Five years into broadcasting live local radio to coastal Knox County,Maine, low power FM community radio WRFR lpfm 93.3 Rockland/99.3 Camden takes on its third station manager on August 1, 2007.
Cathy McGuinness takes the helm August 1st. Her tasks are twofold - coordinate fundraising and simultaneously guide WRFR's low power FM license to a new non-profit home. The transition comes as the station's dynamic and charismatic founder Joe Steinberger (on left in photo) moves on to pursue other interests, and his interim replacement Emily Sapienza moves to a reporter's job at VillageSoup Times .
A group of programmers are looking to form a nonprofit organization to host the radio station.
WRFR LPFM broadcasts from studios in Rockland, with repeater station W257BI in Rockport. The station's volunteer programmers produce a diverse mix of country, classical, folk, rock, jazz, Christian, pop and other music.
WRFR also boasts a spectrum-spanning spoken-word show mix, ranging from news and comment to improving life skills, oversight of Maine state prison, military history, bible discussions, poetry and science fiction readings, book reviews, commercial fisheries news, Penobscot Bay area environmental news, and more. See station schedule.
WRFR's 100 watt transmitter in Rockland is licensed to the Penobscot School, the 150 watt repeater antenna in Rockport is licensed to the Community School in Camden.
WRFR began broadcasting on Valentine’s Day in 2002. Rockland attorney Joseph L. Steinberger founded the station in frustration at the limits on public access to the airwaves in the Knox County area. Steinberger describes these beginnings in a recent column.
A respected public defender representing indigent defendants before the District and Superior Courts in Rockland, Steinberger successfully applied to the FCC during the first round of licensing, making Rockland on of the first cities in America with a low power fm community radio license.
"I wanted it to be something that could be embraced by the whole community, and not have it be a very left- or right-oriented thing," said Steinberger in a Bangor Daily News article. "Not an elite thing. It is to be a medium for local discussion and talent. It’s not about being an alternative. It’s about being local."
About low power FM Radio:
* FCC's LPFM webpage
* Wikipedia on LPFM
* Prometheus Radio Project
To Contact WRFR:
WRFR 93.3 LPFM
20 Gay Street,
Rockland, Maine 04841
www.wrfr.org
(207) 594-0721
wrfr@wrfr.org
Monday, July 23, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Portland Press Herald, prison industry apologist
Jeff Ingles from the Portland Phoenix details how the Portland Press Herald has become an enthusiastic apologist for the prison/industrial complex.
"Not only did a Friday editoral fail to note that the Corrections policy of moving inmates from prison to a jail is in violation of a federal court order rediscovered by the Portland Phoenix and reported on in the June 29 issue," Ingles writes, "but Sunday's column by obscurer-in-chief Bill Nemitz makes no note of the fact that the Maine Department of Corrections has been failing to treat mentally ill inmates for their medical conditions for more than 18 months"
Click here for the sordid details.
:
"Not only did a Friday editoral fail to note that the Corrections policy of moving inmates from prison to a jail is in violation of a federal court order rediscovered by the Portland Phoenix and reported on in the June 29 issue," Ingles writes, "but Sunday's column by obscurer-in-chief Bill Nemitz makes no note of the fact that the Maine Department of Corrections has been failing to treat mentally ill inmates for their medical conditions for more than 18 months"
Click here for the sordid details.
:
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Pitfalls, praise, and pratfalls for citizen journalists
A few words with Justin Ellis, Portland Press Herald, on citizen journalism.
Staff reporter Justin Ellis of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram emailed and called the other day, seeking my thoughts on "citizen journalists". Read some of Ellis' recent articles.
We spent the better part of an hour discussing (mostly me ranting) on just how citizen and profession journalism differs. What each can and can't do, should but doesn't do, and what ought to be done to come up with ways to augment the weaknesses of each with the strengths of the other. Read on......
Ellis wrote that he was (is) working on:
"..a story about citizen journalism and people who are trying
to take an active part in their community by reporting and writing
on what's going on around them."
He noted that I've
"... been very active in writing on the clean up of Seal Island and land use planning for Sears Island. I also notice you've taken an interest in monitoring Maine's media outlets."
These being subjects I have decided positions on and opinions about, I held forth, to wit:
* Term limits for letters editors. The letters to the editor and op-ed pages are important citizen journalism tools. The editorship of those pages should be term limited, with editors put back in the field reporting on local day to day issues, to reconnect them with the real world, where they can apply their big picture experience to local newsgathering. .
Veteran field reporters should conversely be sent to staff the op-ed and letters department, as well as writing editorials themselves. They can apply their real-world experience to making decisions on which to select of the rivers of letters and other written opinion pieces pouring in to their newspapers and production studios from the public.
Investigative Journalism: Someone's gotta do it. Mainstream Maine journalism is distinguished by a near absence of investigative journalism. The dirty work of uncovering the corruption, incompetence and malfeasances interwoven into Maine's economy and politics is left to citizen journalists and independents like Lance Tapley.
But when citizen journalists uncover scandals they must then publicize them beyond their narrow bonds. The second part of their task: pitching these stories to mainstream journalists, can be as difficult as the investigative work itself.
And Woe to that citizen journalist who arouses sleeping lions of corruption, while lacking the legal and political shields of professional media! The Department of Corrections "corrected" one recently....
Last fall, a Knox County citizen reporter for a weekly news outlet was given a certain internal government document by a retiring official, outlining a pattern of corruption and mismanagement by an important state agency the reporterwas covering.
