The National Association for Amateur Radio reports a record number of amateur radio licenses in the United States, with 726,275 radio amateurs in the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) database at the end of 2014. "Over the past decade the number of Amateur Radio licenses in the ULS database grew by some 8.1 percent," according to the ARRL. All those amateurs could be lobbying Congress for the “The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015” (H.R.1301), introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives last week. The bill -- sponsored by seven Republicans and five Democrats -- would amend Part 97 of the Amateur Service rules forcing local towns to recognize the value of amateur radio over homeowners’ association regulations and deed restrictions, often referred to as “covenants, conditions, and restrictions.” Many municipalities and planning boards do not want antenna towers attached to homes, even though they are used in emergency communications. An identical bill failed in 2014, but the ARRL says they have more support this go-round. David Morris in the Huffington Post reports that radio waves and local rule also clashed in the FCC's Feb. 28 decision about municipal broadband. On the same day the commission made "net neutrality" the law of the land, the FCC struck down state laws that prevented Chattanooga, Tennessee and Wilson, North Carolina from extending their publicly owned broadband networks to surrounding communities. "The FCC's decision affects just those two states' laws but will undoubtedly become a precedent to evaluate most of the other 17 states' restrictions on municipal broadband," Morris wrote. Republicans, usually proponents of home rule, immediately introduced a bill stripping the FCC of its authority to make that call. Last year Republicans tacked on an amendment to another bill that would have prevented the FCC from taking up the issue. Republicans voted 221-4 in favor of that amendment, which later died in the Senate. So, for now, it looks like local municipalities may be able to create their own, cheaper, broadband networks, but who knows for how long.

[caption width="250" align="alignright"] The device found under the car at the Circumvention Tech Festival.[/caption]Last week, privacy experts and advocates from around the world gathered in Valenica, Spain at the Circumvention Tech Festival to discuss ways to combat government surveillance. Why? Well, besides the listening devices most first-world folks carry around in their pockets these day -- cell phones -- one might find some sort of tracking device on the bottom of a car. That's just what happened at the conference, as one of the activists found a strange looking black electronic device attached to the bottom of their car. Whether it was a hoax or a real spy case, there are clearly a host of devices to spy on citizens, and now developers are working on devices to deny those attemps at surveillance. A second version of an iOS app called "Signal" from Open Whisper Systems, a not-for-profit collective of hackers, was released recently, according to Techcrunch. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation both recommend Signal as a solution for protecting your privacy. The app, launched this week on the App Store, can send encrypted group, text, picture and video messages for free from iPhone to iPhone. For Android there are two apps — TextSecure and RedPhone — that when combined do the same thing as Signal does on iOS. A Brazilian company has created something more than just an app -- an "untappable smartphone." Shown for the first time at last week's Mobile World Congress, the GT1 model does not run any kind of social network, according to ZDNet. The Brazilian government is making an "anti-snooping" email platform and has been investing in direct fiber optic cables between Brazil and Europe that will completely bypass the United States. Of course, it may not work in all settings. Wired reports a court filing recently uncovered by the ACLU says that so-called stingray devices used by the Feds can disrupt cellular service for any phone in their vicinity, and not just the targeted phones that the government claims.

Politico and other media outlets announced this week that it was news that Edward Snowden wanted to return home to America, and that he was willing to face a trial for leaking government documents if it could be a fair trial. This was not news at all, as Snowden has maintained that position since becoming a public figure after the leaks were revealed. Glenn Greenwald at The Intercept outlines exactly how wrong those new stories were. In January 2014, AP reported Snowden said in a public chat: “Returning to the US, I think, is the best resolution for the government, the public, and myself.” In a May 2014 interview with NBC News, Snowden said: “I don’t think there’s ever been any question that I’d like to go home.” So journalists don't know how to use Google or Lexis-Nexis? Hardly. This reporting of news that is not news clearly shows a prevailing narrative that the mainstream media wants to report. Marcy Wheeler at Slate is one of the few reporters this week comparing the leaks of public information to the public by Snowden and Chelsea Manning to the leak by former CIA Director David Petraeus, and the clearly unsafe actions taken by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Anyone can argue Snowden was right or wrong for leaking government secrets about how the government secretly spies on its own citizens, but clearly both leaked the documents because they thought it was their public responsibility. So far, neither has gained much by leaking the documents -- Manning is in jail, and Snowden is stuck in Russia, a purgatory of sorts. Petraeus leaked to his mistress and biographer the identities of covert officers, code-protected programs, conversations he had had with the President, and other national security secrets. At one time he was considered a possible presidential candidate, and a glowing biography was surely in his personal interest. He stored the material in an unlocked desk drawer in his study. Is he going to jail like Manning? The New York Times reports that March 3, "Petraeus has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material, a misdemeanor. He is eligible for up to one year in prison, but prosecutors will recommend a sentence of probation for two years and a $40,000 fine." Hillary Clinton seems to have left secrets in a virtual unlocked drawer. The Associated Press reported that Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, had set up her own private email server at family’s home in Chappaqua, New York, a server that is probably not as secure as one the State Department would have set up for her. Clinton probably won't spend any time in jail either, and instead might be the next president.

