Summer Staff has Prometheus Abuzz with Energy

In late May, Prometheus welcomed 7 interns who have committed to spending their summer vacations working on Radio Summer and ensuring Prometheus is prepared to help hundreds of groups apply for new community radio stations. They hail from different places and have some very different interests but all share a commitment to media justice and we excited to have them in our midst.  

Celina loves watching documentaries and traveling, and wrestled a shark with her bare hands and won. Roger likes going for hour-long runs, and his favorite meal is lasagna. Beth bikes around frantically in search of free food when not at work. Natty plays accordion, badly, and likes to write political sci-fi... also badly. Margaret is a seasoned long-distance walker who enjoys making clothing in her spare time. April is a seasoned radio activist who enjoys reading Fanon in her warehouse in Chinatown. Lucy enjoys rainy days, long walks on the beach, and immanentizing the eschaton. More about these feisty young go-getters. 

Celina Brogan is from West Chester, Pennsylvania and is connecting Prometheus with social justice organizations that might be interested in reaching out through community radio. A hotshot social justice activist with something to prove, Celina is interested in using media as a tool to advance human rights. As a Radio Summer intern, she designed a postcard-style rundown of Radio Summer to be handed out at events all summer long.  
 
Roger Palomeque is majoring in Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University. He is working on an engineering study to find a new home for North Adams, Massachusetts's WKGT-LP. This is part of a bigger project in which he is contacting all LPFMs affected by encroachments. Roger is also keeping Prometheus's information up to date by revising documents covering Studio-to-Transmitter methods, and issues to consider when placing antennas. He is also simulating the schematics of the FM transmitter on PSPICE. He is interested in circuit bending and building, as well as philosophy, math, and electronics in general. His favorite books are Felix Guattari's Three Ecologies and Noam Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent. Roger is also developing his own music project, Nanonite (http://nanonite.bandcamp.com/).
 
Beth Patel is originally from Sacramento, California but is in the process of developing a love connection with Philadelphia. She just graduated from Haverford College, where she studied Political Science and, surprisingly enough, wrote her senior thesis on community radio. Being a narcissist, it's no surprise that she will be recording herself for PSAs promoting Radio Summer. Beth is also compiling a list of radio stations run by high schools across the country to complete Prometheus's database of LPFMs and is helping to coordinate Radio Summer volunteeers. Along with Natty and Lucy, she is interviewing and collecting stories from community radio stations to let the world in on how LPFMs affect the communities they serve. You will be able to read about them on our website and in upcoming newsletters.
 
Natty Pilcher recently left his native Northern California for school. He now lives in magical western Massachusetts, where the leaves change colors and fall off, before cold stuff falls from the sky. (Y'all who are from places with seasons seriously don't appreciate them enough.) He is PRP's Station Support intern and is working on creating Radio Summer fliers to get the word out. Natty is helping stations and volunteers get in contact with each other by organizing their contact info, and making it easier to distribute and read. He is also working on radio station profiles with Beth and Lucy. Natty learned about Prometheus while researching a semester-long paper about LPFM and Indymedia.org. One fine morning at 3 AM, Natty got excited reading about the Local Community Radio Act. While punching the air in silent victory, he realized that rather than reading about the movement, he'd like to come to Philly, sleep on his uncle's couch, and become part of it!  
 
Margaret Roth is an '09 Rutgers graduate with a cultural anthropology degree. She is researching the impact of possible policy decisions on stations in the upcoming licensing window. She is also surveying stations so Prometheus can better advocate and network with community stations in the future. This summer she is excited to be working with the policy team to help get more community stations on the airwaves! Margaret has since spent some time working for friends who run a fair-trade wholesale company and studying Nepali. Margaret first became interested in community radio after studying abroad in Nepal. She saw first-hand how radio could be used as powerful tool to promote social justice. 

April Glaser is a long time Promethean, who has returned for the summer to continue fighting for community media. At 16, she was a founding member of Radio Free Nashville, WRFN-LP, and helped organize the Prometheus Barnraising for the station. She was featured in a chapter of Eric Klinenberg's book Fighting for Air, where he describes her as "a pink-haired teenager with a passion for obscure music and sparkplug energy that bursts out of her compact frame." She came to Philly to work with Prometheus in 2006 and organized people around the country to speak out about media ownership and participate in the fight for community radio.
 
Today she is studying Philosophy at Temple University, and has returned to Prometheus as a member of the Policy Team. She is advocating for more community radio in urban areas, and shedding light on obscure FCC rules and regulations for stations and LPFM supporters. April's hair is no longer pink, but her energy when it comes to organizing for community media remains.

Hailing from Northwest Philly, Lucy Saunders-Pappentick is a Smith College Junior. She is majoring in Afro-American Studies, Psychology, and snarky responses to, "Oh, wow! Afro-American Studies! Why did you pick that?" As the Development intern at Prometheus, Lucy is learning how to write grants, as well as writing newsletter articles and researching potential donors. This will help Prometheus better tailor its approach to people interested in donating. Lucy is also working on station profiles with Beth and Natty. She is currently reading Ruth Nanda Anshen's The Reality of the Devil. Lucy became interested in media reform after taking a class on the impact of media representations of race on society.

If you are interested in Interning at Prometheus, contact Ian at ian[at]prometheusradio.org or 215.727.9620 x519