Costa Rica’s Tico Times recently published a profile of unlicensed Guatemala radio station Radio Ixchel, as part of an examination of the radio scene in that country. Guatemala has as many as 800 pirate stations, where most radio licenses are auctioned for as much as $100,000. While there are license categories for public stations, there is no regime to license community stations. The 2009 Community Media Bill would have permitted new community stations in some 300 municipalities, but the law failed to pass.

Guatemala’s radio pirates do face the threat of government raids, but the story of Radio Ixchel‘s founder sounds more like the relative toothless penalties risked by pirates in the US:

Today, pirate radio stations face the constant threat of police raids and possible imprisonment. It happened to Radio Ixchel in 2006. But unlike the warnings made in radio announcements, Xunic was not sent to jail. He went before a judge and returned home without a fine.

Not unlike many unlicensed broadcasters in the US and around the world, Guatemala’s radio pirates take to the air because the dominant media fails to serve the needs of local communities and indigenous peoples. The 1996 peace accords that ended Guatemala’s civil war guaranteed indigenous peoples the right to establish media outlets in their own languages, but this has yet to be turned into policy. In a country where even speaking an indigenous language was illegal less than twenty years ago, the fight for communication and media freedom is still vital.

You can read more about Radio Ixchel at the Columbia Journalism Review and Cultural Survival.

AMARC is the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters and for nearly 30 years has worked for media democracy by supporting the growth of community radio. This year AMARC’s Middle East and North Africa conference will focus on “community media and the Arab Spring.” The conference will be held March 9 and 10 in Tunis and seems especially timely as tens of thousands of Egyptians continue to rally in Tahrir Square, celebrating the anniversary of Egypt’s popular revolt.

The conference’s concept statement offers the observation that the protests that started with the Arab Spring

have shared techniques of civil resistance in sustained campaigns involving strikes, demonstrations, marches and rallies, as well as the use of social media such as community radio, and web-based and mobile technologies. These means of communication allowed protesters to organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and Internet censorship.

Coordinating solidarity and mutual aid between broadcasters, media activists and communication rights activists is a top item on the conference’s agenda. Sessions will also focus on women’s access to community media and participatory sustainable human development. The conference concludes with work towards a “Tunisia Declaration” featuring “debate on a policy declaration and on advocacy strategies, for reinforcing the capacities and to strengthen community broadcasting social impact.”

Here in North America we are too often absorbed in our own over-mediated bubble of constant communication access. So it’s good to be reminded how radio and other community media still play a vital and revolutionary role in the struggle of people for freedom around the world.

It might also remind us that we still need to harness that potential, too.

The remarkable aspect of Knighten’s story is that he missed his arraignment hearing earlier this month in order to attend a panel discussion about civil rights and broadcasting at the New America Foundation in Washington, DC. It’s unfortunate that Knighten was broadcasting in Florida, which is one of only three states with state laws targeting unlicensed broadcasting, and the only state which has made any arrests under statute. In most other states Knighten would only face the wrath of the FCC, which continues to have a pretty poor record in collecting fines for unlicensed broadcasting.

FCC Enforcement Actions 1997-2011

Our friend John Anderson at DIYmedia.net recently published his annual survey of anti-pirate FCC action. His findings for 2011 shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been following the subject here at Radio Survivor on or John’s site.

In fact, Commission enforcement against unlicensed broadcasters hit a 6-year low in 2011. As John reports,

From a record high of 447 enforcement actions clocked in 2009 and 2010, field agents executed just 184 in 2011, against fewer than 100 stations total. Massive drops were seen in the number of station-visits and warning letters issued.

John notes that the total amount in fines handed down by the FCC was actually the highest since 2005, $168,400. However, as this November, 2011 Radio World article would corroborate, it’s highly unlikely the agency will ever collect anything close to that dollar amount when all is said and done.

Last week the FCC released its report on the economic impact of low-power FM stations on commercial radio. The report was mandated by passage of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 (LCRA), and its primary conclusion should surprise nobody with any knowledge of LPFM: “LPFM stations are unlikely to have more than a negligible economic impact on full-service commercial FM stations.”

