Presented at
HOPE Number Six (2006),
July 21, 2006, 9 p.m.
(60 minutes).
The Prometheus Radio Project started with radio pirates fighting for local groups to be able to run community radio stations. Over the years, Prometheus has sued the FCC to stop media consolidation, built stations in places like Venezuela and Tanzania, and experimented with using off the shelf wireless technologies to do for hundreds of dollars what commercial stations spend tens of thousands for. Prometheus fights for change by going straight to the pileup where technology, politics, and the media crash into each other. This panel will help bring you up to date on the political debates in Washington about low power FM, reforming the spectrum for wireless broadband access and other uses, and the grassroots organizing that can be done to reshape the media. A picture show of community radio barnraisings and stations that Prometheus has worked on around the world will be included.
Presenters:
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Dharma Dailey
Dharma Dailey is the Prometheus Radio Project's Spectrum Mama. In the mid 1990s, Dharma learned about an LPFM pirate radio station that broadcast out of a housing project in Illinois. As a teen mom who grew up in low income housing projects, she immediately recognized the potential of LPFM and wondered why something that was so good for community building was illegal for those who could use it most. Airwave access for everyone is still her dream.
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Andy Gunn
Andy Gunn joined the Prometheus Radio Project as the Technical Organizer in February of 2005. His primary responsibility has been to provide technical support to stations and applicants, as well as organize the technical aspects of barnraisings and the other projects Prometheus takes on. This includes expanding the Technical Services Program and creating documentation that people - not just engineers - can use to build their stations and train their staff. Andy believes strongly in demystifying the technology that surrounds us and enabling people to take on technical projects that are an excellent learning experience. He holds a BS in computer engineering from Columbia University.
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Hannah Sassaman
Hannah Sassaman is a rabble-rouser at the Prometheus Radio Project. She was a key organizer of major FCC localism hearings in San Antonio and Rapid City. She recently helped coordinate the successful building of an FCC licensed emergency radio station used by families displaced by Hurricane Katrina in Houston. Hannah regularly facilitates workshops, radio plays, and movement building discussions at Prometheus' radio barnraisings. Hannah has been featured in segments on NPR's On the Media, Democracy Now!, CNN, C-Span, and a variety of other television, radio, and print projects. She will spend much of this year on the road leading workshops on community wireless projects. Fresh to Prometheus from the Philadelphia IMC and the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, Hannah is banned from all official National Association of Broadcasters events.
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Pete Tridish
Pete Tridish was a member of the founding collective of Radio Mutiny, 91.3 FM in Philadelphia. He is also a founder of the Prometheus Radio Project. In 1997, he was an organizer for Radio Mutiny's demonstrations at Benjamin Franklin's printing press and the Liberty Bell. On both occasions the station broadcast in open defiance of the FCC's rules that prohibit low power community broadcasting.. He also worked on the first two micro-radio conferences on the East Coast and organized radio barnraisings in eight communities around the United States. He actively participated in the rulemaking that led to the adoption of LPFM. He sat on the committee that sponsored the crucial Broadcast Signal Labs study, which proved to the FCC that LPFM would not cause interference. Pete has helped to build a number of low power radio stations and provided advice to hundreds. He has done radio trainings in Guatemala, Venezuela, Nepal, Tanzania, and other countries. He has also spoken at colleges, coffee shops, living rooms, and even the CATO Institute. Pete has been interviewed in numerous media outlets all throughout the world. He and Kate Coyer contributed an article to the recent book News Incorporated. He holds a BA in appropriate technology from Antioch College.
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Anthony Mazza
Anthony Mazza received his BAS in sociology from Temple University in 2000. He began with the Prometheus Radio Project as a volunteer in the fall of 2002, joining the staff in 2003 as administration director. Since then, his primary responsibility has been to ensure a sustainable future for the organization. This includes working with the board of directors to establish both short term and long term development and fundraising goals, as well as organizing day-to-day administrative tasks, among other things. In addition, he is a leading organizer in the Philadelphia Independent Media Center and Radio Volta, a community-based Internet radio station in Philadelphia.
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