The pirates' view of pirate radio BBC

What's Next After Skittles.com? AdAge

Amazon to Sell E-Books for Apple Devices NYTimes

Embrace of technology could help break cycle of warfare MSNBC

Winamp Ready For Relaunch Billboard

Start-up offers alternative to subscription TV CNET

free103point9's community radio station for Greene and Columbia Counties in New York has a name: WGXC. It stands for Greene and Columbia, or the x is for transmitting, or it can mean what you want. Read more about the project here.

Pirate radio 'puts lives at risk' BBC

Half a billion mobile TV subscribers predicted by 2013 Brodcast Engineering

iTunes To Roll Out Indie Exclusives from Touch and Go, Stone's Throw, Nettwerk, and Barsuk Billboard

Spotify Claims 1 Million Users in 2 weeks Billboard

Twitter and iPhone help find lost skier cnet

By Sam Churchill at Daily Wireless

A number of market researchers and industry organizations are crunching the 2008 industry numbers this week and guessing what the broadband wireless market will look like in 2009 (and beyond). Wireless broadband technology will be able to withstand the current economic downturn says the WiMAX Forum. They estimate at least 100 more operators will launch commercial services this year. The Forum says WiMAX now covers 430 million people (POPS), globally and are on a path to nearly double to 800 million people by end of 2010 and explode to 18 million by 2012. In-Stat forecasts LTE will have 23 million subscribers by 2013, but nearly 82 million mobile PCs with WiMax will ship in 2013. The forum expects for WiMAX to continue to capitalize on its head start on LTE. Still, Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, the forum’s VP of marketing, said, “Due to the financial situation, the growth rate of deployments will slow down. Everyone is watching their cash.”

Shakouri questions the willingness of companies to invest in LTE because of the current economic downturn, reports RCR Wireless. He said WiMAX does not face this issue because investments have already been made in the technology. Shakouri is hopeful that money set aside for broadband deployments in the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act can help jump start WiMAX operators. Congress has set aside $7.2 billion for telecom-related programs, with $6.39 billion to be doled out in grants and loans to promote broadband in rural areas that don’t have access to the technology or are underserved. So far, Mobile WiMAX is being offered in just two cities, Baltimore and Portland, Ore. On March 5th, Clearwire will announce which cities will be added next in the United States. Another nine cities are expected to roll out this year. According to research firm In-Stat, WiMAX will continue to outpace LTE over the next few years and the technologies will take different paths. Verizon Wireless is expected to launch LTE commercially sometime next year but most operators will wait until 2011 or 2012.

Make ISPs, wireless carriers pay for broadcasting rights: Sirius (Canadians Rule!) from CBC

Virgin Megstore Union Square (and San Francisco), RIP from Brooklyn Vegan

Labels size up Web 2.0 music services from Cnet

LinkedIn Skyrockets as Job Losses Mount from Ad Age

How NPR Stays on Air as Sun Blanks Sat Transmission from Wired

The call for entries for the third edition of the Filmer la Musique is open. It is a music/film festival in Paris, with a strong focus on independent and innovative productions. The festival will take place at the Point Ephemere - an independant art center and music venue and in a new international production center Le CentQuatre, from June 9 to 14, 2009. Documentaries, fictions, raw rushes, phone films, indie videos, and live footage are all applicable. There are no restrictions regarding shooting format, length, or year of production. Deadline for the call for entries is March 15, 2009. Info, rules and submission form on http://www.filmerlamusique.com.

