Full Power Series Finale — Native Radio

This post brings to an end my series about the varied groups across the country hoping to start new noncommercial radio stations. As these profiles have shown, the FCC’s filing window last fall marked a rare and important opportunity for many different kinds of organizations – from Unitarians to Catholics, Hare Krishnas to reclusive fly-fishermen – to share their views and build bridges with their neighbors.

All of these organizations see their causes as significant, but this final post highlights a group of radio broadcasters for whom the medium could be a matter of cultural survival: Native Americans. Native nations and tribal organizations now operate 33 radio stations across the country that focus on subjects of special importance to their communities, such as health, education, the environment, Native cultures and Native languages heard on no other broadcast media. With such targeted programming, some of which comes from national producers, these stations give Natives a rare chance to define and amplify tribal identities that have been battered by centuries of aggression and discrimination.

“What I find really important about my work is that radio allows us to be who we want to be,” says Loris Ann Taylor, executive director of Native Public Media. “If you’re able to tell your own story, that’s one of the highest forms of freedom.” And Taylor knows firsthand what it’s like to have that freedom denied -- she remembers when her grade-school teacher would pinch her hand if she spoke her Hopi language in class.

Native Public Media, an outgrowth of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, visited Native conferences last year to promote the FCC filing window and recruit applicants. Its efforts resulted in 51 applications for new stations from 37 Native nations and tribal organizations. Taylor is particularly happy that tribes in the eastern U.S., including New York’s Seneca tribe, applied – at present most Native stations are in the West. Several groups in Hawaii also hope to start stations.

None of last fall’s applicants currently operates a station. One hopeful newcomer is the Coeur d’Alene tribe of northern Idaho. Valerie Fast Horse, director of information technology, learned of the opportunity through Taylor – they both sit on the telecommunications committee of the National Congress of American Indians. Fast Horse says her tribe – about 2,000 members on a reservation of 345,000 acres – now has no radio station to listen to that provides programming about their culture or local issues.

A station run by the Coeur d’Alene could give attention to local sports and government, as well as the tribe’s music, history and language. Fewer than 10 of the tribe’s population speak the native Coeur d’Alene tongue as a first language, Fast Horse says. The station could also serve as a showcase for local flutists, singers and comedians and alert listeners to hazards such as heavy snowstorms or forest fires.

Perhaps most importantly, a radio station would help the Coeur d’Alene tribe to tell its own story. The reservation’s Native population has faced friction from the North Idaho Citizens Alliance, a local group of non-Natives that opposes the tribe’s control of resources. Fast Horse emphasizes that most of the Coeur d’Alene’s neighbors are more tolerant but believes a radio station would help to educate non-Native listeners and resolve conflicts. “Communication is everything,” she says.

The Coeur d'Alene application, like many, is on hold as the FCC sorts through the hundreds of competing requests it received for new stations. But the tribe has already amended its application to resolve conflicts with several competitors, and Fast Horse is confident that it will have the upper hand in the remaining disputes. This week, the FCC released a list (PDF) of the so-called mutually exclusive applications now pending, and within a month it will begin applying its point system to resolve the logjams. This will ultimately decide the fortunes of the Coeur d'Alene and other applicants I've profiled. (My first post in this series offers a primer on this process.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about the diverse groups I’ve profiled in this series and that, like me, you’re looking forward to hearing some new noncommercial stations sign on in coming years. Catch up on any posts you’ve missed -- and thanks for reading!

Mike Janssen served as Project Manager on FMC's Full Power Initiative, recruiting arts and cultural groups to apply for noncommercial stations and assisting applicants throughout the process. He is a freelance writer, editor and leader of media workshops in the Washington, D.C., area. Visit his website at mikejanssen.net.

Full Power Series #4: Progressive Perogatives

Mary Francis of the Norman Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

This post by FMC contributor Mike Janssen is the latest in a series profiling groups that applied for noncommercial FM radio licenses last fall. Thousands of nonprofit organizations around the country are waiting for the Federal Communications Commission to determine whether it will grant their applications. The FCC will award licenses over the next few years, potentially bringing fresh and unheard voices to the airwaves.

The next radio station to sign on in Norman, Oklahoma, might be operated by a religious group, much like the majority of the stations already serving the market. But this one would sound like few other religious stations. In fact, it would be devotedly secular—which is exactly the point.

“We’re getting pretty darn tired of listening to all the religious programming here in Oklahoma,” says Mary Francis, a retired teacher of reading and former public radio commentator. Seeking to counter central Oklahoma’s conservative culture and right-wing Christian broadcasters, the passionate activist recently took up a new cause. She’s now leading the charge to start a progressive FM radio station under the auspices of the Norman Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (NUUF).

