Americans for Radio Diversity Announces MPR Un-pledge Drive
for Immediate Release: Contact ARD at 612-874-6521
Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN -

Americans for Radio Diversity (ARD) and the co-sponsors listed below will be sponsoring a Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) un-pledge drive starting Nov. 10th. To kick off the drive there will be a rally in front of the MPR offices in St. Paul at 5pm that day. During the un-pledge drive we will be encouraging all past and current financial supporters (both individuals and businesses) of Minnesota Public Radio to withhold their donations in protest of MPR's continued efforts to overturn the FCC's creation of a Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service.

The new LPFM service is an effort by the FCC to provide local community groups, religious organizations, as well as ethnic and minority groups a voice in an increasingly consolidated radio market. In short, it is an effort to serve the local public interest. MPR, along with National Public Radio and the National Association of Broadcasters, has fought against LPFM with a series of disingenuous arguments about interference while ignoring numerous examples of just such a service peacefully coexisting with current stations.

By opposing LPFM they are attempting to keep local broadcasters off the air, and preserve the duopoly they and large corporations have on the nation's airwaves. This is an act unworthy of an organization itself formed to promote the public interest. The members of the organizations listed below do not relish taking this action against MPR. Many of us enjoy MPR's programming and have donated money to them in the past. We fought for them in 1995 when a Republican congress threatened to cut their funding and again in 1998 when they were criticized by Governor Ventura. We are very disappointed that MPR has now turned its back on its original mission to serve the public interest and seems to be operating like any other for-profit station trying to protect its market share.

Americans for Radio Diversity (http://radiodiversity.com) is a Minneapolis based non-profit organization who's mission is to promote community-oriented commercial and public radio broadcasting. The group was a participant in the proceeding that created the LPFM service, has been involved with the FCC's review of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and provides media and radio activists with news and action updates via its web site at http://radiodiversity.com.

Un-pledge drive co-sponsors:

Beat Radio (http://beatworld.com)
Media Alliance (http://media-alliance.org)
Microradio Implementation Project (http://microradio.org)
Prometheus Radio Project (http://prometheus.tao.ca)