a necessary collection

Recently I was honored by an invitation from the Richmond Amateur Radio Club (RARC) to speak about my research, and I think I've encountered a potentially important resource for my studies - and for our nation and local community.

Though I'm just beginning to learn about HAM radio and other 'old-school' radio technologies, it was immediately clear to me that in the audience of several dozen members who gathered for their monthly dinner meeting there was a collection of important technical know-how that should be gathered and digitally recorded for future operators.

In our digital age of Web 2.0 we tend to become so enchanted with new techno-toys that we dismiss, overlook or forget the power of more ancient and stable media like radio. Rather than discarding elder technologies and knowledge, we might more profitably compose a thoughtful hybrid of the new and the old. For example, on the Internet Archive website, you can type "amateur radio" in the search box and you'll find W2XBS George Bowen's "This Week in Amateur Radio # 735 with streaming audio news stories about the wisdom and utility of amateur radio during times of emergency.

How can we most powerfully combine radio technology with newer Web technologies? In his influential 1964 text Understanding Media, Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan notes how various "media...depend upon us for their interplay and their evolution" (73) and he observes the tremendous power unleashed by hybrid forms. The etymological root meaning of "hybrid" is fascinating: the offspring of a wild boar and a domestic sow - but which is the new tech and which is the old? McLuhan advocates "the hybrid principle as a technique of creative discovery." (80) Since most of the audience raised their hands when I asked who regularly got online to surf the Web, it may be that RARC members are already deploying hybrid media.

RARC's collective knowledge "amateur" radio technology is impressive, and important.
I'm hoping that, in the absence of a large audio archive project, RARC at least has an active mentorship program so that their knowledge can be passed on and we'll have it next time we're in trouble. In times of political, financial or weather emergency, amateur radio operators voluntarily form webs of communication that empower rescue and recovery when younger, more vulnerable technologies fail. While Katrina provided a notable example of this, many at the meeting had their own stories of disasters that they helped address via amateur radio networks. I'd love to get a few of those stories posted here!

power interference?

In the small window of opportunity allowed by the FCC for LPFM application, one of the objections made by corporate stations was that of interference. I'm not a technical expert, but I'm soliciting information from people who are like LBA Group, and I'll post it when it comes or you can post it here in the comments.

However, it seems that a small experiment is all the evidence I need to disprove corporate claims. Below is a brief audio of me trying to find WRIR 97.3 LPFM in Richmond, Virginia and it's clear that the station is not easy ot find, even with my RCA RP 7887 Super Radio. I have no problem receiving the station in my car, perhaps because the hood acts like a dish antenna, or maybe it's the digital tuner. In any case, as you can hear below, WRIR does not in any way interfere with the corporate stations that surround it on the dial. Corporate complaints don't stand up to a simple test - so why didn't anybody call their bluff?

(click radio tower image on left for my audio blog & the sound of corporate interference)

radio ROVE??

It may have been a nightmare, but I thought I had recently heard that Karl Rove was planning to start his own talk radio program - but when I googled the topic, I found no confirmation. However, I did find Rove's homage to Rush Limbaugh in which the conservative talk radio host is characterized as "educating, engaging and energizing" his listeners. Considering many of Limbaugh's "dittohead" fans pride themselves in their slavish repetition of his slogans we might challenge the educational impact of his show.

One point Rove may have is in acknowledging the excesses of "PC" culture, a point liberals should carefully consider. Promotion of tolerance and diversity is one thing but excessive management of language is always wrong and counterproductive - unless you live in Orwell's Oceania!

Though there have been some few liberal talk radio shows like Air America, they seem to have had far less funding and a smaller audience - why might this be so? In spite of the obsessive demonization of liberals, I find that there is very little evidence of an organized "Left" much less any liberal groups as venomous and extreme as those who demonize them. Have I missed the vast left-wing conspiracy? And if so, does the vast right-wing conspiracy still have any traction after so many years of historic incompetence, criminal activity and failed policies like media monopoly, privatization and corporate deregulation?

homogenization & hype

It is increasingly obvious that corporate media is vapid and bland, but this homogenizing influence - extending beyond simplistic 'content' - may require closer consideration.

