From Ryan Blethen in the Seattle Times:

The divergent views of the Republicans and Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission is a startling and yet informative glimpse into how the media cross-ownership ban was obliterated.

The commissioners' opening statements spoke volumes about the deep division at the FCC. The Republicans ­ Kevin Martin, Deborah Tate and Robert McDowell ­ spouted nonsense about multiple platforms providing competition, and how a failing newspaper can be saved by acquiring a broadcast outlet.

The new rule permits a company to own a newspaper and broadcast station in any of the nation's top 20 media markets as long as there are at least eight media outlets in the market. If the combination includes a television station, that station cannot be among the top four in that market. The FCC can grant a waiver to companies that
don't meet the criteria.

The FCC also made permanent 42 waivers, and made it possible for companies outside the top 20 markets to gain cross-ownership waivers. The Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein eloquently spoke about the need to preserve a diversity of voices in a democracy. "Central to our American democracy is a rich and varied supply of
news and information," Adelstein said.

Copps and Adelstein also explained the FCC's horrid process used to review media-ownership rules, which ignored the public's overwhelming support of the cross-ownership ban.

Copps: "Everywhere we go, the questions are the same: Why are we rushing to encourage more media-merger frenzy when we haven't addressed the demonstrated harms caused by previous media-merger frenzy?"

The question begs for an answer. Martin, McDowell and Tate all bragged about the deliberative, thorough and open process the commission embarked upon 18 months ago.

"I believe that the process we have engaged in over the past year and a half has been open, transparent, and thorough ­ a true example of our vibrant democracy at work," said Tate.

Life must be magical in Tate's sunshiny world. How she and McDowell rolled over as Martin continually abused the trust of his colleagues and the public is beyond explanation.

Anybody who pays attention to the FCC or covers it witnessed how Martin sprung proposals and hearings on the commission at the last minute, ignored Congress and the public's shouts to halt media consolidation, and ignored studies he commissioned that did not agree with a preordained outcome.

Adelstein and Copps highlighted in their statements how Martin continued with his cloaked process to the end. Copps said that at 9:44 p.m. Monday he received a revised draft of the proposal. Then at 1:57 a.m. Tuesday, the day of the vote, he was told of more revisions, then at 11:12 a.m. another bunch of changes were e-mailed as he was leaving his office for the vote.

"This is not the way to do rational, fact-based and public interest-minded policymaking," Copps said. "It's actually a great illustration of why administrative agencies are required to operate under the constraints of administrative process ­ and the problems that occur when they ignore that duty. At the end of the day, process matters."

The Republican's insistence that newspapers can only be saved by owning a broadcast outlet added to the unbridgeable gulf between the camps.

McDowell said, "The evidence in the record tells us that if you are under 30, you are probably not reading a traditional newspaper or tuning in to your local broadcasters."

He did not elaborate how a company owning a newspaper and a television station in the same market would convince the under-30 set that they should subscribe to the newspaper or watch television newscasts.

It is encouraging that the FCC is concerned about newspapers. But it's unfortunate it does not realize media consolidation has damaged the industry by making it beholden to the aggressive demands of Wall Street. The rule approved Tuesday will only further drive the press toward corporate journalism.

"Newly merged entities will attempt to increase their profit margins by raising advertising rates and relentless cost-cutting," Copps said. "Herein is the real economic justification for media consolidation within a single market."

At best, the FCC majority was confused by the data, which clearly show the damage done by consolidation. This probably is not the case. I fear that they do understand.

From David Oxenford in Broadcast Law Blog:

In a pre-Christmas surprise that most broadcasters could do without, identical bills were introduced in Congress on Tuesday proposing to impose a performance royalty on the use of sound recordings by terrestrial radio stations. Currently, broadcasters pay only for the right to use the composition (to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC) and do not pay for the use of sound recordings in their over-the-air operations of the actual recording. This long-expected bill (see our coverage of the Congressional hearing this summer where the bill was discussed) will no doubt fuel new debate over the need and justification for this new fee, 50 percent of which would go to the copyright holder of the sound recording (usually the record label) and 50 percent to the artists (45 percent to the featured artist and 5 percent to background musicians). The proponents of the bill have contended that it is necessary to achieve fairness, as digital music services pay such a fee. To ease the shock of the transition, the bill proposes flat fees for small and noncommercial broadcasters - fees which themselves undercut the notion of fairness, as they are far lower than fees for comparable digital services.

While, at the time that this post was written, a complete text of the decision does not seem to be online, a summary can be found on the website of Senator Leahy, one of the bills cosponsors. The summary states that commercial radio stations with revenues of less than $1.25 million (supposedly over 70 percent of all radio stations) would pay a flat $5000 per station fee. Noncommercial stations would pay a flat $1000 annual fee. The bill also suggests that the fee not affect the amount paid to composers under current rules - so it would be one that would be absorbed by the broadcaster. Read more here.

Call for submissions
Volume 14, Number 1
Issue thematic title: Sound Art
Date of Publication: April 2009
Publishers: Cambridge University Press
Issue co-ordinator: Jøran Rudi (joranru@notam.uio.no).

This issue of “Organised Sound” will focus on sound art, a genre of acoustic expression that has a long history in both music and the visual arts. Currently, sound art is becoming a highly dynamic focus for new cross-disciplinary activity. Partially this has to do with young composers' eagerness to search out for new forms of public performance as well as new arenas. This has also led to a new way of looking at the relationship work/audience/performer/ composer.

