Independent Station's Power Lies With Its People

Commercial radio, like many other media, is in serious trouble. The prevailing view at the Chicago Independent Radio Project is that traditional radio has created its own problems: beholden to advertisers, disconnected from the community and increasingly out of reach for all but a few, well-connected artists. Chirp — a fledgling, non-commercial, online radio station set to begin next month — will try to be everything Big Radio is not: independent, intensely local and musically adventurous. The decision to be online made sense, and not only because it allowed organizers to bypass the Federal Communications Commission. Unlike terrestrial stations, many of which are hemorrhaging listeners to alternative technologies, the online-only radio audience is growing at a rapid clip. The 42 million listeners in 2009 were a 44 percent jump from the 29 million in 2007, according to Arbitron, the media research firm. As news of the project spread, volunteers emerged — as did small-scale individual donors, which have made up the bulk of the station's financial base. They have also received support from several foundations, including the MacArthur Foundation. (12/26)