I'm happy to report to ya'll the city council of santa cruz passed a resolution of support for free radio santa cruz!!!!! The vote was 5-1 with councilmember Mike Hernandez absent.  Mayor Beiers, counilmembers Krohn, Sugar, Fitzmaurice, & Rotkin all voted in favor and councilmember Cynthia Matthews voted against the resolution.  About 40 people showed up in support from the community and 11 had signed up to speak.  Ironically, in order to get the resolution passed tonite (just in time for the fcc's meeting on Thurs) we had to ask all 11 people to give up their right to address the council on this matter.  They were ready to put this item on their calender for the next meeting in two nweeks in order to hear from everyone.  After a little discussion on the matter and a few changes to the measure it was voted on and passed.  I will try to post the language
of the resolution up here tommorrow,  but right now I'm gonna go celebrate!!!

A quick word of thanks to Steven Provizer from Radio Free Allston for informing me of the Boston council action (ours was modelled on that one, but slightly different) and to Ted Coopman for comming out to the meeting, sorry you had to leave

By the way, Ted, it went down around 6:10 pm
 

Free the Air,
love
V-MAN

text of resolution:

Whereas, the City of Santa Cruz is committed to the principles of free
speech outlined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and

Whereas, the City of Santa Cruz is committed to the open exchange of ideas
and information on the local radio dial; and

Whereas, FREE RADIO SANTA CRUZ 96.3 f.m. is a completely non-profit,
non-commercial, independent radio station, operating with 40 watts of
power, which strives to provide the Santa Cruz community with a platform
for the open exchange of ideas and infomation; and

Whereas, citizens in our community with no previous radio experience, can
participate in a truly democratic form of communicationwith their friends
and neighbors over the public airwaves; and

Whereas, FREE RADIO SANTA CRUZ 96.3 f.m. offers a wide variety of
musical, educational, and political programming which truly represents the
diverse face of our community; and

Whereas, FREE RADIO SANTA CRUZ 96.3 f.m. goes to great lengths to ensure
that their equipment operates without causing ant harmful interference
with any other radio signal; and

Whereas, the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has increased
rapidly the rate of consolidation in the broadcast industry, particularly
radio.  As a result, far fewer community based radio outlets offer
programming that serves their unique locales; and

Whereas, the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (FCC) has not made
broadcast frequencies available for community use since 1978 when
apolicy decision was made to stop licensing "CLASS D FM" stations, which
used less than 100 watts of power; and

Whereas, the FCC currently has three petitions for rule making on
"low-power" or "micro-radio" and has continually postponed on a
decision; and

Whereas, operations, such as, FREE RADIO SANTA CRUZ 96.3 f.m. help to
alleviate concerns over the media mergers currently being witnessed;
THEREFORE BE IT,

RESOLVED, The City Council of the City of Santa Cruz supports the
expansion of opportunities for these kinds of low-power radio stations to
operate and calls on the FCC to make such opportunities available to local
communities.

 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this document be sent to the FCC and other interested parties.