Daniel Carter, Matt Mikas, Tony Flynn and Tom Roe at free103point9 Project Space, Brooklyn, 03.12.05:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J0TQB07-fA]

The new free103point9 web site is up now. We're sure there are still some kinks to be worked out, but there's also many new features that are working fine. Lots of new audio and video files of past events, made possible, in part, through a Digitization grant administered by the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency. You can also add your event to the calendar, to get listed among many other great radio art and experimental events from around the world. Please let us know if anything doesn't work in the comments.

free103point9 Online Radio
October 2007 Top 40

1. Mammal, Lonesome Drifter (Animal Disguise)
2. Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet, Inner Constellation (Nemu)
Bruce Eisenbeil + Jean Cook + Nate Wooley + Aaron Ali Shaikh + Tom Abbs + Nasheet Waits.
3. Temperatures, Ymir (Heat Retention) LP
4. Phantom Limb & Bison, Phantom Limb & Bison (Evolving Ear)
5. Timeless Pulse Quintet, Timeless Pulse Quintet (Mutable)
6. Shelf Life, Ductworks (Public Eyesore)
7. David S. Ware Quartet, Renunciation (Aum Fidelity)
8. The Kevin Frenette 4, Connections (Fuller Street Music)
Kevin Frenette + Andy McWain + Todd Keating + Tatsuya Nakatani.
9. Alabrecht Maurer Trio Works, movietalks (JazzHausMusik)
10. Beardtongue, untitled (self)
11. Chris Forsyth + Nate Wooley, The Duchess of Oysterville (Creative Sources Recordings)
12. William Parker + Hamid Drake, Summer Snow (Aum Fidelity)
13. Tripwire, Looking in My Ear (Creative Sources)
14. Willing, Brotherhood of the Backwards Handshake (Evolving Ear)
15. Phil Minton + Yagihashi Tsukasa + Sato Yukie + Higo Hiroshi, Nippara * Tokyo (Austin Record)
16. Vampire Hands, Virgin Dust American Life (Freedom From)
17. Cadaver In Drag, Raw Child (Animal Disguise)
18. Giraffe, Hear Here (self)
19. William Parker + Hamid Drake, First Communion/Piercing the Veil 2xCD (Aum Fidelity)
20. Ting Ting Jahe, 18(16) (Winds Measure Recordings)
21. Jeff Arnal + Dietcich Eichmann, LP (Broken Research)
22. Thick Wisps, Thick Wisps (self)
23. If Bwana, Radio Slaves (Monochrome Vision)
24. Felix Werder, Electronic Music (Pogus)
25. David Watson, Fingering an Idea (XI Records)
26. MV & EE with the Bummer Road, Green Blues (Ecstatic Peace)
27. Duane Pitre/Pilotram Ensemble, Organized Pitches Ocurring in Time (Important)
28. Destructo Swarmbots, Clear Light (Public Guilt)
29. Robert Ashley, Now Eleanor's Idea (Lovely Music)
30. Ironing, Pocket Almanac (Hymn)
31. Meri von KleimSmid, Have a Spinach Salad (Latibulum)
32. Annea Lockwood, Thousand Year Dreaming/Floating World (Pogus)
33. Harm Stryker, Harm Stryker 3" CDr (Public Guilt)
34. The Peeesseye, Mayhem in the Mansion (Evolving Ear)
35. Various artists, ...a tidal wave of air & a subtle shift in landmarks (Passive Consumer)
36. Joseph Nechvatal, Viral Symph0ny (iea)
With Matthew Underwood, Andrew Deutsch, and Stephane Sikora.
37. Jonas Braasch, Global Reflections (Deep Listening)
38. Seejayno, Sedainty (Shinkoyo/Here See/Skulls of Heaven/BOC Sound Laboratories)
39. Albrecht Maurer + Norbert Rodenkirchen, Hidden Fresco (Nemu)
40. Eliane Radigue, Jetsun Mila (Lovely Music)

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

From William Hanley in Rhizome:

Former Whitney Museum of American Art Curator and current dean of the California College of the Arts, Lawrence Rinder has organized a small, three-artist show of television-influenced video work at San Francisco’s Silverman Gallery. Taking the narrative conceits of the medium as a common thread, TV Honey connects work from two generations of artists by playing up their similar engagements with the desiring mechanics of viewing. A wonderfully bizarre and infrequently screened 1974 work by Lynda Benglis, ‘The Amazing Bow Wow,’ tells the story of a human-size hermaphroditic dog, who becomes the main attraction in both a traveling freak show and ultimately a violent Oedipal romance. The “can’t look away” factor in her work is complemented by Joan Jonas’s ‘Vertical Roll.’ Made in 1972, the artist plays two self-consciously alluring characters in a video that persistently short-circuits the viewer’s engagement with the TV drama as the video frame continually “rolls” vertically off the screen in visual hiccups that recall an ancient television set with the v-hold knob turned slightly. Representing the contemporary progeny of these foundational television-focused video works, the show also features Oakland artist Desiree Holman’s 2006-07 video ‘The Magic Window.’ The three-channel projection–exhibited here with a group of related drawings–emulates the sitcom trope of a family watching television together, but like Jonas’ work in which the artifice disrupts the viewer’s typical relationship to the narrative, the familiarity of the scene is interrupted by strange masks worn by the characters. Opening October 11th, the most striking similarity to emerge between the decade-crossing works, however, may be the shared sense of D.I.Y. chaos that runs through each of them–all three contain dance sequences that could prove to be particularly hilarious viewed side by side.

From Marcus Estes via WFMU Beware of the Blog:

A community of computer geeks representing the forces of good (you know the type: politically liberal, swift to anger over unjust copyright laws, likely bearded, into Linux, bikes, beer) are working on a new project that could change the way that we use of one of the fundamental forces of nature: radio waves! Open source radio? What a great idea, right? But what is it?

Well, that's a long, slightly complicated story. The leading software project in the open source radio world is called GNU Radio. GNU refers to a software movement started in the '70s by a proto-hippie-geek by the name of Richard Stallman. Stallman was the first software developer to publicly espouse the "free love" approach to software copyrights that lead to such modern marvels as Linux. (The computer hosting this webpage runs Linux, and Linux will be bringing you almost every other webpage you visit today. Thanks, free software!)

GNU Radio operates under a similar philosophy as Linux -- let's all build it together and give it away to anyone who wants to use it. If you want to add to it, cool, but here's the trick: you have to give it away free as well. This has proved incredibly disruptive to a lot of powerful, evil corporations who would like to make sure that everyone has to pay for the ability to use a computer. First the free software movement brought us a computer operating system. As its next trick it built much of the infrastructure that powers today's internet.

Now they're working on radio. And we're not just talking AM/FM. These little open source radios can work with all radio, including TV, cell phone transmissions, and even microwaves. I guess. That's the thing, it's all a little mysterious at this point, to the uninitiated.

In a article for Wired magazine on this project, one of the inventors began by showing off what one these little puppies can do.

"Here," he explains, "I'm grabbing FM."

"All of it?" I ask.

"All of it," he says.

So there's one answer: Coupled with a proper radio antenna and receiver, you could listen to every radio station on the planet. At the same time. Why, you ask? Let's not worry about whys just yet. These fellas are working on more of a, "if it's possible, let's do it," sort of philosophy.

The original inspiration for the project was political. Congress has for years threatened to pass a law called the broadcast flag that would prevent anyone from making hardware that could record digital television shows. Because these software-powered radios can also work as TV tuners, software developers are working to make sure than giant electronics corporations are not the only ones in control of the technology. Beyond TV and radio, people have been using this work to do all sorts of wacky things, like hacking together super-local GPS systems and more.

If the notion of "turning the digital modulation schemes used in high performance wireless devices into software problems" seems confusing to you, there's probably not much fun to be had with an open source radio device just yet. You'll have to wait until somebody creates something more easy to use. (Or if you're into radio tech, C++ and / or Python coding, visit Ettus, a vendor that sells "Universal Software Radio Peripherals.") But with technology that's playfully rewriting the rules for such a fundamental natural phenomenon as radio waves, it's bound to give birth to some really interesting toys sooner or later. As one of the inventors said, "We're bringing the free-software ethic to radio, who knows what's going to come out of it?"

From Broadcast Law Blog:

During a panel at the NAB Radio Show, FCC Audio Services Division Chief Peter Doyle was asked a question about the processing of FM applications filed under the new simplified process for upgrades in their technical facilities and for changes in their cities of license (see our post here for details about that process). The question dealt with rumors that the processing of certain FM applications were being delayed if the proposed upgrade would cause interference problems to any LPFM stations which would threaten their existence. We have written about our concerns that such a policy was possible, here. According to the response yesterday, these delays are indeed taking place - meaning that LPFM stations that are supposed to be secondary services which yield to new or improved full-service stations are now blocking improvements in the facilities of these full-power stations.