The Cyprus University of Technology and the ECREA Radio Research Section invite the submission of abstracts for their forthcoming conference, "Radio Content in the Digital Age" in Limassol, Cyprus, October 14-16. Over the past decade, developments in technology have dramatically broadened the range of options for programming audio. The revolution began in the mid-1990s with a newfound ability to listen to audio being streamed over the Internet. Since then, digital radio has continued to expand with the advent of podcasting, offering radio programming on demand, and the rollout of different digital transmission systems, which provide superior sound quality and additional stations on and outside the traditional FM and AM wavebands. What are the main characteristics of today's radio content? How does radio programming differ around Europe and in other countries? How is radio content, both programming and genre, changing through new and emerging technology? Deadlines:
Abstract submissions: 31 March 2009
Final answers: 15 May 2009
To submit papers: http://sections.ecrea.eu/RR/index.html
Contact person: Angeliki Gazi, Vice Chair Radio Research Section, ECREA, angeliki.gazi@cut.ac.cy

By Gabriel Voiles from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting:

Lamenting the fact that "commercial radio stations everywhere have been swallowed up by a handful of giant corporations, playlists have shrunk and local and independent acts have been drowned out," Free Press activist Timothy Karr (MediaCitizen, 2/26/09) also lets us know that

the good news is that your rescue is at hand. On Tuesday, Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.) introduced a bipartisan bill (the Local Community Radio Act of 2009) that would pry open our radio airwaves for thousands of new stations, bringing independent acts...to the audiences they deserve....

The Local Community Radio Act would unleash the potential of new music for millions of listeners across the country. The bill tasks Washington with licensing thousands of Low Power FM radio stations....

There are about 800 low-power stations already on the air. They're run out of college campuses, garages, backyard shacks and local churches, and aimed specifically at listeners in their surrounding neighborhood.

Beyond saving listeners from corporate stations' "mind-numbing concoction of saccharine and aspartame," some LPFM broadcasters "are providing local news and information that in more extreme cases has kept people alive." Use the Free Press action page to demand your congressmember "help restore much needed diversity to our airwaves, bringing forth new voices and viewpoints that are often overlooked by large commercial broadcasters."

From Kim Andrew Elliott:

Radio Free Asia vice president Dan Southerland interviews Russian historian Andrei Lankov, an expert on North Korea and RFA commentator: "Q: It seems to me there is still a role for radio. Defectors I have spoken with recently say that people in the elite are listening to Radio Free Asia. A: Radio is widely used, and it is very important that short-wave radios with free [instead of fixed] tuning are being smuggled. Radios are used largely by the elite—not by people who want fresh entertainment, but by people who want information about what’s going on outside of the country. So most listeners are intellectuals or officials or people who are serious about getting out of the country. Five or six stations broadcast into North Korea right now, and these stations are mostly listened to by these people. They are clearly a minority, but politically they are very significant … A person who has been making a bit of money by selling pancakes on the market may buy a DVD player and watch romances. But radio is for, say, a secret police captain who knows that the system is in trouble and wants to figure out what’s going on and how to save his skin. Radio broadcasting provides him with the intelligence he needs to do this. Q: We had some independent research last year showing that some of these border traders, some of these smugglers and so forth—they call themselves 'businesspeople' — are also listening to radio. It’s quite a significant percentage in a rather limited survey. A: If you look at people who are in China, you will see that radio listeners are overrepresented among this group when compared to the general population. Because if you go to China, you have to listen. Most of these people want to know the current trends." Radio Free Asia, 23 February 2009.

From MIT Technology Review:

Internet radio lets listeners find or create stations that play just the music they like. A dashboard stereo from miRoamer and Blaupunkt brings that kind of control into the car. The stereo connects wirelessly, via Bluetooth, to the driver's phone, which streams music over the cell network. Users can preprogram their favorite stations and create song playlists online. The system has a built-in microphone, so that users can make and receive phone calls by pressing a button on the radio. Cost=$300-400.

From Future of Music blog:

It was only a matter of time before the new Congress saw the re-introduction of a pro-Low Power FM bill. If passed, this legislation would create opportunities for hundreds more community radio stations in cities, towns and suburbs across the United States. The House of Representative's new Local Community Radio Act represents a strong step forward towards this goal.

