Ecotone Radio

A new program debuts today (Thursdays, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.) on free103- point9 Online Radio from DJ Pause called "Ecotone Radio." An ecotone is the transitional area between two different ecosystems. Its the place where grassland becomes dune, jungle becomes desert, city becomes suburb. An ecotone can be a slow crossfade or a jagged splice. Ecotone radio seeks to explore the overlaps and disjunctions between competing musical ecosystems, the dialouges, wars, orgies, transmigrations, spats, group meditations, flash floods, reincarnations, and identity crisises that happen when different spheres of activity meet each other. Covering genres as broad as reggae, bassline, dub, dancehall, cosmic jazz, ragga, reggaeton, ragga-jungle, calypso, kwaito, dub-step, minimal, kuduro, electroacoustic, down-tempo, highlife, ambient, manzuma, hiplife, noise, hiphop, grime, breaks, bass, IDM, post punk, steppers, gnawa, bhangra, qawalli, free jazz, garage, soul jazz, soca, free improv, microhouse, two-step, cumbia, ghetto tech, kwela, hyphy, soul, breakcore, maghrebi, electro, and countless others that have yet to be imagined. We will use the zero-sum solution of the dj mixer to examine how musical ideas are mashed up and reinterperated through post-colonial cultural transmission, and geographic and sonic overlap.

Today's playlist:
"Fire Burn"- Churchical Chants of the Nyabingi
"Yayayay Yayayaya" Black Blood & Thembi(Biram Records 7")
"Can I Come Back For More?" Eddie Quansah(Island Records 7"
"Dancin' & Prancin'" Candido (SalSoul Records 7")
"Hot Mud" Afrique(Mainstream Records "7)
"Senegal"-Seven Roots (RKM Records 7")
"Nabali Misere" Comp. Mayulana Mayoni Orchestra(Zerbi Records 7")
"Samba/Falable Lewe" King Sunny Ade and His African Beats(Island LP)
"Indodo Yejazi Elimnyama" Amaswazi Emvelo, The Indestructable Beat of Soweto(Sanchie)
"Anye"-Shewandagne Hailu
"Pursuit" African Head Charge, Shrunken Head(On-U Sound double LP)
"Sibingelela Ufosatu" The Clover Choir, South African Trade Union Choirs(Rounder LP)
"That Haiku" Medium Medium, The Glitterhouse(JEM Records LP)
"Oya"Olutanji, Drums of Passion
"Jah Shall Reign" The Twinkle Brothers, Rasta Surface(Jah Shaka LP)
"Down For Jah Love" Judy Green(Dubwise 10")
"Free Up The Herb" African Simba(Reality Shock Records 10")
"Victory" Dandie Lion (Concious Sounds 10")
"Chill Out" Black Uhuru(Island Records LP)
"Zombie Zones" Dennis Bovell
"Making History" Linton Kwesi Johnson
"Try a Thing" White Mice(Intellec 7")
"Soundboy's Ashes Get Chopped Up and Snorted" Shackelton(Skull Disco 12")
"Nitemarz" Hijak(Tectonic 10")
"Skeng" The Bug featuring Skepta (Hyperdub 12")
"Lahore & Marsielle" Muslimgauze(Staaplaat CD)
"There 4 me" The Shape of Broad Minds, Craft of the Lost Art

Mitt Romney and Ham radio

From Southgate Amateur Radio Club:

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney says that he never intended to demean Amateur radio in an exchange with a television reporter two years ago. This, as the debate over his comments flares anew on the ham bands and on hobby radio blogging websites nationwide....during a televised town meeting that aired on November 16 of 2005 on segment 2 of WCVB television's "When Disaster Strikes." The program featured public safety and volunteer organization officials from across Massachusetts.

Moderator Natalie Jacobson had asked Governor Romney questions about communications interoperability, and communication without commercial power. During the exchange Jacobson commented '...so you don't see yourself getting down to ham radio operators?...' The then governor replied: "No, we don't need to deal with ham radio operators. We have power systems that allow us to speak with one another and to manage our response."

