AIRtime Fellowship Program Details Announced

APPLICATION DEADLINE: JULY 1, 2009

The AIRtime program provides artists (individuals and/or collectives) with valuable assistance with which to concentrate on new transmission works and conduct research about the genre using free103point9's resource library and equipment holdings. AIRtime Fellowships are awarded to approximately three artists each year. Fellows present their work in conjunction with WGXC, in Greene and Columbia Counties, and our city-based programs at the Ontological Theater at St. Mark's Church in Manhattan. Fellows receive an honorarium, and technical and administrative support from free103point9 staff. Participating artists are encouraged to archive recordings and other digital media with the free103point9 Transmission Art Archive project.

free103point9 defines “Transmission Arts” as a conceptual umbrella that unites a community of artists and audiences interested in transmission ideas and tools. This genre encompasses a diversity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. Transmission art is generally a participatory live-art or time-based art, and often manifests as radio art, video art, light sculpture, installation, and performance.

OPEN CALL: Giant Ear)))_Fantastic Places

Sound designers and sound artists are often asked to create realistic sonic environments for places that they've never experienced. This requires some serious shapeshifting and mindbending skills. For this month's Giant Ear))) we would like to celebrate these skills by requesting the truly fantastical. Please send in: (Option 1) A piece composed for a place that you may never be able to go to physically as a person. Altering the sound to convince listeners of the place is encouraged. Or (Option 2) Send in a recording/composition of yourself actually in an actual fantastic place. Fantastic! Please send your field-recording based work as an MP3 (via e-mail, FTP or www.sendspace.com) to Andrea Williams at lemurz66@yahoo.com By April 2, 2009. "Fantastic Places," hosted by Andrea Williams and Edmund Mooney, will be webcast on free103point9 Online Radio 7-9 p.m. in April on Sunday (date TBA). Giant Ear))) is the New York Society for Acoustic Ecology's weekly, two-hour radio show webcasting recordings of the NYC soundscape, (wo)man-on-the-street public interest interviews, live on-site sound explorations, special guests, and more. New show updated each month, show airs weekly Sundays at 7 p.m.

WGXC

free103point9's community radio station for Greene and Columbia Counties in New York has a name: WGXC. It stands for Greene and Columbia, or the x is for transmitting, or it can mean what you want. Read more about the project here.

Video streams from The Sanctuary For Independent Media

Last Saturday night free103point9 successfully launched the first of many video streams from The Sanctuary for Independent Media in Troy, New York. The fabulous camera crew at The Sanctuary captured NYC free jazz drummer William Hooker playing along with Oscar Micheaux's 1920 silent film "The Symbol of the Unconquered." Tune in to www.free103point9.org this Saturday night, February 21, at 8 p.m. for poet Amiri Baraka and saxophonist Rob Brown performing.

free103point9 Online Radio Top 40 for November 2008

Releases with top airplay on free103point9 Online Radio:

1. Evidence, Receiver (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 035)
2. Escape Mechanism, Emphasis Added (Recombinations)
From Jon Nelson of "Some Assembly Required."
3. Various artists, Autoradio-guide (Transit-Wellen)
With tracks from neuroTransmitter, Reboot.fm, Tetsuo Kogawa.
4. Various artists, Radio Action III (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 034)
With free103point9 Transmission Artists including Scanner, Joshua Fried, Anna Friz, Tianna Kennedy, LoVid, Todd Merrell, The Dust Dive, and others.
5. Eri Yamamoto, Duologue (Aum Fidelity)
6. Francisco Lopez, Conops (GD Stereo)
7. Asher-Ubeboet, Cell Memory (Winds Measure Recordings)
8. Windsor for the Derby, How We Lost (Secretly Canadian)
9. Black Taj, Beyonder (Amish)
10. Ricardo Arias + Miguel Frasconi + Keiko Uenishi, Object (eh?40)
11. Jack Wright + Alban Bailly, The Harmony of Contradictions (Sort Of)
12. Matmos, Supreme Balloon (Matador)
13. MV & EE, Ragas of the Culvert LP (Heroine Celestial Agriculture)
14. Jim McAuley, The Ultimate Frog (Drip Audio)
15. New York Society for Acoustic Ecology, Giant Ear))) Inside/Out NYC (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 036)
With tracks from Ben Owen, Michelle Nagai, Andrea Williams, Jonny Farrow, David Watson, Edmund Mooney, and others.
16. Liturgy, Immortal Life LP (Infinite Limbs)
17. Matt Weston, Not to Be Taken Away (7272music)
18. Miya Masaoka, While I Was Walking, I Heard a Sound... (Solitary B)
19. Bill Dixon, 17 Musicians in Search of a Sound: Darfur (Aum Fidelity)
20. Sic Alps, A Long Way Around a Shortcut (Animal Disguise)
21. Embarker, Embarker LP (Malleablerec.com)
22. Brian Osborne + Marc Zajack, split LP (HRR/DF)
23. Tactical Sound #5, Voice(s) of God(s) (freematterfortheblind.com)
With Alexis Bhagat, Gregory Whitehead, Christopher DeLaurenti, Greta Byrum, and others.
24. Various artists, Introductions (thelandof.org)
With My Fun, Asher, others.
25. John Berndt, The Private Language Problem (Sort Of)
26. Shot x Shot, Let Nature Square (High Two)
27. Bird Show, Bird Show (Kranky)
28. Embarker, (the sayer) 3" CD (Heat Retention)
29. Jen Baker, Blue Dreams (Dilapidated Barns)
30. Cakes of Light, Save Your Self LP (Heat Retention)
31. Martin Hesselmeier + Karin Lingman, SARoskop (Kunsthochschule)
32. Cristian Amigo, Kingdom of Jones (Innova)
33. Barnyard Drama, I'm a Navvy (Barnyard Records)
34. Deerhunter, Microcastle (Kranky)
35. The Peggy Lee Band, New Code (Drip Audio)
36. Chubby Behemoth, Global DX 7" (Infinite Limbs)
37. Johann Johannsson, Fordlandia (4AD)
38. Raglani, Of Sirens Born (Kranky)
39. Gary War, New Raytheonport LP (Shwwply/Disaro)
40. Boduf Songs, How Shadows Chase the Balance (Kranky)

