Refugee Radio Station Blocked by Red Tape

Zathrus writes "According to a Wired story, a volunteer organized low power FM radio station is being blocked by local administration and red tape. They've already won the classically big battles -- securing FCC licenses, obtaining the broadcast equipment and radios, getting the manpower, and having some big name backing -- only to be blocked at the last minute by some lower level administrators who don't think information is a worthwhile resource." From the article: "According to KAMP, Royal claimed the Astrodome was not able to provide power to KAMP's low-power FM transmitter. When KAMP offered to bring in enough batteries to power the equipment off the Astrodome's grid, they were still denied. Obey, speaking to Wired News, explained that the JIC couldn't see a use for the radio station when they had the ability to communicate via the loudspeaker system and newsletters. "

Comments

Information Control

[cerberus4696]

I'm wondering whether this has something to do with the fact that loudspeaker announcements and newsletters can be controlled by the officials in charge of the Astrodome, wheras a volunteer-run radio station can't.

Re:It's all about....

[Philip K Dickhead]

I love the worry about "Gangster Rap".

There's the basis of your racist bullshit from FEMA, right there. Someone got their whole family drowned, has been starved, dehydrated, literally dragged through shit, kept in a stable under the conditions of a hog farm feed-lot... Listening to Kurupt is gonna' put 'em over the edge.

Not a real issue

[SpaceGhost]

As someone directly involved with this effort (as a member of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service), I can assure my fellow slashdotters that this is simply not an issue, much less worthy of a slashdot story. Although this sounds like a great idea on the surface, I can understand where the JIC or for that matter the Incident Commander would chose to deny this request.
What is not apparent to anyone outside Reliant City (as the astrodomain is now being called) is that it is utter CHAOS in there. It's not that the guests are anything but orderly, that the volunteers are anything but helpful, or that the involved agencies dont care, but there just isnt time for the responsible parties to even think very hard about it. Keep in mind that this is a gargantuan effort on the part of almost everybody involved - every agency I've come in contact with has expressed amazement at the vastness of the task and the speed with which it is being accomplished. And by now they are all pretty much exhausted. Sunday there were 25,000 guests on the ground - today it's far less than half of that. Meeting immediate needs is pretty much all that they can do. I alone have worked over 40 hours on this event since last wednesday, in addition to my regular full-time job.
It would certainly be wonderful if the guests were being entertained, or even efficiently informed. And when I first heard about this effort I thought it was a great idea. But providing a communications channel without professional guidance as to content and application could just as easily cause more harm then good. After the event there will be a great deal of effort to review procedures and decide what went right and what went wrong, and I really hope that this specific option is included in future plans. I think it is awesome that the organizers of this effort did so much, this option has a great deal of potential. But please dont assume that some "lower-level official" just decided to be mean or felt power-hungry - it is just as likley that they thought it was a good idea, but just didnt have the time to give it a chance or make sure it was done right.

Wayne Barker AD8A
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Emergency Coordinator, SouthWest Harris County, Houston, TX

Re:Not a real issue

[dtobias]

"...providing a communications channel without professional guidance as to content and application could just as easily cause more harm then good..."

Sounds like just the sort of thing the Communist Chinese government says when they censor the Internet, jail dissident journalists, run tanks over protestors, and so on. It's shameful to have anybody in the USA express such a position.

eep

[dlefavor]

But providing a communications channel without professional guidance as to content and application could just as easily cause more harm then good.

Why does this statement make my blood run cold?

Re:No, that's incorrect

[Vellmont]

If there are important things to say that the refugees need to hear over the radio, why not get one of the dozens of existing radio stations in the area to broadcast it. If your message is really that crucial, it shouldn't be a problem finding someone to play it.

I think you're missing the point of a micro broadcast radio station. Is a local station that serves the needs of the entire Houston area going to broadcast a message like "lunch of the day for the astrodome is cheeseburgers" If you really think that, you're just naive. This isn't about broadcasting ultra-important messages to everyone, it's about keeping people informed about the resources available to them, giving them something to do, etc.

This is just a bunch of geeks that got told, "No, your idea won't actually help anyone", so they went and complained to /.

Very true, but that doesn't diminish the fact that it WILL help people. This isn't some wild crazy techno geek idea of giving out free Wi-Fi internet access to people that don't have laptops or computers in the first place. Radios are dirt cheap, and anyone that has a few dollars can buy a portable one. They're cheap enough that someone could buy a thousand of them and distribute them to everyone in the Astrodome.