Shirley Randelman, host of Community Action Magazine.

In partnership with Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, the university’s capstone journalism class, students Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will cover neighborhood technology issues for Technically Philly and Philadelphia Neighborhoods through May.

“Welcome to WPEB 88.1FM, the first station on your dial,” radio host Shirley Randelman says into her microphone. “You’re listening to Community Action Magazine, bringing you all the updates on what’s going on in the community and keeping it very real and personal.”

Randelman, whose show airs on Mondays from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. on West Philadelphia Educational Broadcasters (WPEB), says her’s is one of many programs broadcast on the local station. “We talk about things that are happening in the community especially where it deals with business, advocacy and education. We cover a whole potpourri of information,” she says.

The station, which is currently being stewarded by the Scribe Video Center, is located at 52nd Street and Hazel Avenue. And its mission statement is true to Randelman’s words—its there to represent, incorporate, empower and serve the community.

Renee McBride-Williams, WPEB’s operations manager

“WPEB tries to represent the voiceless community. The ones who are under-represented and misrepresented by the media,” says Renee McBride-Williams, the station’s operations manager. “The voice of the people is the voice that needs to be heard and we need to have venues for that voice,” said Carolyn Harmon, the co-host of Community Action Magazine. Yet that voice seems barely audible around the country; there are few local community radio stations in existence to allow neighborhood voices and issues to be heard. In fact, WPEB is Philadelphia’s only licensed Low Power FM (LPFM) radio station.

First introduced in 2000, LPFM has seen its share of difficulties. Commercial channels have often lobbied against it, saying that it interferes with their signal. In response to these concerns, Congress passed a series of regulations on the licensing of LPFM stations. Current regulations ensure that that LPFM stations are far enough away from full-power stations that there is a guarantee of no interference. Of course, this poses a problem in urban areas where the radio dial is more saturated. There’s more regulations, too.

FCC guidelines dictate that LPFM stations are for used noncommercial, educational broadcasting only and that they operate with less than 100 watts of effective radiated power, or about a 3.5 mile radius.

Halimah Marcus, development and communications associate at Prometheus Radio Project—a nonprofit dedicated to the development of low-power stations—extolled the virtues of LPFM in an interview with Technically Philly. “There is a real crisis of diversity in media, many outlets are owned by major corporations, and there is a real lack of local representation and discussion of local issues on the radio,” she says.

Prometheus, headquartered at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, provides help to community organizations during the process of getting a license and building a station. They also coordinate efforts to get the public involved in the FCC regulatory process and they host outreach events to promote awareness and build support for LPFM radio. The project was founded in 1998 out of a pirate radio station that wanted a legal alternative, and has since been campaigning to “free the airwaves from corporate control,” Marcus says.

Prometheus Radio Project has been active in advocating for the Local Community Radio Act. The bill, which passed the House in December, is awaiting a full vote from the Senate. The Local Community Radio Act will eliminate minimum distance requirements. It would also ensure that licensing decisions are made based on the needs of the local community.

See a video about WPEB and Low Power FM radio. Story continues below…

“We worked closely with the Prometheus Radio Project in drafting this legislation,” says John Diamond, communications director for Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-WA) office. Cantwell is the sponsor of S.592 The Local Community Radio Act of 2009.

“The Senator has supported this bill because we’ve heard from various groups, schools, churches, community organizations across Washington that want to set up these [LPFM] stations to meet the local community’s needs. We certainly wanted to help and get involved and we were in the position to do so,” Diamond says.

“This bill creates an opportunity for many communities without a voice,” says Rep. Michael Doyle (D-PA), who sponsored the House version of the bill. “LPFM only covers a few miles but it is a powerful tool for communities.”

Diamond says that pushing the bill through the House was a huge victory, having been in the works for over five years. He says is unclear whether the bill will make it to a full vote in the Senate this session. “We hope it will happen this session, that’s our goal,” says Marcus. “We are confident that it will pass the Senate when the time comes because it has very strong bi-partisan support.

“It’s hard to say how it will affect Philadelphia, but we hope that more licenses will be given out in the area.”

According to local pundits, LPFM and local radio are important not only because they provide communities with a voice but because they will help diversify media as a whole. Community radio offers people a chance to be themselves and not be forced to conform to societal standards.

