Deadline, Dec. 31, 2009

free103point9 is pleased to announce the 2010 Distribution Grant for New York State Artists providing support for the distribution of new works in film, video, sound, new-media, and media-installation. Funding is available from free103point9 through a regrant from New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Program. Grant awards will assist artists in making works available to public audiences and may include, but are not limited to: moving image and sound works; duplication of preview, screening and exhibition copies; promotional materials including documentation and schematics of media-installation and new-media works.

FCC may look to redefine how it measures media concentration

latimes

Broadband in a backpack

bbc

GM to offer WiFi hotspots

autonews

The Quest for Internet Radio Standards

radioworld

Consumer Media Study Highlights Impact of Digital Media on Radio

audio4cast

Google to Launch Music Service

hypebot

From Prometheus Radio Project:

With a unanimous voice vote, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Local Community Radio Act Thursday. By repealing restrictions that drastically limit channels available to low power FM (LPFM) stations, the Act will allow hundreds of community groups nationwide to access the public airwaves.

The popular, bipartisan legislation is on the fast track to becoming law. Shortly after all five FCC Commissioners reaffirmed the FCC’s longstanding support, the bill passed out of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet by a voice vote. After today’s passage out of committee, the Local Community Radio Act heads for a floor vote in the House.

In his opening remarks today, Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) urged his colleagues to support the bill.

“As a longtime advocate of expanding low power FM radio services and the dynamic contribution they make to localism, a bedrock of our communications laws, I am pleased that the Committee is acting on this important bipartisan measure. Low power FM stations provide diverse, locally-originated programming that serves the needs of the community,” said Rep. Waxman.

Lead co-sponsor Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) noted that earlier concerns about potential interference with full power stations have been addressed.

“We are proud to have the support of many incumbent broadcasters for our legislation,” said Rep. Doyle. “We made changes during the subcommittee's consideration of the bill to resolve concerns from other incumbent broadcasters, and we are especially pleased that National Public Radio expressed their appreciation of these changes.”

The bill has recently gained the support of its former skeptics in Congress, including Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), the only former broadcaster on the committee. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), a lead co-sponsor of the bill that originally restricted low power radio in 2000, also now supports the legislation.

Hundreds of groups across the country are organizing for the opportunity to have their own radio stations. One of the most active among these is the Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP).

“Our goal is to provide Chicago with a showcase for the city's diverse music and arts scenes and to cover local news stories too often overlooked by bigger media outlets,” said Shawn Campbell, President of CHIRP. “Our 140 volunteers are true believers in radio that is live, local, and truly connected to community. We are ready to start broadcasting original content around the clock as soon we are given the chance.”

Advocates say that today’s vote is a call to action for supporters of local media.

“We are sounding the alarm,” said Cory Fischer-Hoffman, Campaign Director at the Prometheus Radio Project. “Passage out of full committee signals that Congress is finally ready to act on local community radio. Now is the time for everyone who wants a voice in their community to urge their Congressional Representatives to support HR 1147.”

From Prometheus Radio Project:

This morning, the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet passed the Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (H.R. 1147) in a near unanimous 15 to 1 vote. The bill is now poised to move to the full Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by longtime LPFM supporter Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA). Follow the link to read the full press release: http://prometheusradio.org/content/view/882/

From Prometheus Radio Project:

Washington, DC – A bipartisan bill to expand community radio has been scheduled for a vote by Chairman Rick Boucher (D-VA) on Thursday at 10 AM, in the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet.

The Local Community Radio Act would allow the FCC to license hundreds of new low power non-commercial radio stations nationwide. Most communities, especially large cities, have had severely limited opportunities to apply for these new radio licenses.

Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) reaffirmed his support for the Local Community Radio Act to an enthusiastic crowd at the Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit on Tuesday, calling it “our Christmas present this year.” Rep. Doyle has been leading the push for Low Power FM in Congress, along with lead co-sponsor Rep. Lee Terry (R-NE). Independent musicians have been longtime supporters of Low Power FM as a venue to share their music.

“We’d like to thank Congressmen Doyle, Boucher, Waxman and all Congressional supporters of low power radio. The hard work of these leaders and their staff to bring this legislation to a vote will yield great results for America’s local media landscape,” said Pete Tridish, founding member of Prometheus Radio Project.

The Local Community Radio Act reverses legislation from 2000 that limited the FCC's authority to license low power radio. Broadcasters claimed that low power radio would cause interference, but a Congressionally mandated study later showed that low power stations (which operate at 100 watts or less) do not interfere with full power stations.

"Thousands of communities could finally have a chance to have their own radio station,” said Cory Fischer-Hoffman, Campaign Director for the Prometheus Radio Project. "We hear from schools, churches, community groups, emergency responders, and local governments who want a local forum for news and information. They're eager for this opportunity."