Internet providers were expected to sue the Federal Communications Commission over the agency's net neutrality rules, passed last week. But now The Washington Post is reporting that many have other battles to fight. AT&T wants FCC and Justice Department approval for its $49 billion merger with DirecTV. Verizon has a proposed deal with Frontier Communications that also needs federal approval. And Comcast is seeking approval from many government agences for a $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable. "Optically, it looks bad for Comcast to say, 'We don't agree with whatever the FCC's doing,' but, 'Oh, you need to approve our merger,'" one anonymous industry analyst told Post. But 'optics' aren't usually a problem for cable television companies such as Time Warner, one the cable giants that are now key players in internet access nationwide. Bruce Kushnick of the New Networks Institute, a consumer advocacy group, told Capital New York that the industry has a tradition of charging more with imaginary fees. He points to Time Warner bills with charges for a “Broadcast TV Fee,” or “Public Access Fee,” and “Regulatory Recovery Fee.” “Made up garbage,” says Kushnick, not required by any government regulation or tax rule. Already, New York State has delayed its decision on the Comcast-Time Warner merger five times, perhaps waiting for the feds to move first. The FCC won't decide the issue until at least March 30, and then the Justice Department weighs in on the proposed merger of the two least popular companies in America, according to the University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index. Remember the recording of the phone call between customer Ryan Block and a belligerent Comcast service reprsentative that went viral last summer? Customers with only a cable option for internet service, and others who want to spend less, might have a new alternative soon for internet service. Slate reports Google confirmed this week that the company will announce a wireless service of its own soon. They won't hang their own antennae on towers around the country, but partner with Verizon and AT&T's smaller rivals, Sprint and T-Mobile. The Slate writer, Will Oremus, thinks it will be, "a 'Wi-Fi first' service that could deliver adequate, if slightly spotty, coverage at a fraction of the prevailing cost." It would focus on data coverage, rather then phone and text, since anyone can use many web apps such as Skype, FaceTime, iMessage, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messenger over a data plan for those features.

While the costs of storing electronic data and sharing that with the public continues to drop with technological innovations, many governments across the United States continue to delete emails as soon as they can. In New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo was elected on the pledge to lead the most transparent administration in state history, there is a policy in place to delete emails after three months. "It’s like something out of 'Mission Impossible' – this email will self-destruct in 90 days. This is the type of stuff that happens in a dictatorship," said Steve McLaughlin, a Republican assemblymember, in a Tweet. The Sunlight Foundation, a non-partisan nonprofit that advocates for open government, points out several other examples:
• Ferguson, Mo. officials determining that emails related to officer Darren Wilson’s case didn’t serve the “public interest” and therefore would be available only at prohibitive cost.
• Broward County, Florida officials are charging journalists $132,348 to provide emails associated with foreclosure cases.
• Pennsylvania state agency officials are using personal discretion about which emails to keep after only five days, a policy which led to the governor’s special advisor on education having only five traceable emails after working for the state for a year.
Why is this important? In the Los Angeles Unified School District, officials are now increasing their email destruction after older emails revealed the closeness of officials’ relationships with potential district vendors. If these public records are not available for journalists and members of the public to request, then public documents about important governance issues are being hidden from the public. In the pre-digital age, paper records could be found in file cabinets. Now, some emails public employees write are about the latest cat video on the internet, or requests from lobbyists for policy changes. Often, both are thrown out quickly, when the latter should be stored for later review. The Sunlight Foundation finds this worrisome. "Both in the federal government and in state and local governments across the nation, the most common method presently used to archive electronic records allows public employees to decide which individual emails they would identify as 'public records.' Other observers of government IT have noted that this approach to email retention practically works against the robust protection of public records."
Even more troubling, some government bodies aren't keeping any email records. California’s Tri-City Healthcare District has no general email retention requirement, according to Sunlight Foundation. And on March 3, The New York Times reported Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, avoiding any future inquiries. Clinton may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record, according to the paper.