After the document's public release by the reporter, along with his own reportorial analysis, the reporter was taken from his home into custody by the state police -- with the governor's personal acquiescence-- and driven through the night to a high security prison in Baltimore, Maryland. Neither his publisher nor his attorney are notified.
To this day, he is kept confined "for security reasons" in a secluded cell twenty three out of every 24 hours, with no access to telephone or internet, or other prisoners, and only occasional postal service. There are no plans by officials of either state to release him back to Maine from this secluded exile.
Outrageous? Surely. But while the agencies congratulate themselves on putting a media gadfly away, the Maine media establishment yawns. What's another 'citizen journalist', more or less? Thank goodness a civic minded private attorney has taken up his case in defense of citizen journalism pro bono, too >.
The freedom of journalists to expose corruption without fear of sudden forced exile and/or loss of livelihood, is under attack, friends. If citizen-reporter gadflies are getting swatted. Who will be next? "First they came for the..."
What are you mainstream media types going to do about it? I asked Justin. To his silence I answered myself in bitter precognition: "Nothing!"
More about my discussion with Justin Ellis later...including:
When Media Borgs Collide
Staff reporter Justin Ellis of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram emailed and called the other day, seeking my thoughts on "citizen journalists". Read some of Ellis' recent articles.
We spent the better part of an hour discussing (mostly me ranting) on just how citizen and profession journalism differs. What each can and can't do, should but doesn't do, and what ought to be done to come up with ways to augment the weaknesses of each with the strengths of the other. Read on......
Ellis wrote that he was (is) working on:
"..a story about citizen journalism and people who are trying
to take an active part in their community by reporting and writing
on what's going on around them."
He noted that I've
"... been very active in writing on the clean up of Seal Island and land use planning for Sears Island. I also notice you've taken an interest in monitoring Maine's media outlets."
These being subjects I have decided positions on and opinions about, I held forth, to wit:
* Term limits for letters editors. The letters to the editor and op-ed pages are important citizen journalism tools. The editorship of those pages should be term limited, with editors put back in the field reporting on local day to day issues, to reconnect them with the real world, where they can apply their big picture experience to local newsgathering. .
Veteran field reporters should conversely be sent to staff the op-ed and letters department, as well as writing editorials themselves. They can apply their real-world experience to making decisions on which to select of the rivers of letters and other written opinion pieces pouring in to their newspapers and production studios from the public.
Investigative Journalism: Someone's gotta do it. Mainstream Maine journalism is distinguished by a near absence of investigative journalism. The dirty work of uncovering the corruption, incompetence and malfeasances interwoven into Maine's economy and politics is left to citizen journalists and independents like Lance Tapley.
But when citizen journalists uncover scandals they must then publicize them beyond their narrow bonds. The second part of their task: pitching these stories to mainstream journalists, can be as difficult as the investigative work itself.
And Woe to that citizen journalist who arouses sleeping lions of corruption, while lacking the legal and political shields of professional media! The Department of Corrections "corrected" one recently....
Last fall, a Knox County citizen reporter for a weekly news outlet was given a certain internal government document by a retiring official, outlining a pattern of corruption and mismanagement by an important state agency the reporterwas covering.
After the document's public release by the reporter, along with his own reportorial analysis, the reporter was taken from his home into custody by the state police -- with the governor's personal acquiescence-- and driven through the night to a high security prison in Baltimore, Maryland. Neither his publisher nor his attorney are notified.
To this day, he is kept confined "for security reasons" in a secluded cell twenty three out of every 24 hours, with no access to telephone or internet, or other prisoners, and only occasional postal service. There are no plans by officials of either state to release him back to Maine from this secluded exile.
Outrageous? Surely. But while the agencies congratulate themselves on putting a media gadfly away, the Maine media establishment yawns. What's another 'citizen journalist', more or less? Thank goodness a civic minded private attorney has taken up his case in defense of citizen journalism pro bono, too >.
The freedom of journalists to expose corruption without fear of sudden forced exile and/or loss of livelihood, is under attack, friends. If citizen-reporter gadflies are getting swatted. Who will be next? "First they came for the..."
What are you mainstream media types going to do about it? I asked Justin. To his silence I answered myself in bitter precognition: "Nothing!"
More about my discussion with Justin Ellis later...including:
When Media Borgs Collide
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Denise Lord's bloody hands
Denise Lord, Maine Dept of Corrections press flack, once again covers DOC's ass. After just-released-ex-con Michael Woodbury turned triple-murderer, Lord told reporters that "state prisoners like Woodbury have access to a wide variety of mental health and psychiatric services, as well as planning services for the day they’re released." But interviews with inmates at the prison show that these are few and far between.
Indeed Woodbury himself told reporters " They told me, ‘We don’t give a shit.’ They were just like, ‘Whatever, leave,’ ”
Indeed Woodbury himself told reporters " They told me, ‘We don’t give a shit.’ They were just like, ‘Whatever, leave,’ ”
Why Maine Media need watching
Consolidation of media ownership....timid and jaded reporters....letters editors that censor out dissenting points of view....
These and many other disfunctional elements of the mainstream and alternative media in Maine need airing, as do the obfuscations of state and federal agency spokespersons and the public relations firms that cloud the waters on behalf of anyone or anything that can afford their services.
And here at Maine Media Watch, expect an airing indeed.
Stay Tuned.
These and many other disfunctional elements of the mainstream and alternative media in Maine need airing, as do the obfuscations of state and federal agency spokespersons and the public relations firms that cloud the waters on behalf of anyone or anything that can afford their services.
And here at Maine Media Watch, expect an airing indeed.
Stay Tuned.
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