These conceptually new approaches to music and art can be traced to developments in technology and society in general. It is interesting to note the extent to which this interest has developed outside the established networks and hierarchies of, for example, electroacoustic music.

Themes of interest include:
- conceptually oriented investigations of sound as material
- site- and context-specific art
– the use of soundscape within sound artworks
- process-oriented rather than entity-oriented definition of artworks
- use of audio and music technology whilst departing from the approaches to listening and analysis that are predominant in traditional forms of electroacoustic music.
- new technological means allow artists to pursue new arenas
- convergence in tools -> dissolving lines of distinction

Some questions that are related to the challenges posed by sound art:
How do these changes affect the relationship between concept and craft; what are the implications in terms of critical listening and our ideas of emergent qualities?
What are the implications of the use of different artistic spaces?
Is this a new way of tying art again into society, and if so, which groups in society will benefit? In other words does this represent a renaissance of social art?
Or is this yet another village in society, possessing more or less transparent demarcation lines?
With regard to the established field of electroacoustics: how do we describe the changes in aesthetics?
How can sound art and process-music (for lack of a better term) benefit us in reassessing our field, aesthetically and functionally?

We invite submissions from composers, performers, artists and researchers working in the realm of digital media and sound. Submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however, those that fall outside the scope of this theme are always welcome.

Deadline for submissions is 15 July 2008. Submissions may consist of papers, with optional supporting short compositions or excerpts, audio-visual documentation of performances and/or other aspects related to your submission that can be placed onto a DVD and the CUP website for “Organised Sound”. Supporting audio and audio-visual material will be presented as part of the journal's annual DVD-ROM which will appear with issue 14/3. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 July 2008.

Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or from: http://www.journals.cambridge.org/oso

The Mobile Music Workshop 2008 is the 5th in a series of annual international gatherings that explore the creative, critical and commercial potential of mobile music. They are inspired by the ever-changing social, geographic, ecological, emotional context of using mobile technology for creative ends. We are looking for new ideas and ground-breaking projects on sound in mobile contexts. What new forms of interaction with music and audio lie ahead as locative media, ubiquitous networks, and music access merge into new forms of experiences that shape the everyday? Can they change the way we think about our mobile devices and about walking through the city?

The emerging field of Mobile Music sits at the intersection of ubiquitous computing, portable audio technology and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). It goes beyond today's personal music players to include creative practices of mobile music making, sharing and mixing. The mobile setting challenges existing notions of interfaces and interaction, stretching music to new creative limits. The workshop has been at the forefront of this innovative area since 2004. Past editions of the event have taken place in Amsterdam, Brighton, Vancouver and Göteborg in collaboration with the Viktoria Institute, STEIM, Waag Society, Futuresonic, NIME and others.

The 2008 edition of the workshop will be held in Vienna, one of the hotspots in the European for laptop, glitch, and electronic music. Hosted by the University of Applied Arts, it will feature three evenings of performances and installations, an exhibition in the heart of the city, invited speakers, paper presentations, posters and demo sessions as well as hands-on tutorials. Besides the workshop proceedings, we will publish a catalogue that will gather key contributions from the last 5 years. We invite artists, designers, academic researchers, hackers, industry professionals and practitioners from all areas, including music, technology development, new media, sound-art, music distribution, cultural/media studies and locative media and more to present and discuss projects, prototypes, applications, devices, performances, installations, theoretical and historical considerations.

IMPORTANT DEADLINES

Submission deadline: 10 February 2008
Notification of acceptance: 14 March 2008
Submission deadline for final papers: 14 April 2008
Registration deadline: 14 April 2008

PARTICIPATE

Please upload your submission in any of the three following categories at http://ocs.waag.org/. Submissions will be peer-reviewed by a committee of international specialists in the field.

Papers

We invite submissions of workshop papers presenting new projects, approaches or reflections exploring the topic of mobile music. Potential submissions could include but are not limited to mobile music systems or enabling technologies, interface design, legal issues, user studies, ethnographic fieldwork, social implications, art pieces and other areas relevant to mobile music. Accepted paper authors will be given a time slot during the workshop for presentation and discussion of their work. They are encouraged to bring a demo of their work if possible.

Format: 4 pages in ACM SIG publications format (for templates, see http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html). More artistic submissions are free to pay less attention to the academic or technical detail of the format, and to include more media instead.

Posters and Demos

We also invite the contribution of posters and demos that document work-in-progress projects or ideas in similar areas of mobile music technology as the papers. There will be a poster and demo presentation session where attendees will be able to discuss work with the authors. The most robust of the demos will be offered the opportunity to exhibit to the general public during the open sessions (although this is not mandatory). Posters will be on display for the duration of the conference.

Format: 2 pages in ACM SIG publications format (for templates, see http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html). More artistic submissions are free to pay less attention to the academic or technical detail of the format, and to include more media instead.

Installations and Performances

We invite mobile art installations and performances in the genres of mobile music and locative audio. There will be an exhibition space in central Vienna, and the possibility to show work in the city. There will also be a series of evening performances/concerts/parties.

Format: Please follow loosely the ACM SIG publications format (for templates, see http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html) without too much academic or technical detail and include more media instead. Please indicate if your project would be suitable for indoor or outdoor, installation or performance.