Hams across Massachusetts and eventually across the nation only seemed to hear the words "we don't need to deal with ham radio operators" and reacted negatively.... The issue eventually died away only to reappear on the ham radio blogs in recent weeks as a result of Romney seeking the Republican party's nomination to run for the U.S. presidency. For example, in the Talk and Opinion area of QRZ.com there is a subject titled: "Do we want a President who hates ham radio?" Reading the ongoing discussion shows that few of those taking part have ever have seen or heard the show in question,

Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Wilbanks was the one who contacted Mitt Romney and asked him to explain. The Romney staff wrote back: "The exchange with Natalie Jacobsen was meant to imply that we need to strengthen our emergency response infrastructure, rather than demean the important role I recognize that Ham Radio Operators play around our country."

The entire segment of the program "When Disaster Strikes" can be seen at the WCVB website. The url is www.thebostonchannel.com/video/5334306/index.html

Radio volunteer sets station on fire over playlist dispute

from Xeni Jardin in Boing Boing:

A decidedly non-mellow fellow who worked on an online jazz music show called "Mellow Down Easy" (*snort*) set fire to the radio station where he volunteered, because he was pissed that his song selections for the show were changed without his permission:

Paul Webster Feinstein, 24, has been charged with second-degree felony arson for the Jan. 5 fire that caused $300,000 damage to the studios of 91.7 FM KOOP. He faces from two to 20 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted. Feinstein told investigators that he was "very unhappy" about the changes to his playlist, said Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Nye. The songs were intended for an Internet broadcast that occurs when the station is off the air.

700MHz: $6.1B & counting

From Daily Wireless:

The FCC’s 700 MHz spectrum auction saw a pair of bidding rounds that brought the total potential winning bids climb to just over $4.4 billion, after round six, and $6.1 billion after round eight. Highlights included continued interest in the regional grouping of C-Block licenses, a lack of new bids for the floundering national commercial-public safety D-Block license and the first withdrawal from the proceedings.

The auction closed Monday with $6.1 billion in Provisional Winning Bids. The 50-state, eight-license C band garnered $2.9 billion. The package of eight licenses remained the crown jewel of the event, says RCR wireless News, with one new bid during the earlier round five bid pushing the bidding to $2.15 billion.

The $2.9 billion for the “C Block” is more than half-way to the $4.6 billion reserve price that would trigger the open-access provision of the licenses. Google was a proponent of the open-access provision, and said it would bid at least that amount for the C Block.

“Our interpretation of the C Block activity suggests that there are only two bidders, most likely Google and Verizon Wireless, and we are a skeptical that either would move over to the D Block,” said analyst firm Stifel Nicolaus in a research note after round five. “It is also possible that there is only a single bidder for the C Block, increasing its bid each round, perhaps Google to trigger the reserve.”

The D band, which is allocated for public safety services, is lagging far behind with only $472 million bid so far. The reserve set by the FCC is $1.3 billion. A total of 62 MHz will be auctioned; 30 Mhz in the Lower 700MHz band, 32 Mhz in the Upper 700MHz band. RCR News and Blog Runner have more.

Hong Kong pro-democracy radio allowed back on air

A Hong Kong court ruled last week that a pirate radio station called "Citizens' Radio" can stay on the air. From a Reuters account:

High Court judge Michael Hartmann dismissed a government request to extend (the) ban (on the station). "Their methods may make some people uncomfortable but it must be accepted that, right or wrong, they see themselves as acting to protect certain fundamental freedoms," Hartmann said. Hartmann added that court injunctions of this nature, tied to criminal proceedings, should only be granted "exceptionally and with great caution." "When fundamental freedoms are at issue ... this court bears special responsibilities," he added. A lower court ruling had seemingly ruled in Citizens' Radio favor, finding local radio laws to be "unconstitutional." But this judgment was later suspended, pending an appeal by the government to a higher court...."The government should immediately prepare to amend the (radio) laws ... rather than continue to tell lies and abuse its power to harm a small radio station," said one of the radio activists, maverick lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung.

