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The Communicator - October 2005

from a grant from the Central Ohio

Green Education Fund through Sim-

ply Living, I had the opportunity to

attend a four day event that has

been exploding in popularity—the

Grassroots Radio Conference. This

year’s conference, in central Mas-

sachusetts, was arranged to coin-

cide with a community radio station

“barnraising” and inaugural broad-

cast of a new Low Power FM radio

station, WXOJ, Valley Free Radio, in

Florence, MA.

The Grassroots Radio Conference,

with attendees representing areas in

the U.S., Canada, Guatemala, Laos,

Tanzania and Palestine, brought to-

gether people passionate about

community radio. Some were ac-

tively involved with on-air radio sta-

tions, while others were there to learn

how to bring radio to their commu-

nities. Workshops covered many as-

pects of building and running a sta-

tion: technical (studio and transmit-

ter equipment, automation, internet

radio and podcasting); media re-

form

form (Low Power FM, college radio

By Eugene Beer, CCM Tech Support

A Grassroots

Groundswell for

Community

Radio

Last month with support

concerns and licensing issues); pro-

gramming (turntablism, documen-

taries, public affairs and radio

drama); organizational (business is-

sues, station governance, pledge

drives/underwriting and program-

ming policy); and news

news (field record-

ing, interviewing skills and digital ed-

iting.)

A short historical perspective on

community radio:: A few years ago

Congress and the FCC created a

new class of non-commercial FM

broadcast stations known as Low

Power FM. These stations are limited

to 100 watts (roughly 10 miles broad-

cast radius.) The FCC made the ap-

plication process relatively easy and

affordable so that community orga-

nizations with limited resources could

get on the air. Unfortunately, corpo-

rate interests and, in particular, NPR,

lobbied heavily against the LPFM ini-

tiative, and as a result, the allowed

number of LPFM frequency slots

available in urban areas was re-

duced drastically from the initially

proposed specification. Neverthe-

less, one frequency slot

(102.1MHz) was available for the

east side of Columbus.

Simply Living, through the dedicated

effort of member Ken Kraska, ap-

plied to the FCC for that LPFM slot,

along with several other Central Ohio

organizations. In a subsequent time-

share agreement, all five applicants

agreed to share the single available

frequency by allocating a portion of

the broadcast day to each of the

five organizations. That application

is currently being considered by the

FCC and is expected to be ap-

proved, once a technicality is ironed

out.

In addition to the LPFM effort in Co-

lumbus, another group of organiza-

tions and individuals calling itself Co-

lumbus Community Radio Founda-

tion (CCRF) was formed in 2002 to

establish community radio in our

area. In its mission statement, CCRF

describes community radio as com-

prising staff that is diverse, volunteer-

based and democratically gov-

erned, with programming that is un-

censored, commercial-free and

The Communicator - October 2005

25

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multi-cultural, that may include pub-

lic affairs, arts, health, music and in-

dependent (non corporate) news of

local and world scope. CCRF has a

liaison with a licensee of a 170 watt

FM translator station that is currently

being constructed northwest of

downtown near Grandview. This

class of station, known as a transla-

tor, is not allowed to originate pro-

gramming but can rebroadcast an

existing station in order to expand

the broadcast area of that station.

The intent of CCRF is to rebroadcast

the up and coming LPFM station

originating from the east side of Co-

lumbus so that the entire Columbus

metropolitan area can be covered.

“Barnraising” a new LPFM station:

Imagine now August, 2005, a hot-

bed of community involvement—a

four day electrifying weekend where

volunteers from many walks of life

within the Florence, MA community

come together with hundreds of oth-

ers from the Grassroots Radio Con-

ference. People are working side by

side at five-station soldering tables,

completing the final wiring of the stu-

dio console. The sound of carpen-

ters sawing wood and nailing studio

furniture and CD shelving is heard

late into the night. Record turntables,

CD players, microphones, tele-

phone on-air interfaces, mixing

boards and cables, more cables

and still more cables are all put into

place in time for the Sunday 2pm

inaugural broadcast of Valley Free

Radio.

Of course, a barnraising wouldn’t be

complete without proper celebra-

tion: Dance parties with live

bands…a huge parade on Sunday

with puppets, drum corps and half

the town walking behind…live on-

location national broadcasts of

Pacifica Radio…and great meals

served daily for all who contributed

to the effort. Finally, at 2pm on Sun-

day, 400 people gather inside the

outdoor tent as the mock knife switch

is thrown and the boom-box radio

tuned to 103.3FM comes alive as

the new radio station is born.

Later that evening I drive down to the

Hartford airport, some 30 miles away,

tuned to WXOJ. Its signal holds strong

to the 22-mile point, and I smile to

myself, thinking (as they’re playing a

Bob Dylan protest song), “This is

what’s gonna save our country and

bring it back to the people, one

community radio station at a time.”

Community radio is not about

Arbitron ratings, computer-gener-

ated playlists, nor corporate bottom

lines. It does not cater to the largest

common denominator in public

opinion and taste, but rather it strives

for diversity of thought and culture—

crucial elements for a democracy

to survive. Community radio is about

local involvement with global issues.

We humans can only steer the world

in a healthy direction globally if ef-

fects of global policy are considered

on individuals, locally.

Please support community radio in

Columbus by volunteering with the

Simply Living LPFM project and/or the

CCRF translator project. Contact me

at eug@columbus.rr.com. Dona-

tions for CCRF’s transmitter (an an-

tenna tower has already been pur-

chased) can be made by following

the

instructions

at

www.ccrfonline.org.