From Friday Morning Quarteback:

The National Association of Broadcasters has responded to the FCC's announcement of a number of rules and policies relating to Low Power FM (LPFM), which took place late Tuesday. NAB EVP Dennis Wharton said in a statement, "We look forward to reviewing the final text of the Commission's action, which will provide broadcasters with a better understanding of the rules going forward. However, in general, NAB is pleased the Commission clarified that LPFM stations must indeed be locally-owned with locally-originated programming, and limits ownership to one station per licensee."

In reference to the FCC considering giving LPFM stations "enhanced stature," Wharton said, "We share the concerns expressed by Commissioners Tate and McDowell about the Commission's decision to adopt interim processing guidelines without full notice and opportunity for comment, but we look forward to working with the Commission to find a solution that works for all."

And speaking about the recommendation by the FCC to Congress to eliminate third adjacent channel protections, Wharton said, "Though this is a recommendation identical to one made several years ago by the FCC, NAB continues to believe that statutory third-adjacent channel protections are critically important to protect listeners against interference. The idea that hundreds, if not thousands, of
additional LPFM stations can be shoe-horned into an overcrowded radio dial without causing considerable interference simply defies the laws of physics."

Of course, that last quote is ridiculous. When LPFM was first approved, the NAB made a fake CD for Congress of what they said that interference would sound like if LPFM stations were allowed on third-adjacent frequencies. Congress bought their nonsense, but mandated a study to see if the interference existed. The eventual MITRE study proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that tiny LPFM stations would not interfere with giant full-power stations (but you didn't need a study to figure that out, did you?). The third part of the MITRE study was to find out the cost of this suppossed interference. They said, in effect, we can't study the cost of nothing, because we have found no interference. "Our principal finding is that LPFM stations can safely operate three channels away from existing FPFM [full-power] stations," the MITRE study said.
--Tom Roe

Call for Submissions: Subliminal Statements 3: Differentiated Bodies in Newsletter of the Society for a Subliminal State. Due December 31, 2007. Please email info@subliminalstate.org if you have a question regarding an article you'd like to write. For our third issue, Subliminal Statements asks you to help us grapple with phenomena in the solar system. Differentiated Bodies will examine the objects in our solar system with differentiated composition: from planets like earth, to the legions of asteroids with rocky surfaces and a crystalline once-molten cores.

We want your writings about all manner of celestial objects and subjects:
Planets and Moons; The bands of habitability inside planets further from the Sun than Earth; Comets; Objects in the Asteroid and Kuiper Belts; The Oort Cloud; The Sun, and its swirling combustive surface. Differentiated bodies here on Earth (made of rock, flesh, or anything else) Tell us your story about any of these objects or phenomena. Describe it, uncover it, recount its implications. Tell us how these things effect us. What do we see when we look at the sky, and how does the differentiation of celestial bodies impact our own differentiated bodies and minds. What changes does it enact in us?

FORMAT

Subliminal Statements is published in a newspaper format. Accordingly we will accept articles and essays written in a style befitting a newspaper: written as though reported, brief editorials, etc. Due to the scientific nature of the issue's theme, we are also accepting submissions in the form of scientific papers, charts, or other data-heavy examinations of the theme.

Photos, drawings, illustrations, or other images should accompany text submissions only, and must be able to be printed in black and white. Suggestions for accompanying illustrations are also welcome.

SUBMISSION DETAILS

Text submissions should be a maximum of 500 words, though we will accept excerpts of longer documents. There is no minimum length. In fact, the shorter, the better. Submit your text as .rtf, .txt, or .doc files, your data as .xls, or .csv files, and your images as .png, .tiff, .jpeg, or .gif (8 MB max). E-mail your submissions to jesse@subliminalstate.org with the subject line: Subliminal Statements 3 Submission.

From Marcus Estes in WFMU Beware of the Blog:

After years of reading puff pieces about the coming of the "Hypersonic Soundbeam," a device designed to send targeted blasts of sound waves that can be heard only be selected recipients in an audio environment, it has apparently made its debut in the public sphere, right here in New York. As part of a billboard marketing campaign for a television show.

A&E has placed a billboard (on Prince St. between Mulberry and Mott) that shoots sound waves designed to resonate against your head, giving the passerby a distinct feeling that the advertisement is arising from within their skull. The television show is is about ghosts, so that means this is a witty kind of progressive marketing stunt and not just totally fucking creepy, right?

IRI Technologies, one of the many companies vending this device to the industry, highlights the invention's utility like so: "The Hypersonic Sound Waves travel silently through space, up to 300 feet away, then convert into an instant sound source whatever surface they impact. Amazingly, if you aim this magical device at a person, their head will become a speaker, and they will hear your message "inside" their head."

The patent owner of this little baby is an American Solo Maverick Inventor in the old model - he cooked this idea up and built a prototype without the help of a corporate research team. Woody Norris is, as an interview posted to his website will have you know, "no techno nerd." And he's humble about the source of his inspirations, observing that, "I didn't invent that [medical sonar imaging device]. It happens and I observed it. And so I claimed it. You know what inventing is -- I heard this from somebody else -- 'It's an accident observed."

