MAAF Support for Orgs: Oct. 1 . Last call for WGXC Record Fair Vendors! Wave Farm and Pioneer Works. Audio Buffet recording and more!

View this email in your browser Artists-in-residence: Hertz and Pampillonio. Wave Farm Residents and Pioneer Works Audio Buffet Recording and Bradley + Ruchalski Residency Documentation New shows on Wave Farm Radio + WGXC 90.7-FM  MAAF Support for Organizations: Deadline Oct. 1 Last call for WGXC Record Fair Vendors! Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence: Samuel Hertz and Carmelo Pampillonio Samuel Hertz and Carmelo Pampillonio’s Librations is a performance/composition using a radio communications relay, which transmits signals to the moon, that are then reflected back to Earth—a moonbounce. Librations is realized in cooperation with broadcast engineers at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in Rosman, North Carolina. Culminating in a composition, radio broadcast, and multi-media essay, the artists’ collaboration throughout the residency period stands as an open field of negotiations between the Earth, the moon, and the sonic/energetic traces reflected between them.   Samuel Hertz and Carmelo Pampillonio are sound artists and researchers who synthesize documentary practices of geophysical and atmospheric forces with the artistic practices of composition, transmission, and installation. Approaching ways in which we can develop notions of affect and ecological entanglement, their work explores complex interactions between non/human timescales, geophysical phenomenology, and sonic materialities. Tune in: WGXC Afternoon Show, Saturday August 31, 2019 4-6 p.m.  Wave Farm Residents Join Pioneer Works at Governors Island Summer/Fall 2019 Wave Farm is delighted to partner with the Pioneer Works Residency Program, which is hosting alumni Pioneer Works residents and the residents of the Wave Farm Residency Program and Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, in the inaugural Governors Island off-site program in Nolan Park 8B on the First Friday of every month, as well as Saturdays and Sundays through October. Residents will lead classes, focused on social mapmaking, found sound, astronomy, and more, that allow the public to engage firsthand with their creative practices.   Wave Farm Works in Progress Workshop with Samuel Hertz & Carmelo Pampillonio Saturday, September 7, 3-6 p.m. This workshop, led by Wave Farm residents Samuel Hertz and Carmelo Pampillonio, will expand on the duo’s transmission research and experiments with their Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) radio communications relay, which bounces and receives signals off the moon. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of their research through experiential text-scores, listening sessions with radio technologies, and hands-on activities that will prompt conversations about sensing, relating, and reflecting. Wave Farm Works in Progress Workshop with Milad Mozari Sunday, October 13, 1-4 p.m. This workshop, led by Wave Farm resident Milad Mozari, combines methods in sound recording and Particle brand development boards to survey open spaces and large structures on Governors Island. Participants will explore field recording experiments using indoor and outdoor field recording techniques, environmental data, and layers of a location. Through these experiments, we will notice patterns in the range, resolution, and reflection rate in certain built structures that will open a dialogue and allow participants to experience Governors Island on a different frequency. Both events will take place off-site at Governors Island, Nolan Park 8B, which is accessible via ferry from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Pioneer Works builds community through the arts and sciences to create an open and inspired world. To learn more about Pioneer Works at Governors Island, visit https://pioneerworks.org/series/pioneer-works-at-governors-island/. To learn more about Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, visit https://www.baxterst.org/. Audio Buffet 2019 Wave Farm's fifth Annual Audio Buffet took place earlier this month. The event was a beautiful convergence including Bbob Drake, Bobby Previte, Tyler Wood, Max Hamel, Pat Gubler, Daniel Steffey, Jen Kutler, Matt Luczak, Craig Chin, Messica Arson, Stony Mat & Tea Dust, Jimmy Garver, soundBarn, Zach Poff, Paul Feitzinger, Max Goldfarb, Jeff Economy, Les Leveque, Rodney Greenblat, Rebecca Wolff, The Magic Stranger, Cornelius Eady, Lisa Liu, Christopher Funkhouser, and Ryan Jewell among others. Tune in to a recording of the two-hour broadcast here. Photo by Will Hunt. Wave Farm Artists-in-residence Video:  Stephen Bradley and Edward Ruchalski  Stephen Bradley and Edward Ruchalski’s SpiderCricket (Sp+Cr) is a multi-phonic ecological radio installation informed by Wave Farm’s biophonic and radiophonic soundscape. The core of Sp+Cr uses a “spider web” wind-harp structure, which also functions as an antenna for low-power FM transmitters that broadcast on the property. Using DIY micro-mixers, numerous solar-powered FM radio receivers are tuned to one of the broadcast channels. Each wire’s unique length is tuned to a particular frequency that mixes with other sonic algorithms. Field recordings made during the dawn and dusk cycles are incorporated into Sp+Cr sculpture and into the final, live WGXC radio broadcast. Video edited by Nico Reh, with still images by Will Hunt. New to Wave Farm Radio: WGXC 90.7-FM + wavefarm.org/listen The Master Gardeners Hour Produced by the Master Gardener Volunteers from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Columbia and Greene Counties 7 p.m., 1st Tuesday (Monthly) Educational programming focused on current gardening and landscape issues with an in-studio panel of Master Gardener Volunteers who will share their expertise and stories. Thingularity Produced by the Catskill Makers Syndicate 7 p.m., 1st Thursday (Monthly) A monthly broadcast presenting tech-centered topics, their cultural and social effects (with a focus on local impact). The show includes open calls and/or web-text portals for tech questions, the exchange of ideas, and reviews from the panel, "Shark Tank"-style, but way less evil. Broadcast live from the Catskill Makers Space on W. Bridge Street in Catskill. Live from The Avalon Lounge  10 p.m., Saturday (Weekly) Live performances from The Avalon Lounge in Catskill, New York. Usually, DJs perform, often with live band performances, and other experiments. Additional information is available at theavalonlounge.com. MAAF for Organizations: Final 2019 Deadline is October 1. Conferences and Convening Peer-to-Peer Mentoring  Organizational Development  Professional Development  Emerging Organizations Fellowship For organizations, the New York State Council on the Arts in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) provides funds to hire outside consultants to support organizational and professional development, as well as supports peer-to-peer mentoring and convening and conference attendance. Eligible organizations have missions specific to the media arts, dedicate the majority of their programming to technology as an art form, and are current NYSCA grantees. Priority will be given to NYSCA Electronic Media and Film grantees, applications from multi-disciplinary organizations, which incorporate technology as an art form will be considered on a case-by-case basis. MAAF is made possible through a regrant from the NYSCA Electronic Media and Film program. Applicants who have questions regarding eligibility are encouraged to contact Wave Farm at info@wavefarm.org after reading the guidelines in detail. APPLY NOW LAST CALL FOR RECORD VENDORS!!   WGXC Record Fair 2019 Sunday, September 15, 2019: 10am - 4pm Basilica Hudson 110 Front St. (Hudson, NY)   Vendor Information A single table is $55. Two or more tables are $50 each. Wave Farm’s WGXC presents the 2019 WGXC Record Fair in partnership with Basilica Hudson. Vendors from across the northeast gather in Basilica’s Main Hall to sell vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes, DVDs, plus books, musical equipment and instruments, and radio-related ephemera. The plentiful WGXC tables are a digger’s dream, with a variety of affordably priced records in all genres.   GENERAL ADMISSION | 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. | FREE! RAFFLE | Win gift certificates to regional record stores and eateries Admission and table fees benefit creative community radio station WGXC 90.7-FM. The WGXC Record Fair coincides with Basilica SoundScape (Sept 13-15), an immersive, innovative weekend of art, music, and culture, which draws an audience in the thousands, and features conceptual sound performances, author readings, installations, collaborations, and curated local vendors and artisans. On the day of the fair, WGXC will be raffling off a Regional Record Lover's Tour Package, with gift certificates generously donated by area record stores and eateries. Reserve Your Table(s) Now Wave Farm thanks you for your support. Wave Farm remains tirelessly committed to making the airwaves a participatory medium. A pioneer of the Transmission Arts genre, Wave Farm programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. These activities are made possible, in part, from state and federal art grants, foundation support, earned income derived from studio rentals and special curatorial/consulting engagements, and from private support from individuals like you. Listeners, attendees, and collaborators support provides a critical piece to keeping Wave Farm programs afloat, and we are grateful to the many individuals who have shown their generosity past, present, and future.   MAKE A ONE-TIME GIFT BECOME A WGXC SUSTAINING SUPPORTER! Wave Farm programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the National Endowment for the Arts; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Greene County Legislature through the County Initiative Program, administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts; the Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; the T. Backer Fund; the Joseph Family Charitable Trust; and hundreds of other generous individual donors.               Copyright © 2019 Wave Farm, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Stefana Fratila and Stephen Bradley + Edward Ruchalski are in-residence this month. Karen Werner will be Wave Farm's first Radio Artist Fellow! + more

