Radio Survivor

The Kronos Quartet says yes to net neutrality (source: kronosquartet.org)

The Future of Music Coalition has a small boatload of classy crossover music groups sending letters to the Federal Communications Commission in support of tougher net neutrality rules. They include R.E.M., the woodwind quintet Imani Winds, and the Kronos Quartet. Here’s an excerpt from Kronos Artistic Administrator Sidney Chen’s letter to the FCC:

“From the time the group was founded, Kronos has championed important, yet unsung, voicesthat have deserve broad attention. David Harrington formed the group after hearing Black Angels, a work by the now iconic American composer George Crumb inspired by the Vietnam War. The quartet’s most recent recording project, Floodplain, features collaborations with and composers and performers from parts of the world with which most Americans do not have direct engagement, including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Ethiopia. Kronos strongly believes that, through direct artistic engagement with musicians working in different artistic traditions, the process of finding common ground and of resolving conflicts provides rewards that extend beyond the immediate interaction. This has, in fact, become a central focus of Kronos’ work. The open internet allows for and facilitates such interaction. We strongly encourage you to preserve its openness.”

The Commission is currently proposing an expansion of its Internet Policy Statement, which commits the agency to making sure that consumers can access the legal device of their choice on the ‘Net. The FCC wants to add an enforcement provision to the statement making it clear what kind of consequences content or application blocking ISPs  face, and a transparency provision requiring them to disclose their network management practices up front. (more…)

As everybody in the radio world knows, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh is in a Honolulu hospital, recovering from chest pains. Meanwhile, something of a referendum on his fate is being conducted on Twitter.

“Please, Rush Limbaugh, DIE NOW!” tweeted Chuck69dotcom not too long ago.

“oh pleez oh pleez oh pleez let Rush Limbaugh die . In a year of many dead celebs, let’s end 2009 on a good note,” chimed in The Angry Bacon. ”

Did Rush Limbaugh die yet? Oh, not yet.LMAO,” laments NOVACHANEL. “if there’s any justice in the world… Rush Limbaugh will die before the year is out,” insists Shellistoast.

Other Rush haters are a bit more circumspect about the matter. “Rush Limbaugh has heart attack; fails to die thusfar,” notes Corp8myBaby.

These outbursts, of course, have displeased Mr. Limbaugh’s supporters, who are anxious to derive lessons from the moment. “So Rush Limbaugh can’t say that he wants Obama to fail, but liberals can say that they want Rush Limbaugh to die?” retorts SonSound. Or:  “The people calling for Rush Limbaugh to die are the same people who ask to control your healthcare,” shoots back natatomic.

More draconianly: “DO YOU GET IT NOW? People want Rush Limbaugh to die aresame people who R to control healthcare DEATH PANELS.”

But many self-described leftys insist that they wish Rush well. “As a Liberal I hope Rush Limbaugh recovers quickly,” declares DEMOCRATZxORG. “Because I strongly disagree with someone doesn’t mean I want them to die.” Ditto says zorylynx. “I don’t want Rush Limbaugh to die . I disagree vehemently with him, but that’s no excuse.” (more…)

#8 in our series on radio trends of the decade

It was the summer of 2007. Not moments after the Republican far right triumphed over President Bush’s hated immigration reform law than Representative Mike Pence, Republican of Indiana, introduced a rider to a budgetary bill in the House that would forbid funding for the Federal Communications Commission to enforce the Fairness Doctrine.

The bill overwhelmingly passed the House on Thursday, June 26. This was odd, because the FCC hadn’t enforced the policy in 20 years.

Broadcaster freedom

The Fairness Doctrine was a regulation tailored to the mid-20th century’s Internetless, cable TV-less, three network video broadcasting world. It required license owners to present opposing viewpoints on issues of public importance. In the 1980s the FCC began to pull back from the rule, issuing a “Fairness Doctrine Report” in 1985 that suggested that the policy inhibited rather than encouraged controversial dialog over the air waves.

