LPFM and Other New Media
by Dave BradleyLast week we finally had our meeting with community leaders concerning low power FM (LPFM) in West Liberty. Those who were able to show up were extremely enthusiastic. We are at the point where we need to identify a community group that would be the license holder.
As I mentioned before, one of the criteria from the FCC was that the applying group be a local non-profit organization. While we can’t say for sure that such criteria will be in place for low power, since the purpose behind low power is to give voice to local communities that would seem to be a given.
When we began looking around for non-profits in this area there are a surprising number.
The next step will then be to form an actual organization and essentially wait for Congress to do something. The Senate could pass the version of the bill that the House passed long ago. But in an election year where ‘stall on everything’ has been the overriding strategy for Senate Republicans, I doubt anything will happen before the new congress. If we go to a new congress, I look for this bill to get an early look. But predicting what congress will do anymore is only for the foolhardy.
This gives me a chance to digress on new media. Since right wing interests have throttled all the old media with few exceptions, we need to get in on the ground floor of the new opportunities afforded us.
First of course is keeping the internet itself open and available. This will not be easy. Having gate keepers on the internet is right next to “reforming” Social Security on the right wing agenda. And they will not stop their assault unless there are some airtight rules to stop such assault.
The internet is of course the basis for some very effective social media such as Facebook and twitter. Beginning with Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004, the progressives have led in using the power of the internet.
However one tool we have not used as effectively as we could have would be internet radio. Internet radio has no licensing and few rules. This could be a great tool for organizing or for simply a place to refute the latest Fox News talking point. Or perhaps to tell the whole story behind the unemployment figures.
We have just gone past another Labor Day. For most Americans this is simply a day off anymore. The stories of the men and women behind Labor’s struggles that led to the middle class for many Americans is now lost in the mists of history. The media no longer tell the real stories as is true of so many things. In 1984, George Orwell has this admonition “He that controls the present controls the past. He that controls the past controls the future.” We must not let the true stories of the sacrifices be forgotten. This is one of the main reasons that we must carve out our section of the new media before the right wing controls it also.
Be thinking of some of the ways we can carve out a piece. I heard an excellent suggestion from a local candidate the other day. It is such a good idea that I will need to sit on it until we see some action.
~Dave Bradley is a self-described
retired observer of American politics “trying to figure out how we got
so screwed up.” An
Iowa City native currently living in West Liberty, Dave and his wife
Carol have two grown children who “sadly had to leave the state to find
decent paying jobs.”
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