So once you have "accidentally" invented this mind-sound-beam patent, what do you do with it? The advertising market seems to have been on his mind long before he brought this market. "To Norris's way of thinking, however, a shop with 100 confined spheres of sound is preferable to one where 12 speakers are blaring over each other." I guess that's the logic of the needle exchange as well: If they're going to be doing it anyway, we might as well keep it neat. Well, this new mind-wave billboard sure is neat, huh? Fuck, could we work on a way to just beam the whole TV show right into my skull as I'm walking past?

From David Oxenford in Broadcast Law Blog:

At last Tuesday's FCC meeting, the Commission adopted a controversial order, over the objection of two Commissioners, that could limit the processing of some applications for improvements by some full power FM stations, and would restrict translator applications, all in the name of encouraging Low Power FM (LPFM) stations to provide outlets for expression by groups that cannot get access to full-power radio stations (see our summary of that action here). In recent weeks, two ideas have received some publicity providing an alternative outlet for these prospective local broadcasters - and both provide a simple solution (one more immediate and ad hoc than that other), but both leading to the same result - why not just extend the FM band by using TV channel 6?

The current FM band begins at 88.1 MHz, a channel that is actually immediately adjacent to TV Channel 6. The FCC has for years restricted operations of noncommercial FM stations (which operate from 88.1 to 91.9 on the FM dial) in areas where there are Channel 6 TV stations in order to prevent the radio stations from creating interference to the reception of the TV stations. That's while you will often find fewer noncommercial stations, or ones with weaker coverage, in communities that have TV Channel 6 licensees. TV stations use an FM transmission system for their audio. Thus, you will also find that most FM receivers (especially ones without digital tuners) will pick up the audio from TV channel 6 if tuned all the way to the left of the dial. The short-term solution to expanding the FM band came from one broadcaster who noted that fact.

In recent weeks, a new FM station has surfaced in New York City - one which is not really an FM station at all, but instead a TV channel 6 operation being programmed like a radio station to emphasize the audio that can be picked up on FM radio dials. Any FM station in New York would have easily cost many tens of millions of dollars to buy - so instead a new radio outlet was created by taking this low power television station, previously targeted to a narrow ethnic audience, to reach a much broader radio audience in the City. A unique solution to the search for a spot on the crowded radio dial - and one that will not disappear in 2009 at the end of the digital conversion, as LPTV stations currently have no mandatory digital transition deadline.

As a longer term solution, why not just take all of channel 6 and use it for FM operations? That proposal was one that was advanced by consulting engineer Jack Mullaney in Comments recently filed in the digital television proceeding. In his comments, Mullaney advocates the use of channel 6 (which has not been used by the FCC for digital operations of television stations to avoid interference to noncommercial FM stations, except in a few isolated cases where no alternative digital channel was available,) for FM operations after the digital television transition has been complete. As set out in Mullaney's comments, this could increase the FM band by 30 channels (there currently are 100 FM channels), which could create enough spectrum to allow for channels set aside for specific uses like LPFM, without having to worry about interference to full power stations. Or channels could be set aside just for FM translators. A section of the band could even be reserved for "pirate" radio - allowing anyone to start a radio station without an FCC license, provided that they stay on-channel and observe specific power limitations.

These innovative solutions to the current perceived scarcity of FM channels would be more advantageous than the Commission's current attempt to repeal the laws of physics by cramming LPFM stations into the existing band without displacing or otherwise interfering with other authorized users - a seemingly impossible proposition. The proposal has been made - how will the FCC react to Mr. Mullaney's suggestion?

The composer Karlheinz Stockhausen died Wednesday, December 5 at his home in Germany at age 79. He composed 362 individually performable works, including his 1966 "Telemusik," an early influential transmission art work.

Composed in Tokyo in the electronic studio of Japanese Radio NHK. Stockhausen used shortwave radio transmissions to compose a work with which he wanted, "to take a step further in the direction of composing not ‘my’ music but a music of the whole Earth, of all countries and races." While Telemusik incorporates sounds from many countries including Japan, Sahara, Bali, Vietnam, China, the Amazons, Spain, and Hungary, Stockhausen does not consider this work to be a collage, but "Rather—through the process of intermodulation between old ‘found’ objects and new sound events which I made using modern electronic means—a higher unity is reached: a universality of past, present and future, of distant places and spaces: TELE-MUSIK." Telemusik consists of 32 structures (moments) incorporating shortwave radio transmissions. Additional equipment used for the realization of the electronic music was two beat frequency oscillators, three sine-wave generators, one delta generator, one function generator, one transposing tape recorder with a pilot frequency generator, two tape recorders, one amplitude modulator, two ring modulators, three high-pass and low-pass filters, one third-octave filter, one six-track tape recorder.

From Tracy Staedter in Discovery News:

The same microwave radiation that reheats pizza can be used to fry the electrical systems in cars, stopping them dead in their tracks. Emitted from a rooftop device, the radiation could be used by law enforcement officers to put an end to dangerous car chases or by military personnel as a non-lethal way of disabling vehicles that get too close for comfort.

"The idea is to warn an automobile some distance away from a high-value target like a military barrack or a communication center. If they don't comply, you just zap them and it prevents them from coming closer," said James Tatoian, CEO of Eureka Aerospace in Pasadena, Calif.

Tatoian and his team have been working on the device since 2003. The current prototype is about 5 feet long, 3 feet wide, a foot thick, and weighs just under 200 pounds. The technology uses the same kind of energy used in microwave ovens, but at a different frequency. Ovens typically operate at 2.45 Ghz, whereas the high-power car-stopping system is at 300 megahertz. In both cases, the radiation is above common radio frequencies and is not harmful to humans.