View this email in your browser July Artists-in-residence. Radio Artist Fellow announced. Take a peak into Kathy Kennedy's residency last month. Welcome back political hiatus programmers and new shows on 90.7-FM wavefarm.org/listen airwaves. Thank you for Testifying on behalf of WGXC. Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence: Stefana Fratila Stefana Fratila arrived last week from Toronto. Her Mid-Orbit: A Radio Sitcom About the 8 Planets is a radio play based on the planets in our solar system. Inspired by the planetary orbits and their associated mythologies, this radio piece playfully mixes classic sitcom tropes and sound effects, loveable and archetypical characters, and ambient music. This situational comedy utilizes radio waves and transmission frequencies from the planets themselves, as well existing data about their various atmospheres to generate the accompanying score. Curiously, in this sitcom the Earth is stricken with a case of laryngitis and remains silent throughout, which begs the question— what happens when we simply listen? Stefana Fratila examines the act of bearing witness through public interventions, performances, sound and video installations. Interested in interrogating the relationship between memory and the body, she often incorporates her own experiences with disability and chronic illness. Her recent work focuses on how sound waves might be perceived by human ears as they travel through the different atmospheres of our solar system. Tune in: WGXC Afternoon Show, Saturday July 6, 2019 4-6 p.m.  Wave Farm Artist-in-Residence: Stephen Bradley and Edward Ruchalski Later this month, Wave Farm welcomes Stephen Bradley and Edward Ruchalski. Their project SpiderCricket (Sp+Cr) is a multi-phonic ecological radio installation informed by Wave Farm’s biophonic and radiophonic soundscape. The core of Sp+Cr uses a “spider web” wind-harp structure, which also functions as an antenna for low-power FM transmitters that broadcast on the property. Using DIY micro-mixers, numerous solar-powered FM radio receivers are tuned to one of the broadcast channels. Each wire’s unique length is tuned to a particular frequency that mixes with other sonic algorithms. Field recordings made during the dawn and dusk cycles are incorporated into Sp+Cr sculpture and into the final, live WGXC radio broadcast. Bradley and Ruchalski’s (B&R) practice is informed by their close relationship to place realized through radio, deep listening, acoustic intervention, and compositions based on environmental field recording. Their artistic practice is grounded and based on studies of acoustic spaces, engaging site-specific improvised sound actions and installations that raise the audience’s awareness of the hidden, often subtle and difficult to hear sounds found amidst bioacoustics and noisy landscapes. Tune in: Audio Buffet: Jul 18, 2019: 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. WGXC Afternoon Show, Saturday July 20, 2019 4-6 p.m.  Take a peak into Kathy Kennedy's Wave Farm Residency last month. This summer Wave Farm is fortunate to have three talented summer interns, who are supporting Wave Farm programs including the transmission artist residency program. Thank you Will Hunt (Photography, Bard College '20), Nico Reh (Film+Video, Bard College '20) and Gavin Parker (Anthropology + Media Studies, SUNY Purchase '20). Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellow Announced! Karen Werner (Turners Falls, MA) Wave Farm is delighted to announce our first Radio Artist Fellow selected from a competitive national open call.  Karen Werner is a radio artist and sociologist. Her audio pieces have been broadcast on community and public radio stations across Europe, North America, Australia and Israel and have been part of numerous live events and art exhibitions. In 2017-2018, Werner created a series of public sound installations at Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, including “Covenant of the Tongue” and “Zirkus,” which are sonic autoethnographies about Holocaust postmemory in Vienna. Her recent work is in live performance: sound installation meets documentary storytelling meets narrowcast radio transmission. Werner was a 2019 invited artist at the Kone Foundation’s Saari Residence in Finland and a 2017-2018 Fellow of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. She received a Tending Space Fellowship from the Hemera Foundation from 2014-2016 for artists with a Buddhist practice. Werner produces the creative radio sonic zine Sketchpad, broadcast weekly on WMCB 107.9lpfm in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and she teaches workshops on radio art, radio autoethnography and politics of storytelling. She is on the faculty of the BFA in Socially Engaged Art Program at Goddard College in Vermont.  Beginning September 2019, the Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellowship is nine-month, part-time engagement for an American radio artist with strong interests in the history of radio art and related practices. The Fellow will work closely with Wave Farm’s Executive Director, Galen Joseph-Hunter, and Artistic Director, Tom Roe, and will communicate regularly with Fellowship Mentors: Anna Friz, Joan Schuman, and Gregory Whitehead. The fellow will develop an audio archive of noteworthy historic and contemporary radio artworks including brief introductory and contextual information for publication on the Wave Farm website. Drawing from the archive, produce approximately five hours of radio art programming weekly on Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM. The fellow will also create original radio artworks for broadcast and lead three workshops and/or listening sessions with WGXC’s volunteer programmers. Thanks to the 2019 Oral History Summer School for visiting Wave Farm last month. The group met with resident Kathleen McDermott and toured the Wave Farm property and installations. Pictured here the group are learning about an in-progress project called Here GOES Radiotelescope by Heidi Neilson and Harry Dove-Robinson. A viewport downlink station for the NOAA satellite GOES-16. Visitors will place themselves under the dish and in line with the satellite's primary camera which is in turn looking back at Earth. Streaming live imagery from the satellite, the sculptural viewport will show the full disk of the Earth and Sun, including observations of lightning and space weather. Photo: Walter Hergt. Thanks to everyone who turned out for a "sold out" Build a DIY usb MIDI Controller Workshop at Wave Farm in Acra last month too. This wonderful and enthusiastic group came from New Lebanon, Annandale-on-Hudson, Palenville, Great Barrington, Lexington, South Cairo, Housatonic, Albany, Tillson, and Troy/Brooklyn. Attendees became sustaining supporters or made donations to WGXC. Thank you to attendees and to Jen Kutler for leading the workshop!  