Sound waves snuff fire

From David Pescovitz in Boing Boing:

In 1857, Irish scientist John Tyndall recognized that sound waves could extinguish flames. Now, scientists hope that phenomena could lead to the development of new fire extinguishers that would be useful, say, in a spacecraft or terrestrially to avoid water damage from sprinklers. First though, they need to figure out why exactly sound can snuff fire. Most likely, the sound wave causes a drop in pressure that extinguishes the flame.

From Scientific American:

In 2004 Dmitriy Plaks and several of his fellow students at the University of West Georgia tested whether sound waves can douse fires in hopes of using sound to extinguish flames in a spacecraft. They placed a candle in a large topless chamber with three bass speakers attached to the walls. The candle was lit and the Canadian rock band Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was pumped through the subwoofers. Within roughly 10 seconds, once the song hit a low note, the flame was out, according to results published in 2005 in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Empire State Building car zap mystery

From Richard Weir in New York Daily News:

In the shadow of the Empire State Building lies an “automotive Bermuda Triangle” - a five-block radius where vehicles mysteriously die. No one is sure what’s causing it, but all roads appear to lead to the looming giant in our midst - specifically, its Art Deco mast and 203-foot-long, antenna-laden spire. “We get about 10 to 15 cars stuck near there every day,” said Isaac Leviev, manager of Citywide Towing, the AAA’s exclusive roadside assistance provider from 42nd St. to the Battery. “You pull the car four or five blocks to the west or east and the car starts right up.”

Motorists like Russell Valeev, 25, learn about it the hard way. “The lights work, the horn works, everything. But it won’t start,” Valeev, a driver for Golden Touch Transportation said one recent evening as he sat in his 2005 Ford van with the hood propped open on E. 35th St., between Lexington and Park Aves. “It’s my job. No money.” The 102-story building, at Fifth Ave. between 33rd and 34th Sts., has been home to broadcast equipment since its opening in 1931, when RCA installed an experimental TV antenna.

Since the 9/11 attacks destroyed the twin towers, the building has regained its status as the leading transmission site for commercial broadcast outfits, with 13 TV and 19 FM stations mounting antennas on its spire. The Empire State Building Co., which refused to provide the Daily News a list of its antennas, denied it has created any “adverse impact” on automobiles. “If the claim were indeed true, the streets in the vicinity of the building would be constantly littered with disabled vehicles,” the building’s owner said.

According to many doormen in the area, they often are. “They park here on the block and when they come back and try to leave, they can’t start their cars,” said Martin Deda, a doorman at 16 Park Ave., which fronts E. 35th St. “I’ve seen a lot of cars get towed away,” said a doorman at 35 E. 35th St. who gave only his first name, Joseph. “I see it all the time, at least 10 times a week ... I call it the ‘Empire State Building Effect.’

Read more here.

The presidential candidates on FCC-related issues

Lasar's Letter on the FCC is constantly updating this page charting all the presidential candidates stands on various media issues. Interesting notes:

*The Democrats all support net neutrality; Ron Paul is against it; others have no opinion.

*John "Edwards says he will lift restrictions on Low Power FM radio, making it easier for applicants to get licenses."

*"Paul is strongly critical of the provisions of the Patriot Act that have been used to justify surveillance of the e-mail and phone calls of Americans, and has attempted to overturn the law."

Curiously not mentioned is Senator John McCain's co-sponsorship of LPFM bills. But this is the best site online we've seen comparing the various candidates positions on a variety of media issues that may inform your decision. Common Sense also has a comparison chart here, and Broadcasting & Cable have a Q&A here.

Acoustic "invisibility" cloaks possible, study says

From Richard A. Lovett in National Geographic News

If sound could bend around objects in just the right way, submarines could evade sonar detection and large beams and columns wouldn't obstruct concert-hall acoustics. This type of acoustic invisibility is possible, according to physicists who hope to develop the theoretical sound-wave-bending materials.

The result would be a shell that acts as an acoustic cloak—something like an invisibility cloak, but for sound, not light. Sound waves would bend around a cloaked object and then continue on their original courses. It would appear as though they had passed directly through the shell, "as if nothing had been there at all," said Steven Cummer of Duke University, lead author of a new study.