"There are no biological effects," said Tatoian. "We comply with every standard in the literature as far as biological impact." To disable cars, the device first generates energy that is amplified using a generator. The energy is converted to microwave radiation and then directed, by way of a specially designed antenna, at the offender in a narrow beam. The higher the frequency of the radiation, the more directed the beam, which allows the user to aim the energy at vulnerable car parts, such as light bulb filaments, lug nuts, frame bolts, or windshield antenna.

From Matt Bua's stay last spring creating "Sing Sun Room" at free103point9's Wave Farm.

Laboratorio 060 is a collective based in Mexico City. As part of an exhibition of this group at the Cue Foundation in New York, the group is launching a worldwide call for collaborations for a musical composition that will be learned and performed by the three members of this collective on the day of the opening and later transmitted on the radio in New York. The project Radio Killed the Video Star seeks to alter the homogeneous process by which entertainment is constructed and disseminated in our image-saturated media world. The ideal entries for collaboration should come from composers and musicians who may be interested in disseminating their work and in having their works interpreted by Laboratorio 060 –an artist collective without any professional musical experience— as part of this conceptual project. Entries should have three instrumental parts (instrument or voice) which can be interpreted by three individuals, and have a duration of no longer than five minutes. The proposals will be evaluated and the final composition will be selected by the guest curator of the exhibition.

Eligibility and Criteria
I. Any sound artist and/or composer of any genre is eligible to apply.
II. Special attention will be paid to those projects that take into consideration the specific context into which this performance will take place (an art space in Chelsea, and the radio)
III. Each participant may submit up to 2 entries.
IV. All compositions should be originated by the author. In case it is a collective work, there should be a designated representative for the group.
V. Participants may send submissions in either Spanish or English. If the composition has lyrics, these can be written in any language.
VI. By submitting their works, participants authorize the Cue Foundation and Laboratorio 060 to perform and present this work (either at the gallery, via radio or both) from March 13 to April 19 of 2008 at any given time, as well as show the documentation of their performance at this space.
VII. The authors of the submitted works will authorize the use of the composition and materials for publicity purposes. Authors will always retain copyright of the work. Laboratorio 060 will retain the rights of interpretation of this work without further authorization from the author. Participants will release the organizers of any copyright issue related to the submitted work.
VIII. The selection of the composition by the guest curator will be final.
IX. CUE Foundation does not search, nor actively promote the sale of any artworks. Nonetheless, if such agreement is reached between the author of the submitted work and Laboratorio 060, the resulting recording may be put for sale. In this case, 25 percent of the sale of this work will be directed to the CUE foundation and the remaining 75 percent will be divided between Laboratorio 060 and the author.
X. Participants accept the terms of this call for entries. Any unforeseen detail will be mediated and decided upon by the guest curator.
XI. The name of the author of the selected composition will be announced on the webpage of the CUE foundation (http://www.cueartfoundation.org) and on the webpage of Laboratorio 060 (http://www.lc060.org) on January 4, 2008.
XII. Selection criteria will include:
a) compositions with potential to infiltrate the radio in an effective and innovative way, b) works with an adequate balance between the three components,
c) works with an experimental and playful character, even if they have political content; d) non-commercial works.
XIII. The selected composition will be performed at the CUE Foundation on March 13, 2008 by the members of Laboratorio 060.
XIV. Whenever presented or advertised, the author of the work will be properly credited.
XV. The selected author of the work will receive 10% of the recordings produced.

Application process
XVI. All proposals should be submitted by regular mail to the following address:
CUE Art Foundation
Attn: Laboratorio 060
511 West 25th Street, Ground Floor
New York, NY 10001
XVII. Submission deadline will be December 21, 2007, at 6 p.m. (this is not a post-mark deadline).
XVIII. All works must be submitted with a musical score and an MP3 (CD) that may show an interpretation of the work.
Submissions will not be returned.
To receive acknowledgement of receipt, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard. Do not call the CUE Foundation to seek acknowledgement of receipt.

