The Radio Survivors return to their microphones to review what’s new in radio. Of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine hangs heavy over our heads, and we review how the international community is leveraging radio to delivery needed communications and information to Ukrainians, as well as how radio is attempting to serve the Ukrainian diaspora. Unfortunately, independent voices inside Russia are also being repressed.

March is Women’s History Month, and the 8th is International Women’s Day. Jennifer participated in a special panel on “Gender Dynamics and Industry Barriers in Podcasting, Broadcasting, and Beyond,” airing on affiliate station XRAY.fm in Portland, Oregon.

We also touch on the Franken FMs that refuse to die, the anticipated LPFM application window, and SPIN magazine’s coverage of ICE FM at Antarctica’s McMurdo Station.

Show Notes

• XRAY’s 5th Annual Amplify Women Teach-In
• Polish Radio 1 is serving news to Ukraine with a Ukrainian-language news broadcast on longwave 
• WRMI Radio Miami International has resumed rebroadcasts of Radio Ukraine Int’l on shortwave daily, except Friday, at 1200 – 1230 UTC on 7570 kHz.
• NY Times: BBC revives shortwave radio dispatches in Ukraine, and draws ire of Russia
• The Guardian: State communications watchdog Roskomnadzor restricted access to BBC Russia’s online presence, as well as Radio Liberty and the Meduza media outlet
• Reuters: Liberal Russian radio station is taken off air
• Inside Radio: NAB Says Russian-Sponsored Programming Should Be Off U.S. Radio
• College Radio Stands With Ukraine
• About a “half-dozen” Franken-FMs remain on the air
• SPIN: ICE FM: The World’s Most Remote — And Coldest — Radio Station
• Podcast #146 – Volunteer Radio from Antarctica
• Audium
• World According to Sound
• Jennifer’s review of World According to Sound

The post Podcast #325 – Ukraine Radio, Int’l Women’s Day and Franken FMs appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine greatly upsets me, as my heart goes out to the Ukrainian people. I feel a connection because my father’s family is from Estonia, which also borders Russia and has a long, unhappy history of Russian domination. While Estonia today is a free republic, the assault on Ukraine understandably puts the people of all the Baltic nations on edge, even as they send aid to Ukraine.

Polish Radio 1 is pitching in with a Ukrainian-language news broadcast on longwave that can be heard across Europe, including Ukraine. These updates can be heard daily at 10 AM and 5 PM CET on 225 kHz.

Though not used for audio broadcasts in the Americas, longwave is a band that sits well below the mediumwave band that is home to AM radio. Longwave can travel longer distances than mediumwave, following the curvature over the earth and even over mountains. Though signals do not travel as far as some shortwave broadcasts. However, longwave’s advantage is a more stable signal with potentially slightly higher fidelity than shortwave. Ireland’s RTÉ 252 is another longwave station we’ve covered, which serves the Irish diaspora in the UK.

The BBC World Service has also added two shortwave broadcasts to Ukraine on 5875 kHz from 0800 to 1000 UTC and 15735 kHz from 0200 to 0400 UTC.

Long-distance radio broadcasts are particularly vital in times of war and conflict because reception is less dependent on stable power, or mobile or wired internet access. Longwave- and shortwave-capable radios are often more common in Europe than in North America, and many people there are more accustomed to turning to these bands for news and information.

News from Ukraine is broadcast to the world on Radio Ukraine International, available on satellite in Europe and online. According to the Official WSL Channel, WRMI Radio Miami International has resumed rebroadcasts of RUI on shortwave daily, except Friday, at 1200 – 1230 UTC on 5010 kHz.

The post Radio to and from Ukraine appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Thanks to Twitter, I learned about a UK ‘zine recently scanned and uploaded to the Internet Archive: “Radio Is my Bomb: a DIY Manual for Pirates.”

Published in 1987, it’s a fascinating document of the 1970s and 80s free radio in the UK and elsewhere, though principally focused on western Europe. Amusingly, the entry on the USA briefly describes the (fully licensed) Pacifica Network, noting that the community radio movement here was then about 60 stations strong. But, then concludes, “we have no information on any pirate stations in the USA.”

Alongside reports on stations and activity in different regions, there is an extensive how-to section, including a primer on radio electronics, with transmitter and antenna schematics.

What stands out is the free radio ethos espoused throughout, but especially in the introduction. It sounds no less fresh today, despite being 34 years old.

“Of course there have been radio pirates since radio was discovered,” the authors observe, “Marconi himself became the 1st pirate, when the authorities prevented him fully using his own discovery.” They go on to decry commercial radio, as well as “traditional pirate radio DJs, who tend to be all the same white sexist macho morons, preening their egos and spewing forth inane chatter in the hope of getting a fat career in the legal media.” No doubt, they have the last generation pirates – broadcasting stations like Radio Caroline – in their sights, noting that many indeed went on to long careers at the BBC and commercial radio after first sticking it to the man.

But their shots at the dinosaurs of pirate radio have a purpose beyond mere mockery. They advocate a radically more inclusive approach.

“We’d like instead to put everyone on air! To reclaim the airwaves from the parasites who infest it. We’d like to see ethnic radio, women’s radio, tenants, unions, anarchists, community groups, old people, prisoners, pacifists, urban gorillas, local info, gays, straights and of course every possible variety of musical entertainment.”

Moreover, they advocate for what something pretty close to what would become known in the US as micropower radio in the 90s, calculating evidence for its feasibility.

“We’d prefer radio chaos to the ‘aural diahorrea’ we have right now! But in fact chaos has nothing to do with it. For a start there’s plenty of room, ‘Free The Airwaves’ have calculated there’s room for 471 one mile FM pirates in London alone without interfering with anyone… We’re talking about cooperation, not chaos and competition. About open access radio, where all kinds of people can share facilities and put out occasional shows or info as they wish. We’re talking about frequency sharing, about community defence, about each ethnic group having proqrammes in their own language, etc.”

If this description also reminds you of low-power FM, it’s not a coincidence. The explosion of “micropower” community-oriented pirate radio in the 1990s helped put pressure on the FCC to create an LPFM service designed to be accessible to small community organizations.

Covering then-recent history of the pirate scenes in the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, West Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, El Salvador and Bolivia, “Radio Is My Bomb” is a near-encyclopedia of the movement in the 70s and 80s. While French, Italian and Dutch pirate radio are comparatively more well documented and widely cited, I was much less aware of scenes in, say, Belgium and Denmark.

I also appreciate the inclusion of Japan’s “mini TX boom,” briefly discussing the rise of “mini-FM,” as evangelized by theorist Tetsuo Kogawa. “Mini-FM” is similar to Part 15 in the US, using very low-powered transmitters that are officially legal for broadcasting without a license, due to their extremely small output and broadcast radius. However, in a dense city like Tokyo their tiny footprints still reach a sizable population, and can be used to stimulate community interaction, as with Kogawa’s “Radio Party.”

I’d love to have a print copy of “Radio Is My Bomb.” Still, thanks to a pseudonymous uploader and the Internet Archive, everyone can have a virtual copy that reminds us that the movement for freer airwaves filled with far more voices is not new, and does not end.

The post “Radio Is my Bomb” ‘Zine Is a Still-Relevant Snapshot of Free Radio in the 1980s appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Thanks to reader Paul Bailey I’ve recently been alerted that Ireland’s long-running longwave (LW) radio station RTÉ 252 is back on the air, after a period of maintenance beginning in June of this year. The service rebroadcasts public broadcaster RTÉ Radio 1, reaching longer distances than the mediumwave AM band – no longer in use by RTÉ – and the FM band.

As Bailey explained in a 2016 guest post, RTÉ 252 was founded when the broadcaster acquired the transmitter site from a commercial radio operation that lasted from 1989 to 2002. Able to reach distances of up to 1200 miles with fidelity roughly equivalent to conventional AM radio – with superior quality and reliability than shortwave – RTÉ 252 is able to serve a significant Irish diaspora in the UK. Though the same programming is available globally online, that still makes it inaccessible to many motorists and listeners with limited or no internet service.

Situated below the conventional AM band at 30 – 300 KHz, LW was never officially used for broadcasting in the Americas, though it’s had a long history in Europe, Asia and Africa. However, the long wavelengths mean that the transmission towers need to be very tall and situated on a large parcel of land in order to broadcast efficiently, using hundreds of kilowatts of power. Currently RTÉ broadcasts with 150 kilowatts in the daytime – a fraction of the 500 kw it’s licensed for – which is still 3x what the most powerful clear channel AM stations may use in the US.

All of that means a LW station is relatively expensive to operate and maintain, which is why RTÉ proposed shutting down the 252 operation back in 2014. Outcry from listeners across Ireland and the UK caused the broadcaster to cancel the shutdown in 2019, ultimately deciding to conduct maintenance this year to keep the service going into the future.

The post Ireland’s Longwave Radio RTÉ 252 Is Back on the Air appeared first on Radio Survivor.

We welcome new contributor Martin Butera, reporting from Brasilia DF, Brazil. In his first article, he examines the growing crackdown on free radio in that country. Readers should note the parallels between unlicensed radio there and in the US, where stations in dense urban areas are often employed by communities and populations not well served by the dominant public and commercial broadcasters. -Eds.

Search warrants by the Federal Police for the seizure of radio stations that operate outside the law in Brazil have been constant this year.

