you never know

Here’s a piece I did for the news about the most recent threat to Internet radio:

Internet_Radio

The Copyright Royalty Board has decided to raise royalty rates –webcasters will have to pay up to a 300% increase in royalty fees on a per-song basis. The consequences of this could signal the end of independent web-based radio shows and podcasts, as Josh Ward from SaveNetRadio says in the piece, and could bankrupt even larger webcasting stations like Yahoo and Pandora.

Record Industry organization Sound Exchange says they just want artists and labels to get paid fairly for their work. But thousands of bands and artists may not get their chance to be heard or discovered, since the proposed fees would reduce the variety of independent programming out there.

For more information, check out www.savenetradio.org

Here are a few reports I produced for a Pacifica National Special about the United States Social Forum, which grew out the World Social Forum.
Nearly 10,000 people gathered from many social movements in the U.S. and around the world. The Forum workshops and events revolved around several issues: labor rights, the environment, Indigenous rights, Immigration, gender equality, and the war in Iraq. Check out the entire Pacifica broadcast of the U.S. Social Forum here.
USSF_Closing.mp3
USSF_Immigration.mp3
USSF_Be_the_Media.mp3
USSF_Youth_Performers.mp3
USSF_Prisoner Family Project.mp3

The Coney Island Mermaid parade last weekend was maybe the best ever–the costumes, the weather, the beach…my friends and I were even in the parade!!!

Here is a news piece I did for WBAI Sunday News about the changes happening to Coney Island and the rumor that this was the last Mermaid Parade:

The Coney Island Mermaid Parade celebrated it’s Silver Anniversary this year with a record crowd of over half a million people attending. But many are saying this will be the last summer of the ‘good ol’ days’ of Coney Island, as developers move forward with a $2 billion dollar plan to drastically remake this historic neighborhood.

Give a listen here:

Mermaid_parade.mp3

The Mermaid Parade is organized by Coney Island USA, a tourism groups that organizes some of the better burlesque/sideshow/freakshow events that make Coney Island so great. Hopefully this summer I will get out there more to record and photograph Astroland while it lasts.

In the spirit of dirty politics everywhere this election season (did it seem even worse than usual this year?), a brief, humorous glimpse into the New Jersey Senate race and all its media antics.
Aired nationally on Pacifica’s election show, Informed Dissent, November 4, 2006.
(Full disclosure: I voted for Menendez (grudgingly))

NJ_Senate_Race.mp3

A news story about The New York State Court of Appeals ruling on Hernandez v. Robles. The case was filed by Lambda Legal on behalf of five same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in New York City, including Donna Freeman-Tweed and her partner, Lauren Abrams, pictured below. They give their reactions to this ruling at a press conference held by Lambda Legal today.

Donna Freeman-Tweed and her partner, Lauren Abrams

Gay_Marriage_LAMBDA.mp3

For fifty-two days, members of the Six Nations reserve in Ontario, Canada occupied a subdivision known as the Douglas Creek Estates, in an attempt to reclaim the land as indigenous territory. Here, the story of the an early moring raid by police and how Six Nation demonstrators were able to regain control of the site.
Six_Nations_Protest.mp3

This is still one of my favorite stories I ever did for WBAI…from the Republican National Convention in 2003.
Johnny_Cash_RNC.mp3