Photos by: Galen Joseph-Hunter (left) and Will Hunt (right). New to Wave Farm Radio in July: WGXC 90.7-FM + wavefarm.org/listen Nothing to See Here Created by David Clark. First Monday of the month from 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Returning on: July 1, 2019: 2pm - 3pm Returning to the WGXC airwaves (see 2017 edition here) Nothing to See Here is a program of experimental spoken word radio produced at NSCAD University. The program began in 2016 when Media Arts Professor David Clark started running regular recording sessions in the sound rooms at the Academy Building at NSCAD University on Thursday nights. The first few episodes were based on improvised interviews that were later edited into shows. These improvisations sustained a ‘premise’ that was determined at the beginning. Soon regular participants and guests began to write material for the show and the show evolved from episode to episode without a particular formula for how the explorations would materialize. The project has always been meant to be a platform for whoever wants to contribute and be a vehicle for NSCAD students to explore radio as a creative medium. A core group of regular contributors are involved in many of the show while many others have appeared in the show, including the cleaners in the building who sometimes stumble upon the nocturnal recording sessions and often join in. Algorithm as Ritual  Produced by Patrick Quinn. Second Tuesday of the month from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Premiere Broadcast: July 9, 2019: 2pm - 3pm al·go·rithm noun a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer. rit·u·al noun a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. “Get yourself out of whatever cage you find yourself in.” ― John Cage What is the relationship between algorithms and rituals? How can a creative algorithm function as a ritual or emancipatory tool to counter hegemonic media consumption? Algorithm as Ritual aims to expand the musical tastes of listeners through the use of creative coding and serendipity; deviating from known paths and venturing into uncharted musical territories. The playlists for Algorithm as Ritual are generated by a computer program written in Python that randomly selects tracks from an eclectic and continuously growing music archive maintained by artist Patrick Quinn. Quinn searches far and wide— from dusty bins in record stores to the shadiest corners of the Darknet—for music to go into the Algorithm as Ritual archive. Unlike many of the algorithms of large corporations that attempt to rationalize and commodify cyberspace by collecting massive amounts of user data, the computer program used to generate playlists for Algorithm as Ritual embraces uncertainty and “the unknown” in hopes of expanding the hearts and minds of listeners. A multimedia artist based in Troy, New York, Patrick Jo Quinn utilizes socio-poetic methods to investigate physical + digital space, and occasionally, electronic musical instruments. In collaboration with Publication Studio Hudson, Quinn recently produced his first book of poetry, Drift/Copy/Paste Poetics I (2017). In addition to his art practice, he does volunteer work with Books Through Bars, an organization that sends free books and educational materials to incarcerated people; and Joseph’s House of Troy, a shelter for people experiencing homelessness. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Electronic Arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Research Interests: direct action, psychogeography, aleatory poetry, and remix studies. Welcome Back to the WGXC Airwaves! WGXC is pleased to welcome Kamal Johnson of the Wednesday WGXC Afternoon Show (left) and Tom DePietro of the Thursday WGXC Afternoon Show (right) back to the airwaves. Both were on a 60-day political hiatus during their respective primary campaigns.  In the June 25 contest, Johnson secured the Democratic line for Hudson Mayor on the November ballot. DePietro secured the Democratic line in the race for Hudson Common Council President. The general election will be held on November 5, 2019, and both will be on hiatus again in the six weeks before the vote. Thank you for Testifying! WGXC's Spring Testify! Pledge Drive ran June 10 through June 23, 2019. During this drive, we added 34 new monthly supporters to our base of sustaining donors to WGXC. THANK YOU !!! Growing a community of sustaining supporters is vital to the station’s longevity. We are getting closer to our goal, but time is of the essence. If you want to ensure that WGXC stays on the FM dial, and are not already a Sustaining Supporter, please consider joining the 187 donors who are already committed to keeping Radio for Open Ears possible. Pictured above Cheryl K of the The Jazz Disturbance (left) and Neva Wartell of Music for the Masses. Photo: Lynn Sloneker. BECOME A WGXC SUSTAINING SUPPORTER CALLING ALL RECORD VENDORS!!   WGXC Record Fair 2019 Sunday, September 15, 2019: 10am - 4pm Basilica Hudson 110 Front St. (Hudson, NY)   Vendor Information A single table is $55. Two or more tables are $50 each. Wave Farm’s WGXC presents the 2019 WGXC Record Fair in partnership with Basilica Hudson. Vendors from across the northeast gather in Basilica’s Main Hall to sell vinyl, CDs, cassette tapes, DVDs, plus books, musical equipment and instruments, and radio-related ephemera. The plentiful WGXC tables are a digger’s dream, with a variety of affordably priced records in all genres.   GENERAL ADMISSION | 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. | FREE! RAFFLE | Win gift certificates to regional record stores and eateries Admission and table fees benefit creative community radio station WGXC 90.7-FM. The WGXC Record Fair coincides with Basilica SoundScape (Sept 13-15), an immersive, innovative weekend of art, music, and culture, which draws an audience in the thousands. Conceptual sound performances, author readings, installations, collaborations, curated local vendors and artisans, and on-site activities. The day of the fair, WGXC will be raffling off a Regional Record Lover's Tour Package, with gift certificates generously donated by area record stores and eateries. Reserve Your Table(s) Now Wave Farm thanks you for your support. Wave Farm remains tirelessly committed to making the airwaves a participatory medium. A pioneer of the Transmission Arts genre, Wave Farm programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. These activities are made possible, in part, from state and federal art grants, foundation support, earned income derived from studio rentals and special curatorial/consulting engagements, and from private support from individuals like you. Listeners, attendees, and collaborators support provides a critical piece to keeping Wave Farm programs afloat, and we are grateful to the many individuals who have shown their generosity past, present, and future.   MAKE A ONE-TIME GIFT Wave Farm programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; the National Endowment for the Arts; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; the Greene County Legislature through the County Initiative Program, administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts; the Alexander and Marjorie Hover Foundation; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; the T. Backer Fund; the Joseph Family Charitable Trust; and hundreds of other generous individual donors.               Copyright © 2019 Wave Farm, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

