[Peace-discuss] FCC rough draft 1

[Alfred Kagan]

To adbc,

Whoever you are, you have no right to speak for AWARE. Keeping your 
identity secret may be justified for some reason. But if you want to 
raise this issue with AWARE, you will have to come to a meeting. We 
work by democratic process. I hope this is only a draft and that you 
have not sent it.



At 10:29 PM -0700 8/4/04, adbc wrote:
>FCC: first draft for putting public back into public
>broadcast
>
>Dear Chairman Powell and Commissioners,
>
>Please accept this as a formal petition to deny the
>license renewal request of radio station WILL,
>licensed to University of Illinois in the city of
>Urbana, IL. This petition is filed in accordance with
>47 CFR 73.3584, which states that any party can file a
>petition within 30 days after the issuance of public
>notice for the filing of the applications. Futhermore,
>this petition is being filed within the period
>specified by 47 CFR 73.3516 (e), which states that a
>petition to deny must be filed by the end of the first
>day of the last month of the expiring license term.
>This petition is filed because the licensee has failed
>to perform in the "public interest, convenience and
>necessity," as required by the Communication Act of
>1934 (Public Law 416, 73rd Congress), as amended. In
>light of what we believe are violations of the public
>trust by WILL division of broadcasting (Urbana,
>Illinois) we formally request a denial of FCC license
>renewal as of November 1, 2004. Our position is that
>public broadcasting ought to meet the charter
>requirements for including local community voices.
>WILL has failed in this regard by systematically
>excluding voices of the local community. Preference
>has been given primarily to corporate and business
>underwriters. Several requests for community inclusion
>on air have been denied. In at least one case paid
>underwriting by a community group was censored by a
>dubious editorial policy. Meanwhile, politicians with
>strong PAC (political action committee) ties to
>corporate funders of the station have been featured on
>the air and on their website. We find that WILL fails
>to include local issues in favor of packaged British
>programming to avoid local conroversy which may affect
>their intake of funds. Further, WILL does not include
>representative local voices of minority groups.
>Instead an enormous emphasis is based on weather and
>agriculture for benefit of the largest corporate
>funder Archer Daniels Midland. We ask that the FCC
>license be denied until such time as a public hearing
>on the matter can establish a truly public division of
>broadcasting. In addition we ask that this station
>adequately represent the public and the diverse
>community it serves. Finally we ask for a formal
>review of the editorial policy employed which is
>inconsistent and in violation of the FCC agreement for
>public broadcasters in the United States.
>
>Sincerely, AWARE Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort Urbana,
>IL
>
>
>
>
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-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu