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$6,000 Fine Cancelled by FCC!!

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Welcome to Free Radio Gainesville, the website for the Gainesville-based microbroadcasting station.

Contents on this Page:

Mission Statement | Schedule | Contact Us

FRG BookmarksLegal Documents

(Updated News! 05/09/2000)



Mission Statement

Free Radio Gainesville is a political radio station. As operators of a micro-powered broadcast station, we intend to educate, agitate, and activate our community for truth, justice, and freedom of expression. It is our mission to contribute to the radical media project of countering the deluge of corporate lies, half-truths and ommissions; to open up the airwaves to the wealth of cultural and political diversity that exists in our community; and to thereby build on the hard work of local radical media projects such as the Gainesville Iguana and the Civic Media Center towards constructing a more informed citizenry and a just, democratic, and equal society.

News

This site will provide information about Free Radio Gainesville as well as news and links to other sites in support of microbroadcasting.

Tuesday, May 9, 2000, 10:41 am

A lot of things have happened since last this page was updated. The following Action Alert from FAIR sums up most of it. The fight is still on. Please take the time to read this alert and use its links to make your voice heard.

ACTION ALERT: How to Save Low Power Radio

May 8, 2000

In January, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved a plan to license low power (or "micro") radio stations in many areas of the country, largely due to a campaign waged by a diverse coalition of public interest groups, churches and labor unions. The FCC planned to begin the licensing process for non-commercial radio stations operating at 10 watts and 100 watts.

However, an intense lobbying effort by the broadcast industry threatens to severely restrict the prospects for low power radio. The effort, which included National Public Radio (NPR), culminated in H.R. 3439, the "Radio Preservation Act," which passed in the House of Representatives on April 13.

If approved by the Senate, this legislation will have a dramatic impact: it will reduce the number of possible low-power stations by about 80 percent, delay the FCC's implementation of its plan to license any low power stations, and require a new round of technical tests that many public interest groups insist are unnecessary.
(See:
http://www.mediaaccess.org/programs/lpfm/2pager.html .)

Advocates for low power radio argue that the wave of concentration in the radio industry, especially since the Telecommunications Act of 1996, underscores the need for local, non-commercial broadcasters that better serve the public interest.

The Senate is expected to debate the bill to undermine the FCC's low power radio program (S.2068) in the next few weeks. This gives advocates for greater diversity on the airwaves a chance to communicate with their elected officials about the FCC's low power radio plan.

ACTION: Contact your senators and ask them to vote against S.2068, the broadcast industry's effort to stifle low power radio. Tell them that greater access to the airwaves, especially in a time of overwhelming media concentration, is an important first step toward a more democratic media structure.

To locate your senator's e-mail address, go to: http://www.senate.gov/contacting/index_by_state.cfm

The Senate switchboard number is 202-224-3121.

As always, please remember that your comments are taken more seriously if you maintain a polite tone. Please cc your correspondence to fair@fair.org

For more background on low power radio, go to:

--Media Access Project: http://www.mediaaccess.org

--Low Power Radio Coalition http://www.lowpowerradio.org

--FCC: "Frequently Asked Questions About Low-Power FM Radio" http://www.fcc.gov/mmb/prd/lpfm/lpfmfaq.html

Friday, November 5, 1999, 2:04 pm

Happy Friday! Not much to update except that I wanted to spread the word about Buy Nothing Day! for more info click here:

Buy Nothing Day

Also, the Hempfest is this weekend. Be there to support and learn more about medical marijuana and industrial hemp. Crash Pad will be headlining the event.

Tuesday, October 5, 1999, 10:41am

Today I fixed a bug in our legal documents area. You can now view the FCC's fine cancellation in its entirety.

Monday, October 4, 1999, 4:29pm

Wow! It's been a while since this page has been updated. I guess that while I'm dusting off the cobwebs I might as well let everyone know that Free Radio Gainesville is still happening (Note to FCC: Yeah! we're still here.) however, we are no longer on the air (Note to FCC: Don't celebrate just yet! Arrrrrr!). For the moment, we are continuing our campaign of consciousness raising through a series of teach-ins at the Civic Media Center (CMC) that will be held in the months to follow. For more info keep checking this website or stop by the CMC (probably more reliable). Keep an ear out will yah.Today I fixed a bug in our legal documents area. You can now veiw the FCC's Cancellation of fines in its entirety.

Sunday, April 4, 1999, 5:00pm

The New Schedule is up!!!

