MakePhilly – Sunday, April 20th

Josh sent in the latest meeting info for MakePhilly, looks like a great one!

MakePhilly is excited to welcome Pete Tridish, a founder of the Prometheus Radio Project, to our upcoming MakePhilly meeting. The Prometheus Radio Project teaches community groups how to build their own radio stations so that they can independently and locally air their own broadcasts. To date the Prometheus Radio Project has not only helped to build over a dozen radio stations across the United States but they have also been part of building stations in Guatemala, Kenya, Mexico, and Tanzania. Along the way they have fought to change FCC laws so that more groups can have access to the airwaves.

Pete will share how he demystifies technology for folks lacking any prior technical training so that they can build fully operational radio stations over a three day weekend – called “radio barnraisings”. Most participants in these events have never touched a soldering iron before in their lives.  Yet, by the end of the end of the third day, participants are ready to flip the switch and throw their first broadcast party!

Prior to co-founding the Prometheus Radio Project, Pete was an organizer back in 1997 for Radio Mutiny’s demonstrations at Benjamin Franklin’s Printing Press — the station broadcast in open defiance of the FCCs’ unfair rules that prohibit low power community broadcasting. He actively participated in the rule making that led to the adoption of Low Power FM. He was also instrumental in the Prometheus vs. the FCC lawsuit, which was successful in holding back a major round of media ownership consolidation in the United States. Pete holds a BA in Appropriate Technology from Antioch College and he is an SBE certified Broadcast Radio Engineer. Over the years he has been a carpenter, an environmental educator, a solar energy system installer, a squatter, a homeless shelter volunteer and an activist in many social movements since the age of 16.
For more information:  http://prometheusradio.org/

Meeting Specs
Date: Sunday, April 20th
Time: 3PM Sharp
Location: University of the Arts, 333 S. Broad Street, Anderson Hall, 4th Floor [MAP]
Cost: $5 donation suggested

Open Make
A staple of all our meetings is Open Make — an opportunity for you to share with the group a project you recently completed. As we have been growing in size, we are going to be limiting the Open Make presentations to three per meeting. So if you’re interested in presenting be sure to email us: makephilly@gmail to reserve your spot!

Maker Challenge

As always, during the second half of the meeting, we will divide into teams and hold a 1 hour competition centered around building a device, solving a problem or just making something fun. The Maker Challenge for this meeting will be announced soon….