Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) will offer four 30- to 40-hour residencies through the 2008 Artists Residency Program (ARP). At least three of these residencies are for Chicago area artists, and one residency will be open to non-Chicago US artists. Each residency includes access to the ESS recording facilities with engineering assistance. The ESS recording facilities include:
• one 600-sq-ft live recording studio with 16-track ProTools system, baby grand piano, isolation booth;
• one soundtrack, mixing, and mastering studio with ProTools and MAX-MSP/Jitter;
• multi-channel playback and sync-to-image capabilities;
• various digital and analog processors and recorders.

The purpose of the ARP is to facilitate the production of finished works that will be presented to the public, so please propose only projects that can be completed within the allotted time frame. An ESS Artist Residency does not carry with it any commitment from ESS to present the finished work, but we often do work with ARP artists in facilitating presentation. Application deadline: April 5, 2008

Delaware Valley Arts Alliance is now accepting video and audio submissions for DIGIT 2008, scheduled for June 13-15, 2008 at various venues around Narrowsburg, NY and the Upper Delaware Valley region. Cash prizes will be awarded to Best in Show for both audio and video works. Submission deadline is April 5, 2008.

DIGIT is an annual digital media exposition, sponsored by the DVAA, encouraging creative and technical excellence and experimentation among individual artists working with digital tools. Forms are also available on our website:
VIDEO SUBMISSIONS: http://artsalliancesite.org/documents/DIGIT2008_VideoSubmission.pdf
AUDIO SUBMISSIONS: http://artsalliancesite.org/documents/DIGIT2008_AudioSubmission.pdf
For more information, visit http://artsalliancesite.org/programs/digit.html or call (845) 252-7576.

About DVAA
Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, founded in 1976, celebrates 30 years as a medium-sized,not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization that serves as Arts Council for Sullivan County, New York. Our mandate is to lead collaborations that advance the arts; to encourage and support cultural programs relevant to all citizens; and to provide services to individual artists, arts organizations, and the area’s arts community. The DVAA has over 300 members, many of whom live here and in New York City. The staff advocates for advancement of the arts on the local, state, national, (and now) international level. As a catalyst for events not generally available, DVAA sponsors an outstanding variety of arts and cultural programs in its facilities, the Delaware Arts Center,on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Tusten Theatre, a fully-renovated 160-seat facility. The DVAA provides free services to artists that include grant conduit support, information networking, grant-writing assistance, collaborative project incubation, fellowships, space, and promotion support. Our organization provides commissions, fiscal sponsorship, and technical training.

From New York Radio Guide:

Following the December 23 New York Times article on pirate radio broadcasters in Brooklyn, the FCC's New York field office has been spending a great deal of time visiting Brooklyn neighborhoods, tracking down illegal broadcasters and issuing more than a dozen "Notices of Unlicensed Operation" (10 day notices). Some of the broadcasters identified include a pirate on 88.5-FM broadcasting from central Brooklyn, a pirate [Frito Destra] on 90.9-FM broadcasting from Flatbush, [Jean Cleophat] a pirate on 88.1-FM broadcasting from central Brooklyn, and a pirate on 91.9-FM broadcasting from south of Williamsburg. The FCC also sent a Forfeiture Notice to Trevor Whitely for broadcasting on 102.3-FM from the Eastern Parkway area. as "102.3 Red Hot FM." Listeners in Brooklyn have noticed somewhat clearer signals for a number of stations, but at least 20 unlicensed stations remain on the air.

That story barely touches the recent enforcement action in New York City, which seems to be at some sort of historic level. Judging from the location and the name Moshe Ezagui on the FCC's "Notice of Unlicensed Operation," the 91.9-FM station was the long-time Hasidic station that was sort-of day-parting with the 10 a.m.-midnight hip hop station that uses that frequency. The landlords of the Hasidic station's location also got a "Notice of Unlicensed Operation."