Through a statement, the national telecommunications regulator Anatel reported that, on average, it turned off about six unlicensed stations a day throughout the country in the year to date. The problem is mainly concentrated in large urban centers such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

In the last three years under the government of president Jair Bolsonaro more than 6,700 unlicensed stations have already been closed in Brazil, according to data from the country’s radio and television industry association, ABERT (Associação Brasileira de Emissoras de Rádio e Televisão). This represents double the total number of authorizations granted by the Ministry of Communications for community radios in the last ten years.

The raids by Anatel are generally violent. Members of the Federal Police, together with members of the COE (Special Operations Command) of the Military Police, using armored vehicles, are in charge of dismantling the transmission of so-called “pirate” radios, which, according to the Brazilian telecommunications agency, make it difficult for aircraft pilots to communicate with control tower operators. 

(The aircraft radio band begins just above the FM band at 108 MHz, and interference with aircraft communications has long been an argument used to justify combating unlicensed radio in the US as well. -ed.)

(Federal Police disclosure): Agent of the Brazilian Federal Police, entering free radio to confiscate the equipment

According to Anatel, the most affected airport is Santos Dummont, which is located about 10 kilometers from the main favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the control tower of Guarulhos Airport in Greater São Paulo. According to an estimate by the agency, just  in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo there are around four thousand such stations.

Favela is the name given in Brazil to the precarious or informal settlements that grow around or within the country’s large cities.

According to the latest 2019 data and measurements from The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 22.03% of the 6.3 million inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro live in favelas. That is, 1.4 million people reside in these irregular settlements, making it the city with the most neighborhoods of this type in the country, even above that nation’s largest city, São Paulo, where 1.28 million reside in 1,020 favelas.

But the National Telecommunications Agency also says that by illegally occupying random frequencies, these stations not only interfere with communication between control towers and airplanes, they also interfere with frequencies of hospitals and ambulances, as well as security forces and their vehicles, putting thousands of people at risk every day or making it difficult for them to help.

When they are unable to prove the interference caused by this type of radio, the Federal Police and the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency end up claiming that the closures are justified in some other way, sometimes claiming the stations have some  connection with drug trafficking.

People found guilty of the crime of unlicensed telecommunications may serve up to four years in detention in Brazil. However, arrests are not common, especially if stations are unoccupied, or suspected operators destroy transmission equipment. 

The Federal Police claim that all the stations that do not have an operating license from the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC) are considered “pirates,” even though many call themselves community radio stations.

(Federal Police disclosure): Pirate transmitter equipment, found by the Brazilian Federal Police Agents, camouflaged in a mountain

The persecution of free radio stations is so pervasive that now the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) has joined in to fight them, ostensibly to fight interference with aircraft radios.

The FAB periodically scans the FM band, attempting to identify possible interference within a 10 km radius around Brazilian airports. After that, the approximate locations are passed on to the Special Operations Command teams of the Military Police, who are in charge of disabling the pirate transmitters.

Also the Regional Flight Protection Service of São Paulo (SRPV-SP), linked to the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), decided to act more harshly against pirate radios that have interfered in the airspace and intends to change the form of communication between the pilot and the tower control to make the message clearer.

According to data from the SRPV-SP (São Paulo Regional Flight Protection Service), so far in  2021 there was an increase of 163% in instances of interference – from 65 in 2020 to 171 this year. The difference is partially explained by the change in how aircraft control personnel log these instances. To demonstrate the severity of the problem, all possible occurrences of interference are now counted, not just the most egregious. 

To continue with this report, it is necessary to understand the difference that exists in Brazil between “Pirate Radio” and Community Radio.

“Pirate Radio” in Brazil:

The term arose in the early 1960s in England to identify transmissions, whose transmitting station was on a ship off the British coast, but outside the control of nautical miles. These stations, considered illegal by the British government, were created by young people who did not accept the state monopoly and did not support the programming of official stations controlled by the government.

In Brazil, the term was adapted without worrying about its origin and began, mainly in Rio de Janeiro, to identify irregular radio stations. In São Paulo, the term was also used in the eighties and nineties by some radio stations, themselves, but soon after it was dropped.

In Rio de Janeiro, for example, all unauthorized stations were confused with clandestine broadcasts – which work hard to avoid being identified and tend to have political objectives – and more conventional unlicensed broadcasts.

As elsewhere in the world, in Brazil the term “pirate” came to be used as a catch-all pejorative term to describe all sorts of activity outside the law, especially by the owners of large radio and television networks and the cultural production industry, often when identifying unauthorized copies of their music, cinema and video products..

Community Radio in Brazil:

The Community Broadcasting Service was created in Brazil by Law 9612 of 1998, regulated by Decree 2615 of the same year. Stations operate on the FM band with low power (25 watts) and coverage restricted to a radius of 1 km from the transmitting antenna. Only non-profit community associations and foundations based in the place where the service is provided may operate a station.

Community radio stations must have pluralistic programming, without any type of censorship, and must be open to the expression of all the inhabitants of the region served. This is intended to provide a communication channel entirely dedicated to the community, opening the opportunity for the dissemination of its ideas, culture and traditions.

The Problem of Community and Free Radio

The history of community radio stations in Brazil begins in 1987, at the beginning of the discussions in the National Constituent Assembly. At that time, it was already understood that it was important to democratize the media through community broadcasting, with local and free stations aimed at the community.

A group led by professors from the Faculty of Communication and Arts of USP (University of São Paulo), managed to approve an article in the Federal Constitution of 1988 that guarantees freedom of expression in intellectual, artistic, scientific and communication activities, regardless of censorship or license. Almost 10 years passed until the Community Broadcasting Service was created. 

However, there are several community and free radio stations in Brazil that operate without recognizing the legitimacy of Anatel. These are still on the air, inspired by independent media movements, for the purpose of creating their own media without depending on the media linked to large corporations.

Nowadays, setting up a radio is relatively easy, with an approved FM transmitter, a laptop or desktop computer, a table and a microphone are enough. However, the operation of these radios are officially illegal, and called “pirate.” They broadcast without authorization, in part, because that license can be difficult to obtain.

An article published in the Brazilian Press Observer details research demonstrating a strong relationship between community radio licenses and political influence, characterizing it as “electronic colonialism.” Reviewing a study of stations on air from 1999 to 2004 – the first five years of the office Community Broadcasting Service – it shows that about half of authorized community radio stations are linked to local politicians, noting that the granting of licenses has value in “retail politics.”

It also draws attention to the determination of what is called the “political godfather” in obtaining the concession and authorization; without this it is almost impossible to obtain an official permit to operate a community or free radio station. 

Background and Research on Brazilian Community and “Pirate” Radio

There is very little bibliography on this subject, most of it is written in academic papers.

There is a book in Brazil called “Rádios Livres – a Reforma Agrária no Ar“, now out of print and totally out of date

The book ,written by journalists Arlindo Machado, Caio Magri and Marcelo Masagão, brings together various experiences of community and free radio stations in the history of the country. Between the years of the Civil-Military Dictatorship (1964-1985), he recounts how the Brazilian youth bravely resisted with several free radio stations throughout the national territory against repression.

The book, first published in 1986, also has transcripts of several manifestos of these experiences, most of which were self-managed and had a libertarian ideology (be it anarchist or communist).

In addition to being a historical document that records the main libertarian radio experiences in Brazil, the book also brings a deep and necessary discussion on the democratization of the media in the country.

Radio Favela

However, without much written literature on this subject, free radio reaches the cinema thanks to “Radio Favela“, a Brazilian film, directed by Helvécio Ratton and released in 2002.

Based on true events, this film tells the story of a radio station that was created by a group of boys from the favelas of Belo Horizonte in the 1980s. Despite being persecuted for more than twenty years, its audacious programming and its spontaneous language were the keys to his audience success.

The protagonist of the story is Jorge (Alexandre Moreno), a boy who lives between two worlds: that of the favela where he lives, and that of the middle-class school where he studies, since his mother works there as a cleaner to pay for his studies. He is the leader, creator and announcer of Radio Favela.

His companions in this free radio station are Zequiel (Adolfo Moura), who is in charge of the technical part; Roque (Babu Santana), an uprooted and ambitious drug dealer; and Brau (Benjamín Abras), the group’s poet, who finds his way out of favela life in rhythm, black music, and dance.

One day there is a big police raid in the alleys of the favelas. While the drug traffickers flee or camouflage their merchandise, the pirate radio warns the residents to protect themselves.

The objective of the police is not drug trafficking, but to locate the voice of pirate radio: they want to silence it. When Jorge is arrested, his collaborators and friends will make sure that the voice of the favela continues in the air.

Finally a very good report on free radios in the 1990s in Brazil can be found on YouTube.

In 1995, the Vitrine program, of TV Cultura de São Paulo, aired a report on the free radio movement that had a great explosion in the mid-nineties.

The reporter James Capelli visited three stations that operated in São Paulo, in different parts of the city: Conexão, Free and Onze.

The first sought to accommodate the problems of the neighborhood, in addition to accommodating people who had never had radio experience.

The second was a church-related station.

The third was an experience that mixed people linked to the Academic Center of the Faculty of Law of USP (University of São Paulo) and residents of the center of São Paulo.

At that time, the report announced that the government at the time would send a law to Congress to regulate these radios without licenses. After a long time and much discussion, the law for community and free radio came out, but little changed. 

Final Conclusion

It would be impossible in a single report to tell the complete story of community or free broadcasting in Brazil. However, this publication can serve as a starting point for potential researchers who want to know more about the subject.

