Month: March 2001

More Mbanna: The V-Man from Freak/Free Radio Santa Cruz posted on-line an interview he did with Mbanna Kantako, who recently returned the unlicensed Human Rights Radio to the air in Springfield, IL. It’s in mp3 format at the global Indymedia site. Click here to go to that interview.

Paying for ‘Net Media? The New York Times reports this morning that Major League Baseball will begin charging to listen to baseball games on the net. Although the charge is pretty small–$9.95 for the whole season–it nonetheless marks a change in a medium where folks are generally used to getting content for free. I bring…

Human Rights Radio Is Back On the Air! The pioneering Springfield, IL microradio broadcaster Mbanna Kantako was raided by the FCC and local authorities twice last year, after operating his unlicensed Human Rights Radio for more than ten years. I just received word from his frequent spokesperson Mike Townsend, a University of Illinois-Springfield professor, that…

I’m baaack! I was on vacation in Europe, visiting the UK, Belgium and Holland, and now I’m back to keep blogging on. I didn’t hear much radio while on the Continent–I didn’t bring one with me–but what little I did hear in public places sounded just as repetitious and vapid as commercial US radio. And…

Mediageek Vacation There will probably not be any new posts to the site for the next week or so as I take a needed vacation away from the ‘net. (Although if some major shit goes down, I’ll be pained not to post it.) But in the meantime, if you’re new to the site, check out…

Radio Radio I have a couple of short articles about radio I’d like to bring to your attention. The first is by Robert McChesney, professor of communications at the Univeristy of Illinois, entitled “Farewell to Radio,” which praises the medium for it’s simplicity, low cost and effectiveness, but mourning it’s perversion at the hands of…

LPFM Resurrection? Jon Anderson at About’s Pirate Radio page has some more reportage on McCain’s attempt to resurrect low-power FM, along with a report on the FCC’s presecution of Doug Brewer, the former “Party Pirate.” The Feds are trying to take away his ham radio licenses due to his microbroadcasting past.

Klose Encounter, the third try: I still haven’t had the time to properly write up my “interview” with Kevin Klose, head of NPR, but I did discuss it for a half hour on Radio Free Conscience last Sunday. I taped the program and now I have it on-line for listening in Real Audio. Click here…

More on NPR Prez Kevin Klose: First, apologies for not finishing the Klose Encounter story. My excuse: my cable modem was out all weekend (leaving me a strung-out cable-modem-junkie — damn those things are like crack). But, WILL, last week’s host to Mr. Klose, has posted on-line the program where I questioned him about low-power…

McCain Trying to Resurrect LPFM? John Anderson of pirateradio@about.com pointed me to the story that Sen. John McCain has introduced a new low-power FM bill into Congress. Apparently this bill intends to undo some of the crippling of LPFM by Congress last year. The question is: Is it too late, and will any other member…