Support HR 1147

There's already Phem online, and Phem magazine, but could the next step be WPHM radio?

It might seem hard to imagine now with the restrictions placed on radio licensing and a media consolidation that has narrowed down options to a small handful of conglomerates. But HR 1147 is floating around the House right now. Officially titled the Local Community Radio Act of 2009, the bill authorize the FCC to grant more low-power FM licenses.

If this doesn't strike you automatically as a pheminist concern, consider this: women currently own only six percent of local radio and television stations. And while low-power sounds discouraging, even a 100 watt transmitter has an effective broadcast range of 25 miles, and HR 1147 allows for transmitters up to 250 watts. A well placed station could communicate with almost all of the Southside and even parts of the Peninsula.

Please help take back radio dominance from national corporations concerned more with streamlining a product than with the wants of the communities in which their stations are located. I know it all sounds like cliched rhetoric at this point, but local media is undeniably important to the democratic process in this country. And with the AM band effectively locked down with Christian proselytizing, right-wing bloviating, and late-night conspiracy, an FM band opened to community concerns would be a great benefit.

So, please, on Monday, July 20 get in touch with your representative via mail, email, or phone and encourage them to cosponsor or otherwise endorse this bill. It will cost them zero political capital and would be a huge boon to giving communities a voice.