After scientists in 2006 successfully built a two-dimensional invisibility cloak based on similar principles—including the development of a material that can bend light waves around objects it covers—some in the scientific community said the same trick with sound waves would be impossible.

Cummer took that as a challenge. "For a year I've been chipping away at this, deriving the properties of the shell we [would] need," he said. "In our latest work we've been able to show that there is a set of material properties that would do exactly to sound waves what that invisibility cloak does to electromagnetic waves," he said.

"It's theoretical," Cummer said. "But it looks like it ought to be doable." The key is a material in which sound waves travel at different speeds in different directions.

free103point9 Online Radio Top 40 for January 2008

free103point9 Online Radio Top 40 for January 2008

1. Latitude/Longitude, "Solar Filters/Mother Evening" 7" (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 031)
2. Radio Ruido, "False Rosetta" 2x7" (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 032)
3. Pauline Oliveros + Miya Masaoka, Koto Accordion (Deep Listening)
4. Jeff Arnal + Dietrich Eichmann, LP (Broken Research)
5. Willing, Brotherhood of the Backwards Handshake (Evolving Ear)
6. David S. Ware Quartet, Renunciation (Aum Fidelity)
7. Mike Wexler, Sun Wheel (Amish)
8. Charalambides, Likeness (Kranky)
9. William Basinski, shortwavemusic (Musex International)
10. Stars Like Fleas, The Ken Burns Effect (Talitres)
11. The SB LP, (Qbico 54)
12. Theo Angell, Dearly Beloved (Amish)
13. Annea Lockwood, Thousand Year Dreaming/Floating World (Pogus)
14. Duane Pitre/Pilotram Ensemble, Organized Pitches Ocurring in Time (Important)
15. Walter & Sabrina, We Sing for the Future (Danny Dark Records)
16. Todd Merrell + Aidan Baker + Patrick Jordan, Nagual (ArchivedCD 41)
17. The Peeesseye, Mayhem in the Mansion (Evolving Ear)
18. Scott Smallwood, Electrotherapy (Deep Listening)
19. David Watson, Fingering an Idea (XI Records)
20. Tom Heasley + Toss Panos, Passages (Full Bleed Music)
21. Scott Smallwood, Desert Winds: Six Windblown Sound Pieces and Other Works (Deep Listening)
22. Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet, Inner Constellation (Nemu)
Bruce Eisenbeil + Jean Cook + Nate Wooley + Aaron Ali Shaikh + Tom Abbs + Nasheet Waits.
23. Robert Ashley, Now Eleanor's Idea (Lovely Music)
24. Manpack, Sticky Wic (digitalis)
25. William Parker + Hamid Drake, First Communion/Piercing the Veil 2xCD (Aum Fidelity)
26. Tatsuya Nakatani, Primal Communication (H&H)
27. Cloudland Canyons, Silver Tongued Sisyphus (Kranky)
28. White Rainbow, Prism of Eternal Now (Kranky)
29. Phantom Limb & Bison, Phantom Limb & Bison (Evolving Ear)
30. Fond of Tigers, Release the Saviours (Drip Audio)
31. Timeless Pulse Quintet, Timeless Pulse Quintet (Mutable)
32. Temperatures, Ymir (Heat Retention) LP
33. Basalt Fingers, Basalt Fingers (Three Lobed Recordings)
Ben Chasny, Elisa Ambrogio, and Brian Sullivan.
34. butcher/muller/van der schyff, way out northwest (Drip Audio)
35. Tony Wilson 6tet, Pearls Before Swine (Drip Audio)
36. Wilson/Lee/Bentley, Escondido Dreams (Drip Audio)
37. Illuminea, Out of Our Mouths (High Two)
38. Ting Ting Jahe, 18(16) (Winds Measure Recordings)
39. Garrett Phelan, Black Brain Radio (Ninepoint)
40. Mammal, Lonesome Drifter (Animal Disguise)

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

FCC fines pirates In The Bronx, Danbury

From Jeffrey Yorke in Radio & Records:

The FCC's Enforcement Bureau on Friday (Jan. 18) said it had slapped a pair of pirate broadcasters with stiff fines for “willfully” operating transmitters without licenses. The commission said Nicolas Paula was operating an unlicensed radio transmitter on 94.5 MHz in Bronx, N.Y., and failed to permit a station inspection. He was hit with a $17,000 fine. In Danbury, Conn., Eliandro B. Ramos did not deny to the FCC’s Boston office of the Enforcement Bureau that he had no license to operate on 296.550 MHz, but he said he could not pay the $10,000 fine levied by the commission. However, the FCC didn’t buy the story and is leaning on him for full payment.