A pithy comment made to a post on The Hill’s technology blog sums it up even more vividly: “It sounds like a study investigating the Salvation Army thrift stores to see if they unfairly compete with Walmart.” In effect, this comment and the report make clear that the idea that LPFM could be a real threat to commercial radio is and always was a red herring tossed out by the commercial broadcast industry to try and thwart any addition to the radio dial that would not be under its own umbrella.

Of course, I’m certain there are many low-power radio advocates who wish low-power stations could be a bigger threat to the commercial radio establishment, especially given how the likes of Clear Channel decimated the medium in the wake of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. However, the ability for low-power FM to be an actual threat is mitigated by many of the same factors that blindsided the largest commercial radio companies while they were too focused on buying up stations, consolidating operations and firing staff around the turn of the century.

Nevertheless we are on the cusp of adding many more low-power community stations to the airwaves of towns and cities across the country. The stats uncovered in the Commission’s report paint an interesting portrait of LPFM that underlines both the power and limits of their reach.

With regard to the question of effect on commercial stations, the most significant face is that LPFM stations have a miniscule impact on ratings, if they show up at all. The station with the highest listenership managed to rank only 18th in its market.

The flip side of that coin is that, according to the report, amongst those stations that appear in Arbitron ratings, LPFM stations have a high value for “time spent listening” (TSL). This means that LPFM listeners tend to stay tuned in for longer periods of time. This fact leads the Commission to conclude that, “these measures suggest that the popular LPFM stations tend to attract a small but loyal fan base, which tunes in for long periods of time and/or switches stations less frequently than the average full-service station listener.”

LPFM stations are more likely to carry niche programming. So the National Association of Broadcasters told the FCC that it should consider the potential harm LPFMs would have on the small segment of commercial stations that cater to a niche audience. In particular the NAB argued that niche stations are more vulnerable due to having lower average revenues from a more typically formatted station.

However, the Commission notes that the NAB provided no examples of an LPFM that current duplicates or previously duplicated an existing commercial station’s format. The Commission cites comments filed by LPFM advocate Wesli Dymoke who contends that it is unlikely that a low-power station would choose to compete head-on with a more powerful commercial station. It also notes that the NAB provided no plausible explanation why a LPFM station would choose such a Quixotic path. In the end the FCC concludes that there is no evidence that low-power stations pose any threats to commercial stations with niche formats.

The completion of this report represents the penultimate hurdle in front of the expansion of LPFM, which it has now successfully leaped over. The final one is the outcome of the FCC’s proceeding to resolve the queue of pending applications for translator repeater stations, many of which could take up frequencies that would be suitable for new low-power stations after the LCRA. As of last June the Commission was leaning towards establishing a minimum number of LPFM-qualified frequencies that must remain available in a given market after translator applications are approved.

With luck the commissioners will resolve that proceedings in the first quarter of this year. In turn that could pave the way for a new LPFM license application window in the second or third quarter. Then it will have taken only twelve years to overcome the NAB’s attempt to cut low-power community radio off at the knees. Yet, after all that time communities of all sizes across the country still need true community radio, perhaps more than before.

ON AIR sign at the old Pirate Cat Radio (Photo: J. Waits)

The FCC released a list today, updating its statistics on the total number of licensed broadcast stations in the United States.

Based on this list, there are more radio stations today (14,952) then there were a few months ago.

The number of AM stations, FM commercial stations, and FM educational stations all increased since the end of September, 2011. The only categories in which there was a drop in the number of radio stations were FM translators/boosters and Low Power FM.

By the end of December, 2011, there were 87 more radio stations in the United States than there were at the end of September. FM educational stations (college radio, high school radio, public radio, community radio, and religious broadcasters) picked up the most stations and increased by 72. By the end of the year there were 10 fewer LPFM stations and 114 fewer FM translators/boosters.

