Founders' Day Podcast

Author John Hoerr delivered the seventh-annual Founders' Day Address on Sunday, Oct. 18 at McKeesport Heritage Center. MORE

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International Village audio archive

Our live coverage of McKeesport’s 50th International Village is now available for you to download!

If you missed any of the events from the stage, visit our International Village download page and catch up on the fun you missed.

(Thanks to Tim Weis and Tom Schroll Jr. for capturing this audio and editing it into MP3 form.)

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To listen live...

Click on this link: (link currently down)

We will be broadcasting from International Village from 3 to 11 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 18 to Thursday, Aug. 20. At other times, the stream will be down (or may be live for testing purposes).

This is an MP3 stream which should work in Winamp, iTunes, Quicktime, RealPlayer and other popular media players. It's also been tested—and works—with all popular brands of cell phones that can support streaming media.

If the stream doesn't open ...

If the stream doesn't open when you click the link, then open your streaming player (Winamp, iTunes, Quicktime, RealPlayer, etc.).

Then select the option that allows you to "Open Stream" or "Open URL" and either "cut and paste" the above information, or manually type in the URL: (link currently down)

If the stream goes down ...

We are using a broadband wi-fi network to connect to the Internet from Renzie Park. At times, the connection could go down, and the stream will disappear. If that happens, disconnect, wait a few minutes, and try reconnecting.

Bring a portable radio!

If you're coming to Stephen Barry Field for International Village, then bring a portable AM or FM radio with you and listen along!

We'll be using low-power "Part 15" transmitters on 88.9 FM or 1640 AM.

And make sure to stop by the Lightning FM/Tube City Online booth—we're to the right of the main stage, along Eden Park Boulevard.

We'll see you at the Village!

Broadcast schedule Aug. 18–20

3–6 p.m.		Doug Goffus and Jay Thurber, or live entertainment as it happens		Music, interviews and announcements
6–9 p.m.		Main stage		Live entertainment as it happens
9–11 p.m.		Lightning FM volunteers		Music and announcements

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Lightning FM, Tube City Online to broadcast International Village

Lightning Community Broadcasting and Tube City Online will provide complete coverage of McKeesport’s 50th annual International Village, a spokesman said.

The coverage will begin daily at 3 p.m. Aug. 18, 19 and 20 and will be available online at www.lightningfm.org.

In addition, two small radio transmitters will provide additional coverage in the Renzie Park area on AM and FM. Visitors in the vicinity of Stephen Barry Field will be able to listen on 1640 AM and 88.9 FM using portable or car radios.

The groups received permission last week from Village Co-Chair and City Councilman Darryl Segina and Mayor James Brewster.

An annual ethnic food and music festival that attracts tens of thousands of visitors to McKeesport’s Renziehausen Park, International Village presents live entertainment from 6 to 11 p.m. nightly, with fireworks on the final night.

One of the largest ethnic festivals in Western Pennsylvania, International Village evolved from McKeesport’s “Old Home Week,” first held in 1960. The festival moved to Renzie a few years later.

International Village will be held this year on Aug. 18, 19 and 20.

Lightning, which merged with Tube City Online earlier this year, will present interviews and a live feed of the entertainment on the main stage at International Village, says Jason Togyer, executive director of Tube City Community Media Inc.

The two radio transmitters in Renzie will operate under the restrictions of the Federal Communications Commission’s so-called “Part 15” regulations, which allow groups to provide limited, low-power AM and FM service to restricted areas such as public parks and college campuses.

Lightning, as a subsidiary of Tube City, plans to seek one of the FCC’s low-power FM licenses when applications are accepted, hopefully later this year.

If such a license is granted by the FCC, the group will operate — either by itself or in partnership with other local organizations — a 100-watt, non-profit, non-commercial FM transmitter to provide public service programming to the McKeesport area.

The station’s goals will be to promote the McKeesport area and provide an outlet for local residents — especially young people — to learn about radio.

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Lightning effort detailed in City Paper story

Lightning Community Broadcasting Inc. was highlighted in a Pittsburgh City Paper story about LPFM entitled "Getting Static."

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We aren't dead yet

A lot of people want to know — just what the heck is going on with our plans to bring a low-power public radio station to the Mon-Yough area?

Well, to tell you the truth — so do we. And that’s why our website has become somewhat ... erm ... dormant lately.

It’s been six years now since the Federal Communications Commission created the LPFM service, and five years since Lightning Community Broadcasting Inc. was chartered in McKeesport, Pa. But it’s been about four years since the U.S. Congress tacked a rider onto an appropriations bill that outlawed LPFM stations for all except unpopulated areas.

Which defeats the purpose of a low-powered public radio service for urban areas, wouldn’t you say? Congress made its decision after being heavily lobbied by big-money corporate broadcasters, who are afraid of the threat that truly local, independent radio might be to their stations. (We don’t think that’s fair. We think competition is a good thing.)

Since then, a study conducted at taxpayer expense has proved what everyone already knew — the restrictions that Congress wrote into the LPFM bill (over the objections of the FCC) were unnecessary and flawed. There also have been two efforts led by U.S. Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, to get the restrictions rolled back.

In the meantime, Lightning CBI applied for a license — we even laid out what would have been a 24-hour, seven-day-per-week schedule of local programming for the Mon-Yough area.

But we were rejected because of these restrictions that Sen. McCain is trying to get rolled back.

The newest effort to save LPFM is called S. 312, the Community Radio Act of 2005. It’s being supported by McCain, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, and Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.

What can you do to help? You can write to your Senators and Representatives urging them to support S. 312. For McKeesport-area residents, that means a letter to U.S. Senators Bob Casey Jr. and Arlen Specter is in order, along with U.S. Representative Mike Doyle.

You can also feel free to drop us a note at P.O. Box 847, McKeesport, PA 15134.

We haven’t given up, but we have decided it would be inappropriate for us to raise any additional money until we know what the future of LPFM will be.

We also understand that Penn State Greater Allegheny campus would like to get an LPFM license as an outlet for its Web/carrier-current station, WMKP. We don’t want to compete with them, and would like to work with them in any way we can, and that includes helping them raise money or organizing community volunteers. We haven’t heard back from them, but we’re hopeful.

We still think there is a need for a non-commercial, public radio station serving McKeesport, White Oak, Duquesne, West Mifflin and the surrounding areas, and we will continue to pursue other opportunities if the become available.

But to put it into the vernacular — we ain’t dead yet! So stay tuned.

Signed,

Alycia Bencloski Brashear, Secretary
Daniel C. Malesky, Treasurer
Derrick Brashear, Chad Dougherty, Thomas Schroll Jr., Bill Scully Jr., Timothy Weis, Board of Directors