Community radio

This is a letter from the Free Press Action Fund, a nonpartisan organization working on media reform, urging people to contact our senators about a bill to get more voices into the public dialogue, via community radio. The letter also asks people to spread the word about this campaign via social media, and to check out their allies in media decentralization, the Prometheus Radio Project, www.prometheusradio.org.


In these times of extreme partisanship, there’s at least one thing Congress can agree on: We need more local voices on the public airwaves.

A bill that could create thousands of local radio stations has united political foes like Barack Obama, John McCain, Ron Paul and Bernie Sanders. But despite this bipartisan support, the Local Community Radio Act has been stopped in its tracks by a secret hold in the Senate.
And now time is running out, which is why we urgently need your help to get the Senate to pass this important bill.

Call Sens. Rockefeller and Manchin now and urge them to ensure Congress passes the Local Community Radio Act — before the clock runs out on the 111th Congress.

Imagine what we could do with all of the local radio stations this bill would help create:
-Communities could air shows about the issues that matter to them, instead of being subjected to channel after channel of shock jocks and predetermined playlists.
-Local music could replace the endless cycle of corporate record labels pushing the same songs day after day.
-We could flip the dial to finally hear our own neighbors talking to each other about the things that affect our lives.

This is what local radio could sound like, but only if this bill passes. Otherwise, radio will be exactly the same — bland, monotonous and disconnected from our communities.
Congress needs to know that we want better radio in our communities. Please call Sens. Rockefeller and Manchin immediately and tell them to vote for local radio before the clock runs out on this Congress.

--Submitted by Windy Cutler