free103point9 Top 40 for November 2007

1. Stars Like Fleas, The Ken Burns Effect (Talitres)
2. David Watson, Fingering an Idea (XI Records)
3. The Kevin Frenette 4, Connections (Fuller Street Music)
Kevin Frenette + Andy McWain + Todd Keating + Tatsuya Nakatani.
4. Charalambides, Likeness (Kranky)
5. Willing, Brotherhood of the Backwards Handshake (Evolving Ear)
6. Cloudland Canyons, Silver Tongued Sisyphus (Kranky)
7. Jeff Arnal + Dietrich Eichmann, LP (Broken Research)
8. Scott Smallwood, Desert Winds: Six Windblown Sound Pieces and Other Works (Deep Listening)
9. Temperatures, Ymir (Heat Retention) LP
10. Tatsuya Nakatani, Primal Communication (H&H)
11. Mammal, Lonesome Drifter (Animal Disguise)
12. Timeless Pulse Quintet, Timeless Pulse Quintet (Mutable)
13. Cadaver In Drag, Raw Child (Animal Disguise)
14. My Fun, Carte Postale (thelandof.org)
15. David S. Ware Quartet, Renunciation (Aum Fidelity)
16. Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet, Inner Constellation (Nemu)
Bruce Eisenbeil + Jean Cook + Nate Wooley + Aaron Ali Shaikh + Tom Abbs + Nasheet Waits.
17. Ting Ting Jahe, 18(16) (Winds Measure Recordings)
18. Duane Pitre/Pilotram Ensemble, Organized Pitches Ocurring in Time (Important)
19. William Parker + Hamid Drake, First Communion/Piercing the Veil 2xCD (Aum Fidelity)
20. White Rainbow, Prism of Eternal Now (Kranky)
21. Phil Minton + Yagihashi Tsukasa + Sato Yukie + Higo Hiroshi, Nippara * Tokyo (Austin Record)
22. Ironing, Pocket Almanac (Hymn)
23. Scott Smallwood, Electrotherapy (Deep Listening)
24. Tripwire, Looking in My Ear (Creative Sources)
25. Phantom Limb & Bison, Phantom Limb & Bison (Evolving Ear)
26. Giraffe, Hear Here (self)
27. Shelf Life, Ductworks (Public Eyesore)
28. Annea Lockwood, Thousand Year Dreaming/Floating World (Pogus)
29. William Parker + Hamid Drake, Summer Snow (Aum Fidelity)
30. Thick Wisps, Thick Wisps (self)
31. Manpack, Sticky Wic (digitalis)
32. Al Margolis/If Bwana, An Innocent Abroad (Pogus)
33. The Peeesseye, Mayhem in the Mansion (Evolving Ear)
34. Felix Werder, Electronic Music (Pogus)
35. Alabrecht Maurer Trio Works, movietalks (JazzHausMusik)
36. Various artists, Songs Most Likely to Succeed Class of 2007 (Radio One New Zealand)
With Matthew Underwood, Andrew Deutsch, and Stephane Sikora.
37. Chris Forsyth + Nate Wooley, The Duchess of Oysterville (Creative Sources Recordings)
38. Robert Ashley, Now Eleanor's Idea (Lovely Music)
39. Albrecht Maurer + Norbert Rodenkirchen, Hidden Fresco (Nemu)
40. Vampire Hands, Virgin Dust American Life (Freedom From)

Just added:

The SB LP, (Qbico 54)
Todd Merrell, Nagual (ArchivedCD 41)
Various artists, Sweet Earth Flower: A tribute to Marion Brown (High Two)
Normal, Love (High Two)
Illuminea, Out of Our Mouths (High Two)

To submit CDs, LPs, CSs, etc. for consideration of airplay on free103point9 Online Radio, mail to:
free103point9
5622 Route 23
Acra, NY 12405

From David Oxenford in Broadcast Law Blog:

In an unusually contentious FCC meeting, the FCC adopted rules that promote Low Power FM ("LPFM") stations seemingly to the detriment of FM translators and improvements in the facilities of full-power FM stations. While no formal text of the decision has yet been released, the Commission did release a Public Notice summarizing its action. However, given the lack of detail contained in the Notice as to some of the decisions - including capping at 10 the number of translator applications from the 2003 FM translator window that one entity can continue to process and the adoption of an interim policy that would preclude the processing of full-power FM applications that created interference that could not be resolved to an existing LPFM station - it appears that the Press Release was written before these final details were determined. And given that the two Republican Commissioners dissented from aspects of this order supported by their Chairman (and also dissented on certain cable items considered later in the meeting), one wonders about the process that resulted in the Republican chairman of the FCC voting with the two Democratic Commissioners on an item that in many respects favors LPFM stations to the detriment of existing broadcast operators.

In any event, specific decisions mentioned in today's meeting include:

*Treating changes in the Board of Directors of an LPFM station as minor ownership changes that can be quickly approved by the FCC
*Allowing the sale of LPFM stations from one non-profit entity to another
Tightening rules requiring local programming on these stations
*Maintaining requirements that LPFM stations must be locally owned, and limiting groups to ownership of only one station
*Limiting applicants in the 2003 FM translator window to processing only 10 pending applications each, and requiring that they decide which 10 applications to prosecute before any settlement window opens (the two Republican Commissioners favored allowing applicants to continue to process up to 50 applications)
*Adopting an interim policy requiring that full-power FM stations that are improving their facilities in such a way that their improvement would interfere with an LPFM station to work with the LPFM to find a way to eliminate or minimize the interference. If no resolution could be found, the full-power station's application would not be processed (which we have expressed concerns about before)
*Urging that Congress repeal the ban on the FCC making any changes that would eliminate protections for full power stations from third-adjacent channel interference from LPFMs.

In a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission will apparently go further to aide LPFM applicants. The Further Notice will ask for comments on:

Potentially giving LPFM stations a status superior to that of FM translators
Looking at the relationship between LPFM and full power stations to see what permanent rules can be adopted to avoid having changes in full power stations preclude the continued operation of a LPFM facility - including the possibility that full power operators would have to pay the costs of relocating LPFM stations to different channels or transmitter site locations. Revising the LPFM rules to use contour protection interference techniques, rather than the strict mileage separations currently required. The new rules, and the new proposals could have a significant effect on broadcasters. Applicants who had a significant number of applications still pending in the 2003 window will likely have most of their applications dismissed (losing their investments in time and money in preparing those applications in 2003). The dismissal of many of these applications may impede service to the public as some of these translators would likely replace translators that may be bumped by new noncommercial stations proposed in the recent noncommercial FM filing window. And AM licensees who were hoping that some of these translators could be granted to provide them with FM translators on which their signals could be broadcast may not have such as many opportunities.