The report above also missed the Feb. 8 Notice of Unlicensed Operation to Clement Viau/Biau allegedly operating on 90.1-FM also near Flatbush, Brooklyn. And it neglects to mention Esther King or Ambassador Courts Associates who both got a Notice of Unlicensed Operation for operating at 102.5-FM in Brooklyn. Pietro Russo also got a Notice of Unlicensed Operation for operating at 90.9-FM in Brooklyn. And there's also Newkirk Realty, LLC, south of Park Slope, Brooklyn, operating on 88.1, with a Jan. 31 "Notice of Unlicensed Operation." They also missed another "Notice of Unlicensed Operation" to operators on 88.5-FM in Brooklyn, Nachla Associates, LLC in central Brooklyn and Felix Leonard, Aries Communications, in Brooklyn. Clearly, the FCC is also contacting landlords as well as suspected pirates these days.

So that is 12-15 stations, depending how you count them, receiving notices so far in 2008. By any measure that is a record number of pirate radio busts in New York City.

The premise of the New York Radio Guide story, that the Dec. 23 story in The New York Times started this all, is also wrong. Three days before the story, the FCC also took action against a slew of New York pirates. Notices announced on Dec. 20, 2007 include Randel and Shawnett Palmer, no location given, at 95.9-FM; Moshe Realty LLC, Brooklyn, 102.3-FM; Latesha Johnson, Brooklyn, 107.9; Anthony Goolchalan and American Heritage Management Corporation, Brooklyn, 95.1; and AG 815 LLC, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, 107.9. So clearly, the action started before the Times story.

The FCC also posted a "Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture" to Joaquim Barbosa, Amateur Extra Class licensee, call sign N2KBJ, of Elizabeth, NJ. FCC officials observed him operating on 296.550 MHz, a government operations channel. The Notice says Barbosa admitted he knew he was on a government channel. The FCC also sent a "Notice of Unlicensed Operation" to a Bedstar Associates, Inc., a business operating 463.375 MHz. They also posted a Citations to Job Lot Wholesale & Retail Stores #4, 32-29 Beach Channel Drive, Far Rockaway, Brooklyn; C.H. Martin, Inc., 148-22 Jamaica Avenue, Jamaica: and Joy Electronics & Appliances, 156-16A Northern Blvd, Flushing, for selling analog televisions to consumers without warning them of the imminent switch to digital transmission.

Add it all up, and that's about 20 FCC enforcement actions against pirates in the last 80 days in New York City, a pace of one every four days. But at least one rabid anti-pirate crusader, posting on the New York Radio Message Board, says, "All those notices were sent out in early February and everyone of those frequencies still is occupied by the same pirates."

The New York Radio Guide story also does not get to the "why" of the story, which in this case seems to be that minority communities find the need for low-power broadcasting in New York City so great, that they are willing to break the law. Tom Roe and Dharma Dailey of free103point9 met with the FCC last week, within a larger group organized by the Prometheus Radio Project about low-power FM. The FCC's Peter Doyle said in that meeting that if the current LPFM bill passes Congress, a new station might be available in Brooklyn Heights. This is the first time there's been any hint of the possibility of LPFM being an option In New York City. A better plan: find the couple of frequencies that do have some space in the city (the pirates have proved there are a couple of holes, though clearly some are on top of licensed stations' signals), and spread very-low power 10-watt stations in each neighborhood in the five boroughs.

From Daily Wireless:

C/Net’s Charles Cooper spent Thursday hanging out at Intel Research Berkeley Lab where the company held an open house to showcase what it’s working on. Berkeley is one of three “lablets” (research projects) that Intel operates in association with two other universities. One is in Seattle (collaborating with the University of Washington), and one is in Pittsburgh (collaborating with Carnegie-Mellon).

Cooper says Intel’s Rural Connectivity Platform is a low-cost way of providing roughly 10 megabits-per-second connectivity to remote areas. Without obstructions, Intel says the wireless long-distance nodes can connect every 60 miles. The Rural Connectivity Platform (video) meshes point-to-point long-distance wireless links between villages, augmented with a number of broadband satellite connections. Intel researchers are currently assessing the performance of point-to-point 802.11 and 802.16 (WiMax) long-distance links in a wireless testbed in and around Berkeley, California. They also have deployed several test links in India and more recently, in Ghana, where they have demonstrated a bandwidth of 5-7 Mbps over an extremely long distance: 10.5 kilometers. Researchers will continue testing and modifying the technology in additional deployments in India in 2006.

