Robin Amer at Chicago's new public radio station, Vocalo.org, has done anice series of interviews with some of the organizers behind Chicago's big FCC hearing that happened on Sept. 20th. These are the folks who pounded the pavement, posted the posters, and helped to get more than 800 people to attend the event. Robin is working on some more interviews from the event itself, and when they are posted I will link to them from here as well. In the meantime, check out some of the voices of Chicago's media reform movement.

Carl West is the Publisher and CEO of Truth Magazine, which covers Chicago's hip-hop scene. In this clip, he describes how hard it is for artists to get radio play without the backing of a major lable, and what media ownership has to do with it.

http://www.vocalo.org/node/7992

http://www.vocalo.org/node/7994

Jennifer Kastigar is a Business Representative for I.B.E.W Local 1220 in Chicago. She's worried about job loss and labor conditions. But she's also worried about how consolidation impacts what goes out over the airways, and what gets left out.

http://www.vocalo.org/node/7998

Jesus Sanchez of I.B.E.W Local 1212 (the Radio and TV Broadcast Engineers Union) is concerned about the way ownership consolidation often results in job loss and poor labor conditions for workers in the broadcast industry. Here he talks about one ongoing example - NBC's purchase of the Hispanic TV network, Telemundo.

http://www.vocalo.org/node/7997

Kevin Brinson is the CEO of Creator's Way Associated Labels, a local hip-hop record company. He also makes his own beats under the name Big Rap. Here he describes his company's first-hand experience getting shut out of radio air play, and names names of DJs who have asked him for payola (pay in exchange for play).

http://www.vocalo.org/node/7996

Francine Hancock Bryant, 53, is a resident of the South Side. She tells me she's fed up with the way the media portrays black people in a predictably negative light, or ignores their lives and concerns all together. I spoke to her at an organizing workshop at the West Side branch of the NAACP.

http://www.vocalo.org/node/7991