People who set up a community or free radio, just want a space to work, community or free radio, they do not crash planes in the sky.

Although it seems obsolete to be talking about community radio or free-to-air radio by frequency modulated by the imminent advance of the internet, I must tell you that here still in Brazil, there are many people without internet access, even more so when we talk about favelas.

That is why it is very important that each neighborhood has its community and free radio and television, this will help the economy, culture, sports, public health and education of the neighborhood.

Due to political interests and institutional bureaucracy, these radios end up navigating the sea of ​​illegality and end up being classified as clandestine and criminal stations.

It is our duty to remain vigilant of the violations against freedom of expression, anywhere in the world.

I agree that radio frequencies are a public good that should be controlled and penalized by Anatel, but we must study case by case, so that acts of censorship are not discussed. 

About the Author

Martin Butera is a founding member of Radio Atomika, a station that is part of the second generation of radio alternatives, countercultural, alegal, free, self-managed, pirates born in the heat of Argentinazo 2001 (great Argentine economic crisis).

In 2013 to celebrate 10 years of the station (2003-2013), they edit a documentary called “Proudly Clandestinos”, a compilation with testimonies of the protagonists who worked at the station, can be seen on YouTube in Spanish

He left the project in 2017, when he went to live in Brasília DF, capital of Brazil, where he continues to work in alternative media.

Butera is also a radio amateur with more than 31 years of experience and has participated in DXpedition, throughout South America using the Argentine radio callsign LU9EFO and the Brazilian callsign PT2ZDX.

He has also contributed to some of the world’s leading international magazines and newsletters on broadcasting, and his articles have been published and translated into various languages such as Spanish, English, Portuguese, German, Italian, and even Japanese.

The post Brazilian Authorities Cracking Down on Free Radio in 2021 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In celebration of World Radio Day this past Saturday, the BBC World Service released an hour-long documentary about five different community radio stations around. the world. Beginning with Cameroon’s Radio Taboo, a solar-powered station started by an artist, presenter Maria Margaronis then takes us to Romania’s Danube Delta, which is focused on preserving the region’s unique language and history. We also auditorily travel to Tamil Naud, India, Bolivia, and the Navajo Nation to hear from stations that strive to serve the needs of their communities using a medium that can be heard aboard fishing boats, in remote mining communities and on the road across a sprawling First Nation.

Margaronis lets the presenters and producers speak for themselves, as we tune in to their broadcasts, and also hear from the listeners who depend on these lifelines of information and culture. The documentary is produced by David Goren, the radio enthusiast, journalist and researcher behind the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map. (Hear more about that project on Radio Survivor Podcast #138.)

Voices, music and sound transmitter through the ether is still a magical phenomenon. So much so that the fishermen of Tamil Nadu rig up antenna extensions on their boats to keep their local station tuned in when they sail out of its normal radius of 17 nautical miles.

I can’t recommend “World Wide Waves: The sounds of community radio” enough. It’s well worth an hour of your time.

The post Listen to this BBC Documentary about 5 Community Stations around the World appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In 2011 UNESCO declared February 13 to be World Radio Day, celebrating radio’s power for democratic discourse, serving humanity in all its diversity. 2021 is the 10th World Radio Day, and stations spanning the globe will join in the commemoration.

Hofstra University’s WRHU will receive the 2021 World Radio Day Award. The 60 year-old station has stepped up its commitment to community service in response to the coronavirus pandemic, earning recognition from the awards jury for programming like “Well Said with Dr. Ira Nash,” a podcast collaboration with the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

WHRU will air a 72-hour broadcast for World Radio Day beginning Friday, February 12 at 7 AM EST. The programming will feature interviews with over 60 Hofstra alumni, radio hall of famers and musical super stars. Partner stations include Bush Radio 89.5 Capetown, Pocono 96.7 Stroudsburg, Long Island News Radio 103.9 Riverhead, KBOO 90.7 Portland, ICRT FM Taipei, Green Giant FM Manila, Florida Man Radio 660 AM Orlando, Wall Radio 94.1 Middletown and KKHJ 93.1 American Samoa.

Every year’s WRD is dedicated to themes. This year, the themes are:

• EVOLUTION. The world changes, radio evolves. 
  This sub-theme refers to the resilience of the radio, to its sustainability ;
• INNOVATION. The world changes, radio adapts and innovate. 
  Radio has had to adapt to new technologies to remain the go-to medium of mobility, accessible everywhere and to everyone;
• CONNECTION. The world changes, radio connects.
  This sub-theme highlights radio’s services to our society—natural disasters, socio-economic crises, epidemics, etc.

Ultimately, World Radio Day is a time to recognize the power of radio to connect people, often transcending borders, to spread culture, news and ideas, even when physical barriers may intervene.

The post World Radio Day is Saturday, Feb. 13 appeared first on Radio Survivor.

With the new Biden administration in place, we’ve quickly seen a series of leadership shifts at the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) and its related international broadcasting groups, including Voice of America (VOA). Up until his final weeks, Trump-appointed CEO Michael Pack had been installing conservative allies throughout the organization and its affiliates.

Pack resigned on January 20 after he was told that he would be terminated. On the same day, Biden appointed former VOA executive Kelu Chao as Acting CEO of USAGM. Chao quickly fired a number of recent appointees and agency leaders.

On Sunday, January 24, USAGM announced that Chao had replaced the heads of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Additionally, she replaced three board directors that had been appointed by Pack in his final days as CEO.

NPR reported on Pack’s tumultuous seven months at USAGM, with staffers “…characterizing him as seeking political control over their coverage,” adding that, “Pack routinely accused journalists of anti-Trump bias, sought to fire top executives as part of a ‘deep state,’ ominously accused the networks of being receptive to foreign spies and denied requests for visa extensions from his own staffers who are foreign nationals.”

On last week’s Radio Survivor show/podcast, we covered some of the most recent controversies under Pack, including his call for the demotion of a journalist who had asked a serious, yet unwelcome question to the current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a Voice of America event on January 11. But that was just the tip of the iceberg, as Pack was also making even higher profile personnel changes in his last few weeks in office. Many of these moves signaled a focus on shifting USAGM and its affiliates in the direction of being a more conservative mouthpiece for the United States.

With Chao now working to undo those last-minute changes by Pack, she emphasized the importance of independent journalism in a statement this week. “I have great faith in these leaders in ensuring the highest standards of independent, objective, and professional journalism,” she said in regards to the new leaders of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

It’s also interesting to note that VOA’s new acting director as of January 21, Yolanda Lopez, had been briefly sidelined by Pack following the Pompeo incident. NPR writes, “On Jan. 12, Lopez was stripped of all editorial oversight of the English-language news hub after one of her White House reporters posed pointed questions to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about his remarks, made after the presidential election, about a second Trump administration.”

For even more history and context about USAGM and Voice of America as well as some scoop about the first few months of USAGM under CEO Pack, listen to Radio Survivor show #265 from September, 2020, on which we had an esteemed panel of historians and archivists who are experts on the topic.

The post Leadership Changes at U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio history is close to our hearts at Radio Survivor and on this week’s episode we explore the story of student radio in Australia. Our guest, Rafal Alumairy, is working on book about this little-told history. She shares with us details not only about the timeline of student radio in Australia, but also some intriguing intersections with pirate radio and commercial radio activities.

Thanks to Radio Survivor friend Jose Fritz of Arcane Radio Trivia for alerting us to Rafal’s work!

Show Notes:

• Arcane Radio Trivia interview with Rafal Alumairy
• Rafal Alumairy’s A History of Student Radio in Australia website
• Episode 1 of Student Radio History Podcast: Pirate Radio 3DR – Make Radio Not War

The post Podcast #280 – Student Radio History in Australia appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Flirt FM at the National University of Ireland at Galway was one of the first “community of interest” stations to go on the air in that nation. Effectively, this means it was a trailblazing college and community station, hitting the air not long after the state broadcast monopoly began to erode in 1988.

Andrew Ó Baoill founded Flirt FM as an undergraduate student at what was then known as University College Galway. Working together with student government and university officials, they secured a license to broadcast in 1994 and went on the air September 28, 1995. Andrew joins the show this week to recount this history, and establish the station’s place in Irish broadcast history. Also joining is Paula Healy, who has served as Flirt’s station manager since 2005.

Paula coordinated a 25-hour marathon broadcast to celebrate the station’s quarter-century anniversary. She tells us about how the station serves the university and Galway communities, and how they’ve stayed on air during COVID-19 lockdowns and quarantines.

Show Notes:

• Flirt FM
• Flirt FM’s first 5 minutes on air in 1995
• Podcast #258 – Trump Admin Raises the Specter of the Fairness Doctrine
• Jennifer visited Flirt in 2009
• Wireless is Flirt’s show about radio, hosted by John Walsh, one of the co-founders behind the Irish Pirate Radio Archive

The post Podcast #266 – Flirt FM Celebrates 25 Years of College & Community Radio in Ireland appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Did you know that a lot of folks in Europe listen to radio on their televisions? Neither did we, until we talked with James Cridland, editor of the daily Podnews email newsletter and radio futurologist. He explains that outside of North America much of radio is enjoyed on more platforms, from digital DAB to, yes, television.

With a career reaching back to the early internet forays of the BBC and Virgin Radio in the UK, and as a frequent international conference speaker, James has a broad base of experience around the world. Now based in Brisbane, Australia, he joins the show to help us put radio in a global perspective.