A key component of this solution is a variation on IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology. While the 802.11 Media Access Control (MAC) protocol was not designed for long-distance communications, researchers believe that modifying the MAC layer should resolve the problem, without the need for hardware or driver modifications. The Berkeley lab will collaborate with other researchers from Intel, UC Berkeley, the University of Washington, and UC Riverside as well as consultants from Thinkbank and ACME Laboratories. In its simplest configuration, RCP has at least two end-point units that can be separated by line of sight (LOS) up to 100 kilometers (62 miles). RCP relay units can be used to extend the communications path across geographical barriers or to make “drops” to other communities between end-point units.

The hardware and software for the RCP end-point and relay units are designed to be reliable in highly challenging rural environments. The end-point and relay units utilize a single-board computer with an embedded 533 MHz Intel® IXP 425 network processor, Compact Flash Storage, 10/100 power-over- Ethernet (PoE) -capable Ethernet ports, long-haul radios (one to three depending on the configuration), and support for a Wi-Fi 802.11 access-point radio. The long-haul radios, which are commercially available from many suppliers, can be selected to accommodate different frequencies. They can potentially be upgraded to support WiMAX technology. RCP also utilizes parabolic antennas radiating in 900-MHz, 2.4-GHz, or 5.8-GHz spectrums to address tradeoffs associated with licensing, distance, and interference.

From Grammerfight:

This month, I'm featuring one of my favorite women sound artists each week. This week, it's Anna Friz. Friz is a sound and radio artist who divides her time between Toronto and Montréal. From the childhood fiction of "the little people in the radio" to documentary remixes of live political events, she creates dynamic, atmospheric works equally able to reflect upon public media culture, urban soundscapes, or to reveal interior landscapes. She has performed and exhibited installation works at festivals and venues across North America, Europe, and in Mexico. Her radio art/works have been commissioned by national public radio in Canada, Austria, Germany, Danmark and Mexico, and heard on independent airwaves in more than 15 countries. Anna also designs and composes sound for live theatre and dance. Anna Friz is a free103point9.org transmission artist.

From Broadcast Law Blog:

Federal Register publication of the Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Low Power FM (LPFM) stations and their relationship to FM translators and upgrades of full-power FM stations occurred today. This sets the comment dates in that proceeding - with comments due April 7, and replies on April 21. This proceeding looks at technical issues of whether LPFM stations (which were originally authorized as secondary stations, subject to being knocked off the air if they caused interference to full-power stations (including new stations or increases in the facilities of existing stations), should be protected against interference from such new FM facilities. Also, the proceeding looks at whether LPFM should get a preference over FM translators, perhaps even being able to bump existing FM translators off the air to make way for new LPFM stations. We wrote more about this proceeding, here. FM station and FM translator licensees should be sure to file comments with the FCC on how this proceeding could affect their operations.

Also, free103point9's Tom Roe and Dharma Dailey met last week with the FCC in Washington, with a large group of low-power FM advocates organized by the Prometheus Radio Project, and were told they would publish the MX groups for the recent full-power non-commercial filing within "two to three months."

Stars Like Fleas July 2006 performance at free103point9's Wave Farm in Acra, New York. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvcswSsiZy0]

free103point9 is live today at the fifth annual Grassroots Media Conference at Hunter College. We have a table next to the Cupcake Broadcasting Studio, and our friends at Prometheus Radio Project, and in a little while Ryan Holsopple of 31 Down and free103point9's Lee Azzarello will be holding a workshop on our efforts to create a "Protest Radio" station to cover this summer's Democratic and Republican National Conventions. We were going to have live video webcasts of many of the panels, but CUNY's strange no-streaming policy kiboshed that at the last minute.