[caption width="200" align="alignright"] Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars wiki.[/caption]The opposition to net neutrality -- which was passed on a 3-2 party line vote Feb. 26 at the Federal Communications Commission -- reacted strangely to the news that there would be no fast lane for corportations who have more resources then the average consumer. Republican commissioner Ajit Pai choose to quote a character from "Star Wars" to illustrate his opinion. Did he choose the heroic Luke Skywalker, the swashbuckling Han Solo, or the thoughtful Obi-Wan Kenobi? No, he picked a quote from Emperor Palpatine: “Young fool, only now, at the end, do you understand.”[audio mp3="http://newsroom.free103point9.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/DarthSidious_EmperorPalpatine_quotecitedbyFCCcommish_in_netneutralitydebate_20150303.mp3"][/audio] That's from the end of "Return of the Jedi," just before Palpatine attempts to kill Luke Skywalker. A strange choice for a quote buttressing a political position. Evan Greer, campaigns director at Fight for the Future, retorted with his own adapted "Star Wars" quote: “What they didn’t know is that when they struck down the last rules we would come back more powerful than they could possibly imagine.” Verizon, the phone company unhappy with the idea of net neutrality, also had a strange response to the FCC's action last week. They released a press release in morse code, saying the ruling was rolling back the clock to 1934.[audio mp3="http://newsroom.free103point9.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/JohnOliver_NetNeutrality_Verizon_morsecode_20150303.mp3"][/audio] But just because multi-national corporations are tapping out dots and dashes, does not mean that the internet will be free forever. Next week, Congress will consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which may include jail terms for downloading TV shows. We can't say for sure, because the TPP is being secretly negotiated. The White House is claiming the trade agreement is, "the most progressive trade agreement the world has ever seen." Massachussetts Senator Elizabeth Warren disagrees, saying, "this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty." Fight for the Future, an open-Internet advocacy group, has criticized the proposed trade agreement as a plot that "would force SOPA-like Internet censorship on the world." So, if the TPP passes, perhaps this quote from Obi-Wan Kenobi in "Star Wars" might be appropriate.[audio mp3="http://newsroom.free103point9.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/excerptfromStarWars_LukeObiWan_deathstardestroysAlderon_20150303.mp3"][/audio] "I felt a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced."
LISTEN TO AUDIO VERSION HERE.

Robert Beatty, "Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata" (Glistening Examples)
Matthew Shipp Trio, "Root of Things" (Relative Pitch Records)
Good Willsmith, "& my body to breath / now ~ shower put on all black" (tk)
Ancient Ocean, "Yellow Seed"



Robert Beatty, "Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata" (Glistening Examples). Tune in 4-6 p.m. Sat., April 5 to hear special guest Takeshi Murata in conversation with "Saturday Afternoon Show" host Tom Roe, live from the WGXC Acra Studio. The two will discuss Murata's work and his collaboration with Robert Beatty, who just released the LP "Soundtracks for Takeshi Murata." The broadcast will also feature a recording of recent live performances from Robert Beatty and C. Spencer Yeh on the occasion of the February 2014 premiere of Murata's video OM Rider at Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York, which features sound by both Beatty and Yeh.

Matthew Shipp Trio, "Root of Things" (Relative Pitch Records). Matthew Shipp, piano; Whit Dickey, drums; Michael Bisio, bass.

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/135734385" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]Good Willsmith, "& my body to breath / now ~ shower put on all black"

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/11020604" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="300" iframe="true" /]Ancient Ocean, "Yellow Seed"

Bunnybrains at John Doe Jr., Greenfield, MA, March 27, 2014.

Aa, "Glow Wreath" from "VoyAager" (Northern Spy)

J Spaceman and Kid Millions "Live at Le Poisson Rouge"

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3293507322 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]Peeesseye, "Sci Fi Death Mask"

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/118864502" params="color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_artwork=true" width="100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1563215273 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]Tashi Dorji, "Formations" from Tashi Dorji.

Wave Farm Radio and WGXC (90.7-FM) are adding the "FFFoxy Podcast" to the Wave Farm Radio and WGXC schedules.