FMC has long advocated for LPFM (and non-commercial, community radio in general) as an alternative to the homogenized playlists often heard on hyper-consolidated corporate radio. LPFM in more areas would be a tremendous boon to local and independent artists who typically find themselves shut out from area commercial stations. We figure that if more people had the chance to hear the talent in their own backyards, it might even have a positive effect on local economies.

But LPFM isn't just good for musicians — new low-power licenses would make radio station ownership possible for schools, churches, labor unions, local governments, emergency providers and other nonprofit groups, who could use the public airwaves to directly communicate with their local community.

The bipartisan Local Community Radio Act will be sponsored by Reps. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and Lee Terry (R-Neb.). The last time LPFM legislation was introduced, it won nearly 100 co-sponsors in the House. The Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and co-sponsored by then-Senator Barack Obama, unanimously passed out of the Commerce Committee. The Senate is expected to reintroduce a new version of the bill in the near future.

For the next few weeks, Dan Seward will do his weekly "Battlefield Earth" show from John Doe Books and Records in Hudson, NY live via video. Tune in today as Seward (from Bunnybrains) hosts plays records and chats from his store on Warren St. between 3rd and 4th Sts.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9u1i0CUdUA&hl=en&fs=1]
ArcAttack is a music group from Austin, Texas who use electrical arcs generated by Tesla coils to create their music.

Folks at the Prometheus Radio Project are reporting that the Federal Communications Commission will open another rare opportunity for non-profit organizations to apply for radio licenses. free103point9 won such a license (on 90.7-FM in Greene and Columbia Counties in New York) during the FCC's October 2007 Full Power Non-Commercial Educational (NCE) filing window for frequencies in the non-commercial band of the FM dial (88-92 FM). "Before that NCE filing window opened, the FCC decided to hold back approximately 65 spots on the dial for locations around the country," a Prometheus says. "These frequencies, called Non-reserved NCE Allotments, are located in the 'Commercial Band' of the FM dial – between 92.1MHz and 107.9MHz – and are set aside for NCE use." The FCC has not announced when exactly the window for applications will be, but it will probably be later in 2009. Watch the Radio For People web site for more information about how to bring community radio to your area.

Last Saturday night free103point9 successfully launched the first of many video streams from The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York. The fabulous camera crew at The Sanctuary captured NYC free jazz drummer William Hooker playing along with Oscar Micheaux's 1920 silent film "The Symbol of the Unconquered." Tune in to www.free103point9.org this Saturday night, February 21, at 8 p.m. for poet Amiri Baraka and saxophonist Rob Brown performing.

This pilot residency will provide three individual composers with daytime, weekday use of suitable composition and rehearsal space in Flushing Town Hall (FTH), in Flushing, Queens, for a three-month period.FTH is a remarkable early 20th-century building owned by the City of New York that houses the Flushing Council on the Arts, the host of the program. Future residencies will expand to include performers and will be housed in other facilities, boroughs, and disciplines. Each resident will receive a total stipend of $450, and will have free access to a designated space in which to compose and rehearse, including a performance-quality piano and storage space for equipment. Residents will be responsible for any additional technical resources needed. A public program component of the residency, which may take the form of a workshop, master class, free public performance or other community-based activity, must be mutually agreed upon with, and presented by, FTH. The resident will be responsible for providing performers, if required. There is no additional stipend for accompanying performers. The Con Ed Musicians' Residency had its genesis in NYC Performing Arts Spaces' 2008 study "Where Can We Work?"­­, an examination of how access to workspace in New York City impacts musicians' ability to compose, rehearse and perform. Funding for this pilot program comes from Con Edison, The Amphion Foundation, and the Reed Foundation. NYC Performing Arts Spaces has developed and is administering the program. Applicants must be at least 18 years old and a resident of the Borough of Queens, New York City, as of the application deadline. Verification of residency is required. Members of Fractured Atlas may apply, but Fractured Atlas membership is not required. Composers working in any genre, including but not limited to: classical, jazz, blues, rock, hip-hop, opera, musical theater/Broadway, experimental/new music/electronic, world music, sacred, and works across genres. The pilot round of residencies is restricted to emerging, individual composers. Applicants must submit four (4) items: a completed application form, a résumé, and two compact discs bearing work samples. All these items must be received by 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday, February 20, 2009. They must be sent in two transmissions in the manner described below. Go to www.nycPASpaces.org/show/resources/musicians_residency.html to download the application form. Complete it on screen using a recent version of Adobe Reader software and save the PDF file with your information in it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cycVTXtm0U0&hl=en&fs=1]
This is the original upload, now with improved sound quality. During a broadcast of the Dr. Who episode "Horror of Fang Rock" on WTTW Chicago Channel 11, on Sunday November 22, 1987, at around 11:15 p.m., a video "pirate" wearing a Max Headroom mask broke into the signal and transmitted one of the weirdest, unauthorized things ever to hit the Chicago airwaves. Earlier in the evening on the same day, during the Nine O'Clock News on Channel 9 (yes, a completely different channel) the Max Headroom Pirate also broke in, although it was for a much shorter time and there was no audio.