From National Association for Amateur Radio:

In a Memorandum Opinion and Order (MOO) released today, the FCC denied two petitions calling for General or Amateur Extra license applicants to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code. In December 2006, the FCC released a Report and Order (R&O) in the "Morse code proceeding," WT Docket 05-235, that eliminated Morse code testing as of February 23, 2007.

free103point9 recently started distributing other Artist Multiples, and Radio Territories (edited by Erik Granly Jensen and Brandon LaBelle) is among the first. A book and CD with critical and creative essays by historians, media theorists, and radio producers, including Steve Goodman, Heidi Grundmann, Douglas Kahn, Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, and Ellen Waterman, are coupled with artistic and activist projects, from such practitioners as Anna Friz, LIGNA, and apo33, with a view toward locating the expanding and deepening reach of radio. Presupposing an intrinsic relation between transmission and place, Radio Territories aims to examine in what ways physical and cultural geographies become both defined and unsettled by the powers of broadcast. Including additional contributions by Kabir Carter, Sophie Gosselin/apo33, Erik Granly Jensen, Brandon LaBelle, Sophea Lerner, elpueblodechina a.k.a. Alejandra Perez Nunez, Kate Sieper, James Sey, neuroTransmitter, Marie Wennersten / SR c, and Achim Wollscheid. With audio works by apo33, Joe Banks, Steve Bradley, John Hudak and Joe Resinsel, elpueblodechina, Anna Friz, Jason Kahn, Kode9, Kristen Roos / Jackson 2Bears, SR c, Ellen Waterman, and James Sey / James Webb. $25 U.S./$28 foreign.

From Carl Zimmer's Science Tattoo Emporium:

Skip Arey writes, "I am very devoted to the radio art and decided to show my devotion by way of Body Art. The tattoo is a copy of a schematic diagram of a basic crystal radio taken from page 132 of Practical Wireless Telegraphy by Elmer Bucher published in 1921."

AV Festival is an international festival of electronic arts featuring visual art, music, and moving image. A biennial event, the festival takes place in Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland and Middlesbrough in the North East of England between 28 February - 8 March 2008 and has the theme of "broadcast." AV Festival 08: Broadcast consists of over 120 events, exhibitions, concerts, performances, conferences and workshops at many venues across the three urban centres of the North East. It features the participation of artists such as Chris Watson, Joyce Hinterding, Harun Farocki, Marcus Coates, Marko Peljhan, :zoviet*france:, Atau Tanaka, Autechre, People Like Us, Broadcast, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Resonance FM, Zoe Irvine, Brian Duffy, Disinformation, Ryota Kuwakubo, Staalplaat Soundsystem, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Yuko Mohri, Knut Aufermann and many others. Several performances will be broadcast on Resonance FM in London. Festival includes online radio performances from free103point9 Transmission Artists Joshua Fried March 5, 9 a.m. EDT, -5 GMT) and Tom Roe (March 6, 5 p.m. EDT).

From Santa Cruz IMC:

On Sunday, December 16, the Federal Communication Commission paid a surprise visit to the Humboldt Free Radio Alliance studio wielding a cease operations order. Two agents, reportedly from San Francisco’s FCC office, delivered the order in response to an unspecified complaint. The agents did not confiscate any studio equipment and left without verifying the exact location of the studio. The in-studio D.J shut down the transmitter and contacted other HFRA members. Because of the visit, the station is off the air until further notice.

This is not the first time the FCC has tried to curtail the 45-watt transmission from this small radio station. At least two other visits have been made over the last several years never resulting in a significant shutdown of HFRA. “We are usually able to get back on the air a couple days after the FCC visits, but this hiatus will be prolonged because we have to find a new studio.” says Downbeat, a long time HFRA member. In addition to the cease operations order, the FCC contacted the owner of the property and the property management company of the studio’s location. “That is the first time the FCC has gone after the property owners when trying to shut us down.” laments a DJ who broadcasts under the name Ann Archy.

The Humboldt Free Radio Alliance has broadcast without a license in the Humboldt Bay area since 1999. It is part of a long tradition of free-radio activists broadcasting in Humboldt County going back to the early nineties. In recent years, HFRA moved to 99.9 FM where it broadcasts Thursdays through Sundays. “We believe that local communities should dictate the content of their airwaves. Out of touch bureaucracies like the FCC base their actions and laws around the profit gains of big media, not free speech.” asserts DJ Thrash, who broadcasts several hours a week on HFRA. The FCC crackdown on HFRA came two days before FCC chairman Kevin Martin pushed through a ruling that loosened media ownership regulations allowing media companies to further consolidate control in local markets. Thrash indignantly adds, “Can you believe the nerve? Harassing our small community station with one hand while stroking the pockets of media giants with the other. This is exactly why HFRA and other low power stations are more important than ever.”