In the process we also learn that James got his start in radio by starting a pirate station in his Yorkshire boarding school, and that a supermarket radio station is the most popular digital station Down Under. That ultimately leads us to a discussion of durability of radio, based upon human connection and shared experience

Show Notes:

• Podnews
• James Cridland online
• Amazing US Launch and Revival of CMJ
• UK Student Radio Association
• UK Restricted Service License
• 4ZZZ is a radio station James’ smart speaker won’t find using British or Australian English

Image Credit: flickr / Thomas Hawk (CC BY-NC 2.0)

The post Podcast #242 – Radio on the TV with James Cridland appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Catching a low-power FM radio station in the wild in New Zealand requires a bit of luck. Permitted to broadcast with up to one watt of power without a license, these stations have a bit more range – generally up to one kilometer radius (.6 miles) – than a legal unlicensed Part 15 station in the US, which might be heard up to a quarter-mile away. However, that’s still not a big footprint, even when compared to licensed LPFMs stateside, which may broadcast with as much as 100x as the NZ stations.

One factor working in the listener’s favor is that the country’s LPFMs are consigned to a set of frequencies bookending the FM dial: 86.7 to 88.3 mHz on the left end and 106.7 to 107.7 MHz on the right end. When I talked with Kristen Paterson, station manager of Wellington Access Radio and a co-founder of a university LPFM, she conjectured that the top end LPFM band was set aside as a kind of buffer between full-power broadcasts and the air traffic band situated just north of FM. 

Regardless of the reason why they’re relegated to the far-left and far-right ends of the FM dial, knowing this makes it a little easier to hunt for them. That said, during my time in the country in late January and early February, I could confirm reception of only two.

The first catch was in Browns Bay, in the East Coast Bays area of Auckland, the country’s largest city. I tuned in what I believe to be Great Tech Radio at 107.7 FM. I say “believe to be” because over the course of an hour or so I never heard a legal ID. I did hear an assortment of oldies, from Diana Ross and the Supremes to the Bee Gees, along with a 60s comedy record, accompanied by back announcing and weather forecasts. Those forecasts included days prior and after my listening time, leading me to believe the station was automated and the forecasts weren’t the freshest. 

I identified Great Tech based upon several online LPFM directories, though I won’t hold to that ID if challenged. Given that they’re unlicensed and don’t require much investment to put on the air, New Zealand’s LPFMs are quite transitory, and I found rather few that maintain a regular web presence. 

My second catch was in the resort city of Queenstown, located in the southwest part of the South Island. It’s a beautiful setting along the shore of Lake Wakatipu, surrounded by mountains.

Drop FM came in loud and clear for me on 87.7 FM. I first heard 90s vintage drum ’n bass music, which I learned is a staple for the station when I googled it. The station stands out from other New Zealand LPFMs by having a very consistent web presence, along with an internet stream. In fact it has two other frequencies in Wanaka, north of Queenstown, and the suburb of Frankton. 

Drop FM broadcasts live from dance clubs in Queenstown on a regular basis – though, understandably, corona virus seems to have put those events on hold. While drum n’ bass and related electronic genres seem to be the station’s bedrock, I also enjoyed a long set of eclectic R&B one evening as I was packing up to leave for my next stop.

I last stayed in Wellington, the country’s capital. I’m sad to report I was unable to confirm reception of any LPFMs over the course of several evenings. Perhaps the city’s hilly geography – it resembles San Francisco in that way – worked against me. Or maybe there just weren’t any active stations in a one kilometer radius from my Air BnB. 

I remain fascinated by this broadcast service, since, to the best of my knowledge, New Zealand has the highest power allowed for legal unlicensed broadcasting anywhere in the world. Setting aside a set number of frequencies seems to be an effective way of allowing more voices on the air at a very low cost, while also giving an outlet to broadcasters who might otherwise go “pirate.” This was my second visit to New Zealand, and I do intend to visit again. When I do, I’m tempted to bring a small transmitter to set up my own temporary LPFM.

I still can’t help but think that such a service in the US could help stem the tide of unlicensed broadcasters in the urban areas of Boston, New York, New Jersey and South Florida, while also providing an opportunity for communities and groups that weren’t able to get on the air during the last LPFM licensing window in 2013. Though the FM dial is pretty well full in most metropolitan areas, I suggest that the band could be extended a little to the left, to encompass frequencies mostly vacated by former analog channel 6 TV stations. 

Of course, this proximity to the FM dial has long been exploited by the handful of analog low-power TV stations still broadcasting on channel 6, which by and large now primarily operate as radio stations at 87.7 FM rather than TV stations, often known as FrankenFMs. The FCC is currently deciding the fate of those stations, since all TV is really supposed to be digital, and their transition deadline has been pushed repeatedly over the last five years. I propose that if channel 6 low-power TV stations are allowed to stay analog, keeping their near-FM broadcast signal, then that extra little bit of dial space should be given over to unlicensed LPFM everywhere else, where there isn’t an existing channel 6. Keep the limit to 1 watt, and maybe let them have 87.9 FM, too. I can see little harm, and much benefit. 

However, reality is that even that little bit of uncommercialized real estate is unlikely to be tolerated by the National Association of Broadcasters, nor National Public Radio, whom I expect would lobby heartily against such a radical notion. 

Still, I can dream… until my next trip to New Zealand.

The post Radio Field Report: Legal Unlicensed LPFM in New Zealand appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In New Zealand a dozen partially government-funded radio stations are charged with providing access to under-represented groups and communities. Wellington Access Radio, situated in New Zealand’s capital city, was the first station of its kind in that country, and station manager Kristen Paterson tells us more about its history and mission.

Kristen explains the funding model for community access radio, which differs significantly from community radio in the United States. In fact, there is no history or tradition of listener-funded radio in New Zealand. We touch on how Wellington Access Radio assesses the needs of its community, determining which groups would benefit from airtime.

Also, Kristen got their start in college radio, co-founding a legal unlicensed low-power FM station at Victoria University, and we hear that story and learn more about this very unique radio sector.

Show Notes:

• Wellington Access Radio
• LPFM Drop FM Queenstown, NZ
• New Zealand Has Legal Unlicensed Low-Power FM
• Interference Conflict Between Unlicensed Stations in New Zealand
• Association of Community Access Broadcasters
• Saturday Night on Radio New Zealand

The post Podcast #234 – Community Access Radio in New Zealand appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Last week The Verge wrapped up a three-part series on pirate radio, examining a US-government-sanctioned form in Afghanistan, radio-like conference call services used by the Hmong diaspora and unlicensed Haitian stations in Brooklyn, NY. Recovering from the holiday weekend I finally had a chance to catch up, read the three articles and listen to their accompanying podcasts. They’re well-researched pieces that put the production and use of radio in social and political economic context, rather than relying on well-worn tropes of over-romanticized rebellion (not a single skull-and-crossbones image to be found!).

The value of radio communication to communities that are not well served by mainstream broadcasters is something we’ve emphasized here at Radio Survivor when discussing unlicensed or pirate radio. For the article on Brooklyn stations, reporters Bijan Stephen and Andrew Marino use the looming specter of the PIRATE Act as a frame for understanding why government prohibition, even escalated by the threat of multiplied fines, poses little disincentive for the unlicensed broadcaster serving their friends, families and neighbors.

Stephen and Marino profile a former news program host on an unlicensed station, Joan Martinez, who studied broadcasting in college. Now in graduate school, Martinez reflects a first-person insider’s view that is informed by her broader understanding of the tightly controlled radio industry, especially in New York City, where opportunities for new stations are few and far between.

In fact, only three low-power FM stations are licensed in the entire city: one in Brooklyn, one in Queens and one in Flushing. All were approved only in the last LPFM licensing window, and have been on the air only a few years. Just one LPFM seems hardly enough to serve the diverse needs of Brooklyn alone, home to 2.5 million people.

For the podcast the hosts talk with scholar John Anderson, who has been studying pirate radio for some two decades, and journalist David Goren, who created the Brooklyn Pirate Radio Sound Map. Both John and David discussed the Brooklyn scene on our podcast last year.

David’s comments on why he thinks the PIRATE Act will not do much to stem the tide of pirate radio were particularly incisive. He predicted, “it will be gentrification that takes the pirate stations off the air,” as new, high-rent residential high-rise buildings go up in the Flatbush neighborhood that is home to countless broadcasters.

That’s probably true, and it’s also likely that stations will spread out to new areas as people are pushed out or Brooklyn by a skyrocketing cost of living. At the same time, pirate radio is a pervasive phenomenon throughout the New York City area. I’m not sure other hotbeds, like Paterson, NJ, will gentrify at the same rate. Nevertheless, the point is well taken. Go to other cities with prominent ethnic and immigrant communities, but where they’re not so densely clustered as around NYC, and you’ll encounter far less pirate radio, too.

Calling the Radio

While comparisons of other media to pirate radio – like internet radio, in particular – often grates on me, I’m fine with reporter Mia Sato’s likening Hmong conference call services to it. These conferences are as similar to terrestrial radio as podcasts and internet radio. While not legally prohibited, like pirate radio, they serve a very similar communitarian function as the Haitian stations in Brooklyn, though obviously with the opportunity for more immediate dialog.

Moreover, telephone and radio have been intricately tied pretty much since the beginning, noting that radio was a two-way medium before one-to-many broadcasting came to predominate. And, of course, listener calls have long been a feature, making the one-way medium more two-way.

