KillRadio Dot Organizm

on 8/31/06, the FCC conducted a town meeting, to collect community opinions about media consolidation. more info:
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the panel included FCC commissioners Copps and Adelstein, congresswoman Solis, reps from media conglomerates such as disney and abc, reps from a variety of other media organizations, and others.

the 'public' in attendance included folk from local indie radio stations kpfk, kxlu, hollywood movie- and tv-producers, media watchdog groups, women's groups, latino groups, and others.

here's a two-minute audio clip of my testimony to the panel:
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Revised Transcript, which i'll submit in writing to the FCC:

"My broadcast name is johny radio. I work with an anti-corporate internet radio station called KillRadio.org. KillRadio means 'Kill Corporate Radio'. It was formed about six years ago during protests at the DNC, because the Democrats are too right-wing.
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These opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent the views of KillRadio.org.

The internet has created a wonderful new opportunity for underserved voices to reach niche audiences. I'm asking the FCC to protect and create low barriers of entry into mass media for these voices:

--Preserve internet neutrality, and prevent media conglomerates from controlling access to internet content.

More Info
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Take Action
Save The Internet
Save The Internet2
Save The Internet3
Save The Internet4

--There are now on the market at least two new portable WiFi radio devices which enable people to listen to internet radio, wirelessly, while walking down the street.
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Therefor, in order to promote that technology as an opportunity for alternate voices to reach larger audiences, prevent telecommunication corporations from blocking the creation of free, public WiFi and WiMax hotspots in urban and rural areas. And, fund the creation of more public hotspots.
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--The USA is stuck with an obsolete 100 years old radio technology. Old fashioned radio restricts the number of stations in a region. Promote the development of modern radio technologies, enabling hundreds or even thousands of simultaneous broadcasters in the same region, as described by Internet architect David Reed:
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--Fund and enable non-profit and public-domain media channels without political interference, vis-à-vis the British BBC model. Eliminate right-wing infiltration of Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

More Info
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Take Action
Save Save NPR and PBS

--Preserve low-power FM licensing (LPFM) for community FM broadcasters, and ensure that corporate lobbyists will never again be able to override your own technical data and suppress community broadcasting.
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--Stop busting pirate broadcasters on technically falsified claims of interference with commercial broadcasters and airports.
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Some of today's participants have complained about crass sexual content in the media. One wonders why they don't simply change the channel, until one realizes there are too few channels out there which don't use sexual titilation to capture viewership and advertising dollars. If the FCC promotes more small and non-profit media outlets, then those viewers will have more alternatives to switch to.

However, adult Americans must be assured access to adult-oriented programming if they want it. And I don't mean pornography: censorship on the basis of sexual content has been used in past to suppress political, artistic, and educational content:
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--Keep censorship away from pay channels.
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--Respect parents' decisions about their children's viewing options.
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--Preserve uncensored late-night rules for non-pay channels.
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The sensational 'news' which dominates corporate news channels, such as Janet Jackson's breast, Jon Benet, and sexual-predator hysteria, was fostered, in part, by another sensational ploy-- Republican attacks on Bill Clinton's sex life.

--Stop participating in this phony, politically-motivated moral panic with excessive "indecency" citations.

These are just distractions from far-reaching local, domestic, and international issues affecting millions of Americans in their daily lives, like schools in crisis, corporate corruption, government ineptitude, and environmental degradation. On-going problems are ignored in favor of fleeting news-bites. Real analysis has been replaced with shouting matches.

--reinstate the FCC Fairness Doctrine, dissolved by the Reagan administration, and vote it into law.
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--expand the Fairness Doctrine:

* require reporting of underreported news stories, as documented by the UN, Doctors Without Borders, and other sources.
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* require that analysts from differing perspectives be given ample time to explain their views, without interruption.
* require "civility" --shouting matches and personal attacks should be discouraged.

Take Action
Reform The Media


Thank you for listening."

also present at the hearings were reps and parents from local, primarily hispanic school, Academia Semillas del Pueblo, which was recently criticized on-air by local Disney-owned KABC 790 AM radio station. Subsequent to the broadcast, the school began receiving bomb-threats and harrassment. i'll be interviewing a rep from the school on my show in the near future.
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kpcc audio about the situation:
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i can be contacted at:
johnyradio@gmail.com


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Johny, Thanks for taking the time not only to testify, but to provide the public with a record of the procedings. Information is power, but alas, fewer and larger entities are gaining ownership over all modes of information dissemination, including the Internet...I hope that We The People can retain some say in how these resources are to be allocated....Best, Veronique Chevalier  


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