I wrote about low-power FM radio in the news section this week, and now I just got back from Hollow Earth Radio's sweet studio over in the CD, where they were hosting a big ol' Seattle celebration of the UN's pronouncement of today as World Radio Day.
It was a room full of people talking about what new community radio stations should look like. What does the future hold? A tiny preview:

Two students from UW Bothell spoke about their not-yet-up-and-running campus station, KUWB. They've been working in different classes across disciplines to put together a college radio station, and they plan to apply for a low-power FM license this fall.

Rahwa Habte from OneAmerica, a nonprofit that works with immigrant communities, spoke about the possibility of establishing a low-power FM station in south King County, which would broadcast in multiple languages to serve newer immigrant and refugee communities.

Forrest from Hollow Earth talked about the importance of being discoverable—because their studio is public, people just walk in off the street to find out who they are. They want the radio version of that, someone scanning the radio, finding their station by accident, and wondering what they're listening to.

And of course, organizing the whole thing was Brown Paper Tickets, which as part of their community giving program pays people to work full time on projects like this. Sabrina Roach heads up their public-interest-media outreach, and she's organizing parties and workshops and get-togethers like this all year long. Check out her website here.