Outside of broadcast, amateur radio and citizens’ band radio are also two-way, where monopolizing a frequency to broadcast is actually prohibited. So I see these conference call “stations” as a sort of hybrid.

Back to the radio-telephone connection. There have long been stations that also simulcast on the telephone to reach listeners without access to their air signals. In the days before cell phone and unlimited minutes, this could be an expensive service for listeners outside of a station’s immediate area. But today that’s much less of a concern.

In fact, a couple of dozen stations around the world currently simulcast over the phone using a service called Audio Now, including BBC World Service and Voice of America service programs in Somali, as well as news radio WTOP in Washington, DC. If you’re low on smartphone data and don’t have access to a radio, then it’s not a bad alternative.

The Irony of the Radio in a Box in Afghanistan

The first article in the series tells the story of Afghan broadcasters who were given a “radio in the box” to broadcast on behalf of U.S. military PsyOps during the heat of the American invasion. These broadcasters created programming in opposition to the Taliban, including popular music, alongside news and propaganda. Unfortunately, they were also left high-and-dry when the U.S. military pulled out.

Radio has long been a tool of war, and of those opposing totalitarian rule, both from within and outside the borders of conflict zones. Of course, it’s hard to escape the irony that the American government is happy to promote pirate radio elsewhere, while simultaneously working to stamp it out at home. But any student of history should know such ironies are not that rare.

The post From Brooklyn to Afghanistan, The Verge Does Right by Pirate Radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio waves don’t obey borders, and stations have been taking advantage of this fact since the dawn of the medium – often despite the rules of government regulators where the signals go.

Dr. Kevin Curran of Arizona State University has been studying border radio stations extensively, making it the subject of his doctoral dissertation. Everyone has a ton of radio nerd fun as he takes us back to the 1920s, when Canadian and U.S. regulators struck a treaty to split up the AM dial and limit maximum broadcast power, but left out Mexico. That opened up an opportunity for stations in that country to cover the continent with hundreds of kilowatts, attracting broadcasters from north of the border wanting to take advantage.

Many infamous and colorful personalities were amongst this group, from Dr. John Brinkley, who promoted goat glands to cure male potency problems, all the way to man named Bob Smith – later known as Wolfman Jack – who blasted rock and roll that most American stations wouldn’t touch.

Dr. Curran explains why stations along the Mexican border remained popular with U.S. broadcasters even after that country lowered maximum power levels, in treaty with its northern neighbor. He also explores the relationship of U.S. stations to Canadian markets, where stations are more highly regulated. If you’ve ever wondered why radio is different along the border, you’re curiosity will be satisfied.

Show Notes:

• Radio World: Goat Gland Man Has Enduring Appeal; Though His Remains Are Safely Entombed in Memphis, Dr. Brinkley’s Legend Lives on
• Wide Open Country: How Border Radio Helped Popularize Country Music
• Texas State Historical Association: Border Radio
• SpectacularOptical: Clap for the Wolfman
• The Classic CKLW Page
• Wolfman Jack biography
• Wikipedia: XEROK-AM

The post Podcast #212 – Border Radio in North America appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I’m still playing catch up with a queue of interesting radio stories I’ve yet to post. Although this news dates from May, it didn’t get much play on this side of the Atlantic, and should be of interest to Radio Survivors.

Ireland’s longstanding – and oft-threatened – longwave radio station RTÉ 1 on 252 kHz is staying on the air. With the ability to serve listeners over a longer distance than AM (mediumwave), though covering less area than shortwave, listeners in the Irish diaspora across the UK have relied upon this station to keep in touch with news and culture back home.

However, the cost of maintaining aging equipment and the availability of RTÉ 1 on the internet caused the state broadcaster to plan its shutdown five years ago. That’s when the station first appeared on my radar. Immediately listeners across Ireland and the UK registered their protests, noting that many older people who rely upon the broadcasts aren’t able to use internet radio easily, and that in-car listening isn’t so easily replaced by the internet, either.

In 2016 the RTÉ put the closure on hold. It was finally cancelled this May, when the broadcaster announced that it would perform necessary repairs and maintenance in order to keep the 252 signal on air for at least another two years. That will require a two month interruption in service.

As a contingency, RTÉ has explored simulcasts on digital DAB+ radio in the UK, but regulations that require broadcasters to be UK-based have been a stumbling block.

Longwave radio, which sits below the AM band between 148 and 283 kHz, was never implemented as a broadcast service in North America. It primarily travels via groundwaves for distances up to about 1200 miles, whereas shortwave travels by skywaves for even longer distances. Longwave’s advantages are that it has fidelity and reliability that are more like AM radio, while covering a larger area.

Though longwave has been in service about as long as AM mediumwave, RTÉ 252 has only been going since 1989. As contributor Paul Bailey explained, the broadcaster acquired the operation from Radio Luxembourg as its rock music programming was losing ground to native stations in the UK.

30 years is still a decent tenure, and the decision to keep the 252 signal going is a testament to the power of radio, and the notion that obsolescence is in the ear of the beholder. The point of radio is to reach listeners, and if the new technology won’t reach those who benefit most, then is it really better?

The post Ireland Can’t Quit Longwave appeared first on Radio Survivor.

In June 2009 a coup d’etat overthrew Honduras’ democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya. Since the coup, human rights conditions in that country have deteriorated. Radio has become a vital organizing tool for defending the rights of indigenous people and fighting environmental destruction, while providing needed information and education to people in rural areas.

In April of this year Meredith Beeson and Ellen Knutson traveled to Honduras with a delegation from the Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective. As part of their solidarity work with human rights groups and environmental activists who are experiencing political repression, they also visited community radio stations that are providing critical information lifelines. Meredith is a community radio producer at KRSM in South Minneapolis, MN, who also worked with print and radio journalists on an earlier delegation. She and Ellen join the show to tell us about what’s happening in Honduras, and the important role of radio.

Show Notes:

• Witness for Peace Solidarity Collective
• Radio Dignidad
• Movimiento Amplio por la Dignidad y Justicia (MADJ)
• “Town Square” is Meredith’s show on KRSM in South Minneapolis
• Radio Progreso
• COPINH – Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras
• Media Landscapes: Radio in Honduras
• Honduras Solidarity Network

The post Podcast #198 – Defending Human Rights with Radio in Honduras appeared first on Radio Survivor.

A change in Ontario university funding rules threatens more than a dozen campus community stations in Canada. Barry Rooke, executive director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association is our guest to help explain the situation.

He explains how the structure of Canadian community and college radio stations differs from those in the U.S. and elsewhere, and why these differences make some stations north of the border vulnerable to changes in the way student fees are allocated. Barry also offers advice to campus stations on how they can better gird themselves to survive funding threats. It’s advice that’s useful to community and college stations anywhere.

Our Patreon supporters can hear more of our conversation with Barry in a bonus episode. We get nerdy about Canadian radio arcana, like networks of unlicensed stations broadcast by First Nations.

The 20th anniversary of birth of Indymedia at the Battle of Seattle is coming this November.

Underlying this is a nearly forgotten history of independent media that connects unlicensed radio, pre-social media open publishing on the internet and the birth of LPFM. With your help we want to record and document this important history at Radio Survivor.

To do this we need to get to 100 Patreon supporters by July 1. That will help give us the resources we need to begin this work in time for the N30 anniversary.

Show Notes:

• National Campus and Community Radio Association of Canada
• NCRA: Campus Radio Stations & Student Newspapers Demand reversal on Ford’s fee policy
• CBC: Campus media in jeopardy of ‘closing down’ if students opt-out of fees
• “Dead Air With A Difference” is the NCRA podcast

The post Podcast #185 – Funding Change Threatens Canadian Community Radio Stations appeared first on Radio Survivor.

We celebrated International Women’s Day by recording a fascinating interview about women’s radio history with University of Louisville Professor of History Christine Ehrick.

Author of Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950, Ehrick schools us on the hidden history of a pioneering women’s radio station in Uruguay. Founded in 1935, Radio Femenina quickly became a hotbed for feminist and activist programming, beaming its signal from Montevideo and across the river into Argentina. Ehrick provides context for the station’s origins and discusses how it functioned during some tumultuous political periods in the region.

Our Patreon supporters get to hear more of our conversation with Ehrick in a special bonus episode. She shares more personal stories of a radio historian on the hunt for treasure in the official archives and on Ebay.

Show Notes

• Christine Ehrick website at University of Louisville
• Radio and the Gendered Soundscape: Women and Broadcasting in Argentina and Uruguay, 1930-1950
• Radio Preservation Task Force
• Radio Femenina Wikipedia Entry
• Investigating some Contenders for the Oldest Women’s College Radio Station (Radio Survivor)
• Podcast #132 – Sounding out on the Cultural Politics of Sound & Listening (Jenny Stoever interview)
• Podcast #135 – Resurfacing Women’s Contributions in Podcasting History (Jennifer Wang interview)
• Podcast #178 – Irish Pirate Radio Archive
• Podcast #134 – The KRAB-FM Archives
• Podcast #158 – Surveying Community Radio’s Deep Archives (Laura Schnitker interview)
• Podcast #176 – Audio Fiction’s Very Long History of Innovation (Neil Verma interview)

The post Podcast #184 – Hidden Women’s Radio History in Uruguay appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Julia Thomas visited over a dozen community radio stations over the course of a year. Stations in Nepal, India, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Ecuador “Often times by talking to community media makers,” Julia Thomas told Radio Survivor, “you’re meeting some of the most passionate, involved community members who have seen so much, who are so knowledgeable and connected. I always loved seeing, and I was really lucky to be welcomed into, those spaces. The culture around community radio is just beautiful I think.”

