Copyright 2000 The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San
Diego Union-Tribune
February 28, 2000, Monday
SECTION: LIFESTYLE;Pg. E-1
LENGTH: 1131 words
HEADLINE:
Making Waves; World Beat Center wants its diverse voice on the radio
BYLINE: Preston Turegano; ARTS WRITER
BODY:
Along Park Boulevard outside the World Beat
Center, not even the hum of motor vehicles and the roar of jets approaching
Lindbergh Field can drown out the pulsating sounds that attract passers-by.
As people get nearer to the center, which is in a World War II-era,
ground-level water tank, the more clearly they can hear the driving percussion.
"That's it, you've got it," music teacher Nana Yaw Asiedu says to a
group of children inside, who are tapping on African tribal drums. "Now, a
little faster, but not so hard."
To Makeda Dread Cheatom, who's been
World Beat's executive director for a decade, "grabbing kids with music" is how
the center encourages nonviolent communication.
World Beat, which moved
into Balboa Park in 1996 after being based in Hancock Street in Middletown, also
preserves and promotes "cultures of African descent" -- a message it spreads
through its Internet audio-streaming service (http://www.worldbeatcenter.org).
Now World Beat hopes to extend its influence with a low-power
FM radio station. In the wake of a controversial Federal Communications
Commission decision last month, Cheatom is applying to the FCC for a low-power
(10-watt) radio license.
The center already connects with the community
through such high-profile activities as the annual Bob Marley Day reggae
festival, which was presented last week at the San Diego Sports Arena. A few
days later, the center held a Black History Month celebration. And among the
institution's most ambitious programs is the teaching of African-rooted music to
hundreds of children each year.
As an arts organization, World Beat
operates on a shoestring budget -- $99,888 for fiscal year
1999-2000. Of that, $15,609 is allocated by the city Commission
for Arts and Culture, which assists 92 cultural institutions from its transient
occupancy (hotel-motel room) tax revenue.
World Beat is so financially
strapped that a private roofing company recently donated repairs worth
$25,000 after officials of the city, which owns the World Beat
building and land, said there wasn't any public money to plug up the structure's
leaky roof.
Such funds and donations help World Beat remain not just a
venue for live music, but also a performance space and gallery for actors,
poets, orators and visual artists -- in short, "a media center," as Cheatom
calls it.
Now, if Cheatom has her way, World Beat's performances will
end up on both the center's Web site and the broadcast airwaves via KWBC, a
10-watt FM radio station (at 89.1) that Cheatom took off the air voluntarily a
year ago. She was responding to operators of nearby San Diego City College's
jazz-format KSDS/FM 88.3, who complained to her and the local FCC office that
KWBC's signal made it difficult for the KSDS staff to hear its own transmission.
Last month, the FCC authorized two new classes of noncommercial
low-power FM services -- LP100 (50 to 100 watts) and LP10 (1 to
10 watts) -- for "underrepresented groups and community organizations." About
1,000 low-power FM services could be licensed nationally.
The FCC's decision was opposed by owners of commercial "full-power"
(more than 6,000 watt) FM stations, such as Clear Channel Communications, which
owns eight radio stations in San Diego. The Sacramento-based California
Broadcasters Association and the National Association of Broadcasters in
Washington, D.C., also cried foul over low-power operations.
Mike
Glickenhaus, vice president/general manager of Clear Channel's San Diego FM
operations, said Clear Channel doesn't disagree with the right of
microbroadcasters to promote a cause or agenda. Instead, he says, the issue is
one of physics.
"We (commercial broadcasters) never felt the commission
properly investigated the potential signal degradation on our stations,"
Glickenhaus said. "We wanted the commission's decision to be postponed until
further investigation could take place."
World Beat's audio streaming
plays mostly ska and reggae off compact discs. If KWBC gets a low-power license,
it will also offer news and information, Cheatom said.
"There's nothing
(consistently) on the radio here for the African-American, Somalian, Ethiopian,
Vietnamese or any other minority community that reflects its cultural and
informational needs," she said.
Having a bona-fide radio station will
extend World Beat's reach to poor people, Cheatom added.
"A lot of poor
don't have personal computers and they're not Internet-savvy, but they do have
radios," she said. "Radio has always been a tool of change. If we're ever going
to have true cultural understanding and acceptance between the races, radio will
help make that possible."
Commercial radio is familiar turf to Cheatom,
who from 8 to 10 p.m. on Sundays is the host of "Reggae Mekosa" on XTRA/FM 91.1
("91X").
But as good as Cheatom's noncommercial-radio intentions may
seem, they could be for naught.
Bob Gonsett, president of Communications
General Corp. -- a Fallbrook-based broadcast engineering consulting firm -- said
the FCC's decision prohibits low-power FM services from using
any frequency between 88.1 and 91.9 because they would be too close to channel 6
on the television broadcast frequency range -- including San Diego's
XETV/Channel 6.
As part of a low-power FM study being
done on behalf of World Beat Center, Gonsett's company will independently
research information cited by FCC commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, who said
only one major U.S. city -- Houston -- has enough space on its FM-band frequency
range for the creation of even one low-power FM service.
"No such stations will be created in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago,
Philadelphia, San Diego, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, Charlotte or Miami,"
Furchtgott-Roth said last month. If the low-power services do come, they will be
found in "smaller markets," he added.
"What he said may very well be
correct," Gonsett said. "As soon as World Beat Center knows the realities, the
better."
Even if World Beat can somehow find a place on the FM dial, it
may not be able to deal with the political fallout that has resulted from the
FCC's decision. Some professional broadcasters predict that Congress --
pressured by broadcast-industry lobbyists -- will rescind the FCC's low-power
ruling.
"I caution (prospective low-power FM operators)
when they call that they shouldn't get their hopes up," Gonsett said. "Not only
do they have technical restraints, they also have the fact that the National
Association of Broadcasters is dead set against the whole concept of low-power
broadcasting. They just may succeed in crushing it."
Says Cheatom: "If
(the low-power FM operation) doesn't happen, it won't stop us
from performing our role here -- being the only African presence in Balboa
Park."
GRAPHIC: 2 PICS; 1,2. CHARLIE NEUMAN /
Union-Tribune photos; 1. Rhythm and hues:At Balboa Park's World Beat Center,
Nana Yaw Asiedu leads schoolchildren (from left) Ruben Villegas, Alexander Tamai
and Brock Freeman in a music class. 2. The power of the dial: Executive director
Makeda Dread Cheatom hopes to increase the World Beat Center's multicultural
influence by creating a low-power radio station.
LOAD-DATE: March 1, 2000 