To get airplay for your release send it to:
Wave Farm, 5662 Route 23, Acra, NY 12405

free103point9 to return to the airwaves

From Mediageek:

free103point9 is a transmission arts organization that started as a micropower radio station, moved online, and broadened its horizons to become a sponsor and creator of sonic art. Now the group is poised to return to the broadcast airwaves after receiving a full-power non-commercial FM broadcast license from the FCC. free103point9 program director Tom Roe joins to talk about the station and transmission arts. Listen to this episode of the Mediageek radio show here:
http://radio.mediageek.net/?p=358

FCC awards free103point9 3,300-watt FM station in upstate New York

The Federal Communications Commission awarded non-profit arts group free103point9 a license for a 3,300-watt non-commercial FM radio station on 90.7-FM last week.

The new station, with studios envisioned in Cairo, Catskill, and Hudson, will broadcast local musicians and artists, as well as community news, and programs about local schools, history, agriculture, the environment, and more. An online version of the station will launch early next year and provide community members an opportunity to get involved while the FM station is in progress. The online radio broadcast will also feature local town meetings, high school sports championships, as well as local performances, lectures, workshops, and a broad spectrum of creative radio or radio art programs. Many local events will also be broadcast live on the FM station.

"Community radio is a unique volunteer-based media format," said Catskill resident and media educator Aliza Dichter, "This station will be a way for us to both boost our local economy and celebrate the diverse cultures in our area. We can deal with serious issues, have fun, and build bridges across our towns and across the two counties."

"We want to give members of the community a chance to take the microphone, go on the air, and talk about what is going on in Greene and Columbia counties," says free103point9 Program Director Tom Roe. "This is a special opportunity for this area, and all the talented artists, hard-working activists, and unique personalities here to become the local media."

During the day the station will feature weekly and monthly programs on topics such as gardening, hunting, schools, arts, music, politics, and other issues important to the community. There will be programs by youth and for children. Evenings will feature DJs and live broadcasts from events all over the two counties. Late nights and Saturdays will be filled with international radio art, experimental music, and special local broadcasts. "The week before elections we want to give every local candidate the chance to go on the air and give listeners specific reasons to vote for them," Roe says.

Critical support from this project began in 2007 with interest from local agencies and community leaders; small donations from individuals and families across the region made it possible to conduct the initial legal and engineering work for the application. Planning for the radio station is now underway with leadership from a Community Council that includes Haines Fall's Dharma Dailey (Ethos Wireless); Hudson artist Max Goldfarb; Hosneara Kader (Hudson Family Literacy); Debra Kamecke (Cairo Public Library); free103point9's Tom Roe; Alan Skerrett (Columbia County NAACP); Hudson Talbot (Catskill Community Center); and Andy Turner (Cornell Cooperative Extension Agroforestry Resource Center). Aliza Dichter (Catskill Community Center), Galen Joseph-Hunter (free103point9) and Kaya Weidmann (Germantown Community Farm) have also provided crucial efforts and support for the station project.

Based in an area between the huge New York City media market to the south and the Capitol District to the North, the villages and rural communities of Greene and Columbia Counties have little in the way of local broadcast media, with only occasional coverage in regional news. As a valuable complement to our various daily/weekly town papers, this Greene Columbia community radio station will be a unique forum for discussions, news, culture, and emergency information across our two Counties.

