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Low Power To The People, By The People

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Commodore%20Skahill/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2002-23-2011.mp3

http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Commodore%20Skahill/Wolfie's%20Last%20Word%20February%2023%202011.mp3

Radio wears a lot of different outfits. On one end of the spectrum there's Clear Channel Communications, which owns 900 stations. On the other, there's a guy who broadcasts from the back of a truck in the Collinsville section of Canton on Saturdays.  

We never did find that guy, but we'd like to meet him. (You will, at the end of this show!) 
 
A few notches up in status and legality from that guy are so called low power stations, usually using 100 watts of power and reaching about 3 and a half miles out or more. People who crave diversity and local focus are pinning their hopes to a new wave of low power FMs, but there are others -- including a more-than-40-year-old station at Hartford's Weaver High School -- that have been scraping along for quite a while. 
 
Hyperlocal media, including low power FM, is very muich a response to the corporate consolidation of the mainstream media during the last 20 years. 
 
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
 
***This episode originally broadcast February 23, 2011***

Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.

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