WFMU launches Ichiban Rock & Soul and Ubu Audio
http://mp3stream.wfmu.org:443/listen.pls
http://ubustream.wfmu.org/listen.pls

Bill Mann: Internet radio brings the world to your home
mercurynews.com

SoundExchange, Broadcasters Chat At RAIN Summit East
audio4cast

Radio’s Looming Crisis Is Not Digital
The Infinite Dial

Wireless carriers beg FCC for spectrum, blame smartphones
arstechnica

Sprint Banks on WiMax to Win Back Market Share
nytimes

Employers grappling with social network use
cnet

"Interactive Webcasting"? The Second Circuit Weighs In

commlawblog.com

CBS Radio: Last.fm Broadcasting

dailywireless

Will Internet Radio Save HD Radio?

audiographics

Indie Rock Enhanced With Mildew

nytimes

Facebook makes money, tops 300 million users

Reuters

Last.fm Scrobbles coming to a radio near you on October 5

arstechnica

Why the WiMAX vs. LTE Battle Isn't a Battle

wimax.com

AT&T Moving to HSPA+

dailywireless

Portland Sucks shows glimmers of pdx.fm

siliconflorist

Twitter expands rules to allow advertising

reuters

September 9, 2009
free103point9 Special Announcement

AIRTIME FELLOWS:

free103point9 is pleased to announce the 2009/2010 AIRtime Fellowship recipients:

Brett Ian Balogh (Chicago, IL), Noospherium
Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown (Madison, WI), The Bike Box
Zach Poff (Brooklyn, NY), Radio Silence

The AIRtime Fellowship program provides artists (individuals and/or collectives) with valuable assistance with which to concentrate on new transmission works and conduct research about the Transmission Art genre using free103point9's resource library and equipment holdings. “Transmission Arts” is defined as a multiplicity of practices and media, where the intentional use of space (often the airwaves) to convey content and or ideas is a critical and conceptual underpinning for the work. Transmission works often employ the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum and manifest themselves in participatory live art or time-based art, and include, but are not limited to, radio, video, light, installation, and performance.

free103point9 AIRtime Fellows present their work in conjunction with WGXC: Hands On Radio, in upstate New York, and free103point9 city-based programs at the Ontological Theater at St. Mark's Church in Manhattan. Fellows receive an honorarium of $1,000, and technical and administrative support from free103point9 staff.

About the selected artists and projects:

Brett Ian Balogh (Chicago, IL), Noospherium
Brett Ian Balogh is an artist working at the intersection of objects, sounds and spaces. His current practice employs sound, radio and digital fabrication technologies to re-imagine traditional notions of space and our placement within. Balogh’s AIRtime project, Noospherium will manifest as an array of radio receivers installed throughout an exhibition space as points of sound diffusion accompanied by a video projection. Audio samples will be taken from various portions of the radio spectrum and rebroadcast via low-power FM by a programmable wide-band transceiver developed by Balogh. A computer application written in Max/MSP will control the sampling and rebroadcast of the received signals as well as animate the audio across the array of receivers, endowing the resulting soundscape with motion within the space. The video projection will consist of computer-animated representations of broadcast coverage areas derived from data available from the FCC relevant to the geographic location of the venue. This project aims to unite the DIY spirit of both the radio and open-source communities by advancing a low-cost, user-friendly, programmable, and extensible transmission arts platform, which will be made available to others.

Sabine Gruffat & Bill Brown (Madison, WI), The Bike Box
Sabine Gruffat is an interdisciplinary artist whose work maneuvers through, manipulates, and challenges prescribed genres and codes. Bill Brown seeks to correlate geographical coordinates with conceptual ones in his work, such as uncovering the memories and histories folded up inside physical landscapes and borders. Their collaborative AIRtime project, The Bike Box, is grounded in the artists’ interest in site-specific art and interactive media. The Bike Box will give an area’s residents access to cheap, durable, technology-enhanced bicycles in order to assist and encourage the exploration and interpretation of their environment. Bicycles at The Bike Box will be equipped with a GPS receiver/transmitter that may be connected to each user’s mobile phone. As cyclists pedal through the streets, their GPS coordinates will be beamed to a central computer and their positions will be displayed on a screen at The Bike Box receiving station. When cyclists pass through certain pre-selected GPS coordinates, their cell phones will ring, allowing them to listen to a pre-recorded description of the location informed by local land-use experts, historians, poets, and other interpreters.

Zach Poff (Brooklyn, NY), Radio Silence
Through artwork, teaching, and free software creation, Zach Poff examines the opportunities and challenges that arise from the translation of our experiences into "information." His recent work has been focused on how traditional broadcasting reverberates into digital media and influences notions of an emerging post-broadcast discourse. Poff’s AIRtime project, Radio Silence, explores the silent moments of talk-radio, using the cadences of different live radio personalities to compose an ongoing collaborative “performance.” Eight radio tuners feed their signals into custom software that will detect each silent moment and replace it with a unique “note.” Each note is a spectral average of the source audio, so it reflects the timbre of whatever is currently on the air. The speakers are arranged in a row above a computer display, which shows a “waterfall” visualization of the recent silences of each program and the call-letters of each station. The result is a multichannel composition of abstract bursts that inherit specific human rhythms from the rhetoric of their sources.

