The FCC announced Friday that is has rescheduled the Localism Hearing with the stated purpose to "gather information from consumers, industry, civic organizations, and others on broadcasters' service to their local communities" (from the press release, available on the www.fcc.gov website).

The hearings, scheduled originally for March 17th, were cancelled without comment. They have been rescheduled for July 21st. SAVE THE DATE! January's San Antonio hearings got this coverage on Austin's IMC:

"Hundreds of people attended the FCC hearing here in San Antonio yesterday. Media activists and citizens dissatisfied with corporate control of the airwaves outnumbered industry representatives easily. During the meeting, the crowd often booed and voiced their displeasure with the commisioners and panelists, as well as cheering speakers who decried the abuses of the corporate powers that be. Two incidents stand out in particular. The representative for the NAACP, who stated that he supported deregulation and did not feel that "bigger is necessarily bad", supported his position by saying that if the people were dissatisfied with the media, they should "just buy their own station." This remark was met with jeers and yells. The representative of Univision was asked by a member of the audience why his station supported such a narrow representation of women. His response was that he felt that the women on his station were "beautiful" and he "had no complaint about them". He displayed no comprehension of the actual question asked him."

In San Antonio one man was thrown out for yelling "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!" after Powell announced that public comment would continue for just one more hour (there were hundreds still in line).

christyne from austin.indymedia.org writes: "Last year marked an explosion in public awareness of media's vital role in our democracy. With your help we scored some important victories - including winning a resounding, bipartisan 55-40 vote in the Senate for a "resolution of disapproval" of all the FCC's disastrous new ownership rules. We also succeeded in gathering more than 200 signatures from both parties in the U.S. House to support the measure. Our victory in the media ownership fight was only stymied by the efforts of House leadership and closed-door negotiations with the White House.

Outside Washington, this past November an astounding 1,700 media activists, advocates, musicians, students, scholars, and media workers from around the country and the world attended the National Conference on Media Reform in Madison, Wisconsin. It was a terrific opportunity to learn, make connections, and plan the next steps of the media ownership fight -- and of the broader battle to establish a truly democratic media system."

SO IT'S TIME TO BUILD ON THESE AND OTHER MEDIA VICTORIES! Those of you involved with college radio, microradio, pirate radio, grassroots radio, attend this weekend's Grassroots Radio conference near Santa Barbara (http://grc.kcsb.org) and get FIRED UP to attend the FCC hearings, where Media activists from Seattle to "San Diego" (North Tijuana) will converge, testify, jeer, resist, and make our voices heard.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: For original FCC press release announcing task force/localism hearings, 10/03: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-239578A2.pdf

Oh and the picture is Michael Powell, chair of the FCC and son of Colon, sporting his FREE RADIO SANTA CRUZ Tshirt.

Speaking of FRSC, be aware that as FRSC is unlicensed, has recently been visited by the FCC, and will likely if not certainly be the ONLY media group to be reporting on this hearing and discussing issues like media ownership, content, licensing, and censorship, PLEASE listen to Free Radio 101.1, check the website (www.freakradio.org), and be vigilant as the FCC may attempt to silence the only radio station that dares stray from the ClearChannel led-pack. WE MUST NOT LET THIS HAPPEN. FRSC will broadcast throughout the hearings which are designed to allow criticism of FCC procedures.

They will not silence their critics, and we will not be licensed!