“People in the margins do not usually make it in the mainstream media unless they change themselves to fit the mainstream. You do not have to do that here at WPEB, and that inspires me,” says Vania Gulston, the station’s programming co-coordinator.

WPEB holds general meetings the first Monday of each month to discuss station issues

And Marcus reminds that LPFM will help diversify media ownership. “When the original licenses were divided up in the ‘30s there was still a lot of segregation, so they were given mostly to white men. It is still basically that way due to economic factors. The radio licenses are expensive.” According to legislation, in 2003 it cost over $2,500,000 to acquire a commercial radio station.

In the Local Community Radio Act Congress finds that:

“Minorities represent almost a third of our population. However, according to the Federal Communication Commission’s most recent Form 323 data on the race and gender of full power, commercial broadcast licensees, minorities own only 7 percent of all local television and radio stations. Women represent more than half of the population, but own only 6 percent of all local television and radio stations. LPFM stations, while not a solution to the overall inequalities in minority and female broadcast ownership, provide an additional opportunity for underrepresented communities to operate a station and provide local communities with a greater diversity of viewpoints and culture.”

Another problem with the current radio situation is media consolidation. “All of these stations sound the same to me these days, LPFM will allow for lots of different voices and lots of different programming,” says Doyle. LPFM radio can be whatever the community wants and needs it to be.

G-Town Radio, located in Germantown, found another solution to the radio problem: the Internet. They are an Internet-only radio station that broadcasts solely over the internet. Founder Jim Bear has never applied for an FCC license because of all of the complications involved in getting one.

“If the bill gets passed we might be interested,” said Bear. “It would still require a lot of money to get set up and you would have to follow FCC standards. But, we would be able to reach the community much easier.”

Bear believes that the Internet is a great starting point for people and organizations that want to start a radio station. “There are fewer barriers to entry,” he says. “The studio environment is identical for Internet and broadcast. It’s a great way to get practice and get your name out there.”

Bear thinks that finding an audience on the Internet first could make it easier to raise the money needed to start an FM station.

Also, Bear believes that since people can access internet radio from mobile devices that Internet radio may be the way of the future. “As the Internet matures and networks become better it will be just as easy for people to access Internet radio as it is to access traditional radio.”

Whether it’s by Internet or traditional means, the possibilities of providing more folks an alternative voice certainly seems promising.

“By offering something different, it messes with people’s imaginations,” Gulston says. “It lets them know that something else it possible.”

Radio isn’t dead and G-town Radio‘s Jim Bear would be one of the first to tell you it.

Reverberating from Maplewood Mall in northwest Philadelphia, “the sound of Germantown” is growing. The Internet-only radio station has been building off a recently awarded $7,500 grant from social justice resource Broad and Roses Community Fund.

The money will fund a high school youth radio project, community forums, a series of audio profiles of interesting citizens and a new political talk show based around Germantown policy issues. The organization also hopes to put the finishing touches on a Web site redesign, improve studio space and purchase new audio equipment.

It’s not a lot of money, for sure, but it is proof that the community is interested in G-town, Bear said in a phone interview with Technically Philly.

“It really helped legitimize what we’re doing,” he says. “To have this input from outside resources helped make people feel more confident in what we’re doing.”

The new projects are a result of a civic-oriented programming pitch that G-town made to Bread and Roses. The organization will teach select students at Germantown Friends School about radio production for the Web in a three-month program, Bear says. It will also organize programming and events around policy issues in the neighborhood: community town hall forums that will be broadcast live online on a weekly or bi-weekly Web show that will spotlight neighborhood issues.

“Were going to bring someone in to talk about [issues] and put people on the record. We’ll hopefully get some results out of it,” he says.

G-town hasn’t generated revenue yet, but Bear says that the grant puts the organization�which is nonprofit but hasn’t yet filed for federal tax exempt status because of cost�closer to that goal.

G-town Radio isn’t alone in the quest to provide important community coverage in the neighborhood.

Since we wrote about G-town in our Technically Not Tech feature series in May, the media hole left by the closure of the Germantown Courier and the Mount Airy Times Express was filled by a generous donation.

