koan

[koh-ahn]

koan [Jap.,=public question; Chin. kung-an], a subject for meditation in Ch'an or Zen Buddhism, usually one of the sayings of a great Zen master of the past. In the formative period of Ch'an in China, masters tested the enlightenment of their students and of each other through statements and dialogue that expressed spiritual intuition in nonrational, paradoxical language. In later generations records of such conversations began to be used for teaching, and the first collections of subjects, or koans, were made in the 11th cent. Koan practice was transmitted to Japan as part of Zen in the 13th cent., and it remains one of the main practices of the Rinzai sect. The most famous koan collections are the Wu-men-kuan (Jap. Mu-mon-kan) or "Gateless Gate" and the Pi-yen-lu (Jap. Heki-gan-roku) or "Blue Cliff Records." A well-known koan is: "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

See D. T. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism (1956); I. Miura and R. F. Sasaki, Zen Dust (1966); H. Dumoulin, A History of Zen Buddhism (1989).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

koan

In Zen Buddhism, a brief paradoxical statement or question used as a discipline in meditation. The effort to solve a koan is designed to exhaust the analytic intellect and the will, leaving the mind open for response on an intuitive level. There are about 1,700 traditional koans, which are based on anecdotes from ancient Zen masters. They include the well-known example “When both hands are clapped a sound is produced; listen to the sound of one hand clapping.”

Learn more about koan with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

KOAN-LP

KOAN-LP is a low-power commercial television station in Anchorage, Alaska, broadcasting on VHF channel 6, taking advantage of that station's audio signal on 87.75 MHz FM. The station is one of very few low-power television stations that operate predominantly as a radio station by way of the fact that many FM radio receivers can tune in a VHF channel 6 television audio carrier at 87.7 FM. This technique is made more potent due to a formerly unforeseen interpretation of deregulatory language in FCC low-power television station regulations:

Sec. 73.653 Operation of TV aural and visual transmitters.

  The aural and visual transmitters may be operated independently of each

  other or, if operated simultaneously, may be used with different and

  unrelated program material.

This means that KOAN-LP need not broadcast any particular image so long as it broadcasts a video signal and that the audio and video need not be technically synchronized.

History

KOAN-LP started under this theory of operation with the call sign KZND-LP in July 1999. The station, under the auspices of operator Ubik Broadcasting, began broadcasting a modern rock format in FM Stereo marketed as 87.7 "The End". Anchorage area radio competitors saw then KZND-LP's entry into the market as cheating, so they raised a complaint with the FCC. The agency concluded that it was not sufficient for KZND-LP to show the ability to broadcast video, but must actually do so to operate as a low-power station. KZND-LP complied by broadcasting still pictures and later augmented the video feed by installing a camera in the studio for use during the live morning show.

Transition

In early 2007 the modern rock format and call sign KZND became available on a newly acquired conventional FM signal, 94.7 MHz FM. The KZND radio format was simulcast on both facilities until July 2007 when the low-power station was switched over to simulcast KWMD and its call sign changed to KOAN-LP.

The predominant reason for the move of the modern rock format to the FM band was that since Arbitron would not rate KZND-LP as a radio station, the operation consistently underperformed in terms of revenue. Despite KZND-LP's popularity among the Anchorage radio audience, Arbitron bowed to the wishes of Anchorage area radio groups who subscribed to the Arbitron service. Notably, this discrimination distorted the Arbitron ratings of the periods affected by omitting a significant portion of the Anchorage area radio listening audience from the statistics.

Arbitron has reportedly made some accommodations for providing ratings for WNYZ-LP, New York. However, the PPM rating system is not available in many radio markets and Arbitron ratings will not accurately reflect the radio audience so long as Arbitron omits low-power operations of the KZND-LP mold from overall market reporting.

The future

The future of KOAN-LP on 87.7 is in some doubt, as the channel 6 channel position has been assigned to KYES for digital broadcasting, after the analog signal is discontinued in 2009. However, recent information from Fireweed Broadcasting President Jeremy Lansman indicates that KYES will remain on channel 5, post DTV conversion. Fireweed Communications has been assigned a digital companion channel for KOAN-LP on channel 3.

It appears that the unusual strategy pioneered by licensee Fireweed Communications and previous operator, Ubik Broadcasting, may have a lasting impact -- in 2004, former TV weatherman Jeff Chang began his own low-power station on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, which he claims was inspired by KZND-LP. At least two other facilities, WNYZ-LP and KSFV-LP, are owned and operated under the same regulatory provisions by long time acquaintances of Jeremy Lansman, owner of KOAN-LP licensee Fireweed Communications.