June Artists-in-residence.

Introducing Wave Farm's Summer Interns.

Last call for Fellowship Applications and Record Fair Early-birds.

New shows on 90.7-FM wavefarm.org/listen airwaves.

WGXC Sustaining Supporter Drive: Testify!

View Online Archive or click TEXT dropdown for PDF. Click here to become a Wave Farm Email Announcement subscriber, and receive updates directly to your inbox.

Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellowship Deadline: May 31

Order the new WGXC T-shirt, designed by Rebecca Bray.

New shows on the WGXC 90.7-FM Program Schedule.

Calling all WGXC 2019 Record Fair Vendors. Sign-up now!

View Online Archive or click TEXT dropdown for PDF. Click here to become a Wave Farm Email Announcement subscriber, and receive updates directly to your inbox.

Wave Farm Resident Artists in 2019

Sixteen MAAF Artist Grantees

Programming Environments on May 25

View Online Archive or click TEXT dropdown for PDF. Click here to become a Wave Farm Email Announcement subscriber, and receive updates directly to your inbox.

Acra, NY—Wave Farm announced today the artists and projects selected for the 2019 Wave Farm Residency Program. The 2019 program received a total of 104 submitted proposals, originating from 17 countries and 22 U.S. states. Each selected artist will live and work on-site at the Wave Farm Study Center for ten days during the residency season, which spans June through October.

In 2019, Wave Farm welcomes Kathy Kennedy (Montreal, Canada); Kathleen McDermott (Brooklyn/Troy, NY); Stefana Fratila (Toronto, Canada); Stephen Bradley (Catonsville, MD) and Edward Ruchalski (Syracuse, NY); Bob Drake (Cleveland, OH); Samuel Hertz (Berlin, Germany / Washington D.C.) and Carmelo Pampillonio (Asheville, NC); Lucy Helton (Brooklyn, NY); Milad H. Mozari (Chicago, IL); and Grant Smith and Sam Baraitser Smith (London, UK).

The Wave Farm Residency Program provides artists with a valuable opportunity to concentrate on new transmission works and conduct research about the genre using the Wave Farm Study Center resource library. Transmission Art encompasses work in participatory live art or time-based art such as radio, video, light, installation, and performance, as well as a multiplicity of other practices and media, where the the electromagnetic spectrum is an intentional actor (either formally or conceptually) in the work.

In conjunction with their residencies, artists perform, are interviewed, and create playlists for broadcast on Wave Farm’s WGXC 90.7-FM, a creative community radio station serving over 78,000 potential listeners in New York’s Upper Hudson Valley, and international listeners online. Resident works are archived in the Wave Farm Transmission Arts Archive at http://transmissionarts.org.

Wave Farm Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter said, “Artists making multidimensional work with and about the airwaves is what transmission art is all about. This year’s roster of artists, selected from our largest application pool to-date, has proposed exceptional projects that experiment with the electromagnetic spectrum in installation, composition, and performance. Focused on Transmission Art, the Wave Farm Residency program occupies an important place in this dynamic field internationally, and we are excited by the growth, interest, and support the program continues to experience.”

WAVE FARM RESIDENCY PROGRAM SELECTED ARTISTS AND PROJECTS
(in chronological order)

Kathy Kennedy (Montreal, Canada)—Radio Dialogues
Radio Dialogues is a daily ritual conducted over seven days while in-residence at Wave Farm. Two low power transmitters and radio receivers are positioned just outside of normal "earshot" range from one another. On one end is Kennedy and on the other a Hudson Valley-based collaborating artist. Two-way radio transmission unites the otherwise physically isolated artists in time and place and provides a framework for improvisational and site-specific performance.

Kathy Kennedy is a vocal artist who oscillates between sound art and music. She uses low watt transmission as a central axis for the exploration of physical space. Using only the voice and a few electronic devices she makes music that engages with the physicality of being in a particular place.

Kathleen McDermott (Brooklyn/Troy, NY)—The Public Speaker
A new project in McDermott’s wearable technology Urban Armor series, The Public Speaker is a skirt covered in 50 small speakers, which have been individually soldered to mini-amplifiers. A base skirt layer is covered in strips of LED lights, creating a soft glow behind the speakers, which pulses in time to audio frequencies. At Wave Farm, The Public Speaker will be transformed into an interactive walking radio receiver, tuned to overlooked and underheard frequencies, revealing invisible networks wherever she goes.

Kathleen McDermott combines craft and sculpture techniques with open-source electronic experiments to build video-based narratives of a strange future. She takes a critical perspective on emerging and wearable technologies by creating electronics that are counterproductive, humorous, and uncontrollable. A recurring theme in her work has been the relationship between technology, the body, and personal and public space, grounded in the belief that absurdity can be an appropriate response to technologically-enabled feelings of alienation.

Stefana Fratila (Toronto, Canada)—Mid-Orbit: A Radio Sitcom About the 8 Planets
Mid-Orbit: A Radio Sitcom About the 8 Planets is a radio play based on the planets in our solar system. Inspired by the planetary orbits and their associated mythologies, this radio piece playfully mixes classic sitcom tropes and sound effects, loveable and archetypical characters, and ambient music. This situational comedy utilizes radio waves and transmission frequencies from the planets themselves, as well existing data about their various atmospheres to generate the accompanying score. Curiously, in this sitcom the Earth is stricken with a case of laryngitis and remains silent throughout, which begs the question— what happens when we simply listen?

