Believing that democracy cannot function if only a few have access to the media, Radio Free Nashville, Inc. (RFN) intends to be a community forum for the music, voices, and viewpoints generally ignored or misrepresented by the corporate media.

Radio Free Nashville is growing and now reaches most of middle Tennessee.  This expansion extends to cable television, digital radio and soon to digital television and newspaper, too.  WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT to continue growing and doing our work.  Our $35,000 annual budget is funded by people just like you, through underwriting and donations.  Join with us as we work to keep this vibrant democracy alive by getting the voice of the people heard.  

There are several ways for you to donate:  Earmark funds for expansion, adopt-a-bill or give a monthly subscription.  Make a workplace donation desginated to Radio Free Nashville through Community Shares.   Purchase  merchandise at our online store.   Or become an underwriter.   Contact ginny@radiofreenashville.org to find out how. 

Net Neutrality is under attack from "astroturf" groups -- phony grassroots organizations funded by powerful phone and cable companies to spread lies and misinformation.  These hired guns are painting Net Neutrality and the Internet Freedom Preservation Act (HR 3458) as an attempt to "socialize the Internet." They call people like you and me "extremists" for supporting a free-flowing Web.

Their rhetoric is frozen in the Cold War era. All Net Neutrality really does is protect market innovation, consumer choice and free speech online.  Now we're fighting back.  Free Press has launched Astroturf: Exposing the Fake Grassroots -- an interactive online tool that reveals the money behind front groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Heartland Institute and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks.

Mighty phone and cable companies have controlled Internet policy in Washington for years. They set up astroturf groups and launch deceptive "consumer" Web sites to fool politicians and the media into thinking that everyday people support their harmful policy positions.

It's time to set the record straight. Free Press has pulled together the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, which now represents more than 800 groups, from the Christian Coalition to MoveOn.org and the SEIU to the American Library Association. More than 1.5 million activists -- from all walks of life and across the political spectrum -- have signed their petition in support of Net Neutrality.

Help us pull back the curtain on astroturf and tell people the truth about Net Neutrality.  We need everyone -- including the media and members of Congress -- to learn about these phony front groups. Tell your friend, forward the widget to your friends, or post it on your own Web site or blog.

Designate Radio Free Nashville for your workplace donations through Community Shares.  By specifically directing your workplace donation to Radio Free Nashville, you guarantee that your money goes to support RFN and the work that we do.  Without a designation, your contribution goes into the CS general fund and not to RFN. 

Designating RFN is easy to do - just put the Radio Free Nashville code on your designation card, and start supporting RFN today.

Here are the codes for this year - pass them on to anyone you know who donates through Community Shares.

If you work for the state of Tennessee:  CS010 
Tennessee Board of Regents employees have a separate code:  C02-067
If you work for Vanderbilt: code 11067
If you work for the federal government and participate in the Combined Federal Campaign:  58210

For everybody else who participates in CS, including Metro employees and Metro schools:  11067

Radio Free Nashville was featured as part of MTV's "Choose or Lose" campaign.  Here's a link to our piece, produced by Dustin Ogdin.

RFN's own Scott Sanders, aka The Colonel, represented Radio Free Nashville during Low Power FM Leadership Days February 25 and 26 in Washington, DC.  Activists from all over the country compared notes, strategized and met with members of Congress and the FCC to ask them to support the House Bill 2802 - the Local Community Radio Act of 2007.   This bill will lift the restrictions on LPFM.

URGENT ACTION NEEDED:
There is a strong possibility that The Local Community Radio Act will be voted on and PASSED next week. the week of December 14.   This bill will lift the restrictions on LPFM.  WE NEED YOU to call your Congressperson and your Senator starting today.  Tell them to vote FOR this piece of legislation. 

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO EVERY PERSON AND LIST YOU HAVE AND ASK PEOPLE TO MAKE CALLS - it is vital that we pass this.

BACKGROUND:
In 2000, the Federal Communications Commission established the Low Power FM (LPFM) radio service -- noncommercial, local, low-powered radio that schools, community groups, churches, and any nonprofit like Radio Free Nashville could use to broadcast local information to their local community.  There are about 800 LPFM stations on air all across the country -- but groups in many communities and most big cities who applied for these great new stations all lost out.  Why?  

Because the big broadcasters -- represented by the National Association of Broadcasters -- convinced Congress that little LPFM stations like us would interfere with big radio stations in big cities and make the radio dial unlistenable.  So Congress limited low power FM to rural areas.

But when they passed that law, Congress asked the FCC to study whether or not LPFM stations would really cause interference. The FCC hired a big, independent engineering firm to study this potential interference, and five years and $2.2 million later, they proved that LPFM was a great idea in big cities as well as small communities. 

The Local Community Radio Act will finally begin to right the wrongs that were done to LPFM.

CALL TODAY.  PASS THIS ON.  LET'S GET THIS PASSED.

Radio Free Nashville received a visit from FCC Commisioner Deborah Taylor Tate on Friday, March 2, 2007.   Commissioner Tate was so impressed with the showing Radio Free Nashville made during the recent FCC hearing on media ownership that she paid a personal visit to the station to see what local community radio is all about.   

Commissioner Tate talked with programmers, met listeners, toured the studios and saw first hand how important it is to our democracy that all voices be heard when issues that affect all our lives are debated, discussed and decided upon.   Commissioner Tate said she wil do all she can at the FCC to support the growth of community radio.

The FCC held an official hearing on media consolidation December 11, 2006, in Nashville, and Radio Free Nashville was well represented.  RFN executive director Ginny Welsch was an invited panelist and spoke out on behalf of LPFM and against proposed new media ownership rules.  More than 40 RFN programmers testified before the commission, speaking out in favor of localism, diversity, and the public interest.   Radio Free Nashville also provided food to all hearing attendees, free of charge.  Over 600 people testified during the all day event,  the vast majority of whom testifed against the proposed rules. 

The December hearing was one of six official hearings the FCC is holding across the country as it  considers new rules that will increase the number of newspapers, radio stations and TV stations that one company is allowed to own in a city. The commission is specifically looking to do away with the cross-ownership rule that prohibits one media company from owning both the newspaper and a television station in the same city. And the commission is considering eliminating the rule on duopoly, which prevents one company from owning more than one television station in a single market.

If these rules are eliminated, one company - say Clear Channel - could potentially own The Tennessean, Nashville's' daily newspaper and two or more Nashville television stations as well as the five Nashville radio stations they already own and more. That will decimate what's left of true local media coverage.

For more information about the proposed rules changes and how they affect you, visit www.stopbigmedia.org.