Portsmouth Community Radio 106.1 FM will devote special programming to the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and to honor the victims.

Five programs will participate in the broadcasts over six days beginning Thursday, Sept. 8.

Anita Croteau, host of “This ‘n’ That With Anita” (Thursday, 3-5 p.m.) will devote her program to music commemorating 9/11, including “Angels and Heaven,” and honoring the first responders, some of whom now have illnesses as a result of being at Ground Zero on the day of the attacks and in their aftermath.

On Friday, “Radiogazette” (9-10 a.m.), hosted by Ann Haggart, the station’s news and public affairs director, will follow the story of two Seacoast colleagues and their families as the events of 9/11 affected their lives that day. Ellen Fitzpatrick, a University of New Hampshire professor of history and a scholar specializing in modern American political history, will join Haggart in a live discussion of the historical perspective of 9/11. As a presidential historian, Fitzpatrick often appears on the “PBS Newshour.”

Haggart will also interview Ken Feinberg, distributor of the 9/11 Fund, who will speak of the strength he drew on to complete his difficult task. Radiogazette will end with a poem written by a Seacoast author to commemorate the tragedy of that day.

On Sunday, Susan Tuveson, host of “Classical Combinations” (8-10 a.m.), will broadcast the Duruflé Requiem, as well as various works by American composers, in honor of the memory of 9/11′s victims and their survivors.

Also Sunday, PCR Music Director Angelynne Hinson, and frequent host of “Operaworks Radio” (5-7 p.m.), will air a special two-hour program. The first hour will feature “9/11: A Tribute At Dusk,” an original production created by Alexandra Borrie in September and October 2001. The second hour will broadcast Nils Lindberg’s “Jazz Requiem” and Stephen Hartke’s “Pacific Rim.”

On Sunday’s “The Free Speech Zone” (7-9 p.m.) host Brad Carr (“Big Brother”) will direct his attention to controversy: “While National Public Radio announces that ‘the facts of 9-11 are indisputable,’ at least half of all Americans do not believe the official narrative of that day and the events surrounding this attack on our country,” Carr said.

On “The Burt Cohen Show” (Tuesday, noon-1 p.m.), Cohen’s first guest will be Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild and professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, who will address how our rights have been affected by the reaction to the attacks of 9/11. During the second half of the show, from 12:30 to 1 p.m., Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, will discuss how our constitutional rights have been infringed upon since 9/11 and what might be done.

The programs will be available in archive form at portsmouthcommunityradio.org for two weeks following their broadcasts. For details, visit portsmouthcommunityradio.org.

original article here. http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20110908-NEWS-109080409

The author is policy director of the Prometheus Radio Project, which advocates for low-power community radio.

After three runs in Congress and 10 years of mounting grassroots pressure, the Local Community Radio Act was signed into law on Jan. 4. Radio lovers, would-be independent broadcasters and communities without access to local media are celebrating a new day for the radio dial.

Low-power stations save lives during emergencies, like WQRZ(LP) in Bay St. Louis, Miss., did in Hurricane Katrina, or KYGT(LP) did during a 2003 snowstorm in Idaho Springs, Colo. They give voice to underserved groups, like the Hmong community programs on KRBS(LP) in Oroville, Calif., or the disability community show on WSCA(LP) in Portsmouth, N.H. And they bring young people to the art of radio, like the “at-risk” youth on KKDS(LP) in Eureka, Calif., or the Radio Palante teen programmers on WCOM(LP) in Carrboro, N.C.

Above all, low-power radio is participatory, making this service as creative and diverse as our communities themselves.

The new legislation repeals restrictions on low-power FM radio imposed by the Radio Broadcast Preservation Act of 2000. That earlier law, backed by the National Association of Broadcasters, restricted the FCC from allocating LPFM stations on third-adjacent channels, and the new law removes these restrictions.

Although this will allow the FCC to finally begin licensing LPFM stations again, the law alone won’t bring community radio to the cities which have been waiting for all these years. Back at the FCC, there are a few more hoops for low-power radio to jump through.

The great translator invasion

The new law won’t accomplish much if the FCC follows through with a flawed plan that could unintentionally give away most open channels to FM translators.

The plan is aimed at saving channels for LPFM, but new data shows it will do the opposite. How did this happen? When thousands of translator applications flooded a 2003 auction, threatening to fill all remaining open spectrum on the FM band, the FCC froze the auction. They wanted to find a solution that would preserve channels for LPFM and avoid an unprecedented transfer of radio spectrum to speculators and mega-networks.

To solve the problem, the FCC tentatively settled on a 10-applications-each processing cap, planning to dismiss all but 10 applications from each applicant for translators. Unfortunately, engineering simulations by the public interest group Common Frequency show that the current “10 cap” would be disastrous. As currently designed, the cap would still give most channels in big cities to translators. In fact, one applicant could end up with 10 new translators in the same city, with not a single channel left for community groups.

