Between 1906 and 1922 radio amateurs—who referred to themselves as "distance fiends"—ruled the airwaves. In their enthusiasm to share common concerns, forge friendships with distant strangers, and explore the expressive potential of the new medium, the radio enthusiasts championed democratic communication through electronic media. By the mid-1920s, however, commercial sponsorship of radio programming and corporate control of the newly developed broadcasting industry stifled the participatory potential of the "wireless." At the end of the twentieth century, the rapid commercialization of the internet poses yet another threat to the democratic possibilities of a new communication medium. Although the distance fiends are largely forgotten, their passionate embrace of the communitarian potential of electronic communication lives on through the work of community media organizations around the world.

Community media play a significant, but largely unacknowledged, role in popular culture. Unlike their commercial and public service counterparts, community media...