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Fact Sheets

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Factsheets

Fact sheets, handouts, one-pagers, how-tos, take actions: This section archives the many documents that Prometheus has created over the years to demystify the technological and bureaucratic challenges of producing your own media or impacting media policy. Most of these documents are also housed in relevant sections of the site, but here you can also browse the full collection of Prometheus educational materials. (Or check out the Required Reading page for a shorter list of our favorite articles.)

Translating the Translator Issue: The Next Step Towards Getting Low Power Radio in Our Cities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Best laid plans...Two new studies show dangers of a translator “ten cap” at FCC

Update July 12, 2011: The FCC released new rules on July 12th that propose a market-by-market analysis to ensure space for new LPFMS, nd asking for public comment.  Now is the time to weigh in with the FCC on translators.  Stay tuned for more information about submitting comments, and see our press release for more information about the proposed. 

If Congress gives the FCC a green light, we may soon have hundreds of new community radio stations, some in the largest cities in the U.S. Yet two studies released by Common Frequency show that a well-intentioned FCC plan may actually gut the potential of community radio. Intended as a compromise, this plan would actually hand over the vast majority of open frequencies to companies that already own stations, keeping community radio off the dial in urban areas.

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IPAWS, CAP, FEMA, and EAS: The new emergency warning system and the acronyms that go with it

If you work with a radio station, there's something new you need to know about emergency alerts! The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is getting ready to implement the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS is a system for sending emergency messages to the public through the Internet using the new Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). The new system will allow community radio stations to provide another level of emergency warnings to listeners, but it will cost most stations thousands of dollars to implement.

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Resources for writing the FCC about translators

Resources for writing the FCC about translators

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Media ownership: what's changed and what hasn't

Brandy Doyle
April 15, 2010

Do you think bigger media companies, further deregulation, and fewer independent local voices will solve the crisis in media? Despite all the evidence that consolidation hurts local media, the FCC still isn't sure.

As part of its 2010 review of the media ownership rules, the FCC is holding a public workshop in Tampa, Florida on April 20, 2010 to consider its longtime ban on cross-ownership. Ending the ban (as the FCC tried to do in 2003 and 2007) would allow a single company to own the newspaper and the television or radio station in the same market.

Media activists may remember past rounds of FCC media ownership hearings that brought thousands of people out nationwide to protest media consolidation. The 2010 events have been...different.

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