"FFFoxy Podcast" goes on the "Radio Noise" night (early Wednesdays, after Dan Seward from Bunnybrains hosts "Battlefield Earth") from 2 a.m.-5 a.m. "Tabs Out" continues to air in this slot on the first Wednesday of the month, and "FFFoxy Podcast" airs on the second Wednesday of the month, 2-5 a.m. Both will also air occasionally on Saturdays after 10 p.m.

The "FFF" stands for "Free Form Freakout," as host David does a slightly more commercial version of the show, using that name, Thursdays at 2 p.m. on KMSU and KMSK in rural Minnesota with co-host Carl. The "FFFoxy Podcast" includes artist and label interviews, in-studio guests, live performances, and a wide range of underground and experimental music.
http://www.freeformfreakout.com/

The current playlist:
Anne Guthrie “Strongly Leaning With Irregular Crown” Codiaeum Variegatum LP* (Students of Decay)
London Sound Survey “Pearly Kings and Queens” These Are the Good Times LP (Vittelli)
Ferial Confine “Melwood Dialogue” Meiosis CD (Siren)
Good Area “Bad Karlshafen” Cubic Zirconia b/w Bad Karlshafen 7” (Kye)
Jaap Blonk “Reading Light (for Raoul Hausmann)” Songs of Little Sleep CS (Sleepy Cobalt Sound)
Mike Cooper “Noctiluca” New Globe Notes LP* (NO=FI Recordings)
Matthew P. Hopkins “Nocturne 1” Nocturnes LP (Vittelli)
Noxroy “Calculus Almond” Anverloss CD-R (Signal Dreams)
Silk Dune “Sweeping the Round Window” Systemic Crevice CS (Sleepy Cobalt Sound)
Wondertaker “Aging Backward” S/T CS (vwyrd wurd)
German Army “Misogyny” T’rung CS (Lighten Up Sounds)
Marcus Rubio “Duet For Contact Mic & Practice Amp Movement 1” Music for Microphones CD (Copy For Your Records)
Pye Corner Audio “Dystopian Vector Part One” Black Mill Tapes Volumes 1-4 3CD (Type)
Emaciator “Side B” (excerpt) Finality and Contradiction CS (Imminent Frequencies)
No Balls “Not Even” I’m So Happy I Can Die CS (Drid Machine)
Swamp Horse “untitled” split w/ Husere Grav CS (Existential Cloth Recordings)
Insects Waiting “Nonsense Code A” (excerpt) Nonsense Codes, Vol. 1 CS (Tape Drift)
Gang Wizard “Ugly American” Important Picnic LP* (Mie)
Scrabble “Track 7” S/T CD-R (Breakdance the Dawn)
Blank Realm “Baby Closes The Door” Grassed Inn LP (Fire)
Ghost to Falco “The Rude Awake” Soft Shield LP (Infinite Front)
Flowery Dreamcatcher “Side A” (excerpt) Hen to Pan CS (Cave Recordings)
Talk West “Set Adrift” Black Coral Sprig CD* (Preservation)
Seth Kasselman “First Performance” (excerpt) Mmediate Rolls CS (UR Sounds)

Wave Farm is pleased to partner with New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) in order to bring their 2014 TransX Transmission Art Symposium to Wave Farm's WGXC 90.7-FM listeners. Below is NAISA's Call for Papers & Performances for this year's Symposium, which takes place in May.

TransX Transmission Art Symposium
Call for Papers & Performances
Deadline February 28, 2014

New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) is pleased to announce the 2014 edition of the TransX Transmission Art Symposium with Keynote speakers Anja Kanngieser and Jessica Thompson May 22 - 25, 2014

We are now inviting proposals for papers, presentations and performances
For More Information http://naisa.ca/opportunities/calls-for-submissions/trans-x-call-for-submissions/
To Submit: https://naisa.ca/trans-x-submission-form/

The proceedings from the 2013 TransX Transmission Art Symposium are here: http://naisa.ca/symposia/trans-x/transx-2013-proceedings/
To listen to the presentations from the 2013 TransX Transmission Art Symposium go to: http://naisa.ca/media-archive/audio-archives/

NAISA is now inviting submissions for papers and performances:

Rooted in the earliest experiments with radio, Transmission Art has continued to flourish into the 21st Century with experiments using wireless communications technology over the past 100 years, including the exploration of a variety of mobile-based platforms and lesser-known forms of transmission, such as VLF. The terrain of transmission art is dynamic and fluid, always open to redefinition.