As of December 31, 2011:

AM Stations:                         4,766 (up from 4,763 in Sept. 2011)
FM Commercial Stations:      6,542 (up from 6,530 in Sept. 2011)
FM Educational Stations:       3,644 (up from 3,572 in Sept. 2011)
Total Radio Stations:        14,952 (up from 14,865 in Sept 2011)

Not included in Total Radio Stations:

FM Translators and Boosters:   6,099 (down from 6,113 in Sept 2011)
Low power FM:                            838 (down from 848 in Sept 2011)

Berkeley, California based listener supported station KPFA did an interesting and informative program on the candidacy of libertarian Republican Ron Paul on Tuesday. KFPA talk show host, Mitch Jeserich, hosted the discussion on his Letters and Politics show as Republicans (including Paul) compete for favor in the Iowa Caucuses. [UPDATE 10:41 PM CST: Paul comes in close third in Iowa race].

The program began with Nation magazine correspondent John Nichols, who characterized the Iowa event as “a sort of Kabuki theater, where most of the people who go don’t actually participate in the delegate selection process, they just go to participate in a glorified straw poll.” But that poll result, “doesn’t have anything to do with delegate selection. So while it is said that this is the beginning of the [Republican] nominating process, it’s really sort of a false construct.”

The real beginning of the process comes next week in New Hampshire, Nichols noted, where a more traditional primary will take place. And Nichols doubted that the Republican “party bosses” will let Paul get very far.

Nonetheless, much of the progressive blogosophere has been engaged in a fierce debate over Paul, who insists that he did not author various racist statements famously identified in his Reagan/Clinton era newsletter. Despite this, and Paul’s opposition to right of women to choose, Medicare, the Civil Rights Act, and other 20th-century reforms, bloggers who offer qualified defenses of his campaign note his opposition to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the war on drugs, the Patriot Act, and Federal implementation of the death penalty.

“Ron Paul is the only major candidate from either party advocating crucial views on vital issues that need to be heard, and so his candidacy generates important benefits,” contends Salon writer Glen Greenwald. Ditto says Robert Scheer in The Nation, given Paul’s “devastating critique of crony capitalism and his equally trenchant challenge to imperial wars and the assault on our civil liberties that they engender.”

Other writers, such as Bill Weinberg of the World War 4 Report, don’t see it this way. “If we ever see a President Paul, he’ll be bringing the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan, all right,” Weinberg warns “—to wage a race war in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Houston.”

Nichols told Jeserich that he thinks the Paul cause is “a very dangerous game.”

“I understand that there are people who are passionate supporters of civil rights, Medicare, and Medicaid, who simply want to send a message and this is a way to do it,” Nichols explained. “But Ron Paul is a pretty complex player, and he has a lot of history on these issues that is pretty unsettling—in some cases repulsive.”

The conversation then went to Glen Ford of the Black Agenda Report, who was asked for his opinion of Paul.

“I hope he does well,” Ford began. “I don’t like him, but it’s really a reflection on what’s happening in the Democratic Party, that the only conversation that the corporate media finds compelled to cover that has anything to do with empire . . . is coming from the Republican Party or from this libertarian within the Republican Party. So for those of us who would like to hear the term ‘empire’ uttered, Ron Paul is the only show among the two parties. He’s the only game in town.”

Jeserich asked Ford about the more controversial comments coming out of Paul’s newsletter.

“Paul comes from a cultural, political milieu that is totally saturated with racism,” Ford observed. “He is a hyper-American nationalist. And many people say how could that be, he is talking about the end of American empire; that’s not what we associate with hyper-American nationalists. But there has always been an American nationalism that was isolationist.”

Ford noted that isolationists have for a century opposed the integration of forcibly acquired nations like the Philippines and Cuba on racial grounds, citing fears of “mongrelization.”

“These strains have always been among us, and I think that Ron Paul actually is part of that older strain, very strong, that just doesn’t get talked about in the American political conversation.”

Jeserich asked Ford what he thought about progressives who see Paul as someone who could potentially make President Obama address issues that otherwise won’t be raised?

“Obviously they’re looking for the magic wand and some kind of way to oppose these corporatist policies of Obama that he shares, in fact, with the Republicans,” Ford replied. “They’d like a magic wand; some kind of button to push in the electoral arena, that would allow them to avoid the hard, hard work of grassroots movement building that is necessary.”