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Josef Stalin: how "balanced" do you want your past? (source: Wikipedia Commons)

RIA Novosti reports that the grandson of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin is suing a Russian radio station for broadcasting “offensive disrespect” against his infamous ancestor. Yevgeny Dzhugashvili is demanding the equivalent of $326,500USD from station Ekho Moskvy. Of late one of the frequency’s hosts, Matvei Ganapolsky, quoted a line from a book titled Staliniada:

“Stalin signed an order that children may be shot from the age of 12,” Ganapolsky read. Then he opined the following: “What kind of bastard would be brave enough to say one word in his [the dictator's] defense?”

This was no doubt intended as a rhetorical question. But there appear to be a lot of bastards in post-Soviet Russia, among them Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Mr. Putin recently called for a more “balanced assessment” of Stalin, according to Associated Press. Putin conceded Stalin’s “unacceptable” crimes, but:

“If you say you are positive (about Stalin’s rule), some will be discontented. If you say you are negative, others will grumble,” AP quotes him as saying. “It is impossible to make a general judgment. It is evident that, from 1924 to 1953, the country that Stalin ruled changed from an agrarian to an industrial society.”

Plus Stalin defended the Soviet Union from Hitler, Putin noted (after signing a peace treaty with Hitler that allowed the former USSR to gobble up half of Poland. Putin didn’t mention that part). (more…)

It’s a day that thousands of low-power FM and community radio activists have been awaiting for just about nine years. This evening, at 7:06 pm the House of Representatives, with a minimum of drama, passed H.R. 1147, the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 by voice vote. Little drama for the House nevertheless meant nearly two days of sitting on the edge of the seat for LPFM advocates as they waited for the House to move through its usual machinations and other business. Regardless of how much we might wish LPFM was at the top of the legislative agenda, instead it seemed more like an afterthought. At least it was enough of a no-brainer for the House that they didn’t even need a roll call vote. I’ll take it.

The bill restores the original technical specifications for LPFM which the FCC instituted in 2000. These specs allow a low-power station to be placed as close as the third adjacent channel on the dial. In practice that means if a full-power station broadcasts on 100.1 FM then a LPFM may be placed at 100.7 FM, provided that the frequency is otherwise available.

On Dec. 18, 2000 a provision limiting LPFM stations to obeying the spacing requirements of full-power stations was slipped into an omnibus budget bill and signed into law by President Clinton after a long series of back-room horsetrading. Under these still-current rules, a LPFM station may only be spaced as close as 100.9 FM next to that hypothetical full power station at 100.1 FM.

.2 MHz may not seem like a big difference, but when it comes to spacing stations on the FM dial, it is a game fought and won by tenths of a megahertz. This difference is of particular importance in the nation’s largest radio markets which already have very full dials that will not permit the addition of another full-power station or LPFM that has to obey full-power spacing rules. LPFM proponents estimate that passage of the Local Community Radio Act will create the potential for at least a hundred new stations nationwide.

Now the focus moves to the Senate, where the Commerce Committee has already approved the Senate version of the bill. If it goes to a floor vote and is passed then it is likely to be signed by President Obama.

The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 was scheduled for a floor vote in the House of Representatives today, a moment that LPFM activists have been awaiting for almost nine years. And wait they did. Anyone who has watched her share of C-SPAN knows that the House moves at its own pace, for its own reasons. Today, it waited for quorum, then lumbered forward on about half its agenda today. As of 5:30 PM EST the Clerk of the House reports that business for the day is over and so the vote for LPFM moves to tomorrow.

This is the first time that a vote on a bill to restore low-power FM to the FCC’s original specifications has been scheduled for the full House since 2000. Signs are looking good that the bill may finally pass, though we’ll know much more tomorrow…. maybe.

Mark Lloyd

The Federal Communications Commission’s Diversity Officer defended himself this morning from the veritable avalanche of attacks he has sustained since he took his job. Speaking at a Washington, D.C. conference, Mark Lloyd asked to be allowed to “clear away some mud:”

“I am not a Czar appointed by President Obama. I am not at the FCC to restore the Fairness Doctrine through the front door or the back door, or to carry out a secret plot funded by George Soros to get rid of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or any other conservative talk show host. I am not at the FCC to remove anybody, whatever their color, from power. I am not a supporter of Hugo Chavez. The right wing smear campaign has been, in a word – incredible, generating hate mail and death threats. It is the price we pay for freedom of speech. And I do support free speech.”