The TransX Transmission Art Symposium, part of the Deep Wireless Festival of Radio & Transmission Art, will focus on Transmission Art, with particular interest in contributions that summarize, examine or reframe traditions and histories of transmission art practices, technology, education and pedagogy. Additionally, we are very interested in presentations that go beyond the local contingent to give a sense of how new technologies of international transmission activity might be experienced. Proposed presentations and performances that combine the themes of Transmission Art and “Undo/Redo” are also especially welcome.

All symposium contributions will be webcast live, and text proceedings will be published after the symposium on the NAISA web-site. Please go to http://naisa.ca/opportunities/calls-for-submissions/trans-x-call-for-submissions/ for specific guidelines on paper and performance submissions.

We look forward to seeing you, your colleagues, collaborators and students in Toronto in May!

Important Information
28 Feb Deadline for receipt of proposals @ 11:59 PM EST
21 March Notification of acceptance
15 April Attendance confirmation
22 April Symposium registration and submission of final materials.
22 May Symposium opening reception and performances
22–25 May Symposium sessions
23–24 May Deep Wireless Festival performances

Fees
Symposium registration fees (General): $70
Symposium registration fees (Student): $40
(both rates include admission to all performances)

Questions and requests for further information can be directed to:
Nadene Thériault-Copeland - transx@naisa.ca

Review Committee:
Steve Bates, Independent artist
Anna Friz, post-doctoral fellow, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Heidi Grundmann, Kunstradio
Galen Joseph-Hunter, Executive Director Wave Farm
Katie Kehoe, Maryland Institute College of Art
Dan Lander, artist
David Ogborn, McMaster University
Tetsuo Kogawa, Radioartist, Media Critic, Director of Goethe Archive Tokyo
Jim Ruxton, Director of Programs, Subtle Technologies Festival
Don Sinclair, York University
Debashis Sinha, Sound Artist
Jessica Thompson, University of Waterloo
Helen Thorington, Co-Director of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc
Gregory Whitehead, radio artist / co-editor of Wireless Imagination
Elisabeth Zimmermann, Kunstradio

___________________________________________________________
NAISA Inquiries & general information:

Nadene Thériault-Copeland
Executive Director
New Adventures in Sound Art
Address: Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie St #252, Toronto, ON M6G 4C7
Tel 416 652 5115
www.naisa.ca

Acra, NY— The New York Council on the Arts announced last week that free103point9 Inc. (aka Wave Farm) was approved at the December Council Meeting for grants to support Wave Farm Transmission Equipment, LoVid (Tali Hinkis-Lapidus)’s “iParade,” and Hans Tammen’s “Apheresis - for large electronic ensemble.”

The facilities award will support fifty percent of the cost to expand transmission technology resources for the Wave Farm Residency Program, including a site-specific AM radio station, and installation of expanded WiFi and electrical connection points, as well as the acquisition of a professional radio console to expand the usability of Wave Farm’s WGXC Acra studio.

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. 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.

NYSCA Chair Aby Rosen, and Executive Director Lisa Robb said, "We are working hard with our partners in state government to broaden the impact and advancement of arts, culture and heritage activities throughout the Empire State. Your work is vitally important to the community development, economic, tourism and education benefits that are a result of investment of public funds in arts, culture and heritage programming.”

Wave Farm Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter said, “We are grateful and honored to receive this support and acknowledgement by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). These grants will have a tremendous impact on our ability to support creative and community engagement with the transmission spectrum and media as an art form.”

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 that celebrates creative and community use of media and the airwaves. Our programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. (Wave Farm is incorporated as free103point9 Inc.) For more information, visit http://wavefarm.org

- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -

DATE:                         December 11, 2013
CONTACT:               Galen Joseph-Hunter, Executive Director, galen@wavefarm.org (518-622-2598) 

Wave Farm Receives National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant
to Support the Wave Farm Residency Program 

Grant One of 895 NEA Art Works Grants Funded Nationwide 

Acra, NY— National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that free103point9 Inc. (aka Wave Farm) is one of 895 nonprofit organizations nationwide to receive an NEA Art Works grant. Wave Farm is recommended for a $10,000 grant to support the Wave Farm Residency Program, a visiting artist program specific to transmission arts.

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. 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.

