There might very well be one. They are scattered all over, tiny little
stations with low watt transmitters generally, although some have fairly
strong signals - you can pick up WAIF on the outskirts of Cincinnati even a
little better than in the city. There is WFMU in NYC, which is by no means a
small player in the game. The politics of many of these stations tend to
veer to the left, which is one reason why they don't get listened to as much
as maybe they should. Music programming is all over the map, and you might
tune in one time and hear something you really, really hate, but on the same
station there might be some old timer spinning records from the 1920s, say,
on a Sunday afternoon.
Jerry Fabris, on this list, has an excellent show on WFMU, which plays
records from the Edison National Historic Site. I love it and listen to it
when I can.
I was hoping to find some single listing of all the various "community" (i.e
as opposed to "public") radio venues, but there isn't one. There is a
listing at the NFCB (National Foundation of Community Broadcasters) site,
but not all stations are necessarily members of this organization - WCBN and
WFMU are not, for example. It doesn't matter now as to low wattage - if you
have a web-stream, that levels the playing field, as anyone with a computer
can listen to the programming.
These stations, in a lot of cases, have been around for decades, a leftover
from the 60s and 70s approach to expanding access to media in the public
interest. The RIAA have not come after us full-bore quite yet - I don't know
the details, but right now a decision as how to collect from stations like
WCBN is tabled. We're such small potatoes, raising our own money from
donations and a slim amount of underwriting, that it isn't a priority. And
it is a problem in terms of enforcing the DMCA; a fair number of community
stations are based on Indian Reservations, and to pay to the RIAA the
equivalent of what they want could consume the entire revenue stream for an
Indian station for a calendar year, and he government didn't want to do
that. So now the decision is on hold.
We have set up a system whereby we record every music track played into a
database, so if they come calling, we're ready. So far as I know, no one has
shown up from the RIAA or any other concern at WCBN just yet. Is there
anyone else on this list who volunteers on community radio?
By the way, my show airs every other Thursday morning from 6-9am ET at
www.wcbn.org
I do it next week, my collaborator Keith Larsen does it this week, and he
also plays a lot of obscure stuff. I'm hoping to sign him up with ARSC this
year as he is very interested in attending the Wisconsin conference.
David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
My life is the clearest proof that if you have talent, determination and
luck, you will make it in the end: Never Give Up. - Sir Georg Solti
-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tom Fine
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 10:37 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mercury co-founder Irving Green passes
How do these stations afford to pay the yearly royalties to ASCAP and BMI?
Very curious -- and sure
wish there was one in this neck of the woods!
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Lewis" <davlew@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Mercury co-founder Irving Green passes
I'm a community volunteer radio programmer on WCBN-FM 88.3 in Ann Arbor,
based out of the University of Michigan. Many might feel that this is "there
for the grace of God go I" type radio, but I have been on community radio,
off and on, for a period of nearly 28 years - I was on WAIF-FM Cincinnati
for many years before I joined WCBN.
If you show up, have a broadcast license and can operate the gear, then they
don't worry about what you play, as long as there's no foul language.
Musically you can play practically anything. We do play a lot of classical
music on the station, it takes up roughly half of my bi-weekly three-hour
program, and others will even mix it in with the pop, jazz and other things
that they play.
My program is on the web, and I have listeners both locally and abroad. I
get fan email from places like Taiwan and Scotland.
David N. Lewis
Assistant Classical Editor, All Music Guide
1168 Oak Valley Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
734 887 8145
My life is the clearest proof that if you have talent, determination and
luck, you will make it in the end: Never Give Up. - Sir Georg Solti