Tonight in Pittsburgh people from around the city will come together at a public town hall to discuss the future of media and journalism. The event will be an opportunity for the people of Pittsburgh to speak directly to Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps about the state of local news.

This fall marks a critical moment for the future of our airwaves. The FCC is gearing up to review its media-ownership rules and faces massive industry pressure to remove the remaining public-interest protections and pave the way for more industry consolidation.

Meanwhile, the congressional “Super Committee” is weighing cuts to public media as it slices the federal budget by $1.4 trillion.

Pittsburgh has long been a vital hub for noncommercial media and is the home of Mr. Rogers, whose passionate testimony in front of Congress in 1969 helped save public media. Now is the time for the people of Pittsburgh to take a stand.

We'll discuss all this and more in a special community dialogue this evening.

Here are the details:

What: Owning Our Airwaves: A Community Dialogue with Media Policymakers

When: Monday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30.

Where: McConomy Auditorium, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh

Who: Rep. Mike Doyle, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, Deborah Acklin, president and CEO of WQED Multimedia, Marge Krueger of the Communications Workers of America, Khari Mosley of the Urban Green Growth Collaborative, Jon Peha of Carnegie Mellon University, Chris Ramirez of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood

Click here for more information and to RSVP.