A while back I spoke a fair bit on this blog about Low Power FM radio, and the trials and tribulations of the various operators all competing for elbow room in the Auckland marketplace. After a bit of organisation, they all lived more or less happily ever after.
Well, last night I was in London for a speech by American LPFM activist Pete Tridish of the Prometheus Radio project. It was the second time I’d seen him speak. Last time was in Wisconsin – and it struck me again – this time even more – that what we mean when we say LPFM are two entirely different phenomena.
The Prometheus Radio Project grew out of the coming together of several political activism movements: workers’ rights, environment, immigrant rights, gay rights, anti-globalisation, and so on.
And the one thing they found they all had in common, despite the increasingly sophisticated methods at their disposal, was that their impact was fleeting.
They would stage a protest outside City Hall, and they would get on the news. Their point would be made in 30 seconds in a television news bulletin, but then the people about whom they were making the point would get long interviews to put their case and paint the protestors as misinformed troublemakers.
The problem? No ownership and control of the media.
Efforts revolved around a Philadelphia pirate station called Radio Mutiny, who defied FCC threats and gained a lot of press as a result.
Although the chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell (Colin’s son, as it happens) was eventually able to impose enough of his blanket neo-liberal reforms on American spectrum management, such that Clear Channel and the like were able to operate under legislated protectionism, the Court of Appeals pulled the rug out from under him somewhat by allowing some community radio.
The Prometheus Radio project enables community groups to start their own broadcasting centres, by holding ‘radio barn-raisings‘ – public events that are essentially weekend-long parties in which the station is built, put to air and officially opened.
In other words, these guys are heroes. From a starting point of civil disobedience and political activism, they have been called upon to help start stations in Nepal and Guatemala – and now, Pete Tridish is in the UK at a time when the British Government is considering a ‘third tier’ of broadcasting: local community radio.
Measure that against the New Zealand situation. In Aotearoa, there is, simply, nothing to kick against. Dissident politics are meaningless in a field where you’re more or less allowed to do whatever you want.
Perversely perhaps, as a result, LPFM in New Zealand is both common and largely bland. You can hear Phil Collins on low power radio in New Zealand. You will almost never hear people organise and talk about freeing the airwaves from corporate control.
Perhaps on the back of George FM‘s seeming commercial success after its modest beginnings, many LPFM operators smell the opportunity to create a business – not change society, or reinforce a community.
There are, of course, exceptions to this – and I wouldn’t trade the New Zealand broadcasting political climate for the American one for a moment.
I just note this as another example of unintended (and unexpected) consequences. The more you try and shut down alternative voices, the louder they get.
And the reverse seems to apply.
come on Dubber, what a load of horseshit you speak, iv,e just read your account of n.z. lpfm, if you were here i’d get Tame Iti to come over to A.U.T. and give you a little tap on the head with his mere to wake you up, common and bland indeed, let me bring you up to date, radio chomsky is now broadcasting all around the country, arron has run himself broke over it, such is his passion, the iwi stations are giving it heaps on the forshore. Base, Fleet and k.f.m. have all had soundclashes, a N.Z. first for radio stations, lpfm in n.z. is with the odd exception, vibrant, engaging, political and alternative, altogether a breath of fresh air over the wireless. by the way, the lpfm society in my opinion is a load of old cobblers, a bunch of guys that are all overpowered and think that by forming their little boyscouts group they might get away with it a little longer.
kindest regards, don’t forget to listen to the mighty K. on line http://www.kfmradio.co.nz. john greet
That’s what I like about you so much, John – you say exactly what you think the moment it occurs to you. It’s exactly why you should be involved in the LPFM group – your involvement would cure it of all you accuse it of.
Good to see your name here, and thanks for engaging.
And ‘Go the iwi stations!’ on the foreshore thing. That’s exactly what they’re for. More power to them.
You did misunderstand my use of the word ‘common’ though. I wasn’t meaning it in the class sense, but in terms of the fact that LPFM stations are not rarities in NZ.
You didn’t misunderstand my use of the word bland. In terms of representational diversity, LPFM stations collectively in NZ have a lot of room to move. For the most part, what’s being played on air are variations within a fairly narrow band of popular musical forms. There are variations on the dance music categories and variations on the nostalgic music categories.
That said, I’d have loved to have gone to the Base/Fleet/KFM soundclashes. Those would have been good parties.
I disagree that most LPFM stations in NZ are political and community orientated, but don’t dispute that KFM is both of those things – and I certainly take nothing from Aaron’s Chomsky FM which, once the initial teething problems were sorted out, improved the diversity and quality of station choice in NZ. Wouldn’t it be great to get some NZ alt-politics voices onto that station now that the broadcasting infrastructure is set up? Something actually about New Zealand would make Aaron’s station a powerful force for good.
I’m less cynical about the LPFM group than you – partly because I started it going, but mostly because I think that even the appearance of an orderly infrastructure will be enough to keep the airwaves open to people like you who just want to broadcast. The absence of such a body would have been untenable for much longer, and I’m convinced that the clashes between operators in the Auckland area, without a method of dispute resolution, would have caused the shutdown of the guard band by now.
Say hi to Tame for me. He’s welcome over here with his mere any time… though I’d much prefer he aimed it at some of the OfCom representatives that are dithering about Community radio right about now.
And please keep the comments coming. Knowing you’re reading this will keep me honest, and it’ll help make sure I’ve thought this through properly.
PS: I’m listening to KFM now…