Proposal: Public School Radio
America, why not take back our airwaves for neighborhood radio stations?
PROBLEM:
Radio stations across America are being consolidated quickly into fewer and fewer large multi-national corporations. The local voice of local radio is drowned out by ClearChannel, Sirius and XM satellite radio, and even NPR’s local voice is abdicated more and more to the national feed. Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, you could take your freshly minted single down to the local DJ, and he would play it on the radio. You use to be able to call in to a local radio personality and speak personally to all the local listeners about a topic of local concern. News beyond the inane surreal bites that local TV allows past their filters was readily available in the longer, more in-depth treatment only radio news tends to allow any more.
The problem is that you and me, the local consumer of radio, have no voice in this radio marketplace. The powers that we put in charge of making sure our airwaves remain OUR airwaves have sold out to the highest bidders, the media conglomerates. They aren’t hearing us anymore. The two big parties seem more interested in getting elected and preserving status quo than solving any serious problems. Appealing to them will get us nowhere fast.
SOLUTION:
In every single neighborhood in this country is an institution for the education of the public known as the local public school. We, the people, send our kids there (disclaimer: I don’t; I send mine to the private school where I teach, but please– keep reading!), pay for the school’s upkeep through our local property taxes, and occasionally visit the campus for parent-teacher conferences, to vote, or for other community functions. The local public school is a ubiquitous, known entity which is vital to every community, and control over its activities is fiercely maintained at the most local levels, namely, the parents and teachers and local school boards.
Why not resurrect local community through the local production of radio and television content using the newly abandoned analog TV signals which the new digital high definition televisions have opened up for us? Why not compete with the impersonal national networks with the infinitely more interesting local music scene, which will then grow and flourish, having a reliable local outlet? It is easier than ever to produce high-quality content with modern consumer computer and digital sound and video recording equipment. It’s time to go live on the air with locally produced content.
In my public high school (Battle Creek Central High, class of 1984), there was a broadcasting class, which loved so much that even though it was an elective I retook it, just to stay in the media learning mode. We produced TV and radio programs as class projects. It wouldn’t have taken much to enable our broadcast journalism studio to become a licensed radio/TV station. All the equipment was in place.
Colleges have local radio stations, reaching out to the students on campus while training prospective broadcast journalism students and providing a local outlet to campus musicians. Why couldn’t any and every American public school be the host site of a small, local FM or AM radio station, reaching out to the surrounding neighborhoods in the voices and opinions of the local citizens who are, like me, willing and able to spend the time and a little money to produce local content?
I believe it’s an idea whose time has come.
