IT WAS A little over a year ago, on April 26, 2003, that more than 600 people packed a public forum with federal communications commissioner Jonathan Adelstein at San Francisco's City Hall to "just say no" to giving Big Media even more power. Speaker after speaker told of the very real impacts of dumbed-down, unaccountable media on the health and well-being of their families and communities. They spoke passionately about the increased harm to be caused by the media-ownership rule changes then being proposed by neocon Federal Communications Commission chair Michael Powell, son of Colin Powell. Tens of thousands more people throughout California filed comments online after hearing these eight hours of rich public testimony broadcast live on community radios stations KPOO-FM and KPFA-FM.

The Bay Area's mobilization inspired 12 other cities around the country to hold similar unofficial hearings. And it also caught the eye of MoveOn.org, which invited Media Alliance to coauthor the initial action alerts that rippled out information and mobilized their millions of members across the country to get involved in opposing Powell's rules.

But in spite of the millions of comments, far more than ever received by the FCC, Powell and the corporate media's owners got their way June 2, 2003. The Republican majority on the FCC pushed through the rules to allow the handful of media megacorporations to get even bigger.

Then last fall, just one day before the rules were set to go into effect, our court case to stop them won a temporary stay of nine months. And on June 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed our arguments and the widespread public concern, halting for now the planned gold rush by Big Media, rejecting Powell's rules, and sending them back to the FCC to be rewritten.

On the evening of July 21, Powell and the other four FCC commissioners are coming to Monterey for a very rare, official hearing to gather public comment. The only West Coast FCC hearing scheduled for this year, it's part of a new initiative to get public input on the reformulation of the ownership rules and on "localism" – or how broadcasters are, and are not, meeting the needs of local communities – and what should be done about it.

That said, a strong showing in Monterey and a flood of online comments from Californians will continue the popular momentum and force the FCC's hand in redrafting the revised ownership rules. Plus, taking place just days before the Democratic National Convention, it could help keep media reform in play as a campaign issue in this election year.

But most important is the hearing's potential as a "teachable moment" to increase the numbers of Californians informed about and engaged in the long-term work for true media regime change, including the breakup of the monopolies; more local ownership and input into programming by underrepresented communities; more local news, public affairs, and cultural programming; increased media accountability, including more frequent license renewals; more children's programming with less commercials; and more money for independent media production, generated from fees for the use of the airwaves, which are owned by the public but given away for no rent.

We hope you'll help make the most of this timely opportunity and continue the Bay Area's key role in moving forward powerful visions for how our media system should be. Please help pack the hearing July 21 in Monterey. Help ensure the FCC, the press, and the public hear from strong, impassioned voices calling for deep and meaningful change. Help flood the FCC with online comments. And help build and sustain this work for the long haul.

For information on the July 21 FCC hearing, filing comments, and media regime change, go to www.media-alliance.org. Jeff Perlstein is the executive director of Media Alliance, a Bay Area media resource and advocacy center working for greater accountability, diversity, and ethics in our media system.