Artists and activists lack a central network here for letting people know about their work. Live performances from local venues will sometimes be featured in the evenings on the online web streams and the FM radio station. "We are looking forward to collaborating with the many extraordinary organizations in our area, and providing an opportunity for their programs to be on the air," says free103point9 Executive Director, Galen Joseph-Hunter.

"We've spent the year since we applied for the station building relationships with cultural, civic, and economic groups across the listening area. Partnering with groups that are already providing important services to our community is a key part of our strategy for getting the most value to the community out of having a new radio station," says Dharma Dailey. "The station will support media literacy and media production for groups like the Catskill Community Center and the Agroforestry Center, as well as schools, libraries, and local businesses. We are also interested in working with other broadcasters and news outlets to improve news coverage throughout Columbia and Greene counties."

free103point9 is a non-profit arts organization focused on establishing and cultivating the genre Transmission Arts. free103point9 activities support and promote artists exploring the many forms of "radio art" including works about the idea of transmission or using the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. free103point9's programs include public performances and exhibitions, an online radio station, the free103point9 Transmission Artists, an artist residency program, grant opportunities, a distribution label, a sculpture garden, and an education initiative including a study center and online archive. This FM station will be the first radio station in the U.S. to focus on radio art (many stations in Europe and Canada do).

free103point9 will webcast a performance by avant folk musicians MV & EE with the Golden Road and local musician Jeremy Kelly at 9 p.m. Fri. Nov. 7 at The Spotty Dog Books & Ale at 440 Warren St. in Hudson, NY, and will be giving out more information about the new FM station at the performance. Admission is $5.

Initial fundraising and planning for the station, which should be on the air in 2010, will begin this winter. A series of workshops to train citizen journalists and reporters are planned next year at the Cairo Public Library, Catskill Community Center, Germantown Community Farm, and other locations. Please contact Tom Roe at tr@free103point9.org or 518-622-2598 to get involved, or for more information.

More information:
http://free103point9.org/communityradio/

Transmission Arts and Radical Radio: film series and workshop

The Change You Want To See Gallery is pleased to host a film series and workshop on transmission arts, sound performance, and radical radio. Join us this Thursday for a screening of "Work Slowly - Radio Alice", an account of an Italian pirate radio station run by the so-called "Mao-Dadaist" wing of the Autonomia movement. Then on Saturday we'll host free103point9's Radio Lab: Art Activism Seminar, with a screening of "A Little Bit of So Much Truth", a film that documents the 2006 popular uprising in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the people's takeover of 14 radio stations and 1 television station to coordinate organizing efforts. A hands-on workshop on transmitter-building will follow. Presenters include freeradio103point9, Prometheus Radio Project, and Germantown Community Farm.

84 Havemeyer Street, at Metropolitan Ave
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
http://www.thechangeyouwanttosee.org
L to Bedford, G to Metropolitan, J/M/Z to Marcy

Thursday, September 25
7:30pm - 9:30pm: Screening of "Work Slowly - Radio Alice" (Lavorare con Lentezza). Discussion to follow.

Saturday, September 27
Radio Lab: Art/Activism Seminar
12pm - 3pm: Screening of "A Little Bit of So Much Truth" (Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad). Discussion to follow, snacks provided.

3pm - 6pm: Presentation and transmitter-building workshop with free103point9, Prometheus Radio Project, and Germantown Community Farm.

free103point9 Radio Labs provide students with technical skills and contextual background to consider and utilize the transmission spectrum for creative expression. Workshops address four main topics: the history of broadcasting; how transmitters work; online transmission tools; and transmission arts as a creative medium.

Join Tianna Kennedy (free103point9 and Lang alumna); and Maka Kotto (Prometheus Radio Project), and Kaya Weisman (Germantown Community Farm) for a screening of "Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad" (Corrugated Films), discussion, and transmitter building workshop.



About "Work Slowly - Radio Alice"
11 March 1977, Bologna. During the violent clashes between police and youths that end up with the intervention of armored vehicles, a Carabiniere kills the student Francesco Lo Russo. 12 March 1977. The brief history of Radio Alice, accused of having directed the battle by radio, ends with the Carabinieri breaking in. It is the first time in the history of the Italian republic that a radio station was closed down by military hands.

Radio Alice, run by the "creative wing" (the so-called Mao-Dadaists") of the radical Autonomia movement, was one of the most singular and original experiments on language and communication that ever took hold in Italy. Lacking a proper newsroom and even less a program schedule, the Bologna broadcaster made spontaneity and linguistic contamination something more than just a flag to wave. It was a project where political, artistic and existential petitions blended in the common denominator of radio space. Today, after more than a quarter of a century, maybe we can start to talk about Alice again, to try to understand if there was something in that voice that could be used again today.

Radio Alice has won several awards and prizes at movie festivals all over Europe, including the Marcello Mastroianni Award for the Best Young Actors at the 2004 Venice Film Festival and the First Prize at the 2005 Festival de Cinema Politic in Barcelona, Spain.