Thursday, April 1, 1999, 7:00pm

Press release March 24th 1999

Help B92 and the independent media in Yugoslavia Latest news at http://helpB92.xs4all.nl

Last night the transmitter of radio B92 from Belgrade was confiscated by the Serbian authorities. The editor-in-chief, Veran Matic, was held in custody in a police station for well over 8 hours. Despite this intimidation the station continues its independent news service. At De Balie in Amsterdam a support group has been founded tonight, which intends to support B92 and other independent media in Yugoslavia where possible in the continuation of these important news services.

With the support of internetprovider XS4ALL. B92 also transmits its signals via internet since december 1996. These digital broadcasts are picked up by the BBC Worldservice and retransmitted via satellite. Through a network of local radio stations the programs of B92 can be heard throughout Serbia, despite repeated attempts by the authorities to silence the station. At this moment it is still possible to follow the broadcasts of Radio B92 in realaudio on their website, at http://www.b92.net. In light of the current tense situation it is very likely that the possibilities of B92 to continue its independent news service will be limited even further. The support group therefore intends to take measures to distribute news by and about B92 from Amsterdam. For that purpose a special website has been opened at http://helpB92.xs4all.nl.

B92 is the backbone of the independent news service in Yugoslavia. Without immediate financial support this last source of independent news for the inhabitants of this region is endangered. A fundraising campaign is being started by the support group, in order to send money and equipment to B92 and other independent radio stations in Serbia and Kosovo as soon as possible.

The founders of the support group are: B92, De Balie, De Digitale Stad, Next 5 Minutes, Press Now, radioqualia (Australia), De Waag (MONM) en XS4ALL.

For more information or to send messages of support, please e-mail helpB92@xs4all.nl. You can also digitally support this initiative by copying the special logo onto your website and
linking to Help B92.

Tuesday, March 30, 1999, 10:45pm

Let me introduce myself, I am Allan, Webmaster in Training. Bear with me I'm new. Okay!!!! Anyway, I have the wonderful opportunity of keeping this page up to date with the latest in scheduling and current events in micro radio. Check in often cause there are a lot of changes and cool stuff coming (IE: an up to date schedule (what a concept), Show descriptions, more links, and much more). P.S. If you click on the schedule link you'll find a really bad scanned in copy of a "newer" schedule. The newest schedule should hit the streets this Wednesday. I plan on having it posted by the end of this week.

Monday, March 29, 1999, 9:05pm

As promised, I am starting to post to our webpage some of the legal documents we have filed. The next one that has been posted is our response to the Notice of Apparent Liability (N.A.L.) which was filed on 1/4/99. I also created a small index above to link to the legal documents that are currently up on the page.

Friday, March 26, 1999, 2:47pm

Not only has Free Radio Gainesville taken back it's spot on Gainesville's radio dial but we just received paperwork from the FCC notifying us that our fine of $6,000 was cancelled!!! Click here to see the actual letter we received!

More news later from the homefront . . .

Sunday, December 13, 1998, 11:34pm

As the site says at the top, Free Radio Gainesville was shut down on November 30th by the Tampa office of the FCC. Check out a narrative of the bust at the Radio4All website.

In response to this bust, we are holding a press conference and rally on Thursday, December 17th at noon at the "Free Speech Stone" in front of the Alachua County Courthouse in downtown Gainesville. If you are a member of the press, please contact frg@afn.org for a copy of our press release.

Please join us as we announce our plans for future action, including a campaign to educate the public about micro-radio and to agitate for the legalization of micro-powered FM broadcasting.

All across the U.S., regular folks, like us, are taking to the airwves to spread the word of hope, empowerment, and a vision of truly democratic and participatory broadcasting for themselves and their communities. We at Free Radio Gainesville are a part of this movement.

Monday, November 9, 1998, 3:50pm

We've got a kickin benefit coming up at the Covered Dish. Click here to see more.

It's going to be a split at the door between Free Radio Gainesville and the Civic Media Center.

Lot's of great bands have agreed to play and we're grateful to them. Hope to see everyone there. Just to summarize:

FRG/CMC Benefit
Covered Dish
Saturday, Nov. 14th,
Doors open at 8pm; show starts at 9pm
Cavenline, Mahoney, Rumbleseat, Keith Welsh, Jared Flamm & Devin Moore (of Noah's Red Tattoo), Pop Canon, and Slack Season

Also, we've started a morning show on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9am. Please tune in while you're driving to work. Mike & Mike bring you music, announcements, local, national and international news, and plenty of wackiness for all of you who are caffeine-dependent - they'll try not to make it too serious in the morning.

Friday, October 23, 1998, 6:56am

Here we go some more. Howard is now making some changes to the site since the schedule is WAY out of whack. I'm kinda teaching myself how to do this in the midst of my hectic-as-hell schedule, thus explains why I am doing this at 7am. The schedule still needs a lot of work. Please be patient . . .

Contact FRG through the following address: frg@afn.org