Show Notes:

• Julia Thomas website
• Julia Thomas on Twitter
• Announcement of Julia’s Thomas J. Watson Fellowship
• Radio Survivor Podcast #71: Bolivia is the Birthplace of Community Radio (interview with Sylvia Thomas)

The post Podcast #181 – Visiting Community Radio Stations Around the World appeared first on Radio Survivor.

We had so much fun talking with Irish Pirate Radio Archive founders Brian Greene and John Walsh on episode #178 that we went way past the 59 minutes we deliver for our radio affiliates. Since not everything could fit into our regular episode, we saved some of the nerdier bits for our Patreon supporters.

We get into the transmitter tech used by Irish pirates to reach as far away as Continental Europe, and learn more about the Summer School in Transnational Radio History that catalyzed the creation of the Archive.

Bonus Episode #178.5 is available now for supporters. And you can hear it when you sign up to support Radio Survivor starting at just $1 a month.

You’ll also get access to more bonus stuff, like our retro-style radio station tour postcards and more bonus podcast episodes. We have a more great things planned to share with our Patreon supporters this year. So now’s a good time to sign up, and help Radio Survivor survive, grow and thrive.

The post Bonus Episode #178.5 – More Irish Pirates for the Radio Anoraks appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Paul shares a few more details of his trip to Brazil, and then he and Eric listen to a bandscan of the FM dial recorded on a Sunday night in São Paulo, the country’s largest city.

Christian radio? Check. Bad 80s pop music? Yep. One takeaway is that commercial radio everywhere kinda sucks, in general. But there are also some more interesting sounds to be heard, too.

Show Notes:

Some of the stations heard include:

• Gazeta FM 88.1
• Novo Brasil FM
• KISS FM
• Cultura FM
• Eldorado FM
• Mix 106.3

The post Podcast #170.5 – Bonus: São Paulo FM Bandscan appeared first on Radio Survivor.

When Norway completed the shutdown of its national FM radio signals the tech sites and blogs were all breathless in reporting the news. But, despite the strong currents of digital triumphalism, the way of Norway is not a sign of things to come for analog radio.

As Norway paved the way for the wholesale move to digital radio, other European states have been watching from the sidelines. The UK, in particular, has a well developed DAB digital radio infrastructure, with plenty of stations and decent penetration of receivers–now around 36%. So eyes and ears have been on that much larger nation, where some politicians and regulators have floated the idea of a digital radio transition.

However, just recently the BBC weighed in on the issue, voting soundly in favor of keeping analog FM radio alive “for the foreseeable future.” As the 900 pound gorilla in British broadcasting, it’s unlikely that government regulators would strongly oppose the Beeb’s desire to keep transmitting in glorious analog.

Speaking at a radio conference in Vienna, BBC director of radio Bob Shannon said, “Great progress has been made,” in digital broadcasting, “but switchover now would be premature.” He emphasized that audiences want a choice of broadcast systems, and one of those choices is good old FM.

Though widely reported in the British press, nary a peep of Shannon’s pro-FM comments appeared Stateside. Sure, the internet is global, making these UK stories just a search away. But how many average American readers are trolling the papers across the pond? It’s sort of telling that the U.S. tech press took almost zero note, especially after getting so hot and bothered when an advanced industrialized–but also tiny–country forcibly shut down most of its analog radio signals.

Given that the UK was the next big hope for digital radio to succeed analog, don’t expect that many other countries will be sunsetting FM any time soon. Least of which will be the U.S., where by comparison we barely have digital radio broadcasting.

While HD Radio is digital, it coexists and hangs off of analog FM signals. Moreover, home or portable HD Radio receivers are rare, whereas in the UK you can walk into just about any retailer and buy a digital radio receiver right off the shelf. Such ubiquity is just a pipe dream in the U.S., where the only reason the average listener knows about HD Radio is because of the ads that get run perpetually on commercial radio. Yet if you ask that average listener if they know how, or why, they would listen to HD Radio, you’d likely just get a shrug in response.

More than 90% of the American population still listens to AM/FM radio every month. And while plenty of other options, from satellite radio to podcasting, compete and provide alternatives to radio, the old analog broadcast medium persists. That’s because it works, works well, and reliably.

If there’s any reason to turn off radio, that has more to do with the abysmal programming brought on by the nation’s largest commercial station owners, who are more interested in treating stations like real estate on a Monopoly board than being broadcasters. Turns out, that was a bad bet, but that has nothing to do with radio, and everything to do with reductionist profiteering that saw a cheap buck in consolidation and disinvestment.

Broadcasting in digital doesn’t make crappy programming any better.

So don’t worry. You’ll probably break your FM radio before it becomes obsolete.

The post FM Radio Is Here To Stay in the UK appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Today, is World Radio Day. First proclaimed in 2011 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to, “celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information, freedom of expression and gender equality over the airwaves.”

February 13 was chosen because it is the anniversary of the establishment of United Nations Radio in 1946.

This year’s theme is “Radio and Sports,” with a particular focus on traditional sports, gender equality in sports broadcasting, and coverage of sports for peace and development initiatives. The theme is particularly pertinent right now since the Winter Olympics are now underway in South Korea. With regard to gender equality, UNESCO points out that women represent just 7% of sportspeople seen, heard or read about in the media, and that only 4% of sport stories focus primarily on women.

Though World Radio Day is less well known in the U.S.–where we also celebrate a National Radio Day on August 20–there are a number of celebrations and observances happening around the country and online:

• California
  • Azultopia Radio – El deporte y la igualdad de género – un programa en español donde hablaremos sobre la igualdad de género tanto en la participación deportiva como en la cobertura.
  • UCSF Carry the One Radio podcast – Celebrates World Radio Day
• Florida
  • La Academia Española de la Radio – Premio Día Mundial de la Radio a la radiodifusión en español
• Iowa
  • KALA Radio, St. Ambrose University – Live Taping of Bee Speak, Topic: World Radio Day
• New Jersey
  • The College of New Jersey Sarnoff Collection – The Battle of the Century: RCA and the Dawn of the Wireless Age
• North Carolina
  • Voice of America Radiogram – Recognizes World Radio Day
• Ohio
  • VR2 Vintage Rock Radio – Celebrates World Radio Day
• Pennsylvania
  • PhillyCAM – Live Culture: A World Radio Day Celebration
• Texas
  • KOOP Community Radio – Celebrates World Radio Day

World Radio Day recorded a collection of short radio pieces and spots in a variety of languages, that any station is permitted to use freely. Here’s a playlist of interviews pertaining to this year’s theme:

Personally speaking, doing the research for this post alerted me to the existence of the Sarnoff Collection, which happens to be housed at my alma mater, The College of New Jersey, known as Trenton State College when I attended. I got my start in radio at WTSR-FM, still going strong today.

David Sarnoff was a pioneer of American radio and TV broadcasting, founding NBC while working at RCA, and then serving as the CEO of the parent company from 1929 to 1970. The Sarnoff Collection was originally established by RCA in 1967 and was donated to TCNJ in 2010. From the Collection’s website:

The Sarnoff Collection at TCNJ includes artifacts related to David Sarnoff’s life; RCA, NBC, Victor Talking Machine Company, and Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America; the history of radio, television, broadcasting, audio and video recording and reproduction, electron microscopy, radar, vacuum tubes, transistors, solid-state physics, semiconductors, lasers, liquid-crystal displays, integrated circuits, microprocessors, computers, communications satellites, and other technologies RCA played an important role in inventing and developing; and some of the many people, beside Sarnoff, who made these technologies work.

Now I have yet another reason to pay a visit to my old Ewing, NJ stomping grounds, where I haven’t stepped foot in 17 years.

While I can’t make it out to New Jersey for the event at the Sarnoff Collection, I’ll be celebrating World Radio Day by checking out the broadcasts I can find online.

The post Happy World Radio Day! appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Anita Pouchard Serra traveled across Argentina helping to set up new community radio stations with the DTL! collective. A photojournalist, she also documented the building of these stations, that are officially unlicensed, but operate in the spirit of a communications law that passed, but never went into effect.

Anita joins to tell us about this movement of Radio Comunitaria Alternativa y Popular, and its role in communities and the larger media environment in Argentina.

This is an encore presentation from August, 2017. On our next episode all four Radio Survivors will be on hand to take a look back at 2017 and discuss what they’re looking forward to in 2018.

Radio Survivor is a listener-supported podcast. You can support us two ways:

Make a monthly contribution through our Patreon campaign.

Make a one-time or recurring donation with any major credit card via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Anita Pouchard Serra’s website
• Photos & story: Communication Is Not a Marchandise (Commodity)
• NY Times Lens Blog: Argentina’s Community Radio Stations Offer an Alternative Look at News
• Wired: Argentinians Are So Sick of the Media, They’re Inventing Their Own
• Antena Negra TV
• Podcast #72 – Pete Tridish Celebrates an LPFM Success Story (Farmworkers’ Radio in Oregon)

The post Podcast #122 – The Popular Community Radio Movement in Argentina appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The credo of Açık Radyo of Istanbul, Turkey begins as follows:

“We have apparently lost our ability to have fun!

Radio, TV, newspapers, and the like are all so terribly tedious and boring;

mainstream media mainly serving nothing but a magnanimous mediocracy;

being full of sound and fury, signifying nothing but a deafening cacophony.