Unitarians call their faith a religion, but their congregations often welcome atheists, agnostics and pagans as readily as Christians and Jews. Likewise, the NUUF’s radio station would set up a big tent, airing diverse musical genres, connecting Norman’s social service organizations, and covering local issues that would otherwise get little coverage. For example, Francis says, the station could promote groups that address the needs of children, homeless people and African American men returning to free life after serving prison sentences. And it could focus on topics such as Norman’s storm-water problems and rural farmers upset about federal livestock standards.

The station would also air Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now! and other left-leaning fare. City residents can listen to a local NPR affiliate, but the station does not air progressive programming such as Goodman’s show.

Francis, a feisty 65-year-old, talks and writes with enthusiasm about her drive to spice up the airwaves. She learned about the opportunity to apply for a station from a fellow Unitarian who serves on the board of the Pacifica Foundation, a progressive radio network that produces programming and operates five FM stations around the country. With help from Pacifica and its partners in the Radio For People coalition (which included FMC) Francis raised funds, found legal and technical aid and prepared the NUUF’s application.

“When I started this, I knew absolutely nothing about radio or applying for an FCC license,” she says, laughing. “This has been the steepest learning curve of my life, I guarantee you.”

Francis and her fellow would-be broadcasters have been cheered to find enthusiastic support from their Norman neighbors. The NUUF has raised more than $5,000 from 275 contributors, many of whom are not Unitarians, Francis says. The group has also applied to the national Unitarian organizing body for an additional $5,000. Meanwhile, other supporters have promised loans to cover $100,000 in station construction costs.

If the station’s application for an FCC permit is granted, the NUUF would ask for additional funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and from the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program, which assists public broadcasters with technical costs. And Pacifica has offered Francis’s group a year of free programming, “so we are darn well going to take advantage of that,” she says.

Like many other applicants, Francis must wait to learn whether her application will prevail because of potential conflicts with the signals of other would-be broadcasters. She is confident, however, that the FCC will decide on her request within a year—the NUUF’s application conflicts with only two other broadcasters, and Francis believes their status as a local nonprofit will give them an edge. Until then, the group will begin to publicize its efforts via podcasts and Web streams.

These may be the NUUF’s first steps toward spawning what Francis envisions as a growing national chorus of progressive voices. The movement could start by uniting Unitarian congregations, but grow to encompass other progressives as well, Francis says. A city in the Bible Belt’s buckle might seem like an odd place for such a movement to find a foothold, but that seems to make the matter all the more urgent to Francis.

“I think that the whole nation will go through a major change come November,” she says. “And I think Oklahoma will see a major change as well.”

Mike Janssen served as Project Manager on FMC's Full Power Initiative, recruiting arts and cultural groups to apply for noncommercial stations and assisting applicants throughout the process. He is a freelance writer, editor and leader of media workshops in the Washington, D.C., area. Visit his website at mikejanssen.net.

Full Power Series #3: Church of Radio

Religious broadcasters have a reputation in noncommercial media for being well-prepared and ready to pounce on any opportunity to launch new stations. So it was no surprise last fall that many of the applicants for new, full-power noncommercial stations were religious—60 percent, by one count.

But last October's licensing window saw a new force in religious non-coms. There were more applications from Catholic organizations this time around. And that was no accident.

Hundreds of stations currently preach Protestant beliefs over the airwaves, but historically, there have been few Catholic voices ringing in the holy chorus. Dissatisfied with the gap, the Catholic Radio Association mounted a coordinated effort to boost applications from Catholic groups during the recent window. It set an ambitious goal: to triple the number of Catholic stations on the air.

Today, 153 Catholic stations are broadcasting, according to CRA President Steve Gajdosik, compared to about 1,700 Protestant stations. Why the gap? Protestants realized early on the value of radio to spread their teachings, Gajdosik says. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church—accustomed to spreading information through its infrastructure of parishes, dioceses and internal publications—overlooked the importance of radio.

As this 2006 Associated Press article states, Catholic leaders in the 1970s focused their attention on television rather than radio, which set a precedent. A lack of national coordination thwarted their attempts to start a broadcast network encompassing both mediums.

When it came to radio, "our Protestant brothers and sisters were far more visionary than we were," Gajdosik says.