From a tip from reader Sammy, check out this story from the Dec. 2008 issue of Community Magazine, a monthly for the Sephardic Jewish community of Brooklyn, about a Brooklyn Hasidic pirate radio station. The Federal Communications Commission does not list "Radio 10" with the 95.1 frequency in Brooklyn (the FCC lists a "new" application from Kingsborough Community College, which moved from 90.9 to 90.3-FM in 2006). In fact, it is a known pirate frequency. One Brooklyn reggae station, Big 95.1, claims to use the frequency in Brooklyn on its not-updated-lately myspace page. Another Bronx station, Hype Radio 95.1, has a current myspace page.

So there's also another Hasidic pirate in southern Brooklyn (Crown Heights and Williamsburg have had others). What's more interesting about this story (download the pdf here, pg. 98 of the magazine and 150 of the pdf) is the soap opera intrigue of a former employee absconding with equipment to start another station.

"Mrs. [Avigail] Lazarovitch [co-owner of the allegedly non-profit station] told Community after consulting with the station's Rabbinic advisor, and contacting the culprit, the family filed criminal charges with police detectives from the 70th Precinct," for the Oct. 16, 2008 robbery.

"Fearing arrest, she said, the employee appealed to a local Bet Din (Rabbinical court), claiming the Radio 10 owed him salary payments, and that the filing of criminal charges violated the halachic prohibition of mesirah (handling an innocent Jew over to the authorities). The Lazarovitchs categorically denied that the station owed any such money. The Bet Din proposed to hear the case on condition that the stolen goods were immediately returned. The employee indeed returned the equipment, whereupon Radio 10 consented to drop the criminal charges and remand the case to the Bet Din's authority.

The station began nine years ago under the name "Torah World Radio" and offered programming for Russian Jewish immigrants. Two years ago, it changed its format and began directing its broadcasts toward the area's observant English and Hebrew-speaking Sephardic communities. They have since gained a huge following and are known to feature popular rabbinic figures such as Rabbi Amnon Yizhak, Rabbi Eli Mansour, and Rabbi Maimon Elbaz, among many others.

Prometheus Radio Group is campaigning for this new Congress to pass Low-Power FM legislation. Download the postcards here, and distribute.

Prometheus Radio Project has exciting six month paid internships where people come from all over the country and sometimes world to work with us doing a mixture of research, advocacy, activism, and providing of direct services to organizations across the country that want to start or already operate community radio stations. Interns will be involved in projects that include advocating for LPFM in Congress, building radio stations, studying FCC regulations, and working with diverse community groups. Prometheus is a great place to gain skills in political organizing, media research, fundraising, development and technical radio work. Interns participate in the collective decision-making process of the organization and play an important role in organizing community events. We can also assist people in finding housing for this 6 month period. Read the entire intern description here. The deadline to apply is February 15.