Letter: Corporate control of airwaves homogenizes music

Grassroots organizers, artists, radio DJs, students and plain old music lovers are fighting to keep our independent media, namely college radio stations, from being bought out. The group authorized to do this, the Federal Communications Commission, is conducting a public hearing today from 12:30 to 5 p.m. at the School of Law, room 3043, to find out what you think. It may be obvious that for those involved in independent music, these issues carry personal weight. But I'd like to reiterate what Greg Bloom pointed out last Friday--this is not a matter for an exclusive few; media control affects everyone.

During the past 25 years, fewer people have owned and consolidated more of the media. What once numbered 500 TV stations has, for example, decreased at an alarming rate to 360. As Bloom mentioned in his article, the Tele-communications Act of 1996 also eliminated all limits on the number of radio stations one entity could own and, according to a FCC Media Bureau report, allowed the number of station owners to decline by 25 percent. Due to this reduced competition, ad rates have increased by 68 percent. Major media has also failed to cover FCC deliberations, illuminating exactly how excessive consolidation threatens public access.

I am not necessarily writing from the standpoint of an activist, a progressive, a Marxist or a public policy specialist. I am writing as a girl who loves music and finds it disturbing that corporations are given primacy in deciding what is played. I believe in fighting for spaces where seminal bands like Fugazi, Bikini Kill, Dead Prez, Big Black, Uncle Tupelo, the Slits and countless, countless others can be heard. If this bothers you too, then come today to voice your rights. Perhaps my conviction is best encapsulated (or rather, screamed) by the post-punkers Refused, "We want the airwaves back! We don't just want air-time, we want all the time all of the time!"