Bolgna-based Wu Ming, a collective of anonymous authors, are credited as co-writers for the Italian film, along with writer/director Guido Chiesa, a film director and rock critic who has directed with Jim Jarmusch, Amos Poe, and Michael Cimino. During the 1990's, the main subject of Chiesa's works was the hertitage and memory of anti-fascist Resistance. Sonic Youth named a song after him ("Guido", from the "Dirty" album, Deluxe edition, cd 2, track #10).

About "Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad"
In the summer of 2006, a broad-based, non-violent, popular uprising exploded in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. Some compared it to the Paris Commune, while others called it the first Latin American revolution of the 21st century. But it was the people’s use of the media that truly made history in Oaxaca.

A 90-minute documentary, "A Little Bit of So Much Truth" captures the unprecedented media phenomenon that emerged when tens of thousands of school teachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, farmers, and students in Oaxaca, Mexico took 14 radio stations and one TV station into their own hands, using them to organize, mobilize, and ultimately defend their grassroots struggle for social, cultural, and economic justice.

Filmmaker, Jill Freidberg, had already spent two years in Oaxaca, producing her previous film, Granito de Arena. She returned to Oaxaca, in 2006, and joined forces with Oaxacan media collective, Mal de Ojo TV, to tell the story of the people who put their lives on the line to give a voice to their struggle. Narrated almost entirely with recordings from the occupied media outlets, A Little Bit of So Much Truth delivers a breathtaking, intimate account of the revolution that WAS televised.

About the Presenters
free103point9 is a New York State-based nonprofit arts organization establishing and cultivating the genre Transmission Arts by promoting artists who explore the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum for creative expression. free103point9 programs include public performances and exhibitions, an experimental music series, an online radio station and distribution label, an education initiative, and an artist residency program and study center.

The Prometheus Radio Project is a non-profit organization founded by a small group of radio activists in 1998. We believe that a free, diverse, and democratic media is critical to the political and cultural health of our nation, yet we see unprecedented levels of consolidation, homogenization, and restriction in the media landscape. We work toward a future characterized by easy access to media outlets and a broad, exciting selection of cultural and informative media resources.

Germantown Community Farm is a small farm and homestead stewarded by a collective in New York's Hudson Valley. GCF is the response of local food activists, artists, and farmers to global systems of exploitation and oppression. We work to build and support a just regenerative local economy and create vital community.

Distribution grant for New York State artists

free103point9 is pleased to announce the 2009 Distribution Grant for New York State Artists providing support for the distribution of new works in film, video, sound, new-media, and media-installation. This grant is for completed works only.

Funding is available from free103point9 through a regrant from New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Program. Grant awards will assist artists in making works available to public audiences and may include, but are not limited to: duplication of previews, screening, and exhibition copies of moving image and sound works; promotional materials including documentation and schematics of media-installation and new-media works. The rental or purchase of equipment for exhibition/distribution by individual artists is also eligible. Artists may request funding support up to a maximum amount of $10,000, with the typical grant amount awarded generally lower.

New to the Distribution Grant this year, successful applicants will also be awarded the additional opportunity to work with a project consultant. This mentor will have expertise in the grantees' specific genre of media art.

Application Guidelines, FAQs, and Resources will be available at http://www.free103point9.org/nysca in October 2008.

Attend a seminar (or watch online) to learn more about applying for this grant:

Seminar / Panel Dates & Locations:

New York City & Streamed at www.free103point9.org
November 13, 2008, 6:30 p.m.
Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI)
535 West 22nd Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10011
(212) 337-0680

Catskill
December 4, 2008, 6:30 p.m.
Greene County Council for the Arts
398 Main Street Catskill, NY 12414
(518) 943-3400

free103point9 is pleased to announce the 2009 Distribution Grant for New York State Artists providing support for the distribution of new works in film, video, sound, new-media, and media-installation. This grant is for completed works only.

Funding is available from free103point9 through a regrant from New York State Council on the Arts' Electronic Media and Film Program. Grant awards will assist artists in making works available to public audiences and may include, but are not limited to: duplication of previews, screening, and exhibition copies of moving image and sound works; promotional materials including documentation and schematics of media-installation and new-media works. The rental or purchase of equipment for exhibition/distribution by individual artists is also eligible. Artists may request funding support up to a maximum amount of $10,000, with the typical grant amount awarded generally lower.

New to the Distribution Grant this year, successful applicants will also be awarded the additional opportunity to work with a project consultant. This mentor will have expertise in the grantees' specific genre of media art.