Doyle explained that, at the moment, there is no policy of denying the full-service station's application - but these applications are being put on hold if they would impede an LPFM's ability to continue to operate in order to study options as to how the LPFM service might be preserved through a technical change or through agreements to accept interference. While no final determination has been reached as to what will happen to the applications if there is no available resolution to the LPFM interference issue, he pointed to the pending rulemaking (pending for almost two years) that would give LPFM's higher status, and in effect allow them to preclude new or improved full-service operations. There was some indication that these actions were being taken pursuant to the potential policies set out in that Notice of Proposed Rulemaking - even though these policies were simply proposals advanced for public comment and have not yet been adopted by the full Commission.

This seems to be a troubling case of the Commission adopting rules and policies before formal rulemaking proceedings are completed. In some cases, ad hoc policy changes may benefit broadcasters, but in cases like this, they may harm them and effectively impede the full implementation of a Commission decision that was long in the making. And this change is in a policy that was fundamental when the FCC first authorized LPFM - that low power FM stations that serve limited areas, and which have great potential for preclusive effects on large stations serving much larger populations, would be secondary to the greater service provided by the full-power stations. While the Commission can always change that policy, it would seem that they should do so in a reasoned rulemaking process, analyzing all of the pros and cons in the change in policy, through a resolution of a rulemaking proceeding like that which they started two years ago. Obviously, we have to see how the application process plays out (and it indeed may just be an attempt to help the LPFM stations in a benign fashion that will not affect the upgrades of the full service stations) but if these processing policies do indeed result in denial or permanent limbo for some full-service station applications, this certainly would look like the prejudgment of an important issue without an analysis of all of the legitimately-raised counterarguments that have been submitted to the Commission in its rulemaking proceeding.

"Bonding Energy" is part of Cross Current Resonance Transducer, a collaboration between Douglas Repetto and free103point9 transmission artist LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus). The project is based on the discovery of pulsars. In 1967, while working on a radio telescope in Cambridge, Jocelyn Bell Burnell detected unusual pulses through the telescope. Burnell and her colleagues did not believe that these strange pulses were naturally occurring signals, and began referring to them as LGMs (Little Green Men), suggesting that the signals were indicative of extraterrestrial intelligence. Eventually, the source of the pulses was determined to be a rapidly spinning neutron star that sends out regular bursts of radio waves and other electromagnetic radiation. Such stars are now called pulsars.

From CCRT, about "Bonding Energy":

Cross Current Resonance Transducer is an open-ended collaboration and research project. We are interested in the processes of interpretation and evaluation that are inherent in human attempts to understand natural phenomena. Inspired by the story of the pulsar's discovery, we develop systems for monitoring, manipulating, and interpreting natural signals such as electromagnetic radiation, tidal patterns, ambient temperature gradients, wind, and barometric pressure modulations. Our interest is not so much in presenting the phenomena themselves, but rather in exploring the often flawed but revealing interpretations of those phenomena that ultimately lead to greater human understanding and scientific progress. Our investigation has expanded from an initial focus, which emphasized using standard environmental sensors, to an interest in building our own environmental monitoring devices.

Our current CCRT project, "Bonding Energy," is focused on electromagnetic radiation (solar energy). It reflects our growing interest in not only collecting and analysing environmental data, but also in using the signals we investigate as potential renewable energy sources. As a model of a system for distributed microenergy generation, it is inspired by distributed computing applications such as SETI@home and by ideas associated with microcredit loans.

"Bonding Energy" consists of a set of "Sunsmile" devices that measure solar energy from seven sites around New York State. In keeping with our general CCRT working method, the physical form of the devices was determined by our interpretion of a previous generation of solar data manually collected in our studios each day during January 2007. The 31 data points were used to cut acrylic rings for the bodies and to create molds for the cast plastic bases. Each Sunsmile also has a printed circuit board inside and a small solar panel sitting on top.

Every ten minutes each Sunsmile device takes a reading from its solar panel and sends the data to a database on the turbulence.org server. When a viewer loads the Bonding Energy application they are presented with a live visualization of the data collected from the seven devices. Each device is represented by a wedge in an animated circle. The colors in the wedges change as the data from the previous three days is played back. Highlighted bands call out high and low data values, and a rotating line of text displays the data and time of the data being displayed in the center of the circle at each moment. Shapes overlaid on the animation represent changing data relationships between and withing the Sunsmile devices.

"Bonding Energy" was developed at in an AIRtime residency at free103point9 Wave Farm along with studios at the Columbia University Computer Music Center and the Eyebeam R & D Open Lab. It is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. A Sunsmile is currently in operation at free103point9's Wave Farm (pictured above), as well as at other New York locations including Columbia University, Redhouse Art Center, Colgate University, SUNY Buffalo, RPI's iEar studio, and Experimental Television Center. Repetto and LoVid will have a transcontinental web streaming performance from free103point9's Brooklyn location Oct. 19, with audio and video on free103point9 Online Radio.