Acting Chairman Shigekawa said, "The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support these exciting and diverse arts projects that will take place throughout the United States. Whether it is through a focus on education, engagement, or innovation, these projects all contribute to vibrant communities and memorable experiences for the public to engage with the arts."

Wave Farm Executive Director Galen Joseph-Hunter said, “Artists making work with and about the airwaves, is what transmission art is all about. These projects experiment with the radio spectrum, reinvent radio theatre, or use transmission in performance, composition, and installation. We are grateful and honored to have the significance of this genre and the Wave Farm Residency Program acknowledged by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).”

Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence: public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and enhancing the livability of communities through the arts.  The NEA received 1,528 eligible Art Works applications, requesting more than $75 million in funding.   Of those applications, 895 are recommended for grants for a total of $ 23.4 million. For a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support, please visit the NEA website at arts.gov.

Wave Farm is a non-profit arts organization that celebrates creative and community use of media and the airwaves. Our programs provide access to transmission technologies and support artists and organizations that engage with media as an art form. (Wave Farm is incorporated as free103point9 Inc.) For more information, visit http://wavefarm.org.

# # #

 

 

MATA seeks submissions from composers under age 40 for our 2015 festival and commissioning program. We accept all music: sound art, video, electronic, found instruments, toys, installations, fully notated, improvised, and everything in between. A panel of distinguished composers, performers, and conductors will select approximately 20 participants for our Spring 2015 MATA Festival of New Music in New York City. Selected composers will either receive a performance of a pre-existing work or a commission to write a new piece. Our performers are among the world’s finest ensembles and in the past have included chamber groups large and small, orchestra, chorus, soloists, and much more. Founded by Philip Glass, Eleonor Sandresky, and Lisa Bielawa in 1996, MATA presents a week-long festival of music by composers under age forty each spring in New York City. Each festival presents up to thirty works by young composers, at least three to four of which are newly commissioned.



Please submit links to scores and recordings of your two best works; a one-page resume; a list of compositions; and contact information through our website http://www.matafestival.org. We will only accept digital submissions. There is no entrance fee.

Audio: we accept either links to recordings hosted on a personal website or through SoundCloud. Please provide direct links to the works submitted. In either case, links must be streamable, not only downloadable. YouTube and Vimeo links are acceptable if your work involves visual elements.

Scores: we accept links to PDF documents either through a personal website or Issuu, a free publishing platform that allows you to upload PDF’s and provides a link for anyone to view the PDF online.

Please ensure that your links remain in operation indefinitely, as the review process will take place in the spring and summer of 2014. Do not provide links that will expire after any period of time. If we cannot access your links, we are unable to evaluate your work.

Selected composers will be notified by Summer 2014.

If you have any questions about the digital submission process, email info@matafestival.org .

APPLICATION CHECKLIST

Recordings of two recent works: No more than two works are to be submitted. If you submit an orchestral work, please also send a chamber or solo work. MIDI recordings are discouraged but will be accepted.
Scores to accompany the above recordings: If scores are not pertinent to your work, please indicate in the form below.
Resume or C.V.: Please limit to one page
A list of works: Please include instrumentation and duration
Contact Information
All submissions must be filed on this site by 11:59PM U.S. Eastern Time, January 21, 2014. Once the online submission form stops accepting submissions, the call is closed. You will not receive email confirmation of your application.

Applicants must not have reached their 40th birthday on January 21, 2014. If you turn 40 on or after January 21, 2014 you are eligible.

Ted Johnson in Variety magazine reports new Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler says he supports net neutrality rules, but left room for Internet providers to be able to charge users based on the amount of bandwidth they use. Wheeler gave his first policy speech, and then answered questions, Dec. 2, at Ohio State University (watch full video here). Net neutrality is defined as not being usage-based pricing. In the speech Wheeler said that, “we are seeing the market evolve in such a way that there will be variations in pricing, there will be variations in service.... I am a firm believer in the market. I think we’re also going to see a two-sided market where Netflix might say, ‘Well, I’ll pay to make sure that my subscriber receives the best possible transmission of this movie.’ I think we want to let those kinds of things evolve, and we want to observe what happens from that and we want to make decisions accordingly. I go back to the fact that the marketplace is where these decisions ought to be made, and the functionality of a competitive marketplace dictates the degree of regulation.” Also in the session, Wheeler said that the “number one issue” he has is the preparations for a spectrum auction, with broadcasters giving up public airwaves and sharing in the proceeds of an auction to wireless firms. Read the full story in Variety.