Application Guidelines, FAQs, and Resources will be available at http://www.free103point9.org/nysca in October 2008.

free103point9
www.free103point9.org
regrant@free103point9.org
(518) 622-2598
(917) 297-1537

Conflux curator spotlight: Tianna Kennedy

From Conflux blog:

Tianna Kennedy is a Brooklyn, New York-based cellist, sound and transmission artist, curator, events coordinator, adjunct professor, writer, and the NYC Program Director of free103point9, a non-profit transmission arts organization. Kennedy churns out events like an event-churning machine with the help of fellow activists, artists, and friendly art organizations and is herself an active artist and cellist performing and showing locally and internationally. Kennedy co-founded the August Sound Coalition in 2004 and the Empty Vessel Project in 2005. Kennedy designed and taught “Radio Culture” and “Sight, Sound, and Motion” at Brooklyn College and has a MA in Performance Studies from NYU. Listen to an interview with Tianna Kennedy from Conflux 2008 Podcast #5 here.

FMC's Full Power Initiative — Shaking Up Radio

From Mike Janssen via Future of Music Coalition:

Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission presented a rare opportunity to revitalize local radio in communities across the country. For one week in October, nonprofit groups could apply to the commission for full-power FM radio stations. "This is the first time in more than seven years that applications would be accepted, and we saw this as an amazing opportunity for those communities that have fallen off the radio dial over the years," says Jean Cook, Deputy Director of Future of Music Coalition, a national nonprofit that works with musicians and music advocates.

FMC identified the more than 200 organizations that could benefit from having a full-power radio station. Along with Radio for People coalition, FMC worked to ease a process that would otherwise be daunting, connecting applicants with lawyers and engineers and guiding them through each step of the process. "In particular, we zeroed in on groups that would bring new and diverse music programming to the air," says Cook.

Commercial FM stations deliver narrow playlists of music in a limited range of genres. Meanwhile, public stations are cutting back on music in favor of more news and talk programming. Genres such as classical music are diminishing on radio, independent artists get little airplay and many other kinds of music are underrepresented. More independently owned and operated noncommercial stations on the air could take big steps to reverse this trend and restore musical variety to the airwaves.

Milwaukee is just one city where classical music is fading from the airwaves. It lost a commercial classical station several years ago, and no public station in the area offers the format. So with help from FMC, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra jumped at the chance to start an FM station.

"The possibilities that are represented by this license are just too good to pass up," says Martin Sher, who as an Orchestra Management Fellow with the American Symphony Orchestra League coordinated the MSO's efforts to prepare the FCC application. Operating a station would allow the MSO to provide classical music to its community, promote its own performances to a broad swath of the city's residents and create a new venue for its archive of recorded performances.

Sher found unexpected enthusiasm among community members for a new classical station as he navigated the many twists and turns of readying the FCC application. The president of Norlight Telecommunications, which owns the broadcast tower that the MSO hopes will host its transmitter," expressed real concern over the lack of classical programming" on the airwaves, Sher says. And staffers at the library in Saukville, Wisconsin, which is now hosting MSO paperwork required by the FCC, also shared encouragement, Sher says.

"We found cheerleaders throughout this process," he says, "and I found that personally very gratifying."

For some of the organizations who applied, starting a new FM radio station fit right in with their current activities. Berks Community Television in Reading, Pennsylvania, which already provides important local programming on a cable-delivered public access channel, was one of our most eager applicants.

A new FM station would allow BCTV to bring valuable community-focused programming to a new medium and expand its audience. It would also allow the nonprofit to include more music in its programming, a prospect that local musicians find particularly exciting, says Anne Sheehan, BCTV's executive director.

"This is the opportunity of a lifetime for us to do something that's relevant and that fits our mission — and may give us a whole new audience," Sheehan says. She confirms that applying was much easier that we initially anticipated. "It wasn't so bad, because I had people like FMC to turn to who could answer my questions and connect us with resources," she says. "I couldn't have done that by myself."

Like many activists and would-be broadcasters we talked with, Sheehan laments radio's current lack of diversity and localism. BCTV's entry into FM broadcasting could help to change that.

"There's a need for local noncommercial radio," she says, "because everything is networks. Even NPR. You can go anywhere in the country and listen to NPR, which I love, but there's no localness to it, no sense of community — unless they're doing fundraising."

The chance to provide a hub for community proved a strong draw for many applying organizations. Another is free103point9, an innovative nonprofit based in Acra and Brooklyn, New York, that is devoted to cultivating "transmission arts" — arts that use radio and other transmission technologies as their media.

A full-power FM station would provide a palette for the unique artworks that are free103';s specialty. From its inception, free103 "has always been, first and foremost, interested in what people can do with the airwaves," says Galen Joseph-Hunter, executive director. Because free103's mission statement claims the airwaves as a medium for artistic expression, "the ability to have a full-power educational station is actually very well aligned with that goal," she says.