Paradoxically, mass communication have separated and detained us all incommunicado.

Ergo the need for a new radio station.”

Founded in 1995, to this day Açık opens its signature show about the news of the day with the Beach Boy’s song Good Vibrations. Over the summer Sharon Wood and I travelled to Istanbul and visited Açık’s studios. There we met and interviewed two of the operations denizens, Omer Madra and Kutay Derin Kugay.

The result is posted on Youtube. Enjoy . . .

“Açık,” by the way, means “open,” as in the station’s credo: “Open Radio is open to all the sounds, colors, and vibrations of the universe.”

The post Good Vibrations! a conversation about Açık Radyo of Istanbul, Turkey appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Norway’s FM radio won’t go away that easily.

Two years ago the world press reported, often breathlessly, on the Scandinavian country’s plans to end its national radio services on the FM dial, switching them over to digital broadcasting. Lost in most of the reportage was the fact 200 local FM stations would remain on the air, while 65% of Norwegians opposed the shutdown. But, who lets facts get in the way of a sensational triumphalist headline declaring the first nail in radio’s coffin?

Last week more staid articles reported that the national FM shutdown has completed, with the last national FM stations in the northern Arctic reaches going silent. But the public won’t necessarily tolerate the silence.

According to a variety of sources, unlicensed FM broadcasts have popped up in cities around the country, including Bergen, Tønsberg, Ålesund, Fredrikstad and Førde. In Oslo, Norway’s largest city, the CBC’s “As It Happens” talked with one FM broadcaster—the CEO of a radio company and the chairman of the Norwegian Local Radio Federation—who refused to turn off his transmitter. He says that his station enjoys “great support” from listeners and is facing fines of more than $10,000 a day.

He goes on to tell the CBC,

But the main question is, why do you switch off a system in Norway where we have 10 to 15 million radio receivers? And you just say to the public, you’re not going to use this anymore because you need to buy new ones.

What sort of logic is that for media companies to operate that way?

I mean, you operate on behalf of the listener. Here, the big players are saying to the listeners: “No. You need to go out and buy new radio receivers.”

Note that with a population of 5.25 million people, a count of 15 million FM radio receivers is quite significant.

Five days after that CBC interview published Radio Metro gave into government pressure and finally shut down. However, the company is still broadcasting in 10 other cities.

Even with the national FM switch-off complete, the digital transition still remains unpopular with the Norwegian public. A recent Dagbladet newspaper survey found 56% of Norwegians are “dissatisfied” with the conversion to DAB. Another national news survey says 50% of people who don’t have a DAB capable radio in the car have no plans to upgrade, in part because they’re willing to rely on the local broadcasters that remain on FM.

To me, this situation seems a lot like Network Neutrality here in the U.S. In Norway you have millions of people—a true majority—who were perfectly happy with FM radio and had no wish to trade it in for a digital model with difficult-to-perceive benefits, aside from being digital. In America, 52% of registered voters in a Morning Consult/Politico poll said they support Net Neutrality, while a record number of people submitted comments to the FCC in support of the policy.

But like FM supporters in Norway, open internet supporters in the U.S. were screaming at deaf ears in Washington.

That’s why in Norway unlicensed broadcasters are filling the enormous void left behind by the country’s national broadcast industry and regulator. Which begs the question: what is the pirate radio equivalent of internet that we can build when our formerly open internet tubes get closed down to a trickle?

The post Is FM Radio Norway’s Network Neutrality? Majority Still Opposes Shutdown appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Anita Pouchard Serra traveled across Argentina helping to set up new community radio stations with the DTL! collective. A photojournalist, she also documented the building of these stations, that are officially unlicensed, but operate in the spirit of a communications law that passed, but never went into effect.

Anita joins to tell us about this movement of Radio Comunitaria Alternativa y Popular, and its role in communities and the larger media environment in Argentina.

Radio Survivor is a listener-supported podcast. You can support us two ways:

Make a monthly contribution through our Patreon campaign.

Make a one-time or recurring donation with any major credit card via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Anita Pouchard Serra’s website
• Photos & story: Communication Is Not a Marchandise (Commodity)
• NY Times Lens Blog: Argentina’s Community Radio Stations Offer an Alternative Look at News
• Wired: Argentinians Are So Sick of the Media, They’re Inventing Their Own
• Antena Negra TV
• Podcast #72 – Pete Tridish Celebrates an LPFM Success Story (Farmworkers’ Radio in Oregon)

The post Podcast #103 – The Popular Community Radio Movement in Argentina appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Brazil is embarking on a grand experiment with the radio dial. AM stations have the opportunity to relocate to FM, and plans are afoot to expand the size of the FM dial. However, don’t be surprised that you haven’t heard about it. We hadn’t either until listener Álvaro Burns brought it to our attention.

Álvaro is a community broadcaster and podcaster from São Bernardo do Campo, and he joins us to explain the AM migration, and what it means for community radio. Then we reflect on the implications for the United States, where the FCC is about to open a licensing window for AM stations to get FM translator repeater stations, and is weighing other options for so-called “AM revitalization.” Álvaro also tells us about community radio in Brazil, and that country’s approach to licensing community stations.

Next week we celebrate 100 episodes of the Radio Survivor show with all four Radio Survivors reflecting on some of our favorite moments.

Radio Survivor is a listener-supported podcast. You can support us two ways:

Make a monthly contribution through our Patreon campaign.

Make a one-time or recurring donation with any major credit card via PayPal.

Show Notes

• Álvaro Burns’ “A Hora Do Cafezinho” podcast
• Radio Paraty – www.radioparaty.com.br – Álvaro’s station
• Brazil’s AM Phase-Out Proceeds Slowly – Radio Magazine
• FM Band in Brazil Being Extended 50 % – Digital Radio Insider
• FCC’s AM Revitalization = Move AM Stations to FM
• Podcast #83 – How AM Revitalization Pressures LPFM

Community radio stations in the ABCD Region of Greater São Paolo:

• São Bernardo do Campo
  • Radio Nova Riacho – www.radionovariacho.com.br
  • Radio Lírio dos Vales – www.liriodosvalesfm.com.br
  • Radio Represa – www.radiorepresafm.com.br
  • Radio Princesa – www.fmprincesa.com
• Santo André
  • Radio Zummm – www.zummmfm.com.br
• Diadema
  • Radio Nova Diadema – www.novadiademafm.com.br
  • Radio Navegantes – no site
• Mauá
  • Radio Z – www.radiozfm.org (Álvaro worked here)
  • Radio Mauá – no site
• Ribeirão Pires
  • Radio Pérola da Serra – www.radioperoladaserrafm.com (were Álvaro started in radio)
  • Rio Grande da Serra
  • Radio Esplanada – no site

The post Podcast #99: The Beginning Of The End For AM Radio In Brazil appeared first on Radio Survivor.

From Wellington, New Zealand comes news that a commercial radio group is planning a new station that threatens one run by an elementary school, MaranuiFM. The commercial radio group Mediaworks plans to run its popular “Polly and Grant” morning show on a 24-hour loop at 106.7 FM, the same frequency as the school station.

Typically one would expect that the government radio regulator would ensure that two stations wouldn’t interfere, and that an existing school station could not be encroached upon by a new commercial station. However, it turns out that these stations are both unlicensed, and so not under the purview of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment—at least not when it comes to interfering with each other.

You see, new Zealand has legal, unlicensed low-power FM radio on two sets of frequencies, from 86.7 to 88.3 mHz and 106.7 to 107.7 mHz. I first wrote about this service in January after visiting the country and discovering some unlicensed 1-watt stations. I noted that despite the possible fear that these loosely regulated bands would turn into chaos, they generally don’t, and that the LPFM Society of New Zealand exists as an independent organization to help mediate conflicts between stations.

So, a situation like this puts the laissez-faire approach to the test. Responding to concerns about interference, it appears that Mediaworks has issued assurances that its new station won’t interfere with MaranuiFM. The LPFM Society doesn’t appear to be involved at all, and may even be defunct, since there are no updates since 2013.

The school broadcasts from Lyall Bay, on the southeast end of Wellington, which lies. The commercial station plans to broadcast from central Wellington, roughly about 4 to 5 km from Lyall Bay.

Given that each station is limited to 1 watt of power, it’s quite plausible that this distance is sufficient to avoid significant interference within each one’s strongest signal area. Reception on the outer fringes might be more dodgy.

However, the question that comes to my mind is, why does Mediaworks have to broadcast on the same frequency as the school? Between 106.7 and 107.7 mHz there are two to four other frequencies that wouldn’t pose any interference threat. The Wikipedia entry for radio stations in Wellington only lists five LPFMs at the right end of the dial, and two of them—both 107.5— are located in the northern suburbs, many kilometers from Central Wellington.

The Radioheritage.net guide lists eight stations in that band around Wellington, and does not include MaranuiFM, even though it’s been broadcasting since 2008. Even so, all but one are located further away from Central Wellington than Lyall Bay, ostensibly making those frequencies clearer for Mediaworks than 106.7.

Of course, 106.7 FM is the frequency closest to the licensed end of the dial. Moreover, because LPFM is unlicensed there may be other stations operating that are not listed in either of these directories. Only someone on the ground with an actual radio knows for sure.

