is limited to those who own a press. That’s a pretty old statement, but it’s true.
A few years back, Congress approved something called Low Power FM (LPFM) which basically is a regular FM radio station with very low power. The signal just covers a few miles, but the lisence is cheap. Not so cheap that *I* have one, but cheap enough that a church could get one to broadcast its sermons a few miles out.
These are very popular with hardcore radio geeks as you can imagine, and equally UNpopular with big radio corporations, who don’t want competition from Free Thinking pissant radio geeks.
The original motion that Congress approved was a curtailed version, restricting the number of lisences available quite significantly. This week LPFM lisence holders are meeting in D.C. to tell their stories of success and failure to their Congress-persons, and there’s significant hope that a larger number of lisences will be approved. More info from NPR.
This puts me strongly in mind of an Open Source Internet, where the individual has a much better chance of being heard, and getting their message out there. Proponants of the movement argue strongly that Freeing the speech of The People can only strengthen our country. I tend to agree.
The only beef I have with LPFMs is that so far, they are repeaters for existing Christian stations; or they are done by schools/churches who offer little of substance, value, or quality on their signals unless they’re repeating a regular broadcast.
That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I would be annoyed by that too, but on the other hand, if it doesn’t exist, it can’t be made into something cooler either.
They’re about 10 grand, you wanna throw in for one and do it right? 😉