"...the FCC is arguably violating its
statutory mandate as well as the First
Amendment, by refusing to revisit the issue
[of the ban on very low power FM
broadcasting]...The Court finds that the
harm to the First Amendment rights of
Defendant and the public at large which may
result from enforcing the current
regulations, outweighs the slight showing of
interference proffered by the
government...."
In an almost textbook example of partnership with a growing and vital movement of committed activists, the Guild through its Committee on Democratic Communications (CDC) has been forging a new area of law and giving a vital democratic movement the legal and moral space in which to grow.
From "pirate" radio to "micro" radio; from defiantly tweaking the nose of authority to developing grass roots, effective, cheap means of piercing the media screen, the Guild and the micro radio movement have been working together to open the radio spectrum.
In an unprecedented move, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, on January 20th, refused to grant the government an injunction against the admittedly unlicensed low power broadcasting of Free Radio Berkeley.
For years it has been the law that in order to broadcast over the air, one must have a license. Since the 1970's, the FCC has refused to consider even an application for a license for less than one hundred watts of power. The first level of the license application process involves a pile of forms half an inch thick and a $2,900.00 filing fee. In short, without mega bucks and access to high-priced Washington lawyers, there is no way a citizen can obtain a license to broadcast.
Five years ago, the CDC received a plea for help from Mbanna Kantako, an unemployed, blind black man who had scraped together a few hundred dollars for a couple of black boxes which when connected to a microphone and an antennae wire out his housing project window, put him on the air with one watt of power. Mbanna had been involved in organizing the tenants in the John Jay Homes public housing project in Springfield Illinois. He went on the air as WTRA (W. Tenant's Rights Association). WTRA was the only station serving the Springfield African American Community. It broadcast music, community news, recorded speeches and much else. Much of the programming and operation of the station was done by Mbanna's sons and other youth from the community. No one bothered them for almost two years, until some kids in the projects reported that housing authority police beat them up. Mbanna put them on the air to tell their story and surprise! The next week the FCC, backed by the local police, was there to shut him down.
The CDC had been looking at issues of media reform and had held a major symposium at the 1989 Guild convention on the responsibility of the media under international covenants (against racism, for women's rights and the like). The CDC recognized the importance of radio done cheaply and easily by people, we saw it as the grass roots "green media" of the future.