For full power stations, many of the simplified city-of-license change procedures that were only recently adopted to allow easier improvements for FM stations may now be complicated again, as LPFM stations will have to be protected. These LPFM stations, which were licensed as secondary facilities, may now be precluding new service by full-power primary stations.

As stated above, the full text of the decision has not been released - this summary is from statements made at the FCC meeting and from the Press Release that is lacking in many essential details. Broadcasters should be alert for that order to determine exactly how these new rules, and the potential for even more changes in the future, may affect their current or planned operations.

From Prometheus Radio Project:

On Tuesday, November 20, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it was ready to pass a set of provisions amending the rules that govern the low power FM radio (LPFM) service -- a noncommercial radio service that hundreds of schools, churches, municipalities, and community groups use to connect with their local communities. Below is the press statement of Pete Tridish, founder of the Prometheus Radio Project, on the announcement.

Click here for a printable copy of this statement: http://www.prometheusradio.org/media/rulemaking_announcement_LPFM_nov_21_2007_final.doc

Click here for a link to the FCC meeting agenda, announcing their intent to make some major decisions on the low power FM radio service: http://www.fcc.gov/realaudio/#nov27.

Click here for a statement from Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE), sponsors of the Local Community Radio Act of 2007, on the priority of low power FM radio stations over translators: http://www.prometheusradio.org/media/doyle_terry_translators_FCC_july_2007.pdf

Contact: Pete Tridish, Prometheus Radio Project Founder: 215-727-9620 x 501, 215-605-9297, petri@prometheusradio.org.

"In recent weeks, the Federal Communications Commission, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, have made strong public statements about supporting the low power FM radio service, and the vital work that it does nationwide. As the commission works at its November 27th meeting to make decisions about the future of LPFM, they must lay the groundwork to ensure that LPFM will not only be available in rural areas in the future. They must also protect the low power stations from losing their frequencies to full power stations that encroach upon their signals, and threaten to knock them off the air.

As a diverse set of groups, including Prometheus, have proposed over recent years, the FCC must prioritize local low power FM radio stations over translator chains fed by distant signals. The FCC has frozen the granting of translator licenses for the time being, to investigate the practices of these chains and to balance the priority of distant translator use with the needs of local radio. The FCC cannot move to lift the current freeze on the granting of licenses to these translator chains without prioritizing local radio over these distant-fed translators. Without remedying this problem, the Commission is telling the American public that they are prioritizing these distant voices, once and for all, and informing local groups that would like one single, local, hundred-watt-or-less radio station that there is no room on the dial left for them.

When Congress temporarily limited LPFM in 2000, they mandated that the FCC study whether or not there would be room for these vital stations in America's cities and smaller communities. During the exact moment when this study and its technical field tests were being completed in 2003, the FCC made the mistake of allowing a handful of speculators to apply for translator licenses on thousands of the very same channels that had been promised for LPFM use. When it comes to translators and low power FM radio stations, the FCC allocates spectrum based simply upon who filed their application first. If the FCC chooses to prioritize these translator applicants, all of the frequencies that the FCC designed for LPFM use back in 2000 will have been given away.

In that 2003 window, a single translator applicant applied for 2500 licenses to broadcast, nationwide. One radio station currently has 792 translator applications repeating its signal.

In 2005, the FCC wisely froze translator applications like those listed above in order to find an intelligent resolution. In recent statements, Chairman Martin announced a limited proposal to reject some of these applicants, but if the FCC wants to support low power FM radio, they have a lot of work to do.

No matter what happens in Congress, LPFM will only be available in America's cities if the FCC acts to make room for it. The Commission needs to revise the spectrum priority relationship between LPFMs and these distant translator chains. There are a number of ways that this can be done without affecting the legitimate use of repeating stations by local networks.

In terms of low power FM stations being encroached upon by full power stations that want their signals -- while dozens of stations are under threat of this happening in the next weeks or months, the Commission and its staff should be commended for the work they've done, case by case, to make room for both these threatened stations and the full power stations moving into their path.

We encourage the Commission to continue to address the simplest displacement cases now and relieve the hold up on some of these less problematic encroachments. The few, tougher cases should remain on hold for settlement until, through further comment, more innovative solutions are found. Also, hasty judgment should not be made on the fate of low power stations suffering dramatically increased interference through encroachments -- more solutions can be found in these cases after further comment. Another excellent option for frequency availability for LPFMs at the disposal of the Commission is to use more detailed engineering methods -- methods which can open up a limited number of new options for communities. This could be exciting if the order of application problem (between the chains that got an opportunity to apply before communities got their chance) were resolved.

The statements that the FCC and Chairman Martin have made on the small ameliorative measures they might take for LPFM are helpful and well intentioned, and we'd like to give credit where credit is due -- but all of these measures pale in contrast to the prospect of America's cities never getting a fair chance at low power radio, and the importance of keeping low power FM radio stations serving their full communities.

Prometheus would heartily congratulate the hard work of the Chairman Martin and the FCC staff on this new low power notice, so long as the Commission does not:

1) foreclose the LPFM opportunity in the cities by ignoring the translator/LPFM priority problem, and

2) make hasty judgment on the hardest encroachment cases, and cases that do not involve displacement but do involve significant interference. These should be resolved after another round of comment and creative problem solving."