Despite the setback, HFRA is determined to continue broadcasting in Humboldt County, however they remain off the air until a new home for their studio is found. Downbeat claims with confidence, “We not only plan to remain on the air in defiance of the FCC order, but we intend to expand our radio transmission so we can reach more Humboldt Bay [WINDOWS-1252?]communities.” He adds, “We are an all-volunteer collective that needs financial and community support from individuals and businesses alike.” From: http://www.freakradio.org/

From Daily Wireless:

Sprint’s Xohm blog had a graphic (below), inserting the Xohm logo above the Chicago skyline.

It got me thinking about Plasma antennas. Sure, sure, its only a science project in a test tube — but imagine how a “virtual” antenna, floating 1000-2000 feet above a city, might revolutionize communications — if a free-space antenna could be created in thin air. A blimp antenna — without the blimp. The unlicensed 60 GHz band — even the 5.8 GHz band using 802.16m — can deliver “wireless cable” at Gigabit rates. Now that’s Directed Energy! An ionized gas, when sufficiently dense, behaves as a conductor. A plasma antenna generates localized concentrations of plasma to form a plasma mirror which deflects an RF beam launched from a central feed located at the focus of the mirror. These antennas only work when energized, effectively vanishing when turned off, with the plasma reverting back to normal gas. Beam it up using fancy phase conjugation of the wave front from multiple rooftops. Or something. Scientists are now apparently developing simple and rugged plasma antenna prototypes that could soon find use in military telecommunications.

From The Video Gentlemen:

"Late March 2008, The Video Gentlemen’s BYOTV network launches a six-week season of special reports engaged with technocultural turnover from analog airwaves. Transmitted from within the New American Art Union, a variety of interdisciplinary artworks, live presentations, and workshops form inquisitive constellations around topics including e-waste, surveillance, haunted media and media archeology. Low-wattage transmissions emanate from an array of re-configured electronic detritus distributed around the gallery. Telecommunications, and the distance implicit in its operation is countered by a physical proximity prescribed by the limited range of the BYOTV transmissions. Visitors are encouraged to “bring their own TV,” or borrow one from the gallery, intercepting transmissions from their immediate airspace. Closely scrutinizing the premise of obsolescence, BYOTV tunes into an alternative agenda, encouraging new modes of cultural production, collaboration and exchange."

free103point9 is pleased to contribute a program of works for the Video Gentlemen’s BYOTV exhibition at the New American Art Union in Portland, Oregon.

Artists contributing work to the free103point9 curated program include 31 Down, The Dust Dive, Tianna Kennedy + Chad Laird, LoVid, Todd Merrell, ben owen + Sarah Margaret Halpern, ben owen + Justin Lincoln, and Tom Roe. You can watch and listen to the works from these free103point9 transmission artists here. Tianna Kennedy and Chad Laird's "18 19 20" via YouTube is below.

Show is March 19, 2008 – April 27, 2008 at New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny St., Portland, OR.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlYaJgG2h8w&rel=1]

From Brendan Holland in Broadcast Law Blog:

The [Federal Communications] Commission's Localism Report and related Notice of Proposed Rule Making seeking comment on a slate of proposed new rules has been published in the Federal Register. Accordingly, Comments in this rule making proceeding must be filed with the Commission by March 14 and Reply Comments must be filed by April 14. This is a very short period of time in which to comment on a number of significant proposals that are poised to return the broadcast industry to the regulatory structure of the 1980s. As we reported earlier, the Commission proposes to re-regulate broadcast stations, and the NPRM suggests a number of substantive rule changes, such as effectively re-instating ascertainments, eliminating the unmanned operation of broadcast stations, imposing quantitative programming requirements, and requiring that main studios be maintained within a station's community of license. This NPRM proposes a number of potentially burdensome requirements, many of which were eliminated by the Commission long ago, and many of which go beyond what the FCC has ever required. Given the potential impact that the FCC's proposed rules could have on broadcast stations, broadcasters are encouraged to file comments in this important rule making proceeding. Comments can be filed with the Commission in paper or electronically through the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System. When submitting comments, commenters should be sure to reference the docket number for this rule making, MB Docket No. 04-233.