Radio news about radio waves, for Oct. 13-20. She begins with a report on pirate radio during the U.S. government shutdown. The Federal Communications Commission currently has no enforcement division, to react to complaints about pirate radio. We listen to a few websites with information about illicit activity on the airwaves. "PiratesWeek," a weekly audio report about shortwave and FM pirate radio activity comes from upstate New York's Ragnar Daneskjold, although he posts much less often every fall. Even when he doesn't post the weekly show that airs on many FM, shortwave, and internet stations, he does post audio files of pirate stations, and his Twitter feed is full of broadcast alerts. Pirate Radio Central (blackcatsystems.com/radio/pirate.html) also hosts a lively message board with information about shortwave pirates, numbers stations, utility stations, and more. Free Radio Cafe also has a lively forum, and includes solar weather and a way to upload QSL cards.



The show also includes interview with Rhizome's Executive Director Heather Corcoran discussing the technology-based arts organization's past, present, and future. Rhizome is based in New York City, inside the New Museum. Also, Jennifer Waits in radiosurvivor.com reports about the California Historical Radio Society archiving a treasure trove of materials related to radio history on its YouTube channel. The show also announces the winners of the Third Coast 2013 Richard H. Driehaus radio story awards. And the show features "The Muezzins of Mali," new field recordings by Myke Dodge Weiskopf of ShortWaveMusic.

Click here to listen to the show. PLAY CLIP (28:00)

Rhizome is an arts organization that works with artists engaging technology. Their programs include commissions, exhibitions, events, discussion, archives, and portfolios. Rhizome began in 1996 by artist Mark Tribe as an email list subscribed to by some of the first artists to work online and is now a thriving nonprofit, part of the New Museum in New York City. Heather Corcoran is now executive director, and during a visit to Wave Farm Oct. 10, 2010, she discussed the organization's past, present, and future. Click here to listen to the interview. PLAY CLIP (10:07)

With just a skeleton crew since the government "shutdown" Oct. 1, the Federal Communications Commission currently has no enforcement division, to react to complaints about pirate radio. Those complaints may be logged later, but the pirates may be long gone by the time the government re-opens for business. So, with America in a lawless state on the airwaves, is anyone monitoring pirate activity? The FCC keeps the records of pirate radio activity that anyone reporting about pirate radio inevitably refers to in their story. Pirates no longer like to leave internet traces, but there are a few websites with information about illicit activity on the airwaves. "PiratesWeek," a weekly audio report about shortwave and FM pirate radio activity comes from upstate New York's Ragnar Daneskjold, although he posts much less often every fall. Even when he doesn't post the weekly show that airs on many FM, shortwave, and internet stations, he does post audio files of pirate stations, and his Twitter feed is full of broadcast alerts. Pirate Radio Central (blackcatsystems.com/radio/pirate.html) also hosts a lively message board with information about shortwave pirates, numbers stations, utility stations, and more. Free Radio Cafe also has a lively forum, and includes solar weather and a way to upload QSL cards.

Radio news from Wave Farm‘s WGXC 90.7-FM in the Hudson Valley, New York. PLAY AUDIO (3:45)

• The Federal Communications Commission is waiting to see if the Federal government will be open on Tue., October 1, and David Oxenford at Broadcast Law Blog writes about what might happen. Congress needs to pass a “continuing resolution” to keep the government running at current levels, and that is in doubt. No plan for a shutdown has been announced yet, but under a plan for 2011, when the government last came within hours of a shutdown, all of the FCC’s workforce would need to go home, and could not perform any functions while the government is closed. "There will be no construction permits issued for new or improved stations, and no grants of other pending applications – including assignments and transfers – meaning that sales of stations would be in limbo for however long the shutdown lasts.... And, in most other shut-downs (or in shutdown planning), the Commission’s staff was not even allowed to voluntarily do anything related to their official business - so they could not answer emails or phone calls from home, or travel on their own dime to anything related to their official functions," Oxenford wrote in Broadcast Law Blog.

• Stopwatching.Us, a coalition of more than 100 public advocacy organizations and companies, including Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union, National Libertarian Party, and others are organizing two days -- Oct. 25 and 26 -- of lobbying Congress and a mass rally in Washington D.C. against the surveillance state. Oct. 26, the day of the rally, is the 12th anniversary of the Patriot Act's signing.