Stefana Fratila examines the act of bearing witness through public interventions, performances, sound and video installations. Interested in interrogating the relationship between memory and the body, she often incorporates her own experiences with disability and chronic illness. Her recent work focuses on how sound waves might be perceived by human ears as they travel through the different atmospheres of our solar system.

Stephen Bradley (Catonsville, MD) and Edward Ruchalski (Syracuse, NY)—SpiderCricket (Sp+Cr)
Stephen Bradley and Edward Ruchalski’s SpiderCricket (Sp+Cr) is a multi-phonic ecological radio installation informed by Wave Farm’s biophonic and radiophonic soundscape. The core of Sp+Cr uses a “spider web” wind-harp structure, which also functions as an antenna for low-power FM transmitters that broadcast on the property. Using DIY micro-mixers, numerous solar-powered FM radio receivers are tuned to one of the broadcast channels. Each wire’s unique length is tuned to a particular frequency that mixes with other sonic algorithms. Field recordings made during the dawn and dusk cycles are incorporated into Sp+Cr sculpture and into the final, live WGXC radio broadcast.

Bradley and Ruchalski’s (B&R) practice is informed by their close relationship to place realized through radio, deep listening, acoustic intervention, and compositions based on environmental field recording. Their artistic practice is grounded and based on studies of acoustic spaces, engaging site-specific improvised sound actions and installations that raise the audience’s awareness of the hidden, often subtle and difficult to hear sounds found amidst bioacoustics and noisy landscapes.

Bob Drake (Cleveland, OH)—RC (Radio Control)
RC (Radio Control) is a collaborative performance system for multiple movement artists and software defined radios (SDRs). The system enables performers to adjust the tuning and other parameters of the SDRs based on their location within the performance space and position. Video cameras aimed at the performance area feed images to a motion tracking patch in Max (software), generating location information which will be scaled and sent to the SDRs via OSC messages, controlling their tuning. Performers will have individual choreography instructions for the piece; some will be attempting to control the sounds of the radio in a specified sequence, others will have movement instructions based on the sounds they hear.

Bob Drake is an improvising musician, composer, and electro-acoustic luthier from Cleveland Ohio. He designs, builds, and plays electronic instruments in the tradition of Don Buchla and David Tudor, performing on these electroniums plus original electro-acoustic and extended-technique traditional instruments. His performances span free and structured improvisation, new music composition, noise, and minimalist “lowercase” musics. He teaches sound art, media installation, and electronics at Cleveland Institute of Art.

Samuel Hertz (Berlin, Germany / Washington D.C.) and Carmelo Pampillonio (Asheville, NC)—Librations
Samuel Hertz and Carmelo Pampillonio’s Librations is a performance/composition using a radio communications relay, which transmits signals to the Moon, that are then reflected back to Earth—a moonbounce. Librations is realized in cooperation with broadcast engineers at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) in Rosman, North Carolina. Culminating in a composition, radio broadcast, and multi-media essay, the artists’ collaboration throughout the residency period stands as an open field of negotiations between the Earth, the Moon, and the sonic/energetic traces reflected between them.

Samuel Hertz and Carmelo Pampillonio are sound artists and researchers who synthesize documentary practices of geophysical and atmospheric forces with the artistic practices of composition, transmission, and installation. Approaching ways in which we can develop notions of affect and ecological entanglement, their work explores complex interactions between non/human timescales, geophysical phenomenology, and sonic materialities.

Lucy Helton (Brooklyn, NY)—WEFAX (Weather, Water and Climate Prediction)
The radio WEFAX is a receptive instrument that converts numerical weather data, transmitted from dedicated stations, into visual form. At Wave Farm, Helton will continue her practice with image transmission using low energy radio waves with these devices, extending her meditations on the future state of the environment. In our current period of great meteorological and climate disturbance, the weather forecast plays a major role in the prediction, detection, and mitigation of the negative effect of natural disasters. During her time at Wave Farm, Helton will transmit via radio frequency, images of accelerated environmental change creating an installation of radio weather faxes and their output.

The fictitious and prophetic landscapes Lucy Helton creates subtly address contemporary environmental concerns, by offering a vision of the future that’s both frightening and beautiful. Her photographs contain a visual play between the real and the imagined, regularly referencing technological innovation, they incorporate a variety of imaging strategies, including panoramas and stitched frames. Meditations on the future state of the environment and if human colonies will exist outside planet earth, led to her discovery and fascination with basic image transmission using low energy radio waves. Her resulting artworks test the boundaries of art and technology, questioning our current path of planetary destruction.

Milad H. Mozari (Chicago, IL)—The Birdwatcher (title pending)
The Birdwatcher (title pending) is a radio drama that will be adapted for an experimental short film about Reza Tabatabaei. In 1980, Reza, Mozari’s uncle, was jailed for reading a poem at the funeral of a political protester and neighbor after the Iranian Revolution. Before this incident, he was a radio broadcaster in Iran for 24 years. The majority of his archives are gone since raids to his house and him passing away in 2015. Reza had a particular fondness for nature, and also shared a love for birds with his wife. Whenever the two would get into a fight, Reza would bring a canary bird home as a form of an apology. At one point, they housed 46 canaries and a Cockatoo parrot in their home. Mozari’s sound sketch will inform his future film. The cacophony of birds over the radio, field recordings mixed with wind shear, and the voice of a narrator will comprise the key elements of the radio drama.

Milad H. Mozari’s work moves through concepts of music, belief systems, absence, and structures. His research-based practice often starts with sound or spatial experiments, which then attempt to resonate physically, historically, and experientially. These projects often become film, performance or installation in their final form, and reflect on the sonic and social aspects of a site.

Grant Smith and Sam Baraitser Smith (London, UK)—Acoustic Commons
The Acoustic Commons describes a range of work that deals with the close association between sounds and places. This includes “environmental” broadcasting, sound mapping, and the development of new “transmission ecologies” making links between very local projects in urban, rural, and peri-urban areas. It also refers to a work in progress which invites people to open places as sites for listening. While in residence, the artists will set up a new permanent live audio stream, placing environmental sounds from the Wave Farm property in the public domain, and designate it as an experimental site of of the Acoustic Commons (AC Experimental Site 0_). A newly designed streambox will be installed to transmit the sounds to a live soundmap at Locus Sonus (http://locusonus.org/soundmap). Drawings on paper and online and a booklet (working title: (un)Manifest(o) for Acoustic Commoning) will document the project.

