Philly's new radio station may carry talk of legal pot, salsa music and Tribbles

It's not pirate radio. But then again, it's not too far from a parrot and an eye patch.

Ideas for programming include shows on geek culture, salsa music, and legalizing marijuana, along with poetry slams, local bands, and news from the neighborhoods. Some shows might be broadcast in Khmer or Bhutanese.

Philadelphia's new radio station, low-power, public-access WPPM - as in "People Powered Media" - is inventing itself in a hurry. It's set to go live with all original programs next month, charged with serving the underserved and providing unique and educational points of view and information.

"We look for things that aren't being represented," said Gretjen Clausing, executive director of PhillyCAM, Philadelphia Community Access Media, which already runs a TV station. The Center City-based nonprofit was designated by the city to handle the operations of its public-access channels.

Clausing calls the new radio station "free format." Anyone can get involved and help decide and create what will be broadcast.

The 90-watt signal at 106.5 FM should reach about half the city - from Center City north to Lehigh Avenue, south to the sports stadiums, west to University City, and east to Camden and Cherry Hill.

That encompasses about 800,000 people. The internet audience is potentially limitless.

On Wednesday, Clausing invited wannabe DJs and hosts to come and pitch their ideas - and more than 50 accepted, crowding an upper-floor meeting room to learn how to create their own programs and operate their own broadcasts.

"How many of you would like to have a radio show?" PhillyCAM consultant Vanessa Maria Graber asked.

Almost every hand went up.

"Who here wants to listen to more of the same?"

No hands.

The idea that radio must do better drives the effort. Today's typical FM broadcast?

"Homogenous. Mush," said PhillyCAM volunteer Ed Cummings, also known as Bernie S. "It's the same stuff over and over. . . . There is a big need for community voices and locally produced content."

Back in the 1990s, Cummings was involved in Radio Mutiny, a 20-watt pirate station in West Philadelphia that ultimately was shut down by the FCC. He was and is well-known among computer hackers, even spent some time in jail in a case that involved possession of telecommunications technology that could be used to make free phone calls from pay phones.

Today he promotes WPPM with almost evangelical zeal.

It was Cummings who helped secure the station's snappy call sign. He knew that radio call signals are like internet-domain names - the good ones are already taken.

And it turned out that "WPPM" belonged to the U.S. Coast Guard, specifically to the cutter ship Galatea, built in Camden in 1933. When the ship was decommissioned in 1948, the guard kept the call sign.

Cummings eventually persuaded guard commanders that the agency's public-service mission could be honored by a public-access station.

WPPM is what's called a low-power FM station, a class created by the FCC in 2000 to provide local forums for schools, unions, nonprofits, and just about anyone who wanted to speak up.

A good way to think of it, said Pete Tridish, a founder of Radio Mutiny and the Prometheus Radio Project, is that the airwaves are a swimming pool, filled with beach balls that represent big stations. The beach balls cover the water, yet there are spaces between them that can fit tennis balls - smaller stations that offer value to listeners.

But as the FCC began issuing licenses, big broadcasters lobbied Congress to halt the process. And then to outlaw it. Thereupon ensued a decade of, well, radioactivism. Protests by groups including Prometheus Radio - "Low power to the people!" - led President Obama to sign the Local Community Radio Act of 2011.

The FCC promulgated rules and accepted applications. PhillyCAM got a license in July.

Now such people as Jesse Bermudez, of Siempre Salsa Philly, want to put it to use.

"We have a large Latin music industry in Philadelphia, and it needs a voice," he said.

He and Bob Bernberg, an owner of Latin Beat magazine, went to PhillyCAM on Wednesday to ask about starting a salsa-music program.

"Where else could we go," Bermudez said, "and have the opportunity to express our music?"

Tune in now to 106.5 FM, and you hear recorded songs and shows, a space-holder as WPPM prepares to go live.

Patrick Duff, who works in real estate, said he wants to do a talk show for political independents, a program for people weary of left versus right on-air arguments.

Cherise Paramore is thinking of creating a program on the legalization of marijuana.

Erik Mack wants to find an additional home for Black Tribbles - named for the furry Star Trek creatures - which airs on G-town Radio, an internet station in Germantown. The show explores science fiction, movies, video games and cartoons from an African American view.

WPPM will be fully listener-supported. No commercial advertising. So far the station has raised about $15,000 of the $30,000 it needs to get off the ground, selling memberships that start at $25.

Public access also means that potential hosts need more than a good idea. They must learn to run the broadcast booth, so the station's 24-hour-a-day programming goes on uninterrupted.

All shows must be approved by a station programming board.

None of that dissuaded the dozens who went to WPPM on Wednesday, seeking a rare opportunity.

"You can't go to WHYY and say I want to be on a committee, or have my own show," Graber said. "They'd probably just tell you to leave. Or send you over here."

jgammage@phillynews.com

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@JeffGammage