An interesting show, definitely worth podcasting or downloading.

Relative stability

The Ofcom report concludes that average (or mean) community radio income (2011/10) is down by 19 percent. In 2010/09 it dropped by six percent. In 2008/7 it declined by 12 percent. The mean income of UK community outlets clocked in at about £63,000 in 2011/10.

But the numbers don’t look so bad for the UK’s more stable community signals. The survey is based on annual and financial reports from 163 stations. The Ofcom report notes that the average income for stations that have offered reports over the last two years (2010/11 and 2010/9) has dropped by only five percent, from £74,500 in 2009/10 to £70,500 in 2010/11.

“This may indicate that the financial situation for those stations that have submitted annual reports for the last two financial periods has remained relatively stable,” Ofcom notes.

In addition, four stations each earned over £250,000 during 2010/11—a total of £1.5 million. This “equates roughly to the total income of the 74 lowest income stations.”

Targeting an interest

Perhaps the most important part of the study is its observation on which kinds of community stations generate the most income:

Stations targeting a community of interest (rather than a geographic community) reported a higher income than the sector average. Stations serving a general audience in an urban area reported a higher average income than town/rural stations (£89,500 as opposed to £45,000).

The “sector average” reference means the community radio sector, as opposed to commercial or BBC stations. No shock that urban stations do better than town/rural stations. As the table below indicates, most UK community radio stations serve general “town/rural” or “urban” audiences. A significant number serve a “minority ethnic group.”

Others broadcast to “young people,” “older people,” or cite their mission as serving the arts, people with disabilities, LBGT listeners, or lovers of a particular kind of music.

For example: Raidió Fáilte, is described in the report as “the only station in Belfast providing broadcasting services in Irish to the Irish language community in the city and to those interested in the Irish language and culture. Raidió Fáilte continues to provide good quality Irish language broadcasting including speech based and music based programmes produced for and by the Irish language community 24 hours per day.”

Community of interest income has “remained stable,” the report notes, as opposed to stations serving a geographic audience in a town or rural region. Those outlets sustained an income expenditure drop of around £10,000. This report table below indicates the kinds of income upon which UK community radio stations draw.

SLAs mean “service level agreements”—typically made between the station and say, a town, city or village council. “SLAs allow community radio stations to engage with relevant statutory organisations for the delivery of output of social benefit, in return for funding.”

All this tentatively supports a suspicion that I’ve always had about community radio stations in the United States and Canada—those that try to be everything to all listeners (often vaguely defined as “the community”) don’t do as well as those that target specific audiences. But I’m still not sure.

Daniel Roberts (at window) at Pirate Cat Radio in June 2010 (Photo: J. Waits)

A month ago the FCC issued a $10,000 Forfeiture Order to Pirate Cat Radio founder Daniel “Monkey Man” Roberts, for “willfully and repeatedly violating section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934…by operating an unlicensed radio broadcast station” in San Francisco.

Today, Roberts’ attorney Michael Couzens filed a Petition for Reconsideration with the FCC, claiming that there is no proof that Roberts was involved with illegal broadcasts. According to Couzens’ letter:

“Daniel K. Roberts is subject of a $10,000 Forfeiture Order issued on October 21, 2011. At the time of the alleged violation, he operated Pirate Cat Radio, a cafe, studio, and internet stream located at 2781 21st Street in San Francisco. In 2009 FCC Agents detected unlicensed transmissions, not at that location, but at 841 Corbett Avenue, San Francisco. The Order contains no factual evidence that Roberts participated in the establishing, facilitating or operating equipment for the tramisssions [sic] at Corbett in any way. His involvement is merely assumed, based on statements or activities of Roberts and Pirate Cat Radio and the generous use by the government of broad inferences. The Order makes it a violation that the stream was broadcast, without any evidence as to who broadcast it.”

