Cultivatingsupport

"Listening for a Change "
Cultivating Support for KDRT-LP and Low Power Radio.
OpEd from The Davis Enterprise 7/11/04

By Jeff Shaw, Lamar Heysteck, Jesse Drew, Esther Polito, and jesikah maria ross

“We fought for years, even when I was in the Fire Department, to get additional radio frequencies. There’s much competition, as you know, for the limited spectrum space. Hopefully there will be a change in that.”
        --Richard Sheirer, former director of the New York City Office of Emergency Management, in comments to the 9/11 Commission

Turn on your radio and listen to any station past 92.0 Mhz on the FM dial. What do you hear?

Listeners from all over the country are complaining about the dearth of local information and input on the "airwaves" or "spectrum space" as described by Mr. Sheirer.   They say that Big Radio has drowned out ethnic voices, debate on community-specific issues, and matters of concern to the elderly, youth, and the disenfranchised.

Radio as a medium is uniquely pervasive and portable, reaching many people who lack access to other electronic mass media, including those who cannot afford to subscribe to cable television service, own a personal computer, or access the internet.   The value of this relatively low-cost medium with extended reach has not been overlooked by commercial interests and investments. These interests have raised the "barrier to entry" for broadcast ownership so that only the economically powerful can compete. But this exclusive club is beginning to open its doors.

A decade ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was challenged by media activists to "safeguard the First Amendment right of free speech for all persons, regardless of their economic power." Many activists demonstrated this inequity by broadcasting low-power community stations, knowing that, at the time, the FCC did not issue licenses for this level of broadcasting. This challenge blossomed into a full-fledged movement to reclaim the airwaves for non-commercial use.

The FCC responded in January 2000 by issuing a Report and Order authorizing low-power (LPFM) radio stations to "enhance locally focused community-oriented radio broadcasting" without jeopardizing the existence of current FM stations. The FCC defined the new LPFM stations as broadcasting at 100 watts or less.

That is where KDRT-LP comes in.

In June of 2000 Davis Community Television (DCTV) submitted an application to build a non-commercial LPFM station broadcasting at the only frequency available, 101.5FM. After the first five-day window to apply, when we submitted our application, industry reaction to the creation of LPFMs was fierce. In December of 2000, the powerful broadcast lobby pressured Congress to pass legislation that effectively eliminated 75 percent of all open frequencies across the country, and required the FCC to change its implementation rules.

Luckily, DCTV's application survived the FCC's exorbitant new standards, and on March 25, 2003, a construction permit was issued to build KDRT-LP. The permit expires at 3:00am on September 25, 2004, at which time construction of the station must be completed. A group of 12 community members, the KDRT-LP Working Group, is working hard to facilitate this construction.

The working group is acting in the public trust, and express this with value statements such as "enable people to make use of radio to express themselves- personally, culturally, artistically, and politically-and receive a diversity of information from others in order to actively participate in public life"; "promote interaction, connections, and sense of belonging among residents"; and "KDRT thrives on the participation of people from all walks of life in station operations and activities." (From KDRT-LP's Draft Mission and Values.)

In this way, we truly believe LPFM transcends political argument, and puts into practice the national drive towards "localism" in our media. Where once most media were relatively local, deregulation has made media consolidation a global enterprise, where "local" signals can actually originate over 3,000 miles away! Besides the potential safety hazards of such a predicament, what measure of tolerance and trust has a community lost when it cannot hear the voices of its fellow citizens?

The community of Davis should support the effort to enhance localism in our broadcast media in two ways:   1. help KDRT-LP get off the ground by becoming a founding donor and 2. contact Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein and ask them to support SB 2505.

In true bipartisan fashion, SB 2505 was introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) in June of this year and aims to restore the full implementation of LPFM, as originally ordered by the FCC.   Sen. McCain has said "I ask the public and commercial broadcasters to come clean and join us in promoting LPFM." We, too, echo this request.

You are also welcome to attend an organizational meeting on August 4 at the Hattie Weber Museum.   Help us succeed with this rare window of opportunity to procure an invaluable resource for the Davis community. Please visit www.kdrt.org for more information, or call DCTV at 757-2419.

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Jeff Shaw is Chair of the KDRT Working Group; Lamar Heysteck, Esther Polito, Jesse Drew, and jesikah maria ross are also members of this group. Other working group members include: Dallas Kassing, Sakura Saunders, Autumn Labbe-Renault, Nix Glass, Bill Smith, Kari Peterson, and Poppy Davis.