• RiaNovosti reported last week that Voice of Russia is closing its shortwave service. Now, VOR has released a vague response: “Unfortunately, so far we have no official information as regards the cancellation of shortwave broadcasting. However, we cannot rule out such a scenario for the future, since currently the VOR is speedily introducing modern day technologies of radio and internet broadcasting.”

• "Free Speech Radio News" aired its final broadcast Sept. 27, after beginning in January, 2000, and currently airing on over 90 radio stations.

Radio news from Wave Farm‘s WGXC 90.7-FM in the Hudson Valley, New York. PLAY AUDIO (3:33)

REC Networks reports that at the Sept. 26 Federal Communications Commission monthly "open meeting" the Audio Division staff presented to the full Commission an update on the progress of the Auction 83 translator processing and the upcoming LPFM window. "All but eight translator applications have been given an opportunity to file a long form application or settlement related change," REC reported. The FCC also announced that the first singleton Low Power FM applications (those that do not face any competing applications) will be processed in mid-January, 2014 and MX groups (competing applications) will be announced later in 2014. REC will have predictive information on MX applications posted after the FCC publicly releases the information about the applications. FCC officials also reported how cleaning up the translator issues were going ahead of the LPFM filing window.


Paul Lewis and Dan Roberts in The Guardian reports about the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Sept. 26, discussing potential legislative changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the law that governs a large portion of electronic and phone surveillance by intelligence agencies. Several Senators are proposing changes to the law. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander, and Deputy Attorney General James Cole were among those testifying about the surveillance program. Alexander and Clapper refused to say on the record where the NSA had ever sought to trawl cell site data, pinpointing the location of individuals via their phones.

Radio news from Wave Farm‘s WGXC 90.7-FM in the Hudson Valley, New York. PLAY AUDIO (3:52)

Paul Lewis and Dan Roberts in The Guardian report that on Sept. 25, several Senators combined various legislation recently being proposed to rein in United States government surveillance, into the Intelligence Oversight and Surveillance Reform Act. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Mark Udall (D-Colorado), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) introduced the bill. The Act would prohibit the NSA's bulk collection of phone records of Americans under section 215 of the Patriot Act, and close a so-called "back door" that potentially enables the NSA to intercept the internet communications of Americans swept up in a program protected by Section 702 of the of the FISA Amendments Act. Russia Today reports that Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), who is the chairperson of the Senate Intelligence committee, will introduce a weaker bill that would not limit the current scope of NSA surveillance.

Howard Reich in The Chicago Tribune reports that among the 24 winners of the 2013 MacArthur Fellowships, or “genius grants,” announced on Wed., Sept. 25, there are several radio-related artists.
Each winner receives $625,000 over a five-year period, with no strings attached (an increase from the $500,000 amount of previous years). Since 1981, the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowships have been selected by a secret process for which no one may apply. This year's winners include 13 men and 11 women, from 32 to 60-years-old.
Some of the notable winners:
Jeremy Denk, 43, New York, is a concert pianist who plays standard repertory and 20th-century works, and writes in The New Yorker, The New Republic, and other publications.
Carl Haber, 54, Berkeley, Calif. Experimental physicist Haber has invented new means for recapturing fragile aural documents. Recordings made on wax cylinders, lacquer discs, and other historic technologies have been retrieved by Haber and colleagues using a non-contact technique that transforms visual data into a digital sound file.
Vijay Iyer, 41, New York. Jazz pianist brings the sounds of his Indian heritage in jazz improvisation and composition.
Dina Katabi, 42, Cambridge, Mass. Katabi, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her collaborators have created ways sending radio waves faster, more safely and more securely. She has, "shown that Wi-Fi signals can be used to read the movement of a person's body, enabling a computer to receive instructions delivered by gesture rather than by keystroke."

Friday Morning Quarterback, a radio trade magazine, reports that radio consultant firm Mark Kassof & Co. has revealed a portion of its annual ListenerThink P1 study, and the research shows that 70 percent of 18- to 64-year-old radio listeners agree with the statement: "If you couldn't listen to radio, you'd feel something important was missing from your life." Only 27 percent disagree, while 3 percent don't know. The study also said that 53 percent of 18-64-year-olds agree strongly or slightly that, "radio isn't as good as it used to be." The findings are based on 989 online interviews with radio listeners in the U.S., conducted in September.