OntheWilderSide

“Don’t hate the media; BECOME the media!” — Jello Biafra

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Binghamton Media Activists Featured in New Book

(Binghamton, NY) – “BE THE MEDIA“, a new book by media blogger Dave Matheson, to be published this fall, contains a section on the efforts of Binghamton media activists who filed petitions-to-deny against 11 radio licenses held locally be Clear Channel and Citadel Broadcasting.

“It’s great to get this information to a greater audience”, says Bill Huston, who locally organized the effort. “This book will allow people all over the country to learn how to make their media more responsible to community needs.”

The petitions, presently before the FCC, were filed in May and have yet to be ruled upon.

In addition to tools for media reform, the book claims to be a local media production bible. “And that’s great”, Huston continued, “because in cities like Binghamton all across America, local production is being automated, consolidated, and killed-off by media conglomerates like Clear Channel and Citadel, which put their insatiable hunger for greater profits above their statutory duty to serve the public interest.”

Huston should know. After weeks of research, he authored a report on broadcast localism in the Binghamton market and filed it with the FCC December 2004. “Look at the numbers. Look at commercial broadcasters, and look at so-called ‘public broadcasting’. Other than ‘the news’, there is almost no local production of any kind. Commercial radio broadcasters spend less than 2% of their broadcast
day doing local news or public affiars. WSKG is worse at less than 1% for both radio and TV. To my knowledge, there are no locally produced entertainment shows of any kind across 20 broadcast channels.”

Huston concludes, “This is the exact book that I wanted to write. But Dave got there first, and has done a spectacular job, by the looks of things. Community Radio, Public Access TV, even how to start an Indymedia Center, it’s all there. BE THE MEDIA!”

Links:

Huston Bio: http://home.stny.rr.com/bhuston/
Localism Report: http://www.binghamtonpmc.org/bhuston/localism.html
Petition to Deny: http://www.binghamtonpmc.org/bhuston/petition_to_deny/
Be the Media (book): http://bethemedia.com
Be the Media (blog): http://bethemedia.org

Author of the book: Dave Matheson: david@bethemedia.com Tel:
415-380-1912
For more info about this press release: 607-724-1755

Filed under: Babylon Politics, Books, media, Press Release Tagged: | Uncategorized