Grant Smith is an artist and writer working on sound, transmission, text, domestic and social projects in Loughborough Junction, South London. He co-founded the Soundcamp cooperative, and maintains a long term project at self-noise.net, which documents the mundane and ephemeral. Current activities include The Acoustic Commons, a project and 'wild concept' dedicated to sharing environmental sounds. Sam Baraitser Smith is a graphic designer and musician. He has been studying graphics and communication at Central St Martins, London and School of Visual Arts, New York. As a member of Art Assassins at South London Gallery, he has collaborated with Tenderlonious, Erik van Lieshout, and Thomas Hirschhorn. Sam has worked with Soundcamp to develop graphic representations of sound and place.

Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization driven by experimentation with broadcast media and the airwaves. A pioneer of the Transmission Arts genre, Wave Farm programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. Major activities include the Wave Farm Artist Residency Program, Transmission Art Archive, WGXC 90.7-FM, and the Media Arts Assistance Fund in partnership with NYSCA EMF.

More information about the 2019 Wave Farm Residency Program artists and works as well as Wave Farm is available at https://wavefarm.org.

2019 Individual Artist Grantees Announced The New York State Council on the Arts Electronic Media & Film Program in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF)

Acra, NY—Wave Farm announced today sixteen artist grantees for the 2019 Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF), a regrant partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts Electronic Media and Film Program. Grantees were named in two categories:

Completion Support: Annie Berman, Peter Burr, Sofian Khan, Laura Kraning, Madsen Minax, Robert Nideffer, Andrea Steves, and Sasha Wortzel

Distribution/Exhibition Support: Flatsitter, Sarah Friedland, Michelle Handelman, Victoria Manganiello, John Morton, Matthew Ostrowski, Lindsay Packer, and Laura Parnes

The Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) supports electronic media and film organizations, as well as individual artists, in all regions of New York State.

For individual artists, MAAF provides support for the completion, distribution and exhibition of new works in all genres of sound and moving image art, including emergent technology. Grant awards assist artists in completing new work, reaching public audiences, and advance artistic exploration and public engagement in the media arts.

NYSCA Electronic Media & Film Program Director, Karen Helmerson, said “The NYSCA Regrant program managed by Wave Farm benefits us all in many important ways. This investment of public funds in New York State creates opportunity for public engagement in the media arts, and the development of creative culture through new technology and emerging fields.” Wave Farm Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter said, “Wave Farm is delighted to be able to support these sixteen outstanding projects that represent the diversity of the media arts landscape in New York State. We are also very happy to have expanded the available opportunities this year. Now artists have two opportunities for support: Completion support for works nearly finished, and Distribution/Exhibition support for works completed in the prior year that are now ready for public audiences.”

The annual deadline for the Media Arts Assistance Fund for Artists is January 15. Grantees are selected through a competitive panel process. Detailed information about the 2019 MAAF projects is included on the following pages of this release.

The New York State Council on the Arts is dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York’s citizens. The Council believes in artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure, and the rights of all New Yorkers to access and experience the power of the arts and culture, and the vital contribution the arts make to the quality of life in New York communities. http://arts.ny.gov

Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization driven by experimentation with broadcast media and the airwaves. A pioneer of the Transmission Arts genre, Wave Farm programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. Major activities include the Wave Farm Artist Residency Program, Transmission Art Archive, WGXC 90.7-FM, and the Media Arts Assistance Fund in partnership with NYSCA EMF. http://wavefarm.org

COMPLETION SUPPORT
GRANTEES AND PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

Annie Berman—The Faithful
The Faithful is a feature length essay film exploring the enduring phenomenon of three global icons: Elvis Presley, Pope John Paul II, and Princess Diana. Launched by the discovery of a Pope lollipop for sale at the Vatican, the filmmaker embarks on what will become an obsessive 20-year journey to the annual memorials of these icons documenting the rites and rituals of their followers, in this meditation on fans, faith, and image. MAAF funding will support the sound design, mix, and voice-over recording.

Peter Burr—Dirtscraper
Dirtscraper is a room-sized computer simulation of an underground structure whose “smart architecture” is overseen by artificial intelligences—spatial and social designers that observe, learn, and make changes to the system. Unaware of the control exerted by these entities, residents move through spaces that reflect varied economies and class hierarchies. Over the course of its lifetime, we may observe the corrosion of this zone, the decay of its philosophy, and the solitary voice of its caretaker trapped in the contradiction between her health and the societal demands placed upon her. MAAF funding will support the completion of single-channel film format of Dirtscraper, formatted to a cinemascope Digital Cinema Package with 5.1 surround sound.

Sofian Khan—An Act of Worship
An Act of Worship is a feature length documentary currently in post-production. The diverse team of Muslim filmmakers have followed Muslim-American female activists around the country over the past two years, in this timely meditation on the country’s current political climate. Each of the women featured in the film build on themes of resistance, community and the personal experience of Islamophobia that they share as their lives and stories intersect.

Laura Kraning—Terra
Terra builds upon the kinetic immersive exploration of Kraning’s previous archival project Meridian Plain, mining the slips between stillness and motion, time and space, but filming her own earthly images of ecological forms and textures. Exploring the forests and glacial debris of Western New York, as well as a unique fossil park, and industrial mineral quarry, Terra will reveal invisible histories imbedded in the strata of precambrian stone, the tentacles of molds and lichen, and the imprints of ecological time writing intricate patterns across the surfaces of living and decaying trees. MAAF funding will support the necessary tools for completion.

Madsen Minax—North By Current
Filmmaker Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown following the death of his infant niece and the wrongful arrest of his brother-in-law. Through first-person cinema vérité and genre-bending storytelling, Madsen navigates a town steeped in opioid addiction, economic depression, and religious fervor, while using the act of filmmaking to rebuild familial bonds and reimagine justice. Posing empathy as a tool for creating a more just world, North By Current creates a relentless portrait of an enduring pastoral family, poised to reframe and reimagine narratives about incarceration, addiction, trans embodiment, and ruralness. MAAF funding will support consulting editors and color grading services.

Robert Nideffer—12 Years in Azeroth: A Case Study
12 Years in Azeroth: A Case Study is an ethnographic account of a subject who's spent more than a decade immersed, at times casually and at times competitively, in the online role-playing game "World of Warcraft." Authored as an electronic book/game, it deals with co-mingled realities, and explores a range of topics including work, play, relationships, illness, death and dying. What exists as a 750+ page written text will be finalized by end of summer 2019, and the first playable level of the game (which requires completion to access following sections of the written text) will be completed soon after with programming assistance made possible by MAAF support. Electronic distribution is planned for late 2019/early 2020.