So when word started to spread that the FCC would soon accept applications for full-power noncommercial stations, "it was a no-brainer," Gajdosik says. CRA's bylaws prevent it from owning or operating any stations. So the association garnered support from its board of directors and, in national mailings, promoted the opportunity to its members. One how-to flier (PDF) turned the acronym for "noncommercial educational" (NCE) into "New Catholic Evangelization."

CRA arranged discounted engineering services and assistance from Catholic lawyers who had previously worked with the organization. In the end, CRA recruited about 160 Catholic organizations who filed a total of 227 applications.

Since many of these applicants don't currently operate any stations—an attribute that will earn them credits under the FCC's point system for awarding applications—Gajdosik believes that they stand a fair chance of prevailing over their competitors and receiving permits. He estimates that 70 percent of the applicants will succeed, roughly doubling the number of Catholic stations on the air. "Which is still not bad," Gajdosik says, "but wasn't quite our goal."

The stations built by successful applicants are likely to air local programming mixed with content from Catholic satellite networks such as Relevant Radio, Ave Maria and what Gajdosik calls "the proverbial 800-pound gorilla on the block," EWTN Global Catholic Radio.

One Catholic broadcaster suggests that CRA has put the cart before the horse by focusing on stations rather than programming. "While it is possible this is a winning formula for Catholic radio since it is a micro-niche product, it is definitely counter to movement of the rest of media," writes Michael Kreidler on his blog.

Regardless of what these stations air, if Gajdosik's predictions hold true, the sound of Christian radio could shift in coming years—though Protestant stations are likely to remain the true 800-pound gorilla.

Mike Janssen served as Project Manager on FMC's Full Power Initiative, recruiting arts and cultural groups to apply for noncommercial stations and assisting applicants throughout the process. He is a freelance writer, editor and leader of media workshops in the Washington, D.C., area. Visit his website at mikejanssen.net.

Full Power Series #2.5: Spirit of Radio

Palace of Gold, New Vrindaban

Drivers crossing West Virginia who find themselves in the mood for Christian radio are sure to have an ample selection of stations to choose from. Heck, in some zones of the South, it seems as if twangy country, Christian rock and earnest preachers are about all the radio dial has to offer.

In a few years, however, West Virginia radio listeners might encounter a wholly different breed of religious radio—a station whose hosts advocate yoga, vegetarianism and lessons from The Bhagavad Gita. If licensed, this noncommercial outlet could well be the only one of its kind in the country. The applicant is a small group of Hare Krishnas who live in the intentional community of New Vrindaban, near Moundsville, West Virginia.

New Vrindaban was established 40 years ago by the founder of the Hare Krishna religion, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Today, it’s home to 20 or so devotees, according to Chris Fici, a recent addition to the community who is spearheading the application for a noncommercial station. Another 80 people who live nearby are closely connected to the community, Fici says. In keeping with the tenets of the Krishna faith, New Vrindaban’s residents shun meat, promiscuous sex and intoxicants such as drugs and alcohol. The community is no longer self-sustaining, as it was at its inception, but its residents still grow vegetables on 10 acres of land.

For many outsiders, the community’s biggest draw is its Palace of Gold, an ornate, Indian-style temple that looks entirely unlike anything you’d expect to encounter in West Virginia. Fici says the site is visited by upwards of 40,000 pilgrims and tourists a year, many from India.

If New Vrindaban gets a radio station, its goal would be “to give people a chance, through the programming, to gain spiritual knowledge,” Fici says. Programming might focus on yogic disciplines, gardening and environmental matters, and would help to connect New Vrindivan to the larger non-Krishna community that surrounds it. Ideally, Fici says, New Vrindaban would also broadcast its station via the Internet to reach a worldwide audience.

Fici, 27, is a self-described “aspiring devotee.” He moved to New Vrindaban in November 2006 after learning about the Hare Krishna faith through a student program in Michigan, where he worked in Internet radio. That background, along with his degree in film and video, has made him an apt leader for the group’s effort to get on the airwaves.

Like many other applicants, New Vrindaban faces conflicts with other would-be broadcasters for its desired frequency. The competing applicants include non-local Christian radio groups that already operate stations. Fici is working to gather signatures in support of New Vrindaban’s application and to make a case to the FCC that his group would provide important local content. “These other stations need to share radio space,” he says. “It would be a boon for this community to have this kind of alternative programming.”

If Fici and his fellow devotees prevail, the station would be as singular as their Palace of Gold—not visible, but an aural embodiment of their unique way of life. And, if they achieve their goal of broadcasting online, you won’t even have to visit New Vrindaban to experience it.

