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)

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!