Andrea Steves—Trinity Downwinders: Audio Countermonument
In collaboration with the Trinity Downwinders—victims and survivors of the world’s first atomic bomb test—and their organization, the New Mexico-based Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, Steves has been working for the past year with a multidisciplinary team of artists and scholars to collect oral histories. Using these histories, archival material, and other recorded sound, Audio Countermonument will be comprised of transmission-based monuments to commemorate the 1945 test and to document ongoing impacts on the New Mexico community. MAAF support will enable editing support and supplies.

Sasha Wortzel—This is an Address I, II
This is an Address I, II is a two-channel video installation that archives queer space and meditates on care networks, interdependence, world-making and un-making in relation to the ongoing, entangled impact of HIV/AIDS and gentrification on the landscape of New York City. Support from the Media Arts Assistance Fund will go towards completing the score, sound mix, and title design for the artwork. This is an Address I,II will be presented in the exhibition Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall at the Brooklyn Museum (New York) from May 3 through December 8, 2019.

DISTRIBUTION/EXHIBITION SUPPORT
GRANTEES AND PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS

Flatsitter—El Ramo
The latest virtual reality experience from artist Flatsitter—is an intense and visceral short film paired with virtual reality and was produced entirely in Oaxaca, México in collaboration with a team of Oaxacan artists, musicians, actors, and writers—including the powerful music of Ensamble Kafka. The US premiere of El Ramo will take place on a month-long tour of New York State and will include stops in Buffalo, Corning, Binghamton, Syracuse, the Hudson Valley, and New York City—with a focus on engaging Latino audiences in New York by partnering with arts and cultural organizations working in these communities.

Sarah Friedland—CROWDS
A three-channel video installation of a durational dance, CROWDS investigates the choreography of crowd typologies and the slippages between them. Focusing on collective formations, movements, and gestures, CROWDS uses dance to interrogate the distinctions we make and to destabilize the relationship between ideologies and moving bodies. It attempts to articulate the embedded choreographic register of our political discourses and polemics, reflecting what is amassed and what is lost as we gather and disperse. MAAF funding will support exhibitions in New York City and State, preservation, and publishing online.

Michelle Handelman—Hustlers & Empires
Hustlers & Empires is a moving image installation that interweaves the stories of three hustlers who each find themselves pushed out of their own game and forced to confront what their lives have become. It looks at transgression as a mode of survival, examining the complicated relationship between pleasure and risk, and how identity is formed in resistance to oppression. The project will be distributed through gallery and museum installations (upcoming April 18 - May 26, 2019 at signs and symbols, NYC,) live performances, and a vinyl/digital release of the original songs written by John Kelly, Shannon Funchess, and Viva Ruiz, along with a companion book featuring monologues, notes, and production stills from the project.

Victoria Manganiello—Computer 1.0
Opening May 17, 2019 at MAD Museum in New York, NY, Studio Focus: Victoria Manganiello features work from a new project by the artist entitled Computer 1.0 created in collaboration with designer Julian Goldman. Computer 1.0 is a textile woven by the artist's hand using hollow polymer tubing and cotton thread. A patterned series of colored liquid and air is pumped into the hollow tubes in a sequence dictated by an Arduino micro-controller creating sound, movement, and light in the form of a lo-fi textile screen. Conceptually exploring the history of the computer and humanity’s relationship to it, this representation of our digital heritage recalls current topics of data, privacy, and communication infrastructure.

John Morton—Fever Songs
Fever Songs is an interactive public sound installation project that brings together the vocal traditions of many religions, creating an active sonic experience that explores spiritual commonality and seeks to break down religious divisions. The work is a commingling of ritual and scriptural vocalization, recorded live whenever possible, woven together and sonically altered by ever-changing computer processing and sensor-proximity location. The installation is devoid of doctrine - rather, a bringing together of the commonality of the human ecstatic experience. MAAF funding will support new technology of proximity sensing that will simplify and expedite the distribution and exhibition of Fever Songs, which will be installed in November at Bronx Art Space.

Matthew Ostrowski—Summerland
Summerland is an installation for 24 computer-controlled telegraph sounders, exploring the intersection of technology and spiritualism at the dawn of the electrical age. The sounders are driven by texts from Samuel Morse, the telegraph’s inventor, and medium Kate Fox, who communicated with the dead through a ‘spiritual telegraph.’ These voices from beyond materialize in an electromagnetic séance of clicks and taps, sending messages we cannot quite grasp. Summerland examines the faulty nature of any medium, inevitably entangled with magical thinking, blind faith, and the ever-present possibility of humbug. MAAF funding will support Ostrowski’s touring exhibition of this new work.

Lindsay Packer—Motion at a Distance
Motion at a Distance is a stop-motion animation on 16mm film by Lindsay Packer with optical sound by Andrew Yong Hoon Lee. Packer animates a colorful series of luminous, temporary geometries while Lee’s soundtrack builds abstract textures to evoke mood and memory. With support from MAAF and MONO NO AWARE NPO, the artists will share the film with curators of moving image and screening programs in New York State and beyond, approach galleries and exhibition spaces where the work can be exhibited on loop over a longer duration, and apply to select festivals that exhibit on 16mm.

Laura Parnes—Tour Without End
Tour Without End (2014-present) , is a multi-platform project that casts real-life musicians, artists and actors as bands on tour, and expands into a cross-generational, Trump–era commentary on contemporary culture and politics. The project was shot between 2014-2018 and includes an extensive archive of live performance and four Terabytes of raw footage. The installation version highlights this archive. Tour Without End is exhibited as a film, installation and as a performance event. MAAF funding will support the promotion of future presentations including a multi-channel installation version of the project as which it was initially conceived.

For more information about the The New York State Council on the Arts in Partnership with Wave Farm: Media Arts Assistance Fund (MAAF) visit wavefarm.org/mag/artists

Quintron's Weather Warlock

Events @ Tufts April 4+5

Tune into EndeTymes

WGXC's Station Soundmark

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Residency Program Applications Due: Friday, February 1.

+ Thank you Great Scott Gadgets!

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Funding for Media Artists (Deadline Jan 15)

Residency Program Applications (Due Feb 1)

Fridman Gallery's New Ear Festival (Jan 9-13)

Wave Farm Board of Directors News

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Funding for Media Artists (Deadline Jan 15); Residency Program Applications (Due Feb 1); Unsilent Night Hudson (Dec 22); New Sound + Slogan for WGXC!

