Community Radio Reports WSF 2007
From January 20 through the 25th the 7th annual World Social Forum will be meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together activists, social movements, networks, coalitions and other progressive forces for five days of cultural resistance and celebration.
Community radio broadcasters from around the world will be stepping up to bring coverage of this important event to radio stations and the internet in English,
French, Spanish, Italian, German and other languages.
This collaborative broadcast is coordinated by the World Association of Community Broadcasters, AMARC.
Beginning in 2001 in Porto Alegre, the World Social Forum rallies around the clarion call of Another World Is Possible, placing social justice, international solidarity, gender equality, peace and defence of the environment on the agenda of the world’s peoples.
The theme for the 2007 forum is “People’s Struggles, People’s Alternatives”
Live internet broadcasts and downloadable podcasts of AMARC coverage of the World Social Forum will be available at wsf.amarc.org. The World Social Forum website is www.wsf2007.org.
Bills Introduced to Use Fallow Spectrum
Listeners to mediageek are probably familiar with the fact that typically licenses from the FCC are necessary to make use of the electronic spectrum, whether is broadcast radio and TV, two-way radio, or satellite communications. But there’s still an awful lot of pieces of the spectrum that aren’t yet allocated to any particular use.
Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire just introduced what he calls the “White Spaces Act of 2007” which would provide access to unassigned or unused portions of the broadcast spectrum between 53 and 698 MHz. The bill would allow unlicensed use of empty channels within 90 days of when the bill is enacted, or by Oct. 1 of this year, whichever comes first.
A week beforehand Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts introduced a similar bill, the Wireless Innovation Act, which specifies a 180 day window from enactment. The Sununu bill differs slightly in that it would also permit the FCC to make some licensed use of this spectrum, whereas the Kerry bill only has provisions for unlicensed use.
Examples of uses for empty spectrum include wireless internet, audio and video communication.
Or maybe even a new band for legal unlicensed radio? I guy can dream, can’t he?
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