Cell phones linked to disturbed sleep

From BBC:

Using a mobile phone before going to bed could stop you getting a decent night's sleep, research suggests. The study, funded by mobile phone companies, suggests radiation from the handset can cause insomnia, headaches and confusion. It may also cut our amount of deep sleep - interfering with the body's ability to refresh itself. The study was carried out by Sweden's Karolinska Institute and Wayne State University in the US.

This research suggests that if you need to make a make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line. Funded by the Mobile Manufacturers Forum, the scientists studied 35 men and 36 women aged between 18 and 45. Some were exposed to radiation equivalent to that received when using a mobile phone, others were placed in the same conditions, but given only "sham" exposure.

Those exposed to radiation took longer to enter the first of the deeper stages of sleep, and spent less time in the deepest one. The scientists concluded: "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected."

Researcher Professor Bengt Arnetz said: "The study strongly suggests that mobile phone use is associated with specific changes in the areas of the brain responsible for activating and coordinating the stress system." Another theory is that radiation may disrupt production of the hormone melatonin, which controls the body's internal rhythms. Read entire story here.

Kristin Lucas, "The Dispatcher: Carrying Green"

Kristin Lucas' radio play "The Dispatcher: Carrying Green" airs as free103point9's contribution to the Radia network, 2 p.m. Th. Jan. 17 (-5 GMT). "The Dispatcher: Carrying Green is a political satire and comedy set in the near future. New York City is nicknamed The Big Orange after decades of relentless government-issued orange alert status. The play chronicles the day-to-day engagements of a radio dispatcher for hire (private contractor of the airwaves). Among dispatch clientele are a neighborhood vigilante patrol of canine-identified humans formed out of a therapeutic support group. They call themselves the Sniff Squad.

Commissioned by 6th Werkleitz Biennale September 1 - 5, 2004 in Halle (Salle), Germany for this year's festival theme Common Property. Written and directed by Kristin Lucas. Sound recording by Tom Roe at free103point9 studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Animals of the Bible of San Antonio and Zom Zoms of Austin provided the music. "The Dispatcher: Carrying Green" is a political satire and comedy set in the near future. New York City is nicknamed The Big Orange after decades of relentless government-issued orange alert status. The play chronicles the day-to-day engagements of a radio dispatcher for hire (private contractor of the airwaves). Among dispatch clientele are a neighborhood vigilante patrol of canine-identified humans formed out of a therapeutic support group. They call themselves the Sniff Squad. Commissioned by 6th Werkleitz Biennale taking place September 1 - 5, 2004 in Halle (Salle), Germany for this year's festival theme Common Property. Written and directed by Kristin Lucas. Sound recording by Tom Roe at free103point9 studio in Brooklyn, New York. Animals of the Bible of San Antonio and Zom Zoms of Austin provided the music. Cast includes Theodore Bouloukos, Edward Campbell, Lori Fine, Erzen Krupka, Kelly McNeill, Jens Rasmussen, Wendy Levy, and Celestina Wolcolo. Kristin Lucas received her BFA from Cooper Union in New York in 1994. She has been screening and exhibiting work in the US and abroad since 1996. Her sci-fi distopias and conspiracy theories balance seriousness with humor, and have resulted in video, internet, sculpture, performance, text, and installation works. Lucas's works are represented by Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and Postmasters Gallery in New York. Lucas taught performance and video art at University of Texas in Austin in Spring '04. She currently resides in the Bay Area where she is pursuing a Masters degree at Stanford University. Cast includes Theodore Bouloukos, Edward Campbell, Lori Fine, Erzen Krupka, Kelly McNeill, Jens Rasmussen, Wendy Levy, and Celestina Wolcolo.

