There is a brilliant media project going on in Minneapolis this week. I heard about it just recently while listening to NPR on my drive home from work. As you probably already know, the depressing state of media today is that it is becoming homogenized and merged into one big corporate dictatorship — companies like ClearChannel and AOLTimeWarner decide what you listen to and what bands come to play in your city. Television and radio play lip service to corporate and political sponsors, top-40 pop hits, and anything else in the name of the dollar. Such a monopolistic hold on the airwaves is simply unacceptable.
Enter Pirate Radio. Quite a simple concept with many interesting implications. Ameteur radio enthusiasts are gathering in droves in Minneapolis and learning how to build thier own low wattage radio transmitters. These transmitters have a practically useless range of only a block, but it is a great starting point. The FCC has reserved the radio band 97.7 for low power transmitters and operating your own station is completely within your legal rights. These low power transmitters can be operated portably as well. Imagine broadcasting your own radio station from an iPod in your car while stuck in traffic!
I drove around my block the other day with 97.7 locked on the dial in hopes of catching someone broadcasting some home brewed propaganda. Unfortunately, there was nothing but soft white noise. If we can create higher power transmitters and set up some sort of central tracking system on the web to pinpoint the location of these pirate transmitters, we will be on our way to building a truly democratic media outlet.
4 Comments
Jump to comment form | comments rss [?]