Many of you know that the non-profit Mountain Area Information
Network has worked for many years to provide an alternative to AT&T
and Charter for Internet access.

Today this mission is in jeopardy. If the Asheville City Council
does not act on April 24, MAIN must vacate a City-owned cell tower
and shut down a major part of its Asheville network on May 1.

Many of your friends and neighbors will lose Internet access. And
MAIN’s ability to upgrade and expand our broadband service will be
greatly limited, making Asheville even more dependent on AT&T and
Charter.

We need your help.

Please review the notice to MAIN subscribers below and then call or
e-mail the members of City Council (contact info below).

Ask City Council to allow MAIN to continue providing nonprofit
Internet access via the City-owned tower.

For a More Democratic Media!

MAIN Staff and Board of Directors

Dear MAIN Subscriber:

We are writing to inform you that your Internet service via MAIN may
be terminated May 1, 2012. The reason is that your service from MAIN
is delivered via a cell-tower owned by the City of Asheville, which
could require MAIN to vacate the tower on May 1.

We apologize for the possible disruption of service, but we are
hopeful that it can be prevented.

The decision to have MAIN vacate the tower was made at the
staff-level. MAIN is currently requesting a policy directive by the
Asheville City Council to prevent this action, and we need your
help.

On March 21, the MAIN Board of Directors passed a resolution (see
below) asking the City Council to grant MAIN access to this
cell-tower for 36 months. This in-kind support has a commercial
value of approximately $60,000 (including past-due rent).

We want to be clear: MAIN is NOT requesting any funding from the
City of Asheville.

As you know, the City of Asheville routinely awards grants and
subsidies to for-profit companies to locate or expand facilities in
our community. Recently the City awarded $3.5 million in incentives
to New Belgium Brewery. Last June, the City awarded approximately $2
million in subsidies to Linamar, a Canadian auto-parts manufacturer.

While MAIN is a nonprofit, we believe our unique public-service
mission merits a small fraction of the support provided these
for-profit enterprises. In return, MAIN is prepared to invest a
minimum of $25,000 to upgrade and expand our broadband network in
Asheville.

MAIN also plans to seek additional private funding as well as
federal broadband support proposed in the National Broadband Plan.
The $60,000 value of City tower space would qualify as “in kind
matching support” to attract future broadband investments in our
community.

As you know, MAIN is the only organization in Asheville dedicated to
bridging the broadband Digital Divide for individual households and
small businesses, a goal shared by the regional Economic Development
Coalition to which the City belongs.

The Asheville City Council meets on April 24, just six days before
the May 1 deadline.

Please contact Council members and urge them to support MAIN’s
request for continued access to the City-owned cell tower. Again,
this request is ONLY for tower space. MAIN is NOT requesting any
funding.

Thanks for supporting MAIN’s unique public-service mission!

MAIN Board of Directors

Asheville City Council contact information:

Mayor Terry Bellamy: mayorbellamy at avlcouncil.com –– 828.259-5600

Vice-Mayor Esther Manheimer: emanheimer at vwlawfirm.com ––
828.258.2991

Councilman Cecil Bothwell: cecil at braveulysses.com –– 828.713.8840

Councilman Jan Davis: jandavis at avlcouncil.com –– 828.253.5634

Councilman Marc Hunt: marchunt at avlcouncil.com –– 828.273.2172

Councilman Chris Pelly: chrispelly at avlcouncil.com –– 828.231.3704

Councilman Gordon Smith: gordonsmith at avlcouncil.com –– 828.279.2551

A Resolution by The Board of Directors

Since its launch in 1996, MAIN has played an increasingly important role in federal and state policies on community media and Internet access.

Here’s a quick look back at 2011:

* Last February, our public-interest allies in DC needed MAIN’s help in challenging a Verizon lawsuit to eliminate the FCC’s proposed open Internet rules. As the only “last-mile” ISP in the national media reform movement, MAIN was critical in achieving “standing” in the suit. On April 4, a US Appeals Court dismissed Verizon’s lawsuit.

* In March, MAIN made a landmark filing with the Federal Communications Commission calling for federal policies to protect communities’ rights to “self-provision” broadband infrastructure.

* In May, the rights of municipalities to “self-provision” broadband came under attack by the right-wing N.C. General Assembly. MAIN played a lead role in opposing this cable/telecom-driven legislation. Though the bill passed, we succeeded in blowing the whistle – and raising public awareness – on the cable/telecom lobby’s push for total control over broadband access in NC.

* Since July, we helped block repeated attempts by conservatives in Congress to auction our public airwaves to the highest bidder. These backroom deals – under the guise of “deficit reduction” – would eliminate the TV “white spaces,” the vacant TV channels we fought so hard to liberate from corporate control in 2008. This high-performance spectrum continues to be our greatest hope for solving the rural broadband crisis! We’re hopeful the FCC will give final approval for TVWS technologies in 2012.

Meanwhile, the cable and telephone companies are relentless in their efforts to prevent communities from launching broadband Internet networks. What if Wall Street had succeeded in prohibiting rural electric and telephone cooperatives 60 years ago?

Rural America won the battle to “self-provision” electricity and telephone service. With your help, we can win the battle to self-provision broadband Internet access!

Western North Carolina is unique in having a “last-mile” broadband network like MAIN to demonstrate how rural communities can escape broadband dependency on Wall Street and the cable/telco duopoly.

We need your help now more than ever. Our founder and executive director, Wally Bowen, has been diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. In 2012, we will begin a national search for Wally’s successor. Meanwhile, Wally will continue his invaluable policy work.

Your year-end, tax-deductible donation will help keep MAIN’s unique and historic work going strong in this pivotal year of 2012. You can donate via our secure online link, or mail your tax-deductible donation to: MAIN, 34 Wall Street, Suite 407, Asheville, N.C. 28801.

From all of us at MAIN, best wishes for a joyous holiday season and a happy new year!

The MAIN Board of Directors, Staff and Volunteers

Tune in tonight for Impulse Audio 7-10 pm with host Jessica Hatter, co hosts Keith Chop Chop Fisher and the Cardiac Kid!  Indie in your ear

Tune in to Impulse Audio tonight with host Jessica Hatter and co-hosts Chop Chop and Alex.  Tonight, among awesome Indie music,  we’ll review what it means for an “Indie” band to “Sell Out” putting  Coheed and Cambria on the chopping block! That’s right!