From serial consign:

"White Line Light" is an installation by Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender, two of the musicians behind the Raster-Noton imprint. It was presented recently in Toronto by Yatra Arts and the Goethe-Institut Toronto. "White Line Light" explores fluorescent lighting as a means of reading sound and space. The brightness of the slender lighting rig modulates in sync with accompanying equally sparse audio. The official release for the installation describes it as follows: "The sound and light work of Carsten Nicolai and Olaf Bender explores the limitations of what we can see and hear. Taking this as a point of departure, white line light uses electricity as a conduit to identify, define and lend shape to the invisible and inaudible phenomena found in our midst, at the same time creating a palpable tension between the work itself and its unique architectural setting."

From Lasar's Letter on the FCC:

The Federal Communications Commission has extended to October 22 the window for public comments on its ten new media ownership studies. That's three weeks more for the public to respond to the surveys, which media reform groups charge have not received adequate peer review.

The proposal for an extension received strong opposition from the Media General company, which owns newspapers, radio, and TV stations in the southwest, and often calls for the relaxation of the FCC's media ownership rules.

"While we agree with Media General that undue delays in this proceeding should be avoided when possible, here we find that a brief extension of the filing deadlines is warranted," the FCC ruled today. "We believe that the public interest and our goal of assembling a full record in this proceeding would be best served by granting an extension of the comment and reply comment filing deadlines so that parties will have additional time to review the studies and underlying data."

For weeks, Freepress, the Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America have argued that the studies, which survey media ownership patterns in the United States, run afoul of the Data Quality Act, because not enough of the information they used has been disclosed so that other scholars can duplicate the various reports' conclusions. "The Commission has not provided the sufficient data for enough time to perform such analyses," the three groups wrote earlier this month. "The public cannot evaluate these ten studies under the Commission’s rushed timeline."

The FCC released the studies with a 60-day comment cycle, which critics charged was an inadequate window for public comment. The public may now comment through the Oct. 22, and reply to comments through November 1.

From DIYMedia:

As the graph above shows, the agency's Enforcement Bureau is well on pace to meet or exceed last year's record-breaking enforcement action effort. Looking more closely at the data, one can see how FCC field agents are escalating the initial levels of the enforcement protocol much more quickly now (for example, the New York field office has cut the time between visit to warning letter down to as little as eight days).

Nevertheless, the FCC's not keeping such a good record when it comes to excersising actual muscle to shut pirate stations down: the number of Notices of Apparent Liability and actual forfeitures issued appears relatively unchanged from last year, and these actions remain but a small fraction of the Enforcement Bureau's overall enforcement effort. The number of raids/seizures conducted against pirate stations may edge up this year, but this is due to state-level enforcement efforts, most notably in Florida, where unlicensed broadcasting has been criminalized as a felony.

As far as what happens during the last three months of the year, it's anyone's guess: historically-speaking, there's a tertiary spike in enforcement actions against unlicensed radio stations in November, and it will be interesting to see whether this trend continues. Nevertheless, it's safe to say the agency's still a paper tiger, as unlicensed microbroadcast activity continues to blossom, especially in the nation's largest urban areas. However, recent developments, like the Enforcement Bureau's new online pirate complaint form and the possible installation of an anti-pirate attorney general, may change the game, but it's too early to tell by how much.

Leonardo Publications are inviting papers, special issue proposals and book proposals that deal with artistic approaches to weather, climate and their modifications. Western societies have progressively dissolved their ancestral link to climate, a link that was critical: the question for food. This is largely a result of massive urbanization and the development of the modern lifestyle. It has been possible to observe a deterioration of sensitivity to meteorology and climate.

Today, very few professions still reveal a direct relationship to climate; our intuitive understanding of it is thus weakened. Artifical indoor climates have given us a sort of second skin but also leveled our general experience of climate. Until recently, in consumer societies, the weather forecast has mainly been used for the organization of one's leisure, and "talking about the weather" has a social function. It is no surprise, then, that the science of meteorology is still believed to be one of the last "objective" sciences.

From a scientific point of view, climate (as well as weather) can be divided into series of meteorological parameters such as temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind force, etc. However, it seems impossible to conceive it as a totality except in subjectives terms. Weather and climate exist as such only for corporal and sensitive being and can be regarded phenomenolgically speaking, as a landscape.

