3740 SW Comus Street
Portland, OR 97219
ph: 503-245-5756
fax: 503-245-5773
info
On the Call: Michael Brown, Tom Voorhees, Betty McArdle, Clay Leander, Jim Ellinger, Peter Franck, Michi Bradley, Karen Hazelwood (KXC R – Florence OR), Michael August, Al Davis, Ursula Reudenberg
FCC Updates: Michi says there still are growing pains with the LMS system. The bugs are being worked on. No projected date on when they will be fixed.
Translator relief. Michi has done a couple of Ex Partes with FCC staff on this. If there are any other organizations that want to make Ex Partes on that, get with Michi and she will hook you up with the right people. They are also telling the general public to contact their members of Congress to send inquiries to Chairman Pai. So far, Michi has heard from the entire Michigan delegation and hoping to hear from more soon.
FCC website functionality: Michael Brown said that there were three days last week when major swaths of the site were not working properly. What he found was that in the time between entering numbers and looking at the file later, the number had changed. Most have now apparently been fixed, but it would be a good idea to double check your filed docs to make sure the correct numbers and other information have been recorded. The instructions Michael got from the FCC this morning say to go ahead and file, and then amend pointing out the problem and what the entry should have been. Attach something drawing attention to that aberration in case it happens again. In some cases, you don’t know there’s a problem until after it has been filed. Once again, keep track of what has filed incorrectly so you can amend.
Michi added that she had instances where the amendment seemed not to make any difference and the original (incorrect) numbers were granted. Check the numbers again and again until the FCC gets them right.
Malawi project: Jim Ellinger reported on the radio building project in Rumphy Malawi. The major issue has been the tower. Michael Brown reported on the work he has done trying to get a steel tower. Currently, they are working on getting one shipped from Kenya. If all else fails, the Rumphy people will put up a tower built of bamboo. Jim says the project is at the half way point: they have a Go Fund Me page, Facebook page, a fairly big check from a station that owed Austin Airways, people working on the various parts of the project. There is enough funds to buy the equipment from the Dominican Republic and have it shipped. Two or three people would fly from the US using frequent flyer miles. The goal is to have equipment, tower and people on the ground in Malawi in mid-April.
They are starting to gather up laptops with audio editing capacity. Put out the word to your lists that they need laptops and the Go Fund Me page. Also need digital recorders and small portable radios. (Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, this project has been cancelled, or at least postponed, due to covid-19 and all that has happened with that.)
Peter Franck – Rights Licenses: He’s with an LPFM that wants to do live performances of plays. Does anyone know if one can get a blanket license for such a thing? Mike August has had some experience with this. He said there is not a blanket license but if one contacts the copyright holder, explains the non-commercial use, they could like have the royalties waived. But it will need to be done for each individual play. Karen said they have a similar
situation in that someone wants to read short stories over the air. Would that person need to contact the author or publisher? Yes, if they are going to read the whole story, or a substantial part of the story. If they are reading a small portion as in a book review, they would not need permission or pay royalties. This is sometimes referred to as the movie review exception. Peter recommends sending a letter to the copyright holder 30 days before the planned reading explaining what they want to do and asking the holder to let them know if there is an objection. It’s likely you won’t hear back.
Station Updates:
Austin: an LPFM (call letters not said), jazz format, got moved and broadcasting just fine. Clay said they just got approved to crank it up to 100 watts.
Many applications for license-to-cover are just sitting in the LMS system. It’s taking a long time.
Wimberley TX: Recently changed frequency and the signal is much better covering the entire valley.
Covid-19, community radio responses: Michael Brown has been thinking about what community radio stations are, or might soon be doing, to (especially) quell the panic, and get correct information out to listeners. We have been discussing this within Oregon with Oregon Community Media; discussions continue. Ursula said Pacifica affiliates have a monthly video meeting and the next one is going to be about this; what stations’ staff and volunteers can do to protect themselves and be on the air responsibly. The guy taking the lead is Mark Allen from WHIV who is an expert on infectious diseases. If anyone on this call today wants to be on that call, write to Ursula and she will send you an invitation. Also, Ursula is going to interview Mark Allen for a Sprouts show that will be broadcast.
Others shared some other things that are happening in regard to getting information out to their listeners. Betty said that if community stations broadcast useful and true information, in the future those listeners will come back for other situations that might arise. Tom noted that Democracy Now devoted their hour to covid-19 information.
Michael Brown and Betty are working with Oregon Community Media to try to produce Oregon PSAs.
There was discussion of some of the outfall from the covid outbreak: Colleges shutting down and going on-line, SxSW cancelled as well as other events.
Michael B went on to say there is so much rumor and mis-information out there, and hysteria, and hoarding even in areas that haven’t had any cases yet. What can we be doing to manage this? Discussion followed about other cancellations and other consequences of covid-19.
Conference Call Systems: Peter Franck brought up the issue of “We keep talking over each other.” He said some conference call options have a “hands up” feature. Peter will send contact info about a service he participates in with another group to Michael B and Betty.
Conferences and Trainings: Jim said so far GRC is still in October and still a go. October 15-18 GRC. Michi asked if these dates are confirmed and ready to be made public. Jim will look into it. Not everything has to be firm except the date in order to do some publicity.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, April 14, 11:00am PDT, 2:00pm EDT, 1:00pm CDT, 12:00 noon MDT.
Copyright 2009 Community Media Assistance Project. All rights reserved.
3740 SW Comus Street
Portland, OR 97219
ph: 503-245-5756
fax: 503-245-5773
info