The Petition goes on to argue that there is no proof that Roberts was responsible for the terrestrial broadcasts emanating from 841 Corbett Avenue and that there is no evidence “linking the actual location of the unlawful transmission with” Roberts. Roberts claims to have been simply operating an Internet radio station. Although the Petition does not deny that someone was broadcasting the station illegally over the terrestrial airwaves, it states that the FCC has presented no evidence that that someone was Roberts:

“In the present case it is clear that someone was violating Section 301 when transmitting at 841 Corbett Avenue. It should be equally clear that Roberts was not violating Section 301, merely because at the same time he was operating the board at an internet radio service, speaking into the microphone, and serving bacon lattes. The Order shows no evidence and makes no claim that the transmissions were deliberately relayed point-to-point or affirmatively controlled from the Pirate Cat Radio studio.”

Roberts’ attorney concludes his Petition for Reconsideration by stating his concern that the forfeiture order “depicts a new standard of Section 301 enforcement that is vague, amorphous, incomprehensible, over reaching, and Unconstitutional. The Government should reconsider this Order and on reconsideration should vacate the penalty.”

Pirate Cat Radio is no longer broadcasting in any form, but former Pirate Cat Radio volunteers (without Roberts) are now running the online-only Mutiny Radio from the former Pirate Cat Radio Cafe.

Canada Celebrates Community Radio (Photo: J. Waits)

On Monday, November 14, 22 non-commercial radio stations in Canada took part in a day of action and celebration dubbed “Reclaim Your Radio.”

Organized by the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA), the day-long radio event was designed to bring awareness to the importance of campus and community radio. A special 8-hour broadcast (an archive of the entire broadcast is available here) aired on 22 stations all across Canada and the entire day served as a kick-off for a campaign geared towards establishing policy changes in Canada in order to preserve community radio.

NCRA, a “not-for-profit group of organizations and individuals committed to volunteer-driven, non-profit, community-oriented radio across Canada” explained the purpose of Reclaim Your Radio on their website:

“The airwaves are public. But because of limited spectrum, sometimes communities that want to start their own local non-profit stations find there’s no room for their voices. Over the coming year we will be asking the government and individual MPS to help reserve at least one frequency for campus and community radio stations in every community across Canada.”

NCRA’s statement goes on to point out the plight of campus-community station CKLN in Toronto, which had its license revoked by the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in January 2011. According to NCRA, “The station had had problems with regulatory compliance, but also had a long and strong history of community involvement and amazing programming. Now that CKLN has stopped broadcasting, it is the only frequency available in greater Toronto.”

NCRA’s hope is that CKLN’s replacement in Toronto will also be a non-profit, community radio station and through Reclaim Your Radio, they wanted to spread the word about the future of the CKLN frequency. The archive of the live broadcast is full of not only testimonials about the importance of community radio in Canada, but also contains more background on the situation at CKLN.

It is said that there are some things best left forgotten. If that is your philosophy, stay away from New Jersey community radio station WFMU-FM’s wonderful Beware-of-the-blog blog. There WFMU listener Bob Purse has posted a slew of Dominos Pizza radio ads from the 1980s in MP3 format.

I thought I had blocked these insipid little spots from my organic hard drive, but no. I remember “The Noid,” or, as Purse correctly puts it, the “wholly annoying ‘The Noid’ campaign.”

Here’s an MP3 of one of the jingles, set to the background of Paul Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice, with cartoonish boing sounds and cackles inserted at appropriate moments:

“The Noid’s a wicked wizard
who makes pizzas old and cold.
He waves his wizard’s wand,
and freezes them, we’re told.

But when it comes to steamy pizza
there’s one that takes the lead.
Dominos pizza delivers!
Hot and fresh guaranteed.

The Noid may boast his wizardry
and wave his wintery wand.
But Dominos has magic too,
and their’s is far beyond . . . “

There are two more stanzas, but you get the idea. Listening to some of the more generic ads, what’s striking is how thoroughly they integrated pseudo Motown, disco, and Broadway sounds (The Wiz, etc) into their presentations.

Mr. Snoid (Kitchen Sink Press)

But getting back to “The Noid,” the best part of Purse’s discovery is that some of the tapes were probably just demos being shopped around by the advertising agency that produced them. I’m wondering now if The Noid was a knock-off of a Robert Crumb character, “Mr. Snoid.” Perhaps we’ll never know.