Kristin Lucas received her BFA from Cooper Union in New York in 1994. She has been screening and exhibiting work in the US and abroad since 1996. Her sci-fi distopias and conspiracy theories balance seriousness with humor, and have resulted in video, internet, sculpture, performance, text, and installation works. Lucas's works are represented by Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) and Postmasters Gallery in New York. Lucas taught performance and video art at University of Texas in Austin in Spring '04. She currently resides in the Bay Area where she is pursuing a Masters degree at Stanford University.

Radia is a network of independent radio stations, including free103point9, who have a common interest in promoting and producing artworks for the radio, and in forming related projects based on broadcasting and cultural exchange. Radia members produce a weekly radio show that is broadcast by each of the member radio stations. The shows represent the local artistic community of each station, whilst at the same time these new works point to an emergent collective notion of self-determined art for radio.

Other stations in Radia network besides free103point9 include Radio Campus (Belgium), Radio Grenouille (France), Kanal 103 (Macedonia), Lemurie TAZ (Czech Republic), Orange 94.0 (Austria), Resonance 104.4-FM (UK), Tilos Radio (Hungary), Radio Zero (Portugal), Radio Panik (Belgium), bootlab (Germany), SounDart Radio (UK), InterSpace (Belgium), and Orf Kunstradio (Austria). http://www.radia.fm/.
http://www169.pair.com/klucas/radioplay/

OPEN CALL: Giant Ear)))

Giant Ear))) is a webcast produced by the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology. It can be heard from 7-9 p.m. ET every Sunday at www.free103point9.org. Shows feature a wide range of field recordings, interviews and compositions based on field recordings. One of the February shows themes is "Urban Rhythms." Please submit your field recordings (or compositions based on field recordings) of naturally occuring rhythms in your city's soundscape (long or short) via an upload service to jonnysounds@gmail.com or mail to:
Jonny Farrow, Giant Ear)))
C/O Production Resources, Inc.
50 West 17th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Deadline is Friday, February 8.

Off The Grid

Off The Grid
03.30 - 06.01.08
Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY.

Off The Grid will feature works that subvert and circumvent conventional infrastructures and are interested in alternatives to corporate and commercial applications and proprietary refinement of communication technologies. Installations will be on view inside the Neuberger Museum of Art and across the SUNY Purchase College campus and include works by Matt Bua; Brett Bloom; Benjamin Cohen, Dylan J. Gauthier, and Stephan Stanford; ecoarttech; eteam; Max Goldfarb; Tovey Halek and Madalyn Warren; Louis Hock; Nina Katchadourian; Kristin Lucas; Joe McKay; Trevor Paglen; Seth Weiner; and Bart Woodstrup.

Co-presented by the Neuberger Museum of Art and free103point9. Curated by Jacqueline Shilkoff (Neuberger Museum) and Galen Joseph-Hunter, Tianna Kennedy, Tom Roe (free103point9).

Radio troll "Filipino Monkey" may have transmitted in Strait of Hormuz

From Cory Doctorow in Boing Boing via Navy Times:

The threatening message received by a US Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a notorious radio troll known to seasoned skippers as the "Filipino Monkey."

Indeed, the voice in the audio sounds different from the one belonging to an Iranian officer shown speaking to the cruiser Port Royal over a radio from a small open boat in the video released by Iranian authorities. He is shown in a radio exchange at one point asking the U.S. warship to change from the common bridge-to-bridge channel 16 to another channel, perhaps to speak to the Navy without being interrupted... “For 25 years there’s been this mythical guy out there who, hour after hour, shouts obscenities and threats,” he said. “He could be tied up pierside somewhere or he could be on the bridge of a merchant ship.”

And the Monkey has stamina. “He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy,” he said. “But who knows how many Filipino Monkeys there are? Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely.”

