SF Examiner Coverage of Planned Protest at NAB Radio Convention
source: San Francisco Examiner

"I don't think anything can stop microbroadcasting," said Captain Fred of Berkeley's pirate radio station 104.1 FM. "It's like stepping on a mushroom. If you step on it, what you're going to get is more mushrooms."

The mainstream broadcasting industry's attempt to step on a Federal Communications Commission plan to issue hundreds of noncommercial low-power FM radio licenses has produced precisely that effect: more microbroadcasters seeking to fill blank spaces on the dial with grass-roots programming.

The National Association of Broadcasters may feel the full impact of the movement it has stirred up when 7,000 station owners and executives arrive in San Francisco for its national radio convention Sept. 20-23, at which Gen. Colin Powell will be the keynote speaker.

Air pirates and low-power FM license applicants and their supporters will link up in what figures to be the climax of "Micropower Summer" to protest what they regard as the corporatization of the nation's airwaves.

The theme, according to a flyer distributed on the Internet, is "media democracy now." ....

The protest at NAB's San Francisco radio convention is being organized by a coalition that includes the Direct Action Media Network, Global Exchange, and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

visit mediademocracy.org for more information about the NAB Convention Protest

posted on August 07, 2000 12:47 PM