For more information see: http://www.free103point9.org/apply/airtime/

THE PROVENANCE OF BEAUTY: A SOUND BRONX TRAVELOGUE
The Foundry Theater's poetic travelogue performed on a bus touring the South Bronx, with transmission and technical support from free103point9.

Weekends. September 5 – October 25, 2009

The Provenance of Beauty is a poetic travelogue performed on a bus touring the South Bronx. As we travel the streets of the neighborhood, Rankine's evocative text points out and reflects upon the sites that pass by outside the windows. Views that to an outsider might go by unnoticed - a factory dressed up as townhouses, the theatre where La Lupe held court that is now a church - complicated places that ask what creates a neighborhood in a city in a country in the world.

The audience boards the bus in Spanish Harlem, puts on headphones and for 90 minutes eavesdrops on the voice - both live and recorded - of this historic place. Provenance is an experience that both responds to and redoubles the landscape - its sites, history, present and future - mapping out a poetic cartography of a neighborhood - of any neighborhood - in its eternal state of evolution. Two performances daily: every Sat & Sun from Sept 5 – Oct 25th (plus two shows on Labor Day 9/7) Click here for tickets. The bus leaves from & returns to Spanish Harlem (136 E. 121st St. btw. Lexington & 3rd Avenues) The performance runs approximately 90 minutes.

The Provenance of Beauty; A South Bronx Travelogue: written by Claudia Rankine; Created by Melanie Joseph & Claudia Rankine; Directed by Melanie Joseph & Shawn Sides. With Sarah Hayon and recorded performances by Raul Castillo & Randy Danson. Sound by Geoff Abbas; video by Kell Condon; production stage managed by Casey Llewellyn; bus driven by Mary Wallace. Special thanks to free103point9, for transmission and technical support.

For more information see: http://free103point9.org/events/2181/
THE NY ART BOOK FAIR
This year, free103point9 will celebrate our Transmission Arts contribution to PAJ A Journal of Performance and Art (Edited by Bonnie Marranca, MIT Press) with two special events on Saturday, October 3, 2009.

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave
at the intersection of 46th Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101
United States

free103point9 is once again delighted to be an invited participant of Friendly Fire at Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair. This year, free103point9 will celebrate our Transmission Arts contribution to PAJ A Journal of Performance and Art (Edited by Bonnie Marranca, MIT Press) with two special events on Saturday, October 3, 2009.

2-3 p.m. Journal Signing: Contributors to this 22-page feature will be present to sign copies of PAJ 93.

3-4 p.m. Performances: Transmission-based sound performances from Brett Ian Balogh (radiophonic landscapes created by interleaving multiple broadcasts in a live, improvised performance) and Tarikh Korula.

As always, free103point9 Dispatch Series releases will be available. Other featured works at the free103point9 table will include: Brett Ian Balogh's A Noospheric Atlas of the United States (2009); Max Goldfarb's ALPHA BRAVO CHARLIE: The Phonetic Alphabet; LoVid's 486 Shorts (2008 LikeLike / Analogous Projects); Joe Milutis's The Torrent; Zach Poff's Enchanted; photographs from David la Spina; and more.

The NY Art Book Fair is Printed Matter's annual fair of contemporary art books, art catalogs, artists' books, art periodicals, and 'zines offered for sale by over 150 international publishers, booksellers, and antiquarian dealers. Admission to the fair is free. Visit the link below for up-to-date details about the fair, Thursday night preview, and benefit party.

KMUD, Redwood Community Radio is excited to announce that we will host Grassroots Radio Conference 2010, May 13th-16th. It will be held at the historic Camp Ravencliff on the Eel River, in Redway, Southern Humboldt, CA. More info to follow. Mark your calendars! Here's site link: ravencliff.ymcaeastbay.org/conferences

The arrival (finally) of Internet radio

sfgate

From a Porch in Montana, Low-Power Radio’s Voice Rises

nytimes

Gen X Radio "Louie" Debuts on Clear Channel

idolator.com

XM Canada Owes Musicians' Royalties

fmqb

Spotify: iPhone Radio

dailywireless

Copyright Royalty Board Challenged as Unconstitutional

Radio2020

Using ‘Free’ to Turn a Profit

nytimes

AM on FM Translator Rules Become Effective October 1, 2009

CommLawBlog

The New-Media Crisis of 1949

McVayNewMedia

RightsFlow Closes Round Of Funding

billboard

Apple approves Spotify app

pcmag

Sprint backs Hero, the latest HTC Android phone

reuters