Landscape does not exist in nature without the eye, which grasps an expanse of land as a landscape. Weather's and climate's existence are similar. The perception of weather and climate is the perception of an arrangement, a configuration of the real. Weather and climate are thus a multidimensional phenomenon in which are combined the contributions of nature, culture, history and geography, but also the imaginary and the symbolic.

Art could help us to question our perceptions and relationships to weather, climate and their changes. Artistic explorations should not be restricted to illustrating our scientific discoveries, as is done in contemporary climate-change showcases. Art could instead help us to experience and reveal our inner participation with weather and climate, the rupture of their balance and its meaning for our inner world, in the same way that landscape artists reframed the relationship of humans to their environment.

Leonardo seeks to document the works of artists, researchers, and scholars involved in the exploration of weather and climate (change), and is soliciting texts for Leonardo Journal and Leonardo Transactions, special issue proposals for the Leonardo Electronic Almanac and book proposals for Leonardo Book Series.

Sub-themes:

We are interested in a very broad array of artworks that encompass visual arts, sound art and music, performance and performing arts, etc, as well as in climate sciences, meterology and social sciences.

Following thematic sub-themes have been defined (but the call is not limited to them):

- Environments: weather and climate works enabling new experiences of environments;

- Meteorological and climate sciences: artworks questioning and linking to these sciences. What dialogue with air pollution meteorology, weather modification, climate sciences and climate history;

- Weather and climate technologies: artworks questioning and linking to these technologies as space based global monitoring satellites and their databases, as well as remote sensing technologies;

- Sustainability: artworks engaged in alternative energy ressources or climate memories for example;

- Social and political action: weather and climate works which may spur new thinking for action on environments;

- Weather and climate perceptions and/or narratives: poetical perceptions/narratives of weather and climate phenomena. What for ontological issues about transience and mutability may be engaged in such artworks? Artworks engaged in weather and climate fiction (real or imaginary weather/climate phenomena, climates and weather phenomena on other planets).

The "Lovely Weather" Editorial Group on Art & Climate includes: John Cunningham, Annick Bureaud, Ramon Guardans, Drew Hemment, Julien Knebusch, Roger Malina, Jacques Mandelbrojt, Andrea Polli and Janine Randerson. A moderated discussion on the topic, moderated by Janine Randerson, will begin this fall on the YASMIN network: http://www.media.uoa.gr/yasmin

Author instructions:
Leonardo Journal: http://leonardo.info/isast/journal/editorial/edguides.html, Roger Malina, Executive Editor
Leonardo Transactions: http://www.leonardo-transactions.com/, Ernest Edmonds, Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Electronic Almanac: http://leoalmanac.org/cfp/calls.asp, Nisar Keshvani, Editor-in-Chief
Leonardo Book Series: http://leonardo.info/isast/leobooks/guidelines.html, Sean Cubitt, Editor-in-Chief
Art & Climate Leonardo project: http://www.olats.org/fcm/artclimat/artclimat_eng.php
General Inquiries should be sent to: leonardolovelyweather@gmail.com

From DIYMedia:

Recently, former federal judge Michael Mukasey was nominated to be the next Attorney General of the United States. There's lots of punditry going on within the mainstream media about his past legal leanings (surprise, they're reactionary!), but Mukasey's also been involved in microradio case law to a degree not experienced by any other contemporary Attorney General. It was back in 1998, when the [Lower East Side-based] Steal This Radio collective preemptively sued the Federal Communications Commission in hopes of stopping a station raid or other major, life-threatening enforcement action.

STR's lawsuit was not the most well-thought-out piece of legal argument. It took a shotgun approach to the FCC’s licensing authority: some claims alleged the Communications Act itself was unconstitutional because it gave the FCC excessive latitude to restrict access to the airwaves via the licensing mechanism; one claim specifically attacked the practice of auctioning off commercial radio licenses for limiting "free expression" only to those who can afford it. Another posited the radio spectrum as a public forum, which necessitated the strictest scrutiny of government attempts to regulate it; under such analysis, the broadcast licensing regime was overly restrictive and therefore also unconstitutional.

Then-judge Michael Mukasey, working the Southern District of New York, first used a "jurisdictional wiggle" to avoid addressing some of STR's more substantive allegations. After doing so, he savaged their claims. Steal This Radio’s open display of lawlessness [on 88.7-FM] coupled with the scarcity rationale were enough to doom their case. However, Mukasey’s ultimate reasoning disqualified them based on the preemptive nature of their lawsuit - they had no standing to seek redress for harm not yet suffered, irrespective of whether the rights in question exist.