After their closure, Mt. Airy businessman Jim Foster sought financial backing from the First Presbyterian Church, receiving a $100,000 loan to set up the Germantown Chronicle and the Mt. Airy Independent, Church Executive reported earlier this month. The papers have published weekly to 36,000 homes since April 30.

Still, Bear says that they can’t do it on their own, considering they have one-person editorial staffs.

“There’s only so much you can do with one person. “You can’t really carry the torch with specific issues all the time because there’s too much other news to cover,” he says.

Bear is looking forward to fourth generation wireless broadband services like Clearwire, which is set to launch in Philadelphia Oct. 1. High-speed wireless technology would be a “game changer” for organizations like G-town, he says, improving remote broadcast possibilities and giving higher quality access to online radio while listeners are mobile.

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G-town Radio is programmed from an office space in the Maplewood Mall in Germantown. Photo courtesy of G-town Radio

In February, residents of Germantown lost two community fixtures when the Journal Register Co. declared bankruptcy and published the final issues of the Germantown Courier and Mount Airy Times Express.

It shouldn’t be a surprise for many who have watched the newspaper industry struggle. Small communities are continuing to hemorrhage vital media coverage.

Consider G-town Radio a band-aid.

In the heart of Germantown in an office space in the Maplewood Mall, Owner and Station Manager Jim Bear broadcasts an eclectic mix of programming on the Internet radio station. And he’s throwing in some civic duty for good measure.

While Bear says the station doesn’t have the manpower to fill the void where the newspapers left off, it’s certainly trying. Though it’s a small gesture, the radio station has started to maintain a community calendar to keep tabs on what’s going on in Germantown.

“As much as news is important, it’s just as important that we give people a heads up on what’s going on around them. That’s our starting point,” he says.

Starting point to giving back, maybe. But tune in. Between a Vampire Weekend mashup, Curtis Mayfield classic and a Led Zeppelin ballad, you’ll hear the station’s calling card: “The Sound from Germantown.” It’s a reputation that is gaining momentum.

Each week, G-town Radio broadcasts 15 live shows ranging from A&E and alternative medicine to poetry and personal finance. Cut that with 24 hours of diverse music programming, and you’ve got an excuse to throw away your transistor radio.

“I equate it to the early 70s when AM top 40 pop was the standard and FM radio was the wild west. I think that cycle is repeating itself again. FM is this stodgy standard where a lot of people are dissatisfied,” he says.

“People are filling that void with programming online and doing it better.”

Bear has no formal radio experience. That is, aside from a few years spent with activists, anarchists and geeks who cobbled together an Internet radio studio and blasted programming from computer hand-me-downs in an old house in West Philadelphia�a little project known as Radio Volta, founded in 2000.

He grew tired of lugging his records across the city, and decided to set his aspirations on Germantown, where he has lived for 12 years.

Wanting a way to listen to his vast music collection at an IT consulting gig, and harping on the good old days of D.I.Y. Internet radio, Bear launched a streaming music server in 2004. By 2006, he was hunting for office space to expand the growing community endeavor.

Today, G-town, a non-profit, frequently partners with local organizations to host and help promote events in the neighborhood, and continues to grow its programming schedule, even if at a meager pace.

Bear wants the station to follow in the footsteps of public radio, relying on sponsorships and member support in lieu of relying on business advertising.

While his pace is slow and calculated, Bear can’t wait for next-generation broadband. Access is one of G-town’s largest challenges; you have to be in front of a computer to listen to it. He hopes that speedier mobile broadband networks will change that for stations like his. With fourth generation broadband solutions like Clearwire on the way to Philly, listeners could tune in from mobile devices.

As technology breaks down barriers and becomes more inexpensive to newcomers, Bear says that content will determine who’s king.

“We need to make sure we’re delivering a quality product and something that’s not being offered anywhere else,” he says.

And surely, it doesn’t hurt to have a great team behind you.

“The only reason we got to the point we are now is through the dedication of the people involved. Otherwise, I’d be listening to myself from my corner office,” he says.

“As much technology as is involved in this, it’s still powered by manpower.”

Every Monday, Technically Not Tech will feature people, projects, and businesses that are involved with Philly�s tech scene, but aren�t necessarily technology focused. See others here.