Yet Joseph-Hunter envisions free103's FM station as more than just an aural art gallery. The station would also cover local news, politics and other issues and invite community members to shape programming. Residents of Acra can hear WAMC, a noncommercial NPR station originating from Albany, about 30 miles away. "But I've actually never heard anything about my town on WAMC," Joseph-Hunter says.

free103 is now researching its community's needs and considering partnerships with high school, community centers and other educational institutions. "Right now, the local arts community knows about us, and we're collaborating with that group quite well," Joseph-Hunter says. "I think this would be a way for us to engage people who aren't already integrated into the arts."

The would-be broadcaster has already found support among its community of artists and nearby residents, which proved crucial to completing its FCC application. Individual donors stepped forward to help free103 pay for the necessary legal and technical assistance, and Public Radio Capital, a member of Radio for People, provided a key matching grant. Such collaboration demonstrates both an appetite for local, community-focused radio and the strength of the nationwide support network for launching such stations.

Potential nonprofit broadcasters often err in expecting "that you really need all this expertise to apply," says Joseph-Hunter, "when instead what you need is money to hire the people with the expertise."

These three applicants — as well as hundreds of others from all over the country — must now wait several years as their applications trickle through FCC pipelines. Because their applications conflict with others, there's no guarantee that they will get their permits. But as they wait, the promise of providing local service and previously unheard programming to their communities is keeping their hopes high.

Meanwhile, these applicants and others across the country have raised their voices in support of low-power FM radio. A separate class of low-wattage stations licensed by the FCC, LPFMs are another kind of community-based media that can bring diverse local programming to the airwaves.

The FCC has already licensed hundreds of LPFMs around the country. Yet limits imposed by Congress and supported by large corporate broadcasters have prevented low-power broadcasters from reaching some of the country's biggest cities. Legislation now pending in Congress would lift these barriers, potentially expanding LPFM to reach many new listeners.

Want to support low-power community broadcasting? Learn more from our friends at the Prometheus Radio Project. Then call or write your representatives in Congress, and tell them you want to hear more radio that reflects your community!

About the author: 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.

The Dust Dive and Latitude/Longitude together

Latitude/Longitude and The Dust Dive collaborate on "Party Cove" at Campfire Sounds 2008 at the city of Hudson's Waterfront Park Sat., July 26, 2008. Video from Slink Moss.

Max Goldfarb joins free103point9 Transmission Artists

free103point9 is pleased to announce that Max Goldfarb has joined the free103point9 Transmission Artists. (Pictured: Ambulant Tranceivers (2008) in "Off The Grid," Neuberger Museum of Art. Photos: Left: David La Spina; Center: Max Goldfarb; Right: David La Spina.)

free103point9 works with this core group of 21 artists pioneering transmission as a medium for creative expression. This genre includes experimental practices in radio art, video art, light sculpture, and installation and performance utilizing the electromagnetic spectrum. Goldfarb's work is featured in two current and upcoming free103point9 projects: Ambulant Transceivers (2008) is on view in "Off The Grid" at Neuberger Museum of Art through September 14, 2008; and M49, a retrofit radio-utility truck (a Grumman Kurbmaster stepvan), which has been outfitted for mobile radio transmission and other additional applications will be presented in Mobile49 + free103point9 = Radio Walk at Denniston Hill on August 23, 2008.

The work of Max Goldfarb intersects many disciplines. His public works projects enjoin radio transmissions with infrastructures of the built environment, improvised radio-electronic objects, and performative architecture. Goldfarb's situational interventions explore conceptual properties of interference with strategies of unpredictability. His ongoing project M49, centers around a radio-utility studio housed inside a converted emergency vehicle, drawing together many facets Goldfarb's creative project.

Goldfarb graduated from the MIT Visual Studies Program in 2006 and currently teaches at Parsons. Goldfarb has exhibited his work at such venues as the SculptureCenter, NY; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY; Western Front, Vancouver, B.C.; Mjellby Art Center, Halmstad. Sweden; Art & Idea, Mexico City; De Stadgalerij, NL; and Fringe Exhibitions Space, Los Angeles, CA. His work will be included in the upcoming exhibit, Burocrazy at 99 Proyecto in Guatemala, curated by Ivan Navarro.

M49 Studio inventory: ...Video camera dashboard mount, Solar charging units, Enamel line striping mechanism, UHF scanners, Teakwood, NiCad rechargeable batteries, Quickrete, Bicycle-powered generator, Wire snips, PFD, Conductive thread, Urethane mold, Infrared laser, Resistors, Vacuum forms, Breadboard, Vintage first aid kits, Inverter, Telekey/lamp attachment, Firewood, Flagpole, Marine deep-cycle battery, Jumper cables, Oars, Hot glue, Magnifying glass, RC auto chassis, Greenwich SW radio frequency guide, Woodstove, Transformer, Pencil sharpener, Desktop microphone, Chemical disaster training suit, Mining helmet, Electrolytic capacitors, Chalkboard, Surveying equipment, Automobile compass, Torsion clamp, Amplifier, Velcro, QSL album, Custom Argonaut work suit, Glass cutter, Polyethylene tarp, LP transmitter, Tow strap, Nickel plated clippers, Soldering iron, Colored pencils, Inflatable outboard, Multi-band transceiver, Table saw, Post hole digger, Pup tent, Trebuchet. Coaxial cable, Ultracal, Trip sensor circuits, Screwdrivers, Emergency beacon, Transistors….