A familiar echo of Huxley's "hypnopaedia" in Brave New World, nationwide repetition of calculated slogans and phrases works to discourage consciousness and support the

status quo.

Corporate radio programming is oriented towards an increasingly devalued "workforce" and is meant to remind us of our place in US plutocracy and how fortunate we are to receive the corporate blessing of a "50-minute music hour." It's not enough that corporations want to copyright our language, now they are redefining our measurement and experience of time.

Corporate media monopoly assures ongoing hype about the contributions to America that corporations have made, obscuring their 'externalized' costs while subtly implying that we could never live without them. A closer look at corporate history reveals a consistent pattern of greed, incompetence and crime - and massive public subsidy. Additionally, it is not hard to prove that corporate diversion of public funds is a central reason Americans don't enjoy the same level of social services as many other industrialized countries do. Non-commercial public access to broadcast media should be one of those subsidized social services as in the idea of a citizen run independent public broadcasting trust.

As a playful antidote and response to the dullness of corporate gruel, I'd like to invite participation in a little project. Inspired by Marshall McLuhan's audio collage "The Medium is the Massage," one of the projects I have in mind for my research is the composition of an audio collage of snippets from corporate radio stations all over the US - slogans, jingles, catchphrases...any of the hypnopaedic mantras repeated thousands of times a day on the airwaves. I would like to take these and compose them in an audio collage that will not only amuse, but powerfully demonstrate one problem with monopoly broadcasting.

Feel free to send me your suggestions & submissions!

LPFM no longer available?

One of the sources in my reading list is Radio Reader: Essays in the Cultural History of Radio edited by Hilmes & Loviglio (Routledge, 2002) and I recommend it as a useful and insightful survey of significant radio history from its early commercial take-over to its digital future.
One essay "Radio By and For the Public: the Death and Resurrection of Low-Power Radio" by Paul Riismandel is especially relevant to my focus on the history of WRIR.

From my reading so far it is my understanding that LPFM licenses are no longer available and are not likley to be in the near future - is this correct? Riismandel tells us that "religious groups received about half of all the LPFM construction permits" even though religious programming abounds on US airways. Is there a list of how the other permits were distributed?

Though opponents to LPFM claimed concern that it might interfere with high-power channels, this absurdity can be easily contradicted with an attempt to listen to Richmond radio stations. The corporate channels come screaming through loud and "clear" making WRIR sometimes difficult to detect amidst the corporate cacaphony.

And here's an LPFM technical question: I live in Stratford Hills, near Pony Pasture and I can receive WRIR quite easily in my car but in my home, even my new "Super Radio" is difficult to tune to its LPFM signal - why is this? Is there any way I can improve my reception in my home?

Some Questions

So, as I pursue my research into radio I have a few preliminary questions that some of you might be able to answer...

What is the average cost to run a typical commercial radio station?
What about LPFM stations?
College radio stations?
Is there a text or source that could answer questions like these?

What is the basic minimum of equipment needed for an LPFM station to broadcast?
Approximately what would it cost?

What about radio in an emergency?
Could a radio station be run by a generator in a disaster?

Has the FCC stopped issuing LPFM licenses? If so, why?

now more than ever

This is my blog for collecting research, asking questions and pursuing my study of radio as part of my doctoral studies program. Even in this digital age, when we might be tempted to dismiss radio as 'old-school', we are use radio wave technology every day in our wireless devices, radio waves bring messages back from the Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission and in conjunction with the Web, even a small LPFM station can have a global reach.

I am interested in pursuing and promoting the experience of sound-without-image, deliberately and reflectively because I have a suspicion that in sound there are vast treasures yet to discover. More specifically I am interested in a revival of radio in the digital age, and even more specifically a revival of college LPFM stations and the deliberate promotion of 24-hour college radio programming all across the country.

a few of my reasons:
corporate radio is a wasteland of hucksterism, homogenization and sloganeering
radio is relatively inexpensive and reliable, especially in emergencies
youth voices are essential to democratic dialog & evolution
sharing of student-teacher collaborative research in well-designed programs