Now, as (possible) Attorney General, Michael Mukasey will not be adjudicating such cases any more. But he will be in a position to change the entire federal prosecutorial stance on select "crimes," such as unlicensed broadcasting, so as to give the FCC more muscle with which to pursue pirates. For example, Mukasey could write a memorandum cordially requesting all United States Attorneys to be more cooperative to the FCC's pleas for enforcing its fines and/or pursuing injunctions or other criminal-prosecution tools.

After all, Mukasey has personal experience with the issue, and a stance on crimefighting in general which borders on jack-bootery. It's just another reason why he isn't an optimal choice for the job.

From Kim Andrew Elliott via AP:

"Several prominent show business personalities and celebrities of Myanmar also echoed their support of the protests via shortwave radio and called on the public to join the growing protest." AHN, 24 September 2007. "Two leading Burmese actors, comedian Zaganar and heart-throb movie star Kyaw Thu, came to Shwedagon yesterday to bring food and water to the monks, witnesses said. Both men had spoken on shortwave radio urging people to support the protests." AFP, 25 September 2007. "Win Min, a Myanmar analyst who teaches at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, said prominent Myanmar actors and celebrities had spoken on shortwave radio to throw their support behind the rallies and to urge the public to join." AFP, 24 September 2007. "From a warehouse-like building in Norway's capital, a tiny broadcast network called the Democratic Voice of Burma is struggling to provide news and encouragement to countrymen rising up against the military dictatorship at home." -- AP, 24 September 2007.

From Broadcast Law Blog:

Over a year ago, the FCC released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on amendments to the FCC's multiple ownership rules. Issues from newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership, to local TV and radio ownership limits are all being considered. Our summary of the issues raised in the NPRM is available here. The FCC has been holding field hearings throughout the country on its proposals, gathering public comment on the proposals - the most recent having been held in Chicago last night. Only one more field hearing to go and the Commission will have conducted the six hearings that it promised. Many, including me, had felt that the timing was such that no decision in this proceeding could be reached until 2008 and, as that is an election year, the decision could quite well be put off until after the election to avoid making it a political issue. However, there are now signs that some at the FCC are gearing up to try to reach a decision late this year or early next - presumably far enough away from the election for any controversy to quiet before the election. With this push, others are expressing concern about a rush to judgment on the issues, and may well seek to delay it further.

Evidence of the FCC's increasing attention to the multiple ownership issues include the recent Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, asking questions about minority ownership and making proposals on how that ownership can be encouraged. The FCC has also asked for comment on several studies that it commissioned to look at the effects of ownership consolidation in the broadcast media. Comments on the Further Notice and the ownership studies are due on October 1, with replies due on October 15. Some have suggested that this time table is unnecessarily accelerated, especially as certain peer review documents on the ownership studies were just recently released.

At last night's Chicago field hearing, the two Democratic Commissioners expressed their concern about a rush to judgment. Commissioner Copps, in his remarks at the hearing, expressed concern over the short time frame given for comments on the issues raised by the Further Notice. Commissioner Adelstein suggested that the Commission appoint an independent panel of experts to review the ownership studies and report back to the FCC before any decision on the ownership rules is made.

At this week's Future of Music Policy Summit in Washington, DC, a legal assistant to Commissioner Adelstein expressed concern over this rush to reach a decision, suggesting that the Chairman wanted to see the decision out before his term ended, and was looking for a decision early next year. Several Congressional staffers on a panel about Capitol Hill activities that affect the music industry, as well as Senator Dorgan of North Dakota, all also expressed concerns about FCC action in this area, and indicated that both the House and the Senate intended to hold hearings on media consolidation this Fall, before any decision can be reached.

With battle lines being drawn, there are likely to be stormy times ahead in the multiple ownership debate. In 2003, with a Republican-controlled Congress, there were a number of bipartisan Congressional attempts to roll back the FCC's relaxation of the ownership rules before the Third Circuit Court or Appeals blocked most of those reforms. With a Democratic Congress, who knows what would come of any FCC relaxation of those rules in the coming months. But we may well see that issue play out - and perhaps become a political football in the upcoming elections.

XM channel 130 will be commercial-free, non-subscription channel from now until election day next year. Anyone with an XM radio, whether activated or not, will be able to receive it. XM radios can be bought on sale for $30 or less.

From Daily Wireless:

The Missouri Department of Transportation has begun anonymously monitoring cell phone signals as a high-tech way of tracking vehicle speeds and warning motorists of traffic jams. The goal is for motorists to get real-time traffic information over the Internet or road signs. Privacy concerns have slowed down the Missouri project - the largest of its kind nationally - which was supposed to have been deployed statewide by summer 2006 under a contract with Markham, Canada-based Delcan Corp.