Click on http://www.free103point9.org/artists/991/ for more information about Goldfarb.

Mare Liberum: Day Long Boatbuilding Workshop

Benjamin Cohen, Dylan J. Gauthier, and Stephan von Muehlen's "Mare Liberum" is in free103point9's "Off the Grid" show up through September at the Neuberger Museum in Westchester County, New York. This workshop, building the boat, was filmed over the course of a single day at the Neuberger Museum, in Purchase, New York. Part of a series of workshops and performances for the exhibition "Off the Grid" April 2, 2008 at the Museum. "Off The Grid" features contemporary works which formally and/or conceptually challenge conventional and commercial infrastructures. Installations include works by Matt Bua; Brett Bloom; Benjamin Cohen, Dylan J. Gauthier, and Stephan von Muehlen; EcoArtTech: Christine Nadir and Cary Peppermint; eteam; Max Goldfarb; Louis Hock; Nina Katchadourian; Kristin Lucas; Joe McKay; Trevor Paglen; Seth Weiner; and Bart Woodstrup.

For more information see:
http://free103point9.org/events/1678/

Campfire Sounds 2008

Campfire Sounds is an annual avant folk festival organized by free103point9. "Free folk" bands perform each year at an upstate New York venue. This year "Campfire Sounds" is this Saturday, July 26, from 4-8 p.m. at Hudson Waterfront Park, with free admission and avant folk performances from MV & EE with The Golden Road, Latitude/Longitude, The Dust Dive, and Samara Lubelski. The Dust Dive and Latitude/Longitude open the show with a collaborative set, performing their songs in broader arrangements, including drums. This year's show is Part of City of Hudson Summer Concert Series, eight shows with a range of sites and sounds from May 31 to September 6 in Hudson, New York. Pictured above: Latitude/Longitude during Campfire Sounds 2006, photo by David La Spina.

Radio 4x4 at Noise! Festival plus Bunnybrains

This is an excerpt of the Radio 4x4 performance by Tom Roe, Giancarlo Bracchi, Michael Garafalo, and Slink Moss Friday, May 9, opening the Noise! festival that night at Ontological Theater in Manhattan. Radio 4x4 is a free103point9 project with four performers each performing into an FM transmitter, rather than a PA or amplifier. Instead, radios are spread around the space, tuned in randomly to the four "stations" with performances. This is from a YouTube video from Slink Moss.


And this is from Bunnybrains performance that same night at Noise!

Hudson Summer Concert Series

Hudson's Slink Moss has put together the Hudson Summer Concert Series, and free103point9 is co-sponsoring the series of eight free shows this summer in parks in the city of Hudson, New York. Slink writes, "A range of sites and sounds starting May 31 at the Waterfront and ending September 6 at the Fountain Park at 7th Street. Experimental. Rock. Jazz. Circus. Kids Rock. Reggae. Punk. Films. Performance. Fun. Diversity!" about the series. free103point9 will attempt to air each show live on free103point9 Online Radio. Here are the dates and performers:

*May 31: Bunnybrains, Family of Love, Franklin Mint, Hexual Ceiling, Neg-Fi, Norman Douglas, Tom Roe, and Slink Moss Orchestra.

*June 14: LoVid presents "Wirefull Flags" multi-media event after the fireworks.

*June 28: Mambo KiKongo, and DJ Tom Roe.

*July 12: J+H Projections (Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder of Ridge Theater) plus live drums.

*July 26: free103point9's Campfire Sounds with The Dust Dive, Latitude/Longitude, Samara Lubelski, and MV & EE with the Golden Road.

*Aug. 9: Big Blue Big Band.

*Aug. 23: Bindlestiff Circus; The Ping Pongs, and Wolfman Jason.