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New MAAF Guidelines for 2019, Pond Station new and improved, Food New York, 2018 Residency Season Highlights, Feeling Thankful..

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This month Wave Farm welcomes Aaron Dilloway (Oberlin). WGXC seeks to secure 250 new supporters. New MAAF guidelines will be available later this month.

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This month Wave Farm welcomes Doug Kaplan aka Mr. DougDoug (Chicago) and Clara Lou (Brooklyn). Wave Farm (in residence) at Tufts University Art Galleries with Heidi Neilson and Jeff Thompson, Fridman Gallery's 5th Anniversary Event, and read about the WGXC Record Fair vendors + more!

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This month Wave Farm welcomes Amanda Dawn Christie (Montreal) and Angus Tarnawsky (New York / Toronto) + special broadcasts, recent writing + Last Call for WGXC Record Fair Vendors; see YOU on Sept. 16!

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Ars Technica reports that on July 16 Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai said he's against the Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of Tribune Media Company. The Republican had not previously been in favor much of any regulation of communications companies, so the announcement was a surprise. The FCC recently rolled back broadcast TV station ownership limits, which allows Sinclair to own more stations. "Pai has been repeatedly accused of making regulatory changes that benefit Sinclair; the FCC's inspector general in February agreed to investigate whether Pai has improperly coordinated with Sinclair on rule changes," Ars Technica's Jon Brodkin writes. "The evidence we've received suggests that certain station divestitures that have been proposed to the FCC would allow Sinclair to control those stations in practice, even if not in name, in violation of the law," Pai wrote in a statement July 16. He recommended the merger get reviewed by an administrative law judge. Politico described sending the case to an administrative law judge is, "a lengthy administrative process often viewed as a deal-killer." Sinclair also took a public relations hit nationally a few weeks ago when a video compiling local station anchors being forced to read exactly the same political script went viral. Currently, Pai and FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, are two "no" votes out of four, with one commissioner still being confirmed. Rosenworcel said recently that, "too many of this agency's media policies have been custom-built to support the business plans of Sinclair Broadcasting. With this hearing designation order, the agency will finally take a hard look at its proposed merger with Tribune. This is overdue and favoritism like this needs to end."

This month Wave Farm welcomes Nicholas Knouf (Wellesley, MA) and Kate Donovan (Berlin, Germany); Drone with eteam @ Art Omi; Iliya Fridman joins the Wave Farm Board; Calling All Record Fair Vendors.. reserve your tables now!

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Hudson Valley representatives in Congress, Democrats and a Republican, representing the 18th, 19th, and 20th Congressional Districts, have all signed up to prosecute pirate radio broadcasters with penalties unlike any before. John Faso (R-Kinderhook), and Democrats Sean Patrick Maloney and Paul Tonko, are all co-sponsors of H.R. 5709, or the Preventing Illegal Radio Abuse Through Enforcement Act. The PIRATE Act most notably raises the maximum fine for broadcasting without a license from $100,000 to $2 million. (Currently, the Enforcement Bureau estimates the FCC’s collection-rate at 10 percent in anti-pirate actions. The House proposal would also hasten the FCC's enforcement process and mandate twice-a-year sweeps of the reputed top five pirate markets in the country. There has not been a major bust of any pirate radio stations in the Hudson Valley in many years, and the Federal Communication Commission recently cut back its enforcement office. But these three Hudson Valley lawmakers now have a large interest in the issue. Faso has received a $1,000 political donation during the current 2018 campaign from the National Association of Broadcasters. Tonko received $7,000 during the 2016 campaign from the National Association of Broadcasters. and Faso also got $500 from the NAB during the 2016 campaign. At a hearing on June 13, the House’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology approved the PIRATE Act on a voice vote. Next, the proposal heads to the full House Energy and Commerce Committee where it will likely see amendments with minor changes. There is no current similar bill in the U.S. Senate.

Ars Technica reports that on July 5 the Federal Communications Commission announced it denied a petition to reverse a decision taking away a broadband subsidy from many Native Americans. The FCC voted 3-2 in November 2017 to make it more difficult for tribal residents to get a $25-per-month Lifeline subsidy that reduces the cost of Internet or phone service. Small wireless carriers and tribal organizations have also sued the FCC in the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit over the issue. "Petitioners have not shown that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims," the FCC said in its July 5 announcement. "The 2017 Lifeline Order contains a comprehensive explanation of the basis for the Commission's decision to limit enhanced Tribal support to rural Tribal areas, and to target such support to facilities-based providers." Americans with incomes at or near federal poverty guidelines can get the Lifeline subsidies, though the current Republican-led FCC is doing all it can to limit who receives the benefits. Sprint is the only mobile phone service carrier actively participating in the Lifeline program now, according to the petition. The FCC decision blocks small cell phone services users from receiving the benefits. "[A]pproximately two-thirds of eligible low-income consumers on Tribal lands have chosen non-facilities-based ETCs [eligible telecommunications carriers] as their Lifeline provider, demonstrating the overwhelming success of the model," the petition to the FCC said. "At the same time, facilities-based wireless carriers have retreated from the Lifeline program across the country, including in many states home to American Indian tribes like [petitioner] Crow Creek [in South Dakota]. In more than a dozen states, AT&T and Verizon relinquished their status as ETCs. AT&T and Verizon continue to apply for and receive permission to relinquish their ETC status in additional states, and stopped applying for ETC status in new states long ago." T-Mobile has "largely phased out Lifeline service, explaining that Lifeline was not a 'valuable or sustainable product for [its] base' of subscribers," the petition said. "Sprint is the only one that still participates meaningfully as a retail provider in the Lifeline program, but Sprint does not provide Lifeline service on Tribal lands." The changes will take effect after October 2018, depending on when they are approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Radio World reports that the Federal Communications Commission is proposing a $2.8 million fine against HobbyKing for creating 65 radio transmission systems for aerial drones that use unauthorized radio frequency bands. Some of the transmission systems from the manufacturer also had “excessive transmission power levels.” HobbyKing makes devices to create video links between transmitters on the aerial drones and the users on the ground over amateur radio bands. The FCC limits manufacturers to 1000mW of power but three HobbyKing transmitters had power readings of 1500 mW and 2000 mW. HobbyKing failed to respond to the enforcement bureau’s previously issued a citation notifying HobbyKing of its legal and regulatory obligations. The fine was so large, the FCC said, in part because the company failed to stop marketing the alleged noncompliant equipment after a cease and desist order from the bureau.