New Radio Frontier

According to ReclaimtheMedia (and thanks to Slashdot.org for pointing this out), low power FM stations might get a chance to break current radio interests to limit their existence:

The Local Community Radio Act of 2007 would remove the artificial restrictions imposed on LPFM by a 2000 law passed at the urging of corporate radio giants and NPR, claiming that small community stations would interfere with the signals of larger stations. While these claims were debunked by a taxpayer-funded study in 2002, Congress has not yet acted on those results - denying many communities the opportunity to apply for LPFM stations.

If this passes, what it means for writers is an experimental medium to try new forms of reporting and telling stories. Non-profits, schools, unions, advocacy groups, and other community groups, will be able to set up lower powered FM stations to broadcast alternative content. In the same vein as my post about blogs being a way of practicing writing, you could look for such opportunities to expand your reporting repertoire. If you want to continue writing over the long run, you need to break out of old concepts of publishing. This could be an opportunity to learn how to handle a mic and to edit sound - giving you the experience to produce audiocasts and part of the multimedia packages that, I think, will ultimately drive the industry. The more you can offer your client, the more value you bring, which means more money and greater security in the market.