*Sept. 6: The Dangling Success.

free103point9 Online Radio Top 40 for May 2008

free103point9 Online Radio Top 40 for May 2008

1. The Roy Campbell Ensemble, Akhenaten Suite (Aum Fidelity)
2. Tall Firs, Too Old To Die Young (Ecstatic Peace)
3. civyiu kkliu + ilya monosov, cartolina postale (Winds Measure Recordings)
4. The Beige Channel, Enjoy Victoria Bay! (Happy New Year Recordings)
5. Rob Brown Ensemble, Crown Trunk Root Funk (Aum Fidelity)
6. Annea Lockwood, A Sound Map of the Danube (Lovely Music, Ltd.)
7. Sic Alps, A Long Way Around To a Shortcut (Animal Disguise)
8. Robert Ashley, Concrete (Lovely Music, Ltd.)
9. Jason Willet, The Sounds of Megaphone Unlimited (mT6records.com
With Jad Fair, Eye Yamatsuka, and others.
10. Various artists, Infinite Limbs (Infinite Limbs)
Family of Love, Teeth Mountain, and others.
11. autistic daughters, uneasy flowers (Kranky)
12. critikal, graphorrea (zeromoon.com)
13. Kenneth Gaburo, Maledetto Antiphony VIII (Pogus Productions)
14. asher-ubeboet, cell memory (Winds Measure Recordings)
15. Cristian Amigo, Kingdom of Jones (innova)
16. Radio Ruido, "False Rosetta" 2x7" (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 032)
17. Simon Wickham-Smith, love & lamenation (Pogus Productions)
18. White Rainbow, Prism of Eternal Now (Kranky)
19. Verdun, Two Archipelagos LP (eyland.org)
20. Latitude/Longitude, "Solar Filters/Mother Evening" 7" (free103point9 Audio Dispatch 031)
21. Jeff Martin + Evan Shaw, Piano Music (Barnyard Records)
22. Frank Rothkamm, just 3 organs (just.3.organs.frank.rothamm.com)
23. Barnyard Drama, I'm a Nawg (Barnyard Records)
24. Lori Freedman & Scott Thompson, Plumb (Barnyard Records)
25. Tatsuya Nakatani, Primal Communication (H&H)
26. Jeff Martin + Colin Fisher, Little Man on thr Boat (Barnyard Records)
27. Cloudland Canyons, Silver Tongued Sisyphus (Kranky)
28. William Parker + Hamid Drake, First Communion/Piercing the Veil 2xCD (Aum Fidelity)
29. Temperatures, Ymir LP (Heat Retention)
30. Mt. Wilson Repeater (Eastern Fiction)
31. Bruce Eisenbeil Sextet, Inner Constellation (Nemu)
Bruce Eisenbeil + Jean Cook + Nate Wooley + Aaron Ali Shaikh + Tom Abbs + Nasheet Waits.
32. Faking Trains, Instructions (Faking Trains)
33. Scott Smallwood, Electrotherapy (Deep Listening)
34. David Watson, Fingering an Idea (XI Records)
35. Stars Like Fleas, The Ken Burns Effect (Talitres)
36. Mike Wexler, Sun Wheel (Amish)
37. David S. Ware Quartet, Renunciation (Aum Fidelity)
38. Jeff Arnal + Dietrich Eichmann, LP (Broken Research)
39. Pauline Oliveros + Miya Masaoka, Koto Accordion (Deep Listening)
40. Theo Angell, Dearly Beloved (Amish)
Scott Smallwood, Desert Winds: Six Windblown Sound Pieces and Other Works (Deep Listening)
To submit CDs, LPs, CSs, etc. for consideration of airplay on free103point9 Online Radio, mail to:
free103point9
5622 Route 23
Acra, NY 12405

Distant stations and home entertainment hi-jinks

Week Two of BYOTV welcomes Brooklyn, NY’s free103point9 into the airspace with a collection of works from their affiliated transmission artists! Founded in 1997, free103point9 is a nonprofit arts organization focused on establishing and cultivating the genre Transmission Arts. This genre encompasses a diversity of practices and media working with the idea of transmission or the physical properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. Several transmission artists are featured in this week of BYOTV, expect exciting orchestrations of/in the electromagnetic environment! From shortwave symphonies in Tom Roe’s Snowstorm and Todd Merrell’s analog elegy The Last Transmission to Tianna Kennedy and Chad Laird’s Frankensteinian foray 18 19 20, LoVid’s CCRT Transcontinental Streaming Performance and other works, these transmissions are high-intensity!

Also! eClECTiC ELeCTRoNiCs!! On Saturday April 5th, 7pm and FREE!!

The Video Gentlemen will host their first “in-studio” event as part of BYOTV. A live showcase entitled Eclectic Electronics, this event will unfold in real-time. Improvisation and suspense await…anything could happen! Bring your own TV or use one in the gallery to tune in to the broadcast! Audience members can call-in to ask questions! The guests this eve are the audio-visual artists behind such local and regional acts as Instinct Control, Disjunct and Warning Broken Machine. Tonight, unfathomable televisual trajectories are explored as home entertainment systems are turned inside out, short-circuited and rewired to reveal new audio-visual capabilities. Pursuing circuit-bending and other vernacular electronic arts, Portland’s Ryan Dunn, Eugene’s Don Haugen and special guests engage in discussion and demonstration of these curious pursuits

Stars Like Fleas at Wave Farm

Stars Like Fleas July 2006 performance at free103point9's Wave Farm in Acra, New York.