Full Power Series #2: Angling for a Spot on the Airwaves

Full-Power applicant Bill Hensel, of the North Fork Angling Society

Who wants to run a noncommercial FM radio station? It's easy to find out—all of the applications filed with the Federal Communications Commission last fall can be viewed online. But you don't have to delve deep into the database to get a general idea. Just browsing a list of the organizations by name suggests some dominant interests.

Many applicants bear titles reflecting, in the words of Dan Aykroyd, "a mission from God." According to analysis by Public Radio Capital, religious organizations filed 60 percent of the applications. (Check out my first post for more details.) Colleges, universities, municipalities and school boards are well-represented among the secular hopefuls. And monikers such as the Jazz Birds or the Delta Blues Foundation suggest a focus on arts and culture.

Future posts in this series will examine some of these other applicants. But I wanted to start by catching a few rare butterflies—groups with singular visions. Digging turned up two who differ from the masses yet share much in common. Both the North Fork Angling Society of Pine, Colorado, and the Hare Krishnas of New Vrindaban, West Virginia, hail from small communities whose residents seek refuge from a society at odds with their values. These applicants hope to create forums where neighbors can speak to each other and to the world beyond.

Local flavor on the radio is rare these days, when our airwaves seem as homogenized as fast food. Music mixes on commercial FM stations vary little from city to city. Public stations aim to provide local service, yet homegrown voices must compete to be heard above the roar of news about global events. The tacit message is that your local music scene matters less than the latest hit single, and that your experiences of your home, your street, and your community deserve less valuable airtime than what happened on Wall Street today.

FMC and our partners at Radio for People saw the October filing window as a chance to counter this trend. So did many applicants across the country, including Bill Hensel, whose proposed station would offer an audio haven for local fly-fishing enthusiasts, among others.

If Hensel prevails in his quest to get a station, rest assured that it would bring a blast of uniquely local character to his mountain hamlet of Pine, Colorado. On K-Pine Radio, Hensel's neighbors might hear, for example, musical elegies for the community's dearly departed dogs.

"Where else are you going to have a radio program on an FM station that's going to say, "Okay, we're going to honor Skip and Alexia. These dogs died last month, and we're playing some music for them?" Hensel asks. "That sounds odd, but for the area here, people get into it." And if Hensel's cat wanders off one night, that might make the news, too. "I'm on the station: 'Yellow alert out for Lily!'" he says, and laughs.

Pine's 50 or so residents live southwest of Denver, nestled in a valley among 9,000-foot mountain peaks. A fork of the South Platte River "runs cold and clear" through the community, Hensel says, and lends its name to Hensel's environmentally minded group, the North Fork Angling Society. When asked about his affiliation with the Society, he replies, "Founder of the feast." The small group of anglers teaches local kids to fly-fish and helps keep the river free of beer cans, fishing line and other junk.

More than a hobby, fishing provides a livelihood for Hensel. Known as "Bamboo Bill" among the locals, the avid angler handcrafts and sells bamboo fly-fishing rods, shunning newer materials such as graphite and fiberglass. When a rod's not in his hand, Hensel writes essays that extol a Thoreau-like message of simplicity (you can read some here). Now, at age 55, he seeks to add another profession to his vita: station manager. A lifelong radio hobbyist, Hensel built crystal radios as a kid. He grew up to be a ham-radio enthusiast and self-described radio "fanatic," and he longs for the days when radio had more personality.

Radio is now "just a medium for people to make money," Hensel says. "There's no romance there in the art and science of radio—it just doesn't exist."

By serving Pine and other nearby residents, Hensel's station would aim to restore some of that bygone romance. The angler envisions a 100-watt station that would showcase local music, make local kids into town reporters, and broadcast an eclectic mix of music, including oldies and rock-and-roll. Furthermore, it could provide important information about emergencies, such as the forest fires that have been known to afflict the area.

The future of the North Fork Angling Society's station is hazy. Like many applicants, Hensel faces competition—a Catholic organization has applied for a Spanish-language station that could potentially interfere with his operation. But Hensel remains hopeful that his small community, where radios pick up almost nothing, could get its own voice. "I just see no end to what we could do with it," he says.

In my next post, I'll tell you about the Hare Krishna community in West Virginia looking for audio empowerment. Until then, you can read more about Bill Hensel at the North Fork Angling Society's online home. What would you like to hear on your local airwaves, or about your community? Can you make it happen? Share your thoughts as a comment.

Mike Janssen served as Project Manager on FMC's Full Power Initiative, recruiting arts and cultural groups to apply for stations and assisting eventual applicants throughout the process. He is a freelancer writer, editor and leader of media workshops in the Washington, D.C., area. Visit his website at mikejanssen.net.

