Hey folks -- Hannah Sassaman at the Prometheus Radio Project here.
I'm looking forward to learning about this site and posting more on my
favorite form of independent media -- low power FM radio
stations.

For now, here's some info about a great station in Immokalee,
Florida -- to whet your appetite for the battle to expand accountable,
strong, local community radio to your neighborhood! It's a repost from
my not-oft-posted main blog -- Hannah Sassaman -- Banned from the National Association of Broadcasters Since 2002.

-- Hannah Sassaman, Prometheus Radio Project

Up the Creek Without a Radio Station, Part II

Thanks to Free Press for getting the word out about Gerardo Reyes Chavez's incredible testimony at the FCC Media Ownership hearing in Tampa, Florida yesterday. Gerardo is a senior leader from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
one of the most influential and effective farmworker labor
organizations in the world -- they recently triumphed over McDonalds in
a battle to get the giant corporation to pay workers a fair wage for
their labor in America's fields. (Watch a PBS piece on their victory, produced by NOW).
I've gotten a lot of requests to post his full testimony here. Reclaim the Media, one of my favorite media justice organizations, already beat me to the punch but I thought I'd take this opportunity to not just repost Gerardo's testimony, but to also thank CIW spokesperson Julia Perkins and CIW organizer and station producer Francisca Cortez
for testifying during the public testimony comment period last night.
After flying in to Tampa from New York, and just before a long drive
back to Immokalee, Francisca and Julia waited until 10pm to tell their
stories to the full FCC and the gathered crowds. Julia spoke about the
unique beauty and power of WCTI-LP -- Radio Consciencia -- in a South
Florida FM dial where most stations broadcast the same 10 songs over
and over. Francisca described the work she does as a radio deejay,
organizing for women's issues and voices at 107.9 and all over
Immokalee.
Without further adieu, Gerardo's testimony. If I can get Julia and
Francisca's, I'll post theirs as well. These leaders of the media
reform movement -- using community radio to save lives -- are our
heroes at Prometheus.

Testimony of Gerardo Reyes Chavez
Organizer, Coalition of Immokalee Workers and Radio Consciencia
WCTI-LP -- 107.9 FM
Before the FCC Media Ownership Hearing, Tampa, Florida
April 30th, 2007

My thanks to the
Commissioners for inviting me here. My name is Gerardo Reyes Chavez. I
am a farmworker, living in Immokalee, Florida. I am here to describe
how important a local and accessible media system is to farmworkers –
and to demand that the FCC not just stop the consolidation of media
ownership, but expand and protect the truly local media we need to
survive.

For a community like ours that has few economic resources and faces
daily violations of our human rights, it is difficult to have access to
commercially-controlled media most of the time. In the past, when we
wanted our community to hear an important message about their basic
rights, we had to pay for time on the air and only when the commercial
station wanted to grant us that time.
Media consolidation risks thousands of workers' lives. Many
farmworkers indigenous languages like M'am, Q'anjob'al, Haitian Creole,
and many times Spanish is our second language.. However, like everyone
we need the media to reach us when danger comes. Farmworkers often live
in trailers, are often frightened but confused when storms move through
– and they cannot understand the warnings coming their way on the
radio, especially if they don't speak fluent English or Spanish. The
smaller communities where farmworkers live, like Immokalee, lose
detailed coverage in favor of larger markets like Naples, Tampa, or Ft.
Myers.

In 2003 we built our own low power FM community radio
station. Radio Consciencia, or WCIW-LP – broadcasts at 107.9 in
Immokalee. While most workers have little access to the Internet,
newspapers, or television, Radio Consciencia gives Immokalee a voice
and provides our community with the information it needs.
When Hurricane Wilma hit Immokalee in 2005, we realized the deep
value of Radio Conciencia. All local radio stations were transmitting
alerts on the impending hurricane, but Radio Conciencia was the only
radio that was transmitting information on where to go and what to do
in Spanish and in the indigenous languages spoken in our community.
Many of the farmworkers had to work in the fields as the hurricane
approached and did not return home until transportation to shelters
being provided by Collier County had stopped running. When people were
confused about what was happening they were able to contact us at the
radio station to find out the current situation, the imperative of
evacuating trailers, and where to find shelter. Radio Conciencia
received so many calls from people who were stranded in trailers that
we knew the unmet needs of our community.

We mobilized 2
vans and transported over 350 people to shelter until late into the
night. After the storm we saw that several of the trailers in the camps
from which we evacuated people had been completely destroyed. After the
storm Radio Conciencia continued to transmit information after the
storm on where to find food and water and safety measures to take. By
this time the County had realized the importance of Radio Conciencia to
the community and had loaned us a generator so that we could continue
to communicate these important messages in the aftermath of the storm.
This is just one example of the many times Radio Conciencia has made a
safer environment for our community.
I want to tell other farmworkers and communities like ours to build
their own LPFMs. I'd especially like to see LPFM stations in
communities to the north where migrant workers go when the season in
Immokalee is over and where farmworkers are more isolated and have even
less access to information, communities where workers face severe
violations of their human rights including continuing existence of
human trafficking and modern-day slavery. But the FCC already gave away
most of the frequencies that they could use. Those spots are now filled
with translator stations, which bring listeners no local content – but
instead repeat a signal from Twin Falls, Idaho across the nation.

The
Commission must prioritize new local broadcasters over these
distant-fed translators, and stop silencing community radio hopefuls,
waiting years to broadcast.
You have chosen to listen to Florida's people tonight, and to give
our voices the strongest weight in your decision. I ask each of you to
stop media consolidation, and to expand and protect access to low power
FM. Listen to your conscience – and build the media system that you
know, in your hearts, that we need. Thank you.