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.

By Suzanne G. Cusick in Revista Transcultural de Música/Transcultural Music Review
#10 (2006) ISSN:1697-0101

Abstract:

One of the most startling aspects of musical culture in the post-Cold War United States is the systematic use of music as a weapon of war. First coming to mainstream attention in 1989, when US troops blared loud music in an effort to induce Panamanian president Manuel Norriega’s surrender, the use of “acoustic bombardment” has become standard practice on the battlefields of Iraq, and specifically musical bombardment has joined sensory deprivation and sexual humiliation as among the non-lethal means by which prisoners from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo may be coerced to yield their secrets without violating US law.

The very idea that music could be an instrument of torture confronts us with a novel—and disturbing—perspecti ve on contemporary musicality in the United States. What is it that we in the United States might know about ourselves by contemplating this perspective? What does our government’s use of music in the “war on terror” tell us (and our antagonists) about ourselves?

This paper is a first attempt to understand the military and cultural logics on which the contemporary use of music as a weapon in torture and war is based. After briefly tracing the development of acoustic weapons in the late 20th century, and their deployment at the second battle of Falluja in November, 2004, I summarize what can be known about the theory and practice of using music to torture detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo. I contemplate some aspects of late 20th-century musical culture in the civilian US that resonate with the US security community’s conception of music as a weapon, and survey the way musical torture is discussed in the virtual world known as the blogosphere. Finally, I sketch some questions for further research and analysis.

Max Neuhaus passed this week. He was known for many radio art works.

From Rhizome:

This week marked the passing of a true visionary of contemporary art, Max Neuhaus. Originally an accomplished solo percussionist who toured with Boulez and Stockhausen, in the late 1960's Neuhaus moved his practice out of the concert hall and into the public sphere, setting up numerous sound-based installations in and around New York City.

In the first "Public Supply" in 1966, he combined a radio station with the telephone network and created a two-way public aural space twenty miles in diameter encompassing New York City, where any inhabitant could join a live dialogue with sound by making a phone call. Later, in 1977 with "Radio Net," he formed a nationwide network with 190 radio stations. The current project, "Auracle," constructs a twenty-four hour a day global entity for live interaction with sound over the Internet.

From Make Magazine:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T6vHeyDmlk&hl=en&fs=1]

The "Future Pirate Radio" project is a combination of a cell phone application that reads QR Codes and printable stencils for graffiti artists to put up the codes on local walls. When photographed, the codes produce radio broadcasts streamed live over the Internet. Although it seems like a hard way to find a radio broadcast (searching the streets) we will most likely see more of these types of apps surface through our mobile devices.

After many weeks of bandying the shuttlecock of decision back and forth, Congress has passed the DTV delay bill, moving the analog-to-digital TV switchover back four months until June 12. Therefore "The End of Television" broadcast festival is also delayed until June 12. The festival will continue to accept submissions and the submission deadline is pushed back until May 20, 2009. Stayed tuned for details concerning the broadcast event on June 12 in Pittsburgh, which is now going to be bigger and better than ever. Follow the progress at theendoftelevision.blogspot.com.

Sen. John McCain (R- AZ) campaigned for president last fall, in part, on a platform of more rural broadband access. In 2005, he co-sponsored legislation "to bring broadband into rural areas." Now that President Obama wants to fund more rural broadband access in the stimulus bill, McCain is now against it.

This is a collaboration for "Lines of Sight" by philosopher and pioneer of mini-FM radio, Tetsuo Kogawa, and sound artist Yasunao Tone, based on an e-mail exchange about radio art. In "Lines of Sight," the artists Barbara Held and Pilar Subirá offer a very personal program to explore the extraordinary range of musical registers present on the world scene, following paths as diverse as musical notation and non-linear composition, and introducing artists who explore ideas of broadcasting as a means of creative expression for Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Click here to listen.