OPEN CALL: 60x60 Project

The following is the Call for Works for the 60x60 project in 2008. Continuing to promote contemporary composer and their works, Vox Novus is inviting composers to submit recorded works 60 seconds or less in length to included in its sixth annual 60x60 project. 60 compositions will be selected to be played continuously in a one-hour concert. The 60x60 concert season will begin with a debut in New York City and continue throughout the world in venues to be announced. Please submit recording(s) of work and submission form post marked before March 31st, 2008 to:
60x60
c/o Robert Voisey, Radio City Station, P.O. Box 1607, New York, New York, 10101 USA
More information can be found at: http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/Call.htm and http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60.htm

Harry Shearer's favorite shortwave radio

Comic Harry Shearer (voice of several Simpsons' characters, etc.) is profiled in The New York Times style section for his love of this particular shortwave radio, the Sangean ATS-909. “This is my companion. I’ve always been more about functionality over looks. This has all the buttons I need and not much else. There is one that says ‘Page,’ and I’ve never pressed that. I don’t know what would happen,” he says.

More free103point9 videos on YouTube

Looks like Joe Milutis has been busy uploading more videos from Wave Farm performances:

Stars Like Fleas forest performance at Wave Farm, 2006. Filmed with Vidster cam.



Bryan Zimmerman of The Dust Dive performs from pond at free103point9 Wave Farm. Filmed with Vidster.



"Car Harp" installation at Wave Farm Radio Festival 2006 by Lily Gottlieb-McHale. Filmed with Fisher-Price Vidster Camera.



"Sing Sun Room" Wave Farm sculpture installation by Matt Bua.



Then three videos, not shot by Milutis, of Juan Matos Capote live at "DJ Mangoon Presents," at free103point9's Brooklyn studio at 338 Berry Street on December 5th, 2007. (Playing the DIY "Pink Oscillator," a circuit bent Omnichord and pedals.)





And Thick Wisps perform live in the Brooklyn free103point9 studio on 10-31-2007.

Hoax nuke blast seen on TV weather

From CNN Europe:

Members of a Czech art group who hacked into television broadcasting with images of a hoax nuclear explosion were charged and will have to stand trial, a state prosecutor said Thursday.


A freeze-frame from the Web cam shows an image of a nuclear explosion. Watch YouTube video here.

The six members of the Prague-based Ztohoven group were charged last month with spreading false information and face up to three years in jail if convicted, said Dusan Ondracek, the state prosecutor in the northern town of Trutnov, who is in charge of the case. The trial could begin by the end of January, Ondracek said.

On June 17, viewers of a Czech television channel watching a Web cam program monitoring weather in various Czech mountain resorts could see a nuclear explosion taking place in the Krkonose or Giant Mountains in the northern Czech Republic. In December, the project was awarded the NG 333 prize for young artists by Prague's National Gallery together with a cash prize of 333,000 koruna (US$18,350).

OPEN CALL: Fifth Annual NYC Grassroots Media Conference

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION!

Sunday, March 2nd 2008 at Hunter College CUNY, 68th Street and Lexington Ave., Manhattan. 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

We are now accepting workshop proposals, advertisements, table exhibition reservations and more. Please download the full conference information packet
at http://nycgrassrootsmedia.org/sites/nycgrassrootsmedia.org/files/GMCpacket2008.pdf or visit our website at: www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org to fill out the forms online.

For the past four years, we have come together to explore the political dimensions of media and how it shapes our lives. By developing relationships between community and media organizations, the NYC Grassroots Media Coalition is working to re-imagine issues of access to, control of, and power over our media system. That means defining our struggle as a struggle for Media Justice.

We invite you to join us at the 2008 NYC Grassroots Media Conference as we seek to define our understanding of and relationship to Media Justice as a community and explore how we can not only envision an ideal world, but to make this vision a reality. In addition to a full day of workshops and panels, there will be a full day film festival, exhibition room featuring displays by local organizations, and tons of networking opportunities.

OPEN CALL: Bent 2008

The Tank is currently accepting proposals for Bent 2008: The Fifth Annual Circuit Bending Festival
New York Bent Festival - April 17th-19th, 2008.
Los Angeles Bent Festival - April 24th-26th, 2008.
Minneapolis Bent Festival - May 1st-3rd, 2008.