Technology firms like Delcan and Atlanta-based AirSage (above) insist their data remain anonymous, leaving no way to track specific people from their driveway to their destination. The technology uses cellular signals to track car movements. Then it overlays that data with highway maps to estimate where the phones are and how fast they are moving. Lumping thousands of those signals together can indicate traffic flow. Many cities and states already measure traffic speeds and volumes by embedding sensors in pavement or mounting scanners along the road. But those methods can be expensive and take only a snapshot of traffic at a particular spot.

A recent study at Florida International University said nearly 30 companies and organizations claim to have the capability to provide real-time traffic data based on anonymous information gleaned from cell phones. But “the cell phone technology is not accurate in congested traffic conditions, where the data is more important than in the free-flow traffic conditions, and the accuracy decreases rapidly as the congestion increases,” according to the Florida report from this April. When it won the Missouri contract in December 2005, Delcan planned on using data from Cingular Wireless. But before the project could ever get started, Cingular opted out. “The cell phone company thought it just wasn’t worth the risk that the public might perceive their personal information was being used that way.”

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) raised concerns a couple years ago that once the cell phone data is collected and shared, it could end up being used for other government purposes such as law enforcement centers. Despite assurances to the contrary from the technology’s proponents, those concerns remain, said Lillie Coney, EPIC’s associate director. “The mission creep potential is there,” Coney said. “There are other ways of figuring out traffic patterns without having to go to something that’s so identifiable as a cell phone.”

It’s sounds similar to Celldar which exploits the RF signals radiated from ordinary cell base stations. BAE SYSTEMS and Roke Manor Research are teaming to develop CELLphone raDAR. Everything that moves can be tracked after subtracting static reflections. Lockheed-Martin is perhaps the best-known passive-radar champion, but others include Avtec Systems, Dynetics, and ONERA, the French counterpart of NASA. Lockheed-Martin’s system is dubbed Silent Sentry which tracked all air traffic over Washington, D.C., using FM and TV transmitters.

From Vonn New:

Last night (Sept. 19, 2007), I was invited to participate in a work-in-progress, "Channel Surfing" by the duo Evidence. Scott Smallwood and Stephan Moore, a/k/a Evidence, were finishing a week-long residency at the Wave Farm, a project of free103point9, transmission arts non-profit group.

This work made use of a series of FM broadcast signals of various low powers, a pile of assorted boom boxes, the 30-acre spread of the Wave Farm, and the natural curiosity and playfulness of about 10 participants.

When I arrived at the Wave Farm on this crisp, star-lit September evening, Stephan handed me an instruction sheet that included this: "Tonight, we are broadcasting sounds on several frequencies, which have been designed to be played simultaneously. Your participation completes the composition, as you mix and manipulate adjacent radio signals using the radio tuning dial, as well as your physical position and proximity to your radio's antenna. Each radio has a different character, and the air itself has a signal topology, which is yours to explore. A wide palate of textures, interferences, and interactions between the existing signals can be created through small adjustments of any of these controls, and we encourage you to experiment with this behavior."

The 85-minute piece gave me ample time to explore two modes of interaction. The first was highly active: fiddling with the tuning dial, playing with the antenna, walking around and exploring the edges of the low-power attenuation of the signals. The interplay of static and overlapping signals made a rich sound field. The second was less active. I tuned my radio to something interesting and set it down and then, using only my ears, wandered around the property listening to the sound field... or I sat still and listened while other participants wandered around me. At one point, Diana Slattery and I walked to the parking lot and tuned in the radio in my van.

Skot and Stephan made many recordings from field recording instruments and from the cassette decks in the boom boxes and will mix and process the materials into a future piece. I'll be sure to post a link when they have something for you to hear.

From DIYMedia:

Believe it or not, "HD Radio" is not the only digital audio broadcast system in the world. Alternatives do exist: one of the most promising is Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) (which should not be confused with "digital rights management," a whole other (evil) animal), which has been jointly developed and deployed by some 30 countries around the world. It's an open-source standard, which has the potential to operate on either new or incumbent spectrum, and contains the potential to practically advance the service terrestrial broadcasting provides; it is not just a "better than analog" standard, featuring chimerical vaporware such as "buy buttons" for the download of digital music - services for which radio was not initially designed.