It would be tragic if the FCC’s response to the translator problem inadvertently ends LPFM’s new day before it begins. We’re open to any idea that preserves LPFM availability in cities, but the easiest way to follow the law’s intent would be to process LPFM applications first, prior to those of translators. This way, local communities with a need for low-power radio have a chance to say so, before their hometown airwaves get turned over to non-local translators.

Who’s on second?

For decades, full-power FM stations and FM translators have used the “contour method” to locate their stations, a technique that accounts for topography when finding available channels.

To create opportunities for LPFMs in cities, the FCC will need to use this industry-standard method, rather than only allowing the distance-spacing method as they did in the first round of LPFM licensing 10 years ago.

The new law authorizes this, giving a green light to the FCC’s practice of granting second-adjacent waivers when an LPFM can demonstrate that interference is not predicted. Congress rejected the NAB’s attempts to narrow the FCC’s authority to granting only “limited” waivers. Instead, the language of the new law gives the FCC broad discretion to offer waivers on the basis of “all relevant factors, including terrain-sensitive propagation models,” i.e., the modern contour allocations method used by all other broadcasters.

LPFM stations operating under these waivers accept the same obligations to remediate interference complaints as translators, shutting down until interference complaints are resolved, even if that interference is reported outside the protected contour of a full-service station.

In the end, LPFM advocates supported the legislation despite this requirement, because we know from the experience of translators that this hypothetical interference is unlikely. We plan to work with LPFM stations, full-power stations and the FCC to ensure that interference complaints are resolved to everyone’s satisfaction without forcing community stations off the air.

Mary, Mary, secondary

The law also states that LPFM stations will remain secondary to full-power stations.

However, FCC interpretation of secondary status includes some agency discretion to resolve conflicts between low- and full-power stations. The FCC guarantees some protections to low-power stations encroached by full-power stations that move into their signal range.

For example, encroaching stations must warn LPFMs about their move, assist with engineering solutions and help with costs if LPFMs must change locations.

Encroachment affects nearly all LPFM stations, but with continued protections for displaced stations (and stronger support for shortspaced ones), the vast majority will survive unscathed.

Closing the local ownership loophole

Despite the FCC’s intentions to make LPFM a truly local service, giant networks have gamed the system, operating hundreds of stations that have no local presence. These networks put a local organization’s name on the license and then set up a transmitter in a closet to broadcast syndicated programming piped in by satellite 24/7.

Although technically legal, this scam keeps the genuinely local groups — for whom this service was created — off the airwaves. To close the loophole, LPFM stations should be required to produce a reasonable amount of local programming.

New LPFM licenses will be scarce, particularly in urban areas. They should be given to broadcasters who can fulfill the service’s potential: local organizations serving local communities with locally produced programming.

So even after this historic victory, there’s still a little work ahead. But when it’s done, we expect a radio landscape that’s more interesting, more just and more relevant to more people. After 10 years of jumping through hoops in D.C., low-power radio is ready to take the show on the road. Comment on this or any article. Write to radioworld@nbmedia.com.

Original Article here:

http://www.radioworld.com/article/its-a-new-day-for-the-radio-dial/22771

Portsmouth Community Radio WSCA 106.1FM will be airing the National Homelessness Marathon from 6 p.m. this evening (Wednesday, Feb. 23) until 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 24. This is an annual event to raise awareness regarding the issue of homelessness in New Hampshire and America. This year, WSCA will be broadcasting live from outdoors at the Vaughan Mall for much of the event. In addition to the national content, the broadcast will include WSCA-produced pieces and interviews of people throughout the State of New Hampshire.

If you’re facing homelessness, if you want to find out how you can help, or if you didn’t even realize that homelessness is a real problem here in New Hampshire, tune in live to WSCA-LP 106.1 FM from 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, to 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24, or listen online at WSCAFM.org.

WSCA also invites you to feel free to join its crew anytime during the event at the Vaughan Mall in downtown Portsmouth.

For information, 430-9722, http://portsmouthcommunityradio.org/.

Original article here.

If you’re hoping to hear “Alice’s Restaurant” on Thanksgiving Day, don’t tune into WSCA, Portsmouth Community Radio. But if you’re hoping to hear every Beatles song, A to Z (or Y in this case), then crank your dial to 106.1 FM, because Shawn Henderson will once again host “Thanksgiving with the Beatles.”

Forgoing a big family feast, Henderson, host of the Friday afternoon program “Stay Tuned,” will stuff your ears as he has the past few years with Fab Five goodness.

“I get to the station at 7 a.m. and play every Beatles song. Last year it took 13 hours but this year I’m throwing in some live cuts and some stuff from the Anthology discs so it may take up to 15 hours this year,” said Henderson, who was also the force behind booking the recent Steely Dan tribute band concert at the Portsmouth Elks Lodge.

“I’ll play every Beatles song alphabetically and won’t stop until the last song is played,” Henderson said. “People can tune in all day long. They can crank it up while they are preparing the meal or just keep it on in the background while they are eating.

So, this year, spend Thanksgiving with the Beatles on WSCA 106.1 FM. Zero calories come from listening.

Original article here.