Re: <nettime> Comment on Paul Miller's Entertainment Nation

[nick knouf <nknouf@media.mit.edu>]

On Jun 18, 2006, at 9:50 PM, Kali Tal awrote:
> Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2006 07:29:37 -0700
> From: Kali Tal <kali@kalital.com>
> Subject: Re: <nettime> Comment on Paul Miller's Entertainment Nation
>
> I'm with you, Paul. How do you suggest we go about it, though? A
> television boycott? A movie boycott? A movement towards live
> entertainment? A coalition that is geared towards recreating a non-
> mass-media social life?
> [...]
>
> At the same time, we need to figure out how to start creating a real
> alternative media.  The problem is that corporations buy up all the
> small guys and the FCC is set up to make it next to impossible for
> ventures with little capital to jump the hurdles that will allow us
> into the game.  But it's far from hopeless. I can tell you one group
> that's gotten around this in an interesting way: The Nature
> Conservency (http://www.nature.org/).  They raise funds and buy lands
> that are threatened with environmental degradation.
> [...]

I understand that it would require the raising of more money than any
progressive group that I know of has raised before, but the FCC _does_
auction off frequency bands occasionally:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm?job=auctions_home

What if a progressive organization were able to purchase spectrum
for our own uses? What if we didn't let mass media "own" all of the
frequencies? Of course there are certain philosophical issues with
playing by the same rules as everyone else; I, along with others on
this list, I would suspect, am against any one corporation "owning"
a band of frequencies. But just as the Nature Conservancy buys up
land to prevent it being used by multinationals, we too could buy up
frequency space to prevent _it_ from being used by multinationals.

Perhaps the organization would simply let the frequency band
be fallow; perhaps we'd create the infrastructure to allow the
underrepresented a place to allow their dreams, their grievances to be
heard. Far fetched? Perhaps, but Pete Tridish and the Prometheus Radio
Project (http://www.prometheusradio.org/) has already helped many
people apply for local low-power FM radio stations: organizations that
provide local news and entertainment in an age where many rural radio
stations are entirely unmanned.

To be honest, I haven't looked into the purchasing of spectrum further
than a quick perusal of the FCC site, but it might be an analogous
option.

Cheers,

nick knouf



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