Micro Radio and the FCC

Micro Radio became a lightening rod for the emerging Media Activism and Reform Movement. Like the environmental movement in the 1960s and 70s that focused on specific issues like nuclear power, the Media Activism Movement discovered a significant formative issue in micro radio at the turn of the millennium. This book is a close examination of the struggle over micro radio. Throughout this research micro radio is viewed as a site of social activity, a unique cultural and historical bond where ideas about the relationship between media and democracy are explored. This work is the first to spotlight this emerging social movement and uses critical historical analysis to provide a description of it.

The information in this book shows the struggle over micro radio as the most recent manifestation of a growing social movement, a movement of media activism and reform. As local people took to the airwaves, illegally broadcasting the frivolous to the serious, theoretical concepts such as localism and public access suddenly became grounded in a real world radio show. Micro radio broadcasters were able to demonstrate what is left out of most mainstream media. They showed what could happen when a diverse public is allowed to access the most universal telecommunications of the day. This look at micro radio will be valuable to communications students who are interested in the strategies behind media and social movements, alternative media, and news media practices.

ANDY OPEL is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Florida State University, where he teaches documentary video production and media studies. His work has appeared in Enviropop: Studies in Environmental Rhetoric and Popular Culture and The Journal of American Culture. His research interests include the intersection of consumer culture and the environment as well as the emerging media activism and reform movement.