Full-Power Series #1: Non-Com Licensing Window - Relevance and Rationale

This post is the first in a series about last October's full-power, non-commercial licensing window opened by the FCC. Mike Janssen, project manager for FMC's Full Power Initiative, will provide an up-close look at several applicants, while examining what this process could mean for listeners.

It’s no wonder that old-school FM radio gets a bad rap among music fans these days. Megacasters such as Clear Channel monopolize the commercial stations, programming them with narrow playlists that offer little musical variety. Meanwhile, some public stations are airing more and more NPR-style programming, satisfying news junkies but giving little refuge to lovers of tunes new and old. The radio furnishes music aficionados with few chances to discover a happening new band or a reinterpretation of a cherished sonata. No doubt this helps explain the growing popularity of Internet radio, satellite services and the iPod, which emulates eclectic radio whenever you click “Shuffle.”

Yet there’s still hope for terrestrial radio. Last October, the Federal Communications Commission accepted applications from nonprofit organizations all over the country looking to start brand-spanking-new noncommercial FM radio stations. Any nonprofit organization was eligible to apply, and many were interested — the FCC hadn’t accepted applications for new noncommercial stations since before 2000, so there was plenty of pent-up demand.

During an intense 10 months, the Future of Music Coalition focused on recruiting arts and cultural organizations around the country to apply. FMC joined a coalition of hard-working, like-minded advocacy groups to drum up interest under the banner of Radio for People. Our partners in this coalition included Pacifica Radio, the Prometheus Radio Project, Common Frequency, Free Press, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters and Public Radio Capital.

The FCC accepted roughly 3,200 applications from October 12-22, according to Public Radio Capital. Nearly 40 percent of those applications came from community and public radio groups, according to a statistical sampling analysis performed by PRC. The rest came from religious groups, including those Christian broadcasters that already operate large networks of stations all over the country and are eager to acquire even more. Last fall, the FCC decided to accept a maximum of just ten applications from each applicant; if the cap hadn’t been put in place, religious megacasters would have no doubt kept submitting. (At least 49 groups whose name includes “Calvary Chapel” filed during the window.)

Roughly 270 of October’s applicants, secular and religious, are on an accelerated ramp to FCC approval. But most of the hopeful broadcasters won’t know for at least a few years whether they’ll be allowed to hit the air. Why? Well, if the FCC were to grant all the applications it receives, the result would be interference. The Commission therefore has to figure out which proposed stations would disrupt one another and mitigate this potential interference by granting permits only to select applicants. (The 270 applicants on the fast track were lucky enough to face no competition in their areas.)

The FCC settles disputes among these so-called mutually exclusive applications by applying its “point system.” The commission rolled out the point system for the first time in March 2007 — in fact, it was the FCC’s long struggle to develop this method that delayed its processing of noncommercial applications for so many years. Thankfully, the point system favors applicants who are located near their proposed stations and who don’t already operate stations in the area, encouraging the qualities of localism and diversity in broadcasting that FMC also supports. But doling out points and resolving competing applications is time-consuming work, hence the expectation that it will take years before the FCC awards the last of the broadcast permits from this proceeding.

If you listen to FM radio — and, given that it’s free and almost universally available, many of us still do — the upshot of all this is that you could, someday, have some new radio stations on your dial to sample and, fingers crossed, get to know and love. Unfortunately, you’re less likely to notice any changes if you live in a big city. In most major markets, the FM band is so crowded that, for current and would-be broadcasters, squeezing a new station onto the dial is a pipe dream. But small to medium-sized cities and rural communities still hold opportunity for non-com broadcast hopefuls.

What will these newcomers contribute to our shared aural landscape? Could your stagnant local lineup come alive with sounds of esoteric musical genres? Fire-and-brimstone preachers? Earnest discussions of area politics? All of the above?

The answers might be a ways off, but it’s not too early to start digging. In coming weeks this blog will profile some of the would-be broadcasters whose applications are now trickling through the mysterious inner workings of the FCC. We’ll survey arts and cultural groups, religious broadcasters mega and micro, and Native American tribal groups. First up, we'll take a look at some applicants whose names alone give us hope that radio could get a little more interesting.

Mike Janssen served as Project Manager on FMC’s Full Power Initiative, recruiting arts and cultural groups to apply for stations and assisting eventual applicants throughout the process. He is a freelancer writer, editor and leader of media workshops in the Washington, D.C., area. Visit his website at mikejanssen.net.