- MINNEAPOLIS -- Wires, batteries,
plastic containers, cardboard boxes, drills, glue guns, a single-watt FM
transmitter, perhaps a toy truck or a stuffed rabbit -- put these together
and you have a personal radio station that could start a public revolution.
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- At least that's the idea behind Radio Re-Volt: One Person
.00One Watt, a project by Minneapolis' Walker Art Center that intends to
open the radio airwaves to the general public, one small radio station
at a time.
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- The Walker Art Center is sponsoring Radio Re-Volt workshops
all over Minneapolis through the month of October. At the workshops, people
are given free radio-transmitter kits and are taught how to build their
own mobile radio station and how to broadcast with it.
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- The kits, which cost about $20, include a transmitter
and circuit board about the size of a credit card, a built-in microphone
and a jack to plug in a CD or MP3 player. Music from the device can be
transmitted over the radio, or a broadcaster can talk, whistle, hum, sing
or whatever into the microphone. The transmitters are powered by four AA
batteries, and the entire setup can fit into a pocket or the palm of someone's
hand.
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- There's one catch: Broadcasts from the tiny transmitters
can only be heard for about a city block -- about 200 feet.
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- Legally, under current Federal Communications Commission
regulations, milliwatt microradios with a limited transmission range are
about the only way individuals can launch their own radio stations. For
the past four years, small stations have not been getting licensed through
the FCC, due to big commercial broadcasters' complaints that opening the
airwaves to all would interfere horribly with the commercial stations'
broadcasts.
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- "Microradio transmitters obviously aren't a viable
alternative to commercial radio," said artist Jennifer Allora, one
of the creators of Radio Re-Volt. "But they can get people thinking
about the privatization of radio, thinking about the public's limited access
to the 'public airwaves' and exploring ways to broaden the public's access
to radio."
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- The kits being used at the Walker workshops are semi-preassembled,
only requiring users to do a little welding and drilling. But many workshop
participants took it a step further, building their radio stations from
toy trucks, cookie and cigar boxes, stuffed animals, tree branches and
even a brick.
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- Walker Art Center spokeswoman Karen Gysin said the Walker's
Teen Arts Council inspired the Radio Re-Volt project. Council members said
the big companies that own so many stations across the country produce
boring, generic content.
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- "It's the same white-bread music from the same manufactured
bands, played over and over again, no matter where you go in the country,"
said Radio Re-Volt workshop participant Marie Bergamo. "There's very
little or no local content, even in the news. Radio has just turned into
a way to merchandise the bands the music industry wants us to hear."
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- Gysin said the upcoming elections also influenced the
project. Organizers felt this was a good time to do a project related to
free speech and democracy.
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- But why focus on limited-range radio transmitters now,
when almost everyone can share their thoughts with the entire world via
a website or personal blog? The project's organizers, Allora and her partner,
artist Guillermo Calzadilla, pointed out that for broadcasters, a $20 radio
kit is far more affordable than a computer -- and for the audience, a lot
of people are still more likely to have a radio than access to a computer.
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- Radio Re-Volt broadcasters are offering a wide range
of news, political and personal musings, and music to Minneapolis residents.
About 500 people in Minneapolis now have their own radio station, according
to Gysin.
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- Some of the microbroadcasters also plan to join together
to strengthen their signals and the project's impact. About 30 intend to
broadcast from parked cars along Lake Street, a major thoroughfare in Minneapolis,
on Oct. 28. If all goes as planned, drivers tuning their radios to 97.7
FM will be able to hear independent talk radio and music stations fading
in and out as they travel along the 6-mile stretch of road.
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- The Radio Re-Volt project officially concludes Nov. 2,
the day of the presidential elections, but organizers hope the microbroadcasters
will continue to come up with new and interesting ways to use their radio
stations.
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- "I feel like I'm part of something important, bringing
radio back to 'we the people,'" said Jeff Barrone, a Radio Re-Revolt
participant. "Even though in reality, it's just me talking to myself
almost all the time, because no one is regularly listening to my radio
station."
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