At present, while Digital Radio Mondiale is gaining traction around the world, it's all but been ruled out as a potential alternative to HD Radio in the United States, though that may be changing. A coalition of spectrum experts has been formed to advance the notion that broadcasters should be afforded the choice of picking between HD and DRM. As of now, this advocacy is restricted toward the possible deployment of Digital Radio Mondiale on the shortwave and AM bands only; although an FM version of the technology is under development, HD's relatively slow but steady adoption by U.S. FM broadcasters may make it a tough sell in the marketplace (even though some transmitter manufacturers are making dual-compatible HD/DRM transmitters, and there's no reason why receiver manufacturers couldn't follow suit).

On a related note, a coalition of public interest advocates, including the Prometheus Radio Project, Benton Foundation, Free Press, Media Access Project, New America Foundation, and the Center for Digital Democracy filed a petition for reconsideration of the FCC's latest report and order regarding the rollout of HD Radio. [Disclaimer: I provided some minor technical consultation to the authors of this document.] The petition asks the Commission to better justify the spectrum windfall it has handed to incumbent broadcasters - essentially letting them double or triple their footprints (and subsequent programming capacity) with no reasonable justification or renumeration (either in the form of cash or public interest program obligations).

It's anyone's guess whether the FCC will take these substantive critiques seriously and better defend its rationale, but my inkling is this (in conjunction like the coalition mentioned above) may be just the first volley in a long (albeit belated) public campaign for better accountability from both broadcasters and regulators - defining just what the "public interest" means in a digital radio world, and whether or not the anointed technological path to that world is the right one.

From Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Newsweek's top story today exposes the desperation of the telecommunications companies in light of cases like EFF's class-action lawsuit against AT&T, which accuses the telecom giant of assisting in the illegal surveillance of millions of Americans. The telecoms and the Administration are heaping pressure on Congress to get a 'get out of jail free' card for their role in helping the government spy on their customers:

"The campaign—which involves some of Washington's most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed. If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant."

The telecom's worries are telling. Our case is representing a class of U.S. residential customers, and does not include any terrorists - just ordinary folks who use the phone and email. The per person penalties are quite reasonable - If the telecoms were not spying on millions of innocent Americans, there is no way for the liability to become "crippling."

Moreover, the Administration obtained prospective immunity in the so-called Protect America Act earlier this year. If the telecoms are only operating under the extremely broad parameters of the PAA, there is no liability reason to stop cooperating moving forward. And yet they are so worried about liability, they threaten to terminate their cooperation.

To achieve in Congress what they could not achieve in court, the telecoms are not holding back:

"Among those coordinating the industry’s effort are two well-connected capital players who both worked for President George H.W. Bush: Verizon general counsel William Barr, who served as attorney general under 41, and AT&T senior executive vice president James Cicconi, who was the elder Bush's deputy chief of staff.
Working with them are a battery of major D.C. lobbyists and lawyers who are providing "strategic advice" to the companies on the issue, according to sources familiar with the campaign who asked not to be identified talking about it. Among the players, these sources said: powerhouse Republican lobbyists Charlie Black and Wayne Berman (who represent AT&T and Verizon, respectively), former GOP senator and U.S. ambassador to Germany Dan Coats (a lawyer at King & Spaulding who is representing Sprint), former Democratic Party strategist and one-time assistant secretary of State Tom Donilon (who represents Verizon), former deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick (whose law firm also represents Verizon) and Brad Berenson, a former assistant White House counsel under President George W. Bush who now represents AT&T."

From BBC:

Somali transitional government forces have laid siege to an independent radio station in Mogadishu for several hours. Shabelle reporters said soldiers deliberately targeted their office, firing shots through the windows.

One of the radio administrators, Jaffar Muhammad Kuukay, is quoted as saying that bullets damaged equipment and injured at least one person. Government troops had previously raided Shabelle Radio and detained 18 journalists after a grenade was thrown.

Both Shabelle and HornAfrik have been critical of the Ethiopian-backed transitional government and the Islamic militants who have been trying to topple the administration. "We do not know why they are targeting us," Mr Kukay said.

"On Saturday, they said a grenade was thrown at them from the Shabelle building. But now I do not know what they want." Shabelle and two other independent outlets, HornAfrik and IQK Koranic Radio, were briefly banned and taken off air in January and in June, prompting criticism from press freedom watchdogs. Last month, the owner and a radio presenter of HornAfrik were killed in separate attacks by unidentified gunmen.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the transitional government of intimidating and persecuting Somali reporters. Joel Simon, the CPJ's executive director, said in a statement: "We call on the government to stop this harassment and to move its forces away from the main gates of the Shabelle Media Network offices."