Augment PCUN newly-established low power noncommercial FM radio station, KPCN-LP, 96.3 FM, Radio Movimiento, in Woodburn, Oregon, adding capacities for recorded programming production, off-site recording, program archiving and internet streaming.

New Technology Infrastructure; New Communications Technology; Technology Assistance

www.pcun.org

$10,000

PCUN seeks funding for equipment required to augment our newly-established low power noncommercial FM radio station, KPCN-LP, 96.3 FM, Radio Movimiento, in Woodburn, Oregon. This equipment will allow us to add or expand four crucial capacities: recorded programming production, off-site recording, program archiving and internet streaming.

KPCN-LP is Oregon’s only station operated by a labor union or controlled by the Latino community. Our broadcast area reaches at least 300 square miles, even though our signal operates on only 31 watts. This is possible thanks to flat geography in the North Willamette Valley and the placement of our antenna 145 feet above ground on top of Woodburn’s municipal water tower! We estimate that at least 25,000 Latinos reside in our broadcast area.

A grand celebration on November 20th, the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, publicly inaugurated Radio Movimiento’s 65 hours/week programming produced by about two dozen volunteers and the beginning of what we call a “radio revolution” in Woodburn. In a matter of days, we will have 24/7 programming with the addition of satellite feed (provided inkind) from Radio Bilingue in Fresno. Our local shows come in all formats—music, call-in, interview, commentary—with titles like “The Naked Truth”, “Come Out of the Closet” and “Tell Us Who You Are”. Some 62 calls came into 503-981-PCUN on the first full day of broadcast. Hundreds of Radio Movimiento bumper stickers and lawn signs are already in circulation.

Radio is the mass medium of choice in the immigrant Latino community. There are two commercial AM stations offering Spanish-language programming 24/7 in KPCN-LP’s broadcast territory. Both carry very limited and highly controlled community-orientated programming and offer only a narrow range of music. During the mass uprisings this past spring, however, both stations briefly carried substantial public-affairs type programming (much of it featuring PCUN leaders); the community response was enthusiastic. This programming quickly evaporated when the call to boycott work on May 1st generated controversy. The community remains hungry for varied, engaging, challenging, topical and relevant programming and Radio Movimiento’s has arrived at an ideal time to fill this clearly evident media void.

It took a truly Herculean effort to get Radio Movimiento on the air by the 11/17/06 deadline set by FCC: a major and complex remodeling project upgrading our former “volunteer” house into handicap accessible, sound-proof studios (cost: $25,000; inkind labor: $75,000); procuring and installing studio and broadcast equipment (cost: $40,000; inkind installation: $25,000), training programmers, and hiring the three full-time staff—Latinos/a under 28 years old—who now lead Radio Movimiento. Prometheus Radio Project and their network of radio-activists played indispensable roles, and raised about $130,000, including $100,000 from eight foundations and the rest from individuals and community organizations. Our programming director position is funded for two years through the highly competitive “New Voices Fellowship” program, one of 12 out of 350 applicants nationally in 2006. We’ve already raised about half the 2007 operating budget and will soon undertake a major campaign to attract program underwriters.

PTP granted funds to support our “microradio” project in 2001 shortly after we filed our application with the FCC. When the licensing process appeared likely to drag out (in the end taking four years for consideration and approval), we received PTP permission to devote those funds to other (then) pressing technology needs to create a relational data base for supporters and members.

KPCN-LP’s basic set up is solid, but we already anticipate that programmer and community interest will overtax the small broadcast studio and adjacent production studio. Therefore, we seek funding for equipment necessary to set up a third studio as a workstation for sound editing, interviewing and other functions necessary to pre-record programs. Second, we only have one minidisk field recording kit, severely limiting our ability to record community events, such as marches, forums, hearings, concerts, off-site interviews etc. for broadcast on Radio Movimiento. Third, streaming our programming on the internet will make it available worldwide. Most immigrant households are not yet plugged in, but the youth-driven introduction of computer and cellphone-based connection, combined with the rapid spread of municipal-base wi-fi and dramatically falling prices for increasingly sophisticated internet capable devices, mean that we’ll be able to attract “niche” audiences way beyond our antenna-broadcast signal.

Regular listeners who work seasonally out of state or spend time in Mexico will be able to stay in touch with our Movement and local community happenings. Lastly, our programming is making history and we must preserve it for immediate re-broadcast and re-use months or years into the future.

As a “people’s” mass medium, Radio Movimiento will magnify and catalyze our movement’s power in these ways: (1) dramatically boosting recruitment and mobilization for events, (2) strengthening identification with the movement, raising consciousness and sharpening critical thinking about the political, economic and social system, developing leadership, providing accurate and pertinent information that equips those who are vulnerable and isolated to better defend themselves, and (3) fostering deeper unity and facilitating closer collaboration between PCUN and our eight sister organizations.

Radio Movimiento is connecting our community with local, regional, national and international events and trends and exponentially expanding the diversity of voices participating in the Latino media in the Woodburn area. Many are voice never heard on commercial Spanish-language radio or by a mass audience. They include youth, indigenous people (speaking in dialects such as Mixteco and Pur’epecha), women, workers, plus progressive leaders from Latino communities around the corner and around Latin America. Simply giving voice combats oppression and discrimination by lending legitimacy

Though new to radio, KPCN-LP’s full-time engineer/technology coordinator will continue to have the active support of two volunteer radio engineers, each with decades of experience and based in Portland, plus the staff and volunteers of Prometheus. Borrowing from established community radio stations, he has developed usage guidelines and trainings for volunteer programmers who will use production equipment on or off-site.

We will assess the effectiveness of technology on three levels.

First, we will evaluate how effective Radio Movimiento is overall in engaging the Latino community both qualitatively and quantitatively through promotions, formal and informal surveys, and similar estimate the impact on organizational activities (e.g., increased attendance and more informed participation).

Second, we will assess programmers’ use of the portable and auxiliary recording and editing technology (how much (and well) it is used? Does Radio Movimiento programming feature remote-recorded material? Are they re-using archived material?).

Third, we measure or estimate our listenership expansion attributable to internet streaming by promoting email acknowledgement and input, call-in, call-out, etc. An integral part of this technology expansion is the necessary training for the full-time engineer/technology coordinator and for key volunteer assistants who will comprise a Radio Movimiento technology committee.