Public Broadcasting’s Emotional Rollercoaster
With the exceptions of murder, divorce, and the long-lost
brother of an estranged ex-lover slipping into a coma, the events affecting
public broadcasting over the past month have unfolded in a manner akin to the
plot of a soap opera. The changing political climate in public broadcasting has
been quite visible, including right-wing motivated content investigations of
PBS programs suspected of promoting a left-wing agenda, as well as a suspicious
and unexpected resignation of the CPB’s former President, politically-neutral
Kathleen Cox, which led to the appointment of former RNC co-chair Patricia
Harrison (who has no experience in broadcasting) to the post. Other recent
drama in public broadcasting included the ousting of PBS mainstay and public
affairs host Bill Moyers (a change driven by republican CPB Chair Kenneth
Tomlinson’s content investigation), a movement in Congress to cut CPB’s budget
by $100 million, which led democratic senators to call for Tomlinson’s
resignation, a pathetic puppet plea, and finally a House vote against cutting
the CPB’s funding. In spite of all this, cuts in funding for
technical upgrades and educational programming on PBS remain in the pipeline.
U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against File Sharing Companies
Peer-to-peer file sharing software companies may now be held liable for acts of copyright infringement committed by individual users, thanks to a case brought to the U.S. Supreme Court by the MPAA and RIAA. Originally touted as a possible reversal of the 1984 Betamax decision, which allowed a Sony videocassette recorder onto the market even though it could be used to copy protected works, this most recent ruling promises not to threaten technologies that embody "substantial non-infringing uses." Before this decision, companies producing technologies that might allow someone to duplicate copyrighted material were never held responsible if someone was caught using their creation to do so; individuals who actually violated copyright laws were held responsible for their own illegal activities. Apparently Grokster and Morpheus, the peer-to-peer companies involved in the case, "actively and knowingly encouraged piracy," and this is why they will be held responsible (even though both have legitimate uses that do not involve illegal filesharing). Read more about the murky road we're headed down, then buck up, becase there is some hope for circumvention.
FCC Raids Pirate Station in VT
Unlicensed 10 W Radio
Free Brattleboro was raided by the FCC on June 22; all operations have ceased as their broadcasting equipment was confiscated. RFB is now asking the FCC to return their equipment.
70th Anniversary of FM Celebration Honoring FM's Inventor, Major Edwin Howard
Armstrong
The event was held at Alpine Tower in Alpine, NJ, the site of the first FM broadcast in 1935, and was broadcast on the original
frequency used by Armstrong. Read about the event here, and for more on Major
Armstrong, check out this article written by Chris T. from an old issue of LCD.
Fake Police Get in the Way of the Real Police
Does a week pass when a casual stroll about
Manhattan doesn’t lead one to stumble across a taping of Law & Order? The
FCC recently busted the TV show for using high-powered walkie talkies on-location that
interfered with NYPD radio communications. Read the story here.
Other radio headlines from the past month:
- NYC’s Oldies station WCBS switches to Jack format
- Caffeinated gibberish: Cleveland radio personality and complete wacko, Murray Saul, on
WFMU’s Aircheck program
- Read about a recent radio roundtable discussion
on the WTC attack
- The FCC rails against
payola
- Radio listening via computer on the rise, conventional radio listening declining
- Nepalese government restricts news disemination on radio broadcasts, activists are now reading the news on rooftops using megaphones in protest
- Drunk listener breaks
into NZ station, offers critique
- WFMU's own Dave the Spazz
reminisces about the lost era of Top 40 radio
- Online art gallery of Rush Limbaugh propaganda
- Read about Prophet Yahweh, who explains his plan to summon UFOs to earth in
the coming weeks
Comments