From Westchester.com:

The Purchase College New Media program and the Neuberger Museum of Art are co-sponsoring a lecture by Tianna Kennedy and Tom Roe, founders of free103point9, a non-profit arts organization focused on establishing and cultivating the Transmission Art genre.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be presented on December 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the Neuberger Museum. Kennedy and Roe will track the history of free103point9’s activities and define Transmission Art practices. Their talk will provide a foundation for audiences in anticipation of the upcoming “Off the Grid” exhibition at the Neuberger Museum, which will be co-curated by the Museum and free103point9. The exhibit will be on view from March 30 to July 1, 2008. Transmission art is generally a participatory live-art or time-based art, and often manifests as radio art, video art, light sculpture, installation and performance. This genre encompasses a diversity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. Programs by free103point9 include public performances and exhibitions, an online radio station, the free103point9 Transmission Artists, an artist residency program, a distribution label, an education initiative, a sculpture garden, a study center, and an online archive.

The Off The Grid exhibition will assemble media works by contemporary artists making social and ecological responsible art. Installed inside the Neuberger Museum of Art and across the Purchase College campus, visitors will encounter installations that are non-regulated, fluid, and composed of accessible, sustainable materials, often incorporating participatory elements, which augment the works themselves. Purchase College, State University of New York, is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, N.Y. For more information, call 914-251-6100.

From Amateur Radio Newsline:

Some good news and one big loss for ham radio at the now concluded World Radiocommunications Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. Jeramy Boot, G4NJH, of the GB2RS News Service has the details:

"The big news for amateur radio is that a worldwide secondary allocation of 135.7-137.8kHz has been approved. This marks the first time since allocations to radio services began that the amateur service has had an allocation below the medium wave broadcasting band. The effective date is not yet set and in any case amateurs must wait until their own administrations authorize the new allocation before they can use it. Some administrations, while not wishing to block the international allocation, have indicated a reluctance to implement it in their countries because of various interference concerns. The band is already available in the UK and several other European countries and this paves the way for many more countries to become active on Low Frequency. At the time of writing, hopes of a possible amateur secondary allocation near 5MHz had faded. This,as a result of the failure to find a compromise on the main 4 to 10MHz issue. I'M Jeramy Boot, G4NJH, and you are listening to the Amateur Radio Newsline."

Future World Radiocommunications Conferences are tentatively scheduled for 2011 and 2015. One tentative agenda item for 2011 is a secondary allocation of about 15 kHz around 500kHz. Not on the schedule is any more talk about a new 5 MHz ham radio band. (GB2RS)

From George Hunka in Superfluities Redux:

....All this is a roundabout way of saying that, as part of my unusual practice these days of writing for web sites other than my own, a report of my visit to a rehearsal for Richard Foreman's next show is now up at the Ontological-Hysteric production blog -- behind the scenes, into the kitchen or the atelier, whatever. Perhaps you will learn something about Foreman, or about the directorial process itself. At any rate, it's a chance to hear about some unique theatre artists at work. I don't think we'll be seeing a show like Richard's Theatre Nightmares on the Fox network anytime soon -- there's much less yelling and bawling, and only rarely do Foreman's performers and technicians respond with a deferential "Yes, chef!" to his notes. But for those who'd like to see it, free103point9 offers a real-time audio and video webcast of Foreman's rehearsals for "Deep Trance Behavior in Potatoland" every Friday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

From Oribitcast:

When Audi showed off the Cross Cabriolet Quattro concept car at the Los Angeles Motor Show, one of the key features was a prototype of streaming internet radio direct to the car. It's a glimpse into a future that's not too far away - a future that could come sooner than you think. The system by Bang & Olufsen streams the internet radio channels via a mobile internet connection - the same connection that supplies the Google Maps-powered GPS navigation system.

Of course, this next generation of "radio" has tailored its programming to your specific musical tastes, thanks to the car's occupants accepting or rejecting the music tracks (a la Pandora, or Slacker). So it behaviorally builds a custom-made playlist that is able to adapt to your unique tastes. The "perfect" set of channels, with an endless selection of genres available. Prototypes are one thing, but when will such a system see the light of day?

The answer is 2010, according to the Center For Automotive Research (CAR). CAR conducted supplier interviews that indicate 2010 - which is just over 2 years away - to be when customized and/or on-demand content will be streamed to vehicles. That content could range from personalized internet radio, to streaming video/movies, to localized alerts and updates, not to mention more robust real-time traffic data using two-way communication. Combine this trend with the fact that vehicle-based digital storage systems, like the Ford SYNC and Chrysler MyGIG, will continue to proliferate and drop in price. And suddenly it all starts to come together.

These systems, which are essentially built-in harddrives with interfaces made specifically for on-road use, can cache large amounts of data and make up for any signal drop-outs - creating a seamless experience regardless of where you are. Mobile wireless 3G networks aren't the only way that signal will reach your car (though currently, they could do just fine). If Google has it's way, the 700mhz spectrum that's going up for auction early next year would be "open" to all at wholesale prices. Paving the way for a wireless internet boom as innovative wireless providers, who otherwise couldn't afford to build a national infrastructure themselves, will be able to provide you (and your car) with wireless internet service. This is the future of "radio" (among other things)... and it could come as soon as 2010.