[Kzyxtalk] Give low-power radio a hand up.

[Marco McClean]

Subject: Give low-power radio a hand up.

Hi. Marco here.

Unlike high-power noncommercial so-called public radio stations, 
low-power ones like KNYO-LP get nothing for free from the government, no 
annual six-figure CPB grants of treasure, no priceless permission to 
reach farther than a few short miles in any direction.

And unlike high-power /commercial/ radio stations, low-power ones like 
KNYO-LP are not permitted to sell advertising. We can't simply accept 
money in exchange for saying nice things about a business or service and 
never permitting anything to be even implied on the air against them, 
much less said, however true. For if advertising were allowed, it might 
cut a /microscopic/ amount out of the money flow of established 
high-power stations, and the broadcasting industry effectively 
controlled the FCC, rather than the other way around, to write this into 
the law that allowed low-power stations in the first place.

So a low-power radio station is a special kind of underdog. Radio is 
pretty cheap to do, but it's not free; there's rent (it's mostly rent) 
and water and electricity and music publishers' fees, and so on. I'm 
asking you to help out your local low-power station with a year-end 
donation of some money to keep operating.

*Go to https://knyo.org and poke the big red heart, think about what it 
would make you feel best to give, and do it.

I'm grateful that the people who run KNYO let me do my show there. I've 
been there for nine years now, after almost 15 years at KMFB, which is 
no more, as you know, and four or five years, on and off, on KMEC, which 
also is no more. I don't mind not being paid to prepare all week for, 
and then put on, my eight-hour all-night show every Friday night, 
because at KNYO no-one, not even the manager, is being paid. Everyone is 
there purely for capital-R Radio. If it's no trouble for you to help the 
station, please help, preferably with money, see above*. If you'd like 
to do a show on KNYO, you can, either from the studio on Franklin Street 
or, with remarkably cheap equipment, from anywhere you have reliable 
internet service. It's easy and fun. Email bobb at poetworld.net (Bob 
Young) and start the ball rolling. Maybe you want to play your niche 
record collection. Maybe you have an idea to do something with radio 
that no-one's ever done before. The medium's possibilities certainly 
have not been exhausted. There is no radio station anywhere where the 
radioperson is more free to fly.

Have a happy new year. Send me what you write on any subject and I'll 
read it on the radio Friday night. And don't forget to smile with your 
bottom teeth.


-- 
Marco McClean, memo at mcn.org
https://MemoOfTheAir.wordpress.com