM radio station in Portsmouth, NH, the wekend of Sept 10-12.
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Join Prometheus next weekend in Portsmouth for a Radio Barnraising to Build a Low Power FM Station in a Weekend!
NATIONAL CONTACT:
Pete Tridish, 215.605-9297, petri@prometheusradio.org
LOCAL CONTACT:
Tim Stone, 603.498.0591, tstone@wscafm.org
During the weekend of September 10th-12th, hundreds of community radio organizers from New England, and all over the world, will gather together to bring a brand new community radio station to the air, as the Prometheus Radio Project partners with Portsmouth Community Radio
for its sixth Radio Barnraising!
As volunteer technicians build everything from the studio to the tower, producers, engineers, and organizers from all over the United States and Canada will teach dozens of workshops on everything from how to record and edit a news show, to how to navigate the intricacies of FCC
regulations. Earlier radio barnraisings have been with civil rights groups, farmworkers organizations, environmental groups, Native American tribes, and community groups.
''We wanted to help build a station right in the state of the man in the Senate, Senator Judd Gregg, who has done the most to oppose community radio, '' said Prometheus Radio Project Technical Director Pete Tridish. ''Seacoast Arts and Cultural Alliance (SACA, the parent organization of Portsmouth Community Radio) is an exemplary group,
which has shown even before they have gotten on the air how a local station can help to pull diverse interests in a town together. We hope that upon seeing the great work of this station, Senator Gregg will drop his opposition to community radio.
Portsmouth climbs to the national stage in legislative battle over Low Power FM Radio
Senator Judd Gregg, of New Hampshire, raised strong objections to the implementation of the LPFM service. Because of the claims of incumbent broadcasters -- that these hundred watt stations would interfere with the fifty-thousand watt commercial juggernauts serving most of
America's towns and cities -- the rollout of the LPFM service was limited to small towns remote from major metropolitan areas. Portsmouth is the lucky exception to Senator Gregg's rules -- most low power stations in urban areas of any size were eliminated by the ''Radio
Broadcasting Preservation Act Of 2000,'' which Senator Gregg attached to an appropriations bill at the end of 2000. Groups like SACA in the top 50 markets of the United States continue to wait for a change in the law to make and receive their own LPFM radio.
''The Portsmouth Community Radio has a unifying mission -- to reflect the educational, cultural, artistic, civic, and business interests of the seacoast region,'' stresses WSCA Trustee Tim Stone. ''With endorsements from the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, the City Mayor, and a wide range of citizens and supporters, the entire community is welcome to get involved and help us showcase everything that is unique to Portsmouth. This is especially important with the loss of locally oriented
programming as commercial radio stations bought up by media giants and programming is controlled by corporate headquarters .''
The Portsmouth station has located its' antenna on top of a downtown performance hall, and has over 40 volunteer shows already proposed. Volunteers range from liberal anti-war activists to conservative attorneys to classical music buffs to belly dancers. The community radio station promises to be one of the few places in today's polarized
society where all these different people will volunteer their time together to work on a common goal.
Senator Gregg will get his chance this year to support stations like WSCA. There is currently legislation on the Senate Floor, bill #2505, that would expand LPFM to reach the millions of Americans without community radio. To learn more about this important bill, visit http://www.prometheusradio.org/lpfm.
For more information on the radio barnraising, including transportation and directions, cheap and free housing, and a full schedule for the weekend, visit http://www.prometheusradio.org. Everyone is invited to
attend Sept. 10th-12th, and no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
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