Proposals:
Proposal Deadline: February 5th, 2008
Participant Notification: February 15, 2008
This call is for all three festivals. Proposals to each festival must be submitted separately. In keeping with the expanding interests of the community, this year we are continuing to open the Bent Festival to performers and artists that create their own electronics as well as to those who hack, bend, modify and destroy them. We are currently seeking performers and artists to participate at each of the above locations and are specifically looking for submissions in these categories:
Performers, Installation Artists, Artwork Submissions and Workshop Instructors. Please send all proposals and questions to the appropriate email address:
Minneapolis Bent Festival - bentmpls@thetanknyc .org
New York Bent Festival - bentnyc@thetanknyc. org
Los Angeles Bent Festival - bentla@thetanknyc. org
Proposals to each festival must be submitted separately.
For more information: http://www.bentfestival.org.

Latitude/Longitude release 7" single with free103point9

Two new songs from electro-acoustic duo Latitude/Longitude (Michael Garofalo and Patrick McCarthy) are out now as part of free103point9’s Audio Dispatch Series.

On the A-Side, "Solar Filters," banjo and tenor guitar introduce the melody, which is picked up and echoed throughout by melodica. McCarthy’s mystic-cowboy vocals are sung through a contactmic’d banjo head, the strings, tuned to the notes of the song’s minimalist melody, resonating with each syllable. A stomping drum loop drives the song towards its climax of analog synthesizers and shortwave radio static (not sampled, but recorded as a performance, by tuning a radio while wandering around the studio).

The more textural B-side, "Mother Evening," features “found” lyrics taken from various random-text, spam emails. Pedal steel guitar creates a swarm-of-insects anxiety while prepared electric guitar weaves in and out of the vocal line and thumping floor tom.

Record release show with Zeke Healey and Brian Osborne Jan. 9 at Zebulon Cafe in Brooklyn, streamed live via Zebulon and free103point9 Online Radio. Michael Garofalo and Patrick McCarthy perform as Latitude/Longitude with diverse sonic materials: test oscillators, homemade cassette tapes and field recordings, radio transmissions (FM/AM/SW/CB), and toy electronics (broken and functional), as well as more traditional instruments, such as pedal steel guitar, banjo, mbira, and voice. "Solar Filters" and "Mother Evening" are featured on the single (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 031).

More information:
http://www.free103point9.org/dispatchseries/

If you're in New York, you can also pick up a copy at one of their upcoming shows:

1.9.08: L/L Record Release Show, Zebulon (w/Brian Osbourne, Zeke Healy). This show will be streamed live on free103point9 Online Radio.

1.25.08: The Knitting Factory's Old Office (w/The Dust Dive, H*E*R)

2.1.08: Eat Records (w/The Dust Dive). This show will be streamed live on free103point9 Online Radio.

NMR Commission: "More of the Same" by LoVid

From Networked_Music_Review:

More of the Same by LoVid [Start slowly with 1; close each popup window before launching the next] - More of the Same extends LoVid’s investigation of electrical irregularities and human interactions. After it loads copies of a single sound sample, fissures in the digital veneer are explored as the spoken communication is played back repeatedly. Though each instantiation of the speech is identical, physical constraints affect the timing. This allows the nature of the medium to peek through the cracks in the voices.

More of the Same is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. for Networked_Music_Review. It was made possible with funding from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.

BIOGRAPHY

LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus) overwhelms the senses with new media in their performances, videos, objects, and installations. LoVid has toured the US and Europe extensively performing, exhibiting, and lecturing at PS1, The Neuberger Museum, The Butler Institute of American Art , The Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, Exit Art, Evolution Festival (UK), The Kitchen, RISD, Massachusetts College of Art, FACT, Kansas City Art Institute, Chicago Art Institute, University of Wisconsin, Futuresonic Festival (UK), The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Ocularis, and Institute of Contemporary Art London, among many others. LoVid has been artist in residence at Eyebeam, Harvestworks, iEAR, Alfred University, and Stevens Institute of Technology; and has received grants and awards from Turbulence.org, Experimental TV Center, NYSCA, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and The Greenwall Foundation. LoVid is also a free103Point9 transmission artist.