If you didn't vote early, vote today! Find your polling place here. And if you're not registered, you can do it on site with two forms of ID including one showing your current address.
If you didn't vote early, vote today! Find your polling place here. And if you're not registered, you can do it on site with two forms of ID including one showing your current address.
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We are so pleased to report that the Local Community Radio Act is moving along quickly in the House of Representatives, and may be voted on next week! The bill has never been this far, and we feel confident that we will prevail in passing it out of the House. However, we need your help to make sure that this happens. This FRIDAY November 6, 2009, we are asking all friends and supporters of CHIRP to participate in CHIRP House of Representatives Call In Day.
The Chicago Independent Radio Project (CHIRP) asks you to tell your Representative to VOTE YES on The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (HR 1147). There are currently over 800 LPFM stations operated by schools, churches, civic groups, and other nonprofit organizations across the country – but, because of limitations imposed by Congress in 2000, there are still many more groups like CHIRP who are waiting for LPFM service to be expanded so we can have a chance to apply for a station too. The Local Community Radio Act of 2009 (HR 1147 / S 592) would expand Low Power FM radio, potentially opening the airwaves to tens of thousands of new community radio stations across the country.
Please help CHIRP have a chance to apply for a low power FM signal by asking your Representative to VOTE YES when the Local Community Radio Act comes to the floor – maybe as soon as next week! It takes just a few minutes to make one phone call following the instructions below, and you’ll be helping ensure that this bill passes in the House of Representatives next week!
Action Steps for CHIRP House of Representatives Call In Day
For your convenience, we have provided a list of Illinois-area representatives, their phone numbers, and where they stand on the Act.
Already Co-Sponsors
Hi, my name is (NAME) and I’m calling from Chicago, Illinois. I’m calling Representative (NAME) today to thank her/him for her/his support of the Local Community Radio Act, HR 1147. This bill is important to me because I am a supporter of the Chicago Independent Radio Project, a group working to bring a low power FM community radio station to Chicago. This Local Community Radio Act will expand low power FM radio service to hundreds of community organizations, churches and other groups like CHIRP across the country. I thank the Representative for taking leadership on this issue, and hope that she/he will continue to do everything possible to help this Act pass in 2009. The Act is going to come to the floor of the House for a vote next week, and I would like to ask that the Representative do everything that he/she can to help it pass. Can I count on the Representative for her/his support? Thank you.
District 2 Rep. Jackson, Jesse – (202) 225-0773
District 4 Rep. Gutierrez, Luis – (202) 225-8203
District 17 Rep. Hare, Phil – (202) 225-5905
District 14 Rep. Foster, Bill (202) 225-2976
District 15 Rep. Johnson, Timothy – 202-225-2371
District 9 Rep. Schakowsky, Janice – (202) 225-2111
Not Current Co-Sponsors
Hi, my name is (NAME) and I’m calling from Chicago, Illinois. I’m calling Representative (NAME) today to ask her/him for her/his support of the Local Community Radio Act, HR 1147. This bill is important to me because I am a supporter of the Chicago Independent Radio Project, a group working to bring a low power FM community radio station to Chicago. This Local Community Radio Act will expand low power FM radio service to hundreds of community organizations, churches and other groups like CHIRP across the country. I am asking Representative (NAME) to join with his/her colleagues in signing on as a co-sponsor of the Act, and voting YES next week when the Act comes to the floor of the House for a vote. Can I count on the Representative for her/his support and vote of YES? Thank you.
District 1 Rep. Rush, Bobby – 202-225-4372
District 3 Rep. Lipinski, Daniel – (202) 225-5701
District 5 Rep. Quigley, Mike – 202.225.4061 (CHIRP’s office is in his district)
District 6 Rep. Roskam, Peter – (202) 225-4561]
District 7 Rep. Davis, Danny 202/225-5006
District 8 Rep. Bean, Melissa 202-225-3711
District 10 Rep. Kirk, Mark 202-225-4835
District 11 Rep. Halvorson, Deborah (202) 225-3635
District 12 Rep. Costello, Jerry (202) 225-5661
District 13 Rep. Biggert, Judy 202-225-3515
District 16 Rep. Manzullo, Donald (202) 225-5676
District 18 Rep. Schock, Aaron 202.225.6201
District 19 Rep. Shimkus, John (202) 225-5271
If you’re from outside Illinois, you can find your elected officials and their contact information at congress.org.
Thank you so much for your help!
What’s the iPod/MP3 Shuffle? It’s just a way to get people to share music and foster some discussion. I started doing this on my Facebook page a while back and it’s been great seeing friends exchange comments on each others lists. Every Friday, I get out my 120 GB iPod (which has about 24,000 songs now), hit shuffle and write about the first 10 songs that come up. Sometimes the 10 songs are kind of conventional, sometimes there’s a lot of obscure stuff. So check mine out and please add your own shuffle or discuss other people’s shuffles!