Visual Arts Call for Entries: The Arts Center of the Capital Region is pleased to announce a Call for Entries. Visual artists in all media are invited to submit proposals for consideration. Submissions can be of any media, and will be viewed anonymously by a panel of professional artists and curators. The Arts Center of the Capital Region is also calling for curatorial proposals from experienced curators. Download the Call for Entries brochure at http://www.artscenteronline.org/optional_ section2/index.cfm
The Arts Center of the Capital Region, 265 River St., Troy, NY 12180

From Free Radio Berkeley via Mediageek:

The venerable Free Radio Berkeley has a (relatively) new video demonstrating all the parts in the air chain of a micropower unlicensed radio station, fresh from their Oakland, CA shop:

To celebrate Some Assembly Required's Tenth Anniversary, mnartists.org and Some Assembly Required are teaming up to produce a compilation of fifty-second tracks, by as many as fifty artists. To have your work considered for this online compilation, please submit your original works of sound collage, featuring at least 50 percent post-consumer audio (sounds found in the media) by March 16, 2009. (Listen to Some Assembly Required every Monday at 11 a.m. on free103point9 Online Radio.) Send your submissions to one of the following addresses by 3/16/09:
Email: assembly (at) detritus.net
Mail: Some Assembly Required, 2751 Hennepin Ave. S. (#145), Minneapolis, MN 55408

From Kim Hart in The Washington Post:

Key senators have reached a compromise on a bill that would delay the nation's switch to all-digital television from next month until June 12. A vote on the legislation is expected early next week. Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee, has been working with ranking member Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.), to draft legislation that also would give consumers more access to coupons for the converter boxes needed to continue receiving broadcasts. Television broadcasters are scheduled to turn off analog signals Feb. 17. Consumers with an analog television will need a converter box to get broadcasts. People with digital televisions or cable or satellite service will not lose programming. President Obama earlier this month urged Congress to postpone the transition due to mounting evidence that consumers are not prepared. The Nielsen Co. said Thursday that more than 6.5 million U.S. households are still not prepared for the upcoming transition and could see their television sets go dark next month.

From Stephen Labaton in The New York Times:

President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate Julius Genachowski , an adviser on technology issues and longtime friend, to become the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, advisers to Mr. Obama said.

Mr. Genachowski, 46, was a major fund-raiser for the Obama campaign who also played a leading role in the campaign’s highly successful online strategy. He remains very close to Mr. Obama—both men went to Columbia College and Harvard Law School and the two served together on the Harvard Law Review. They also were basketball buddies.

During the campaign, Mr. Genachowski shaped many of Mr. Obama’s telecom policies. He advocated an open Internet in the debate over so-called “net neutrality,’’ and media-ownership rules that promote a diversity of voices on the airwaves.

People involved in the transition said that Mr. Genachowski was a top candidate for both the chairmanship and a new White House position overseeing technology issues that has not been fully defined yet.

If confirmed, one of his first challenges at the commission will be what to do about the problems plaguing the conversion to digital television. The Obama transition team has asked Congress to delay the conversion, set for Feb. 17, because millions of viewers have been unable to obtain coupons to pay for converter boxes that would enable their sets to receive signals once all broadcasters lose their analog signal. (The conversion will not affect viewers who subscribe to cable or satellite television services.)

The chairmanship of the F.C.C. has played a more expansive role in regulating the economy, particularly with the rise of the Internet and wireless communications over the last 20 years. Now, as the new administration plans to make the expansion of broadband and Internet services a significant part of its stimulus package, Mr. Genachowski, with his close ties to Mr. Obama, could wind up with an even bigger role than his predecessors in shaping economic policy.

After graduating from law school, Mr. Genachowski clerked for federal appeals court judge Abner J. Mikva after Mr. Obama turned down the same job. Mr. Genachowski then clerked for Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter. He was chief counsel to Reed Hundt, a chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, during the Clinton administration. He then worked for eight years as a senior executive at Barry Diller’s IAC/Interactive Corporation. He also founded an investment and advisory firm for digital media companies and co-founded the country’s first commercial “green’’ bank.