It’s not every day that I see myself on Democracy Now!, but when I watched this awesome segment announcing the FCC’s new LPFM window, the first scene looked really familiar. It shows little silhouettes scrambling on the top of a water tower in Woodburn, Oregon, where the beautiful humans from the Prometheus Radio Project and PCUN worked to build a low-power radio station for the local community. It was pretty amazing to be up there with them.
It was way back in 2006, and I’d just flown into Woodburn after a few days of photo workshops with students at The Brentwood School in Los Angeles. Little did I know how important these moments would be now in 2013, when a new FCC ruling makes it possible for hundreds more community radio stations to join the airwaves. The application window is in October, but groups interested in starting a station need to start organizing now!
You may have already seen a few frames from my time in Woodburn in my community radio gallery. The climb to the top of the water tower was arduous…
… but once we got up there the view was amazing.
Cables were checked…
… and an antenna was prepared…
… but it wasn’t so much about what was going on up on the tower…
… as what it would enable down below, where the tools of media were being made accessible to the local community.
We’re all born with a voice, but media amplifies that voice.
LPFM community radio is a powerful tool that has the potential to transform our media landscape. The crew at Prometheus Radio Project have done an amazing job not just in supporting the current LPFM community, but in fostering these legislative changes that have made the new licenses possible.
Please take a moment to watch this whole clip to get a sense of what this is all about, and then please share the information about the new low power window with any community organizers or groups that you think might be interested in this possibility.