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It was 71 years ago that Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre scared the living you-know-what out of everyone with a radio production of H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds that fooled some people into thinking that Martians really were invading Earth. In honor of this Grade A chicanery, grab your iPod/iTunes/MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 tunes that come up with everyone.
That CHIRP would be participating in a Tweetup on Thursday, November 12th from 6:30 -10:30 p.m. at Tweet (5020 N. Sheridan Rd.). What’s all this? CHIRPing, Tweeting? It’s all a bunch of noise to you?
To those of you who are confused or are unsure why this matters, let’s take it from the top. CHIRP is going to participate in a Tweetup. It’s a meetup of people who mostly who know each other from twitter . Twitter + meetup = Tweetup. But if you aren’t on Twitter, it’s a way to learn more about CHIRP and meet people who are interested in independent media — Windy Citizen.com is also co-sponsoring.
I use Twitter for a variety of reasons (yes, I’ve been known to lament that there’s been Christmas items at Walgreens since September!), but one of the reasons it’s so helpful and fascinating to me is its presence as a de facto news reporting source. There have been countless times I have seen reports of a news item somewhere and gone directly to Twitter for the follow-up; getting the rest of the links, websites and good ol’ populous commentary that the web is so famous for.
I’ve also found a great community of people there. Done some networking, but mostly found a group of people who are interested in the same things I am: arts, culture, music, working for change, being active citizens. Twitter is truly what you make of it — it can be a fountain of mundane information or it can be a resource for valuable content.
C’mon out to the Tweetup. Learn more about CHIRP and Windy Citizen. Have a drink and a pancake with us. Be a part of the community of people interested in independent media and take that interest to action. It’ll be a great way to meet new people. At least, that’s what a little birdie told me.
What’s the iPod/MP3 Shuffle? It’s just a way to get people to share music and foster some discussion. I started doing this on my Facebook page a while back and it’s been great seeing friends exchange comments on each others lists. Every Friday, I get out my 120 GB iPod (which has about 24,000 songs now), hit shuffle and write about the first 10 songs that come up. Sometimes the 10 songs are kind of conventional, sometimes there’s a lot of obscure stuff. So check mine out and please add your own shuffle or discuss other people’s shuffles!
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It was 51 years ago that the French devised an evil plan to get Americans to spend money on a cutesy cartoon. Yes, the Smurfs made their first appearance in a comic book. On another note, it was eight years ago that Apple introduced the iPod. So there are two good reasons for you to get your iPod/iTunes/MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 tunes that come up with everybody in Internetland:
Chicago Independent Radio Project is completely volunteer run. No one is making money from this endeavor. A bunch of music lovers just thought, “Hey, we should start an independent radio station.” Well, that was a couple years ago now, but soon it will be up and running. Beginning in January, you’ll be able to tune in online and hear disks jockeyed by real live people, and hopefully within the next few years you’ll be able to tune in on the old fashioned radio to the same station and rock out during your commute.
What CHIRP has accomplished so far is no small feat, and I’m not sure people truly realize how much an independent radio station could mean to Chicago (the FCC certainly doesn’t.) As the media forever falls into the abyss of corporatization, our country basks in capitalism, and new technologies usurp the old, the independent world finds its spaces endlessly fluctuating – up and down, more and less, something akin to the Emperor tightening its grip on the galaxy: the more it tries to hold onto, the more will slip through its fingers.
For a big metropolitan area, Chicago has a lot of “small scale” potential. Small art stores, galleries, and indie venues dot the map, but few things beyond the streets themselves tie them together, they lie in the ether waiting for those “in the know” to go and check them out. Of course that is part of the draw, being one of the few-ish to know, and these places can’t always handle a large crowd, for a multitude of reasons. CHIRP, however, can handle all of these people, and then some.
CHIRP has a virtually limitless threshold for the independently minded media and arts consumer, many of whom are the same people that venture out into the city to discover the independent stores, galleries, and venues. In the independent’s world competition is not number one. Cooperation is. Originality must always be the Independent’s weapon of choice and it must work through the conduit of community. CHIRP has the potential to be that conduit; a “physical” entity around which community can be built.
This is what CHIRP should, in part, be (aside from a radio station.) CHIRP can reach out to those underground and independent groups and shine some light on them, exposing their alternative offerings to those who are interested in being a part of a scene, a community, or even a movement. Hopefully, if you have come to this website, and if you are reading this, you know what I’m talking about and are one of the many in this city and country who are tired of being spoon fed the same superficial and sensationalist media. If that’s the case you’ve come to the right place.