We’ve been following this story here for a while. The sheer level of hysteria that has followed Lloyd’s tenure has made it all but impossible to have a reasonable debate about his ideas, some of which I agree with, particularly rules encouraging more local media—although I don’t want them in order to ensure more “balance” in programming. (more…)

Senator Amy Klobuchar swearing to pay her Verizon ETF if she switches to an iPhone (just kidding).

Four United States Senators are on the warpath over the Early Termination Fees that  wireless services charge if you duck out before the completion of the contract. Their Cell Phone Early Termination Fee, Transparency and Fairness Act would bar carriers from charging ETFs that exceed the price break on the phone you get for accepting a two-year (or more) contract. So if you buy a two year deal with a $150 discount on the device—that’s how high the ETF can go. The bill has been launched by Senators Amy Klobuchar (MN), Senator Russ Feingold (WI), Senator Jim Webb (VA), and Senator Mark Begich (AK).

“Early Termination Fees are budget-busters,” their press release declares. “In the wireless phone business, the combination of long term contracts and substantial early termination fees – that range from $150 to $350 – have the effect of keeping customers from switching providers, even when those customers are dissatisfied with their service or move their work or home to areas with inadequate service.” The proposed law comes in the wake of Verizon Wireless’ move to boost their ETFs from $175 to $350 for smart phones.

This issue is significant for mobile radio. As consumers turn to their smart phones for radio services, the affordability of those phones will become more and more of an issue. The wireless providers counter that they’re pro-rating ETFs down as the contract progresses, but if they’re charging $350 and the pro-rate drops by $10 a month, it’s still a pretty high termination fee at the end of a year. As new smart phones come on the market, radio lovers are going to want to switch devices if they think there’s a better deal with more applications. High ETFs will squelch competition in this crucial area. (more…)

It looks like Arbitron’s controversial Portable People Meter is still in hot water with the government. The  device, which measures user listening habits sans a written diary,  is scheduled to be the subject of a hearing by the House  Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday,  December 2. This is the committees’ second investigation of the controversial gadget.

“With an unprecedented decline in ratings among popular minority television and radio stations, we must explore the possibility of methodological flaws in the implementation of the PPM,” declared its Chair Edolphus Towns (D-NY, called “ET” by his staff, we’re told).  “As it stands now, the current system jeopardizes the future of minority broadcasting.”

The Portable People Meter is worn by the participant, sort of like a pager. It picks up radio signals around the user and keeps track of the stations to which he or she is listening. Critics of the PPM says its sampling methodology includes too few minority radio fans and that Arbitron recruits an insufficient number of cell phone only households for the device (which are often minority households). Arbitron responds that the  PPM is much more accurate than the old  diary system.

PPM opponents, among them many of the nation’s civil rights groups and minority broadcasting associations (and Stevie Wonder), asked the Federal Communications Commission for a formal investigation of the device, but  the agency offered only a notice of inquiry. Three states have required improvements in the PPM, among them New Jersey. New York, and Maryland. (more…)

Sarah Palin: no more "politics as usual."

Ever since John McCain made his disastrous decision to pick Sarah Palin as his running made in ‘08, I’ve been saying that the winner of that election was her. It was only a matter of time, I told my circle of friends, before she ducked out of her gig as Alaska’s governor and cashed in on her extraordinary notoriety by taking a job in radio or television.

Well, I’m just speculating here. But today she took one more step towards the media move, announcing that she’s not seeking re-election and stepping down:

“With this announcement  … I’ve determined it’s best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor Parnell; and I am willing to do so, so that this administration – with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future – can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success.”

And why is she ducking out? Palin says the media hasn’t given Alaska (and her) enough credit for her efforts to resist the allegedly horrible policies of the Obama administration.

I wish you’d hear MORE from the media of your state’s progress and how we tackle Outside interests – daily – SPECIAL interests that would stymie our state. Even those debt-ridden stimulus dollars that would force the heavy hand of federal government into our communities with an “all-knowing attitude” – I have taken the slings and arrows with that unpopular move to veto because I know being right is better than being popular. Some of those dollars would harm Alaska and harm America – I resisted those dollars because of the obscene national debt we’re forcing our children to pay, because of today’s Big Government spending; it’s immoral and doesn’t even make economic sense!

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