[grc] National LPFM Org

[Paul Bame]

I'd like to share my particular view of the Prometheus effort 
cleverly-named CORASON (Community Radio Solidarity Network) by Allan 
Gomez, which never quite got the organizing capacity it needed to thrive 
because the post-2013 LPFM world was incredibly consuming and the big 
Prometheus grants ran out. This is my view of it, not that of 
Prometheus, to be clear.

CORASON was to start by Prometheus offering valuable services 
(education, discount FCC services, alert service, free and low-rate 
consulting, an audio training and sharing network) to address the 
obvious short-term immediate needs -- based on our daily interactions 
with stations about what they need plus our well-educated guesses.  AND 
SIMULTANEOUSLY doing so by organizing peer relations among LPFMs into a 
solidarity network.

This network was the goal -- it would be strong and effective and lead 
itself.

This model is not common that I know of in the mainstream US world, and 
the organizing would need to be carefully designed and tireless at 
first. It might look initially like a Prometheus-led network; but the 
goal was the obsolescence of our role. Like the "inverted pyramid" 
management practiced by some station managers, our role would no longer 
be to lead but rather to support (which wouldn't be as attractive to 
traditional funders probably).

As the network grew powerful, Prometheus would continue to exist, or 
not, at the network's direction and support, as a client of that 
network. Prometheus' work then would be absolutely relevant based on the 
live needs of that LPFM network rather than our own very-well-educated 
guesses. Our organization's natural prioritization of the continuing of 
our organization itself would be attenuated if not disappear, hence we 
could stop trying to come up with moneymaking ideas and twist ourselves 
into being attractive to grantors.

This could lead to a sustainable way to support policy work for example 
-- instead of trying to sell the funding of that work to foundations or 
even to stations, the need would galvanize out of the common interest of 
LPFMs (and potentially others) who had enough (meager) resources 
together to make it happen.

Also in the Resident Chump era, a solidarity network would be tons more 
resilient than our current landscape where taking out a few of our 
expert organizations would be easy and cause a rather terrible blow to 
grassroots radio. It is no coincidence that solidarity networks are what 
survives and sometimes beats tyranny.

I'm not sure what all that means to the current discussion, but I really 
wanted to share it.

To repeat: this is my view of a Prometheus idea and is definitely 
different than other Prometheans who were in the room, so I do not speak 
for Prometheus in this.