From Addy Dugdale in Gizmodo:

Today is National Inventor's Day, in honor of Thomas Edison, and Giz is going to celebrate it with some designs from the Work In Progress show by students at London's Royal College of Art. There are no less than four concept radios in the show, including this one by Mikael Silvanto, which melds a slide rule with an iPod-esque analog radio. The other three, including one which uses QR codes to hook up graffiti artists with pirate radio stations, are below.

Yuri Suzuki's design uses a Post-It pad to mark out the frequencies of pirate radio stations that caught her ear while living in North London. "My radio enables you to make notes about the radio station and mark its position," she says. "The radio looks like a memo pad, but underneath is a speaker; the pencil acts as the antenna that controls tuning and volume."

Yuri feels there is a connection between graffiti artists and pirate radio stations, as both are art forms that hack into public spaces. Her Future Pirate Radio lets you tune into pirate radio via QR codes. First, the graffiti artist stencils a QR code onto the wall, incorporating it into their work. Anyone who takes a picture of the graffiti will then be able to tune into the pirate radio station that inspired the artist via the internet.

Finally, Jochem Faudet's work consists of a pair of radios whose controls are grouped together in order to make it easier to use. Actually, it's rather complicated, so here's Jochem's own explanation:

"Radio 1: All the tuning and volume functions are grouped around the speaker. The On/Off switch and volume function is situated closest to the speaker. The AM/FM switch is situated at the end of the tuning circle, by flicking the switch down it points to the FM numbers situated on the outside of the circle or by flicking the switch up it points to AM numbers on the inside of the tuning semi-circle.

"Radio 2: The tuning function and volume function are separated from each other in this concept. To adjust the volume one has to turn the wheel with the integrated speaker, by sliding the AM/FM switch to FM it hides the frequencies of the AM and vice versa."

Following up on the Daily News story last week about a "Bermuda Triangle"-like couple of blocks around the Empire State Building in New York where some fancy new cars have trouble with their electronics and are repeatedly being towed away because they won't start, The New Yorker's Lizzie Widdicombe trolls the neighborhood with an Electrosmog meter to detect if there is a preponderance of radio waves emanating from all the transmitters atop the city's tallest building. The results: “I have a theory,” Michael Gati, a cabdriver for thirty years and co-tester of the airwaves for this story, said. “I think the building might block the antenna waves right underneath.” "An eye-of-the-storm scenario," Widdicombe writes.

From Elaine Jinks in Halifax Courier:

A fanatic stole nearly £15,000 from his partner – and spent it all on radios. Stephen Hudson, 56, of Rishworthian Court, Copley, Halifax, surrounded himself with the radios – putting his favourite one in the middle – and often had them all on at the same time, a court heard. Hudson forged his 71-year-old partner Elizabeth Whitehead's signature on cheques made out to himself. A total of £14,916 was taken from her account between 2004 and 2007, while she was a resident in Woodfield Grange Nursing Home, Woodfield Drive, Greet-land. John Bull, prosecuting, said Hudson had admitted to Mrs Whitehead's son he had taken the money and spent it all on radios. Police found about 50 wireless sets in his home. Mr Bull said: "He used the money to buy radios – two black bin liners with radios in them were produced." Hudson admitted three offences of forgery, three of using a false instrument and asked for a further 93 similar offences to be taken into consideration. Bradford Crown Court heard Hudson had suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder for 30 years. It manifested itself in him buying radios....Hudson had suffered from an obsessive compulsive disorder for many years and often surrounded himself with radios, putting them all on at the same time. "There is a history of hiding radios and disposing of them," said Mr Gibson.

Eyebeam is now accepting applications for Summer 2008 Residencies. Residents receive a $5,000 stipend and 24/7 access to the Chelsea facility during their term. The application deadline for the Summer 2008 Residency season (which runs from July – November) is February 29, 2008. All applicants will be informed of their status by e-mail or phone by April 15, 2008. Before applying, please review the following material:
Complete Residency Description
http://www.eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page=aircall
FAQ for Applicants and Equipment Inventory
http://www.eyebeam.org/production/production.php?page=calls