It surprised me that a commercial radio group was planning an unlicensed LPFM in the first place. It never occurred to me that a licensed broadcaster would bother with a 1-watt station. At the same time, there’s likely little cost and risk for the broadcaster, especially compared to building a full-power licensed station. If the 1-watter brings in some additional listeners and revenue, then it might be worth it.

But that makes me worry. What if Mediaworks’ low-power experiment is a success? Would other commercial radio groups investigate building their own unlicensed LPFMs? Even if only in dense urban areas—of which there are few in New Zealand—this seems out of step with the intent of unlicensed LPFMs, and would pose a definite threat to the service as a community radio resource.

I’ll be watching, since I’ve fantasized about having such a service here in the U.S. With such a cramped dial in most markets, I realize it really is a fantasy. But if it were to come true—perhaps if the low end of the FM dial were liberated by the eventual digital transition of LPTV—would it just get squatted by comparatively well-resourced commercial groups, unless it were explicitly deemed non-commercial?

My hope is that cooperation will rule the day on the Wellington dial, and that the commercial station really won’t interfere with the elementary school station. And if there is interference, Mediaworks will do the right thing and resolve it, rather than trouncing on MaranuiFM or forcing the school to accommodate its rude intrusion.

The post Interference Conflict Between Unlicensed Stations in New Zealand appeared first on Radio Survivor.

“Initially,” says one of the progenitors:

” . . . we will start off with 4-6 hours of daily live shows hosted by various DJs and MCs from Boxout.fm. In the weeks and months to come, we plan to expand that schedule to 10-12 hours of original programming per day, which will be archived and available online after the broadcast. If you happen to go to boxout.fm during the off-hours (night time and early morning), then you’ll findreruns of that day’s episodes.”

So says Sahej Bakshi, whose EDM Dualist Inquiry offerings are up on Soundcloud and ready for listening. Enjoy!

The post New online community radio from India: boxout.fm appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Norway will turn off national FM broadcasts on January 11. However, about 200 local FM stations will continue to broadcast for at least another five years, as we reported last year when the story first hit the international press. That crucial detail was missing from international coverage then, and it continues to be overlooked now.

In fact, only three broadcasters will be shutting down their FM signals: NRK, P4 and Radio Norge. NRK is the the Norwegian government broadcaster, P4 is the nation’s largest commercial station group, and Radio Norge is another national commercial music station. What these broadcasters have in common is that they’re all national in scope, with centralized broadcast facilities strategically located throughout the country of 5 million people. Both P4 and Radio Norge lobbied hard for the FM transition, primarily because transitioning to digital DAB broadcasts represents savings for them.

65% of Norwegians oppose the FM shutdown, according a survey conducted last summer by the Dagbladet newspaper. Given that listeners would prefer to hang on to their FM receivers, local broadcasters are optimistic that will turn into an advantage for them, since they’ll still be heard on good old fashioned analog radio. According to the Norwegian Local Radio Federation, the group’s chairman said that local radio will see a “new renaissance” in 2017.

The national stations’ shutdown will happen region-by-region beginning with Nordland on January 11, with other regions following over the course of the year.

Besides the simple loss of broadcasts on FM, one of the biggest concerns with the shutoff is that citizens will lose access to important emergency information. This is particularly relevant for motorists, who may not be able to tap into other media while on the road. There are an estimated 2 million cars in Norway that do not have DAB radios, and a DAB adapter for a car radio costs the equivalent of about $175 US, an added expense not every motorist is ready to make.

Countries with relatively established digital radio broadcast systems, like the UK, certainly will be watching Norway’s experiment, since many of their national FM broadcasting systems resemble Norway’s. However, as I observed last year, it will still be difficult to generalize from Norway’s experience because the country is an outlier due to the relatively small size and consolidated structure of its national FM broadcast facilities.

In particular, Norway, with fewer than 300 stations, is difficult to compare to the U.S., which has more than 7,000. Moreover, even though ownership of commercial radio in the States is quite consolidated, broadcast facilities are not combined on the scale that they are in Norway. Plus, the U.S. does not have a well-developed digital radio service, like Norway’s DAB, which has sufficient penetration of receivers such that it could plausibly replace FM. The difference between the two countries is truly night and day.

So, yes, Norway is turning off a segment of its FM broadcasts in favor of digital broadcasting. But don’t get suckered by the digital triumphalist argument that this is the first nail in the coffin for analog radio. Even in Norway a complete nationwide shutdown is years away, and is not yet guaranteed. Everywhere else in the world analog FM broadcasts continue, with billions of people tuning in every day, while even older services like AM and longwave solider on. When push comes to shove listeners aren’t ready to give up their radios, and so far no company or broadcaster has offered that one killer technology that gives them any incentive to do so.

The post Norway to Shutter Nat’l FM Broadcasts, 200 Local Stations to Remain appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I was in New Zealand over the recent holidays, and while waiting in line at a beachside food stand near Christchurch I noticed a t-shirt the teenager behind the counter was wearing, advertising “Rotten Radio 107.7 fm, Lyttelton.” I asked him about the station, and he only said that it’s “cool” and I should listen to it. After getting my fish and chips I quickly looked it up on my phone and only found a Facebook page, with one post noting that the station is raising funds to broadcast online.

After a little more digging I figured out that Rotten Radio is a low-power station, using a class of service that doesn’t require a license in New Zealand under the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s General User Radio License. Since 1993 unlicensed low-power stations have been permitted on the so-called “guard bands” of the FM dial, from 86.7 to 88.3 mHz on the left end and from 106.7 to 107.7 MHz on the right end. Broadcasters may use up to 1 watt of power; prior to 2010 the limit was a half-watt.

Minimal Requirements for NZ LPFM

Low-power broadcasters are not required to register, and the government does not coordinate stations in any way. Broadcasters’ obligations are to avoid interfering with any licensed station, and to broadcast contact information every hour. Additionally, a broadcaster may not broadcast another station with “substantially the same programme (including simulcast or re-transmission)” within a 25km radius of the first station.

While unlicensed broadcasters may use up to 1 watt of power, there are also limits on the signal strength as received 100 meters from the transmitter (95 dBu V/m). This is similar to the limit on unlicensed Part 15 FM broadcasting in the US, except New Zealand’s limit is much higher. The apparent purpose of this signal strength requirement is to limit how much antenna design and placement savvy can be used to maximize the broadcast radius.

Furthermore, broadcasters are expected to control “unwanted emissions,” which are transmissions on frequencies other than the main broadcast. All transmitters generate these “spurs” to some extent but well designed transmission systems filter them out. Those who want to dig into the technical details can read the Ministry’s full regulatory notice on low-power FM.

Along with the fact that unlicensed broadcasters are completely uncoordinated, it’s interesting to me that broadcasters may use any transmitter or antenna they can obtain, so long as their transmission obeys the rules. I might have thought that only approved devices would be permitted, kind of like unlicensed Citizen’s Band radio in the US. However, I suspect such approvals would be impractical in a country the size of New Zealand (population: 4.4 million), where the demand for such broadcasting equipment would be tiny.

One concern that immediately springs to mind is that the reserved LPFM “guard bands” could quickly turn into a mash of chaotic interference, with uncoordinated and irresponsible broadcasters going on air without regard to other stations. However, that doesn’t appear to be the case. That may be due to the still very low power limits, the expense of building and running a station, the polite nature of Kiwi culture, or some combination of these factors.

The LPFM Society of New Zealand exists to advocate for and assist unlicensed broadcasters. Its work includes maintaining a registry of stations and helping to resolve interference issues and disputes. Only two “historical complaints” of interference are recorded on the society’s website, one from 2010 and another from 2011.

During my stay in Christchurch in the inner suburb of Linwood, about 2km from the central business district, I was unable to tune in any actual LPFMs. Now, I only had a pocket travel radio and a small stereo in the house at my disposal, which would have made it difficult to hear any station not within about a 10 block radius or so. A car radio would have been ideal, but I didn’t have one. So, that meant I couldn’t tune in the station that inspired my investigation, Rotten Radio, since it’s located 11km away in Lyttelton.

Many New Zealand LPFMs maintain a web presence and internet stream, so at least we can tune in virtually. A Wikia page keeps a list of stations, though due to the entirely unregulated nature of the service, any such list is provisional at best. (For instance, Rotten Radio is not listed.)

Could It Work in the States?

Learning about NZ LPFM certainly got me wondering if such a service could work in the United States. No doubt, even with licensed LPFM, there’s demand for a more robust unlicensed service. That would open up opportunities for “pop-up” stations broadcasting in coordination with community events, part-time stations or allow schools or other non-profits to start broadcasting with the kind of low commitment and cost associated with internet broadcasting.

A higher powered unlicensed service could be particularly helpful in places with a a high density of pirate stations, like Brooklyn, Boston and South Florida. However, it also stands to question if broadcasters like these would adhere to technical limits, or cooperate and share frequencies.

Setting aside a set of frequencies as in New Zealand is certainly the most efficient way to create an unlicensed service while minimizing interference with licensed stations. That would be difficult in the US, where the FM dial in most urban areas is already mostly spoken for.

However, there is a little slice of spectrum down at the far left end that is not currently licensed, 87.7 and 87.9 FM. The lower of these frequencies–87.5–is not officially part of the band, but most radios are able to receive it. Historically neither of these frequencies were allocated because of their proximity to TV channel 6. But this conflict mostly went away with the digital TV transition in 2009. There are still a handful of low-power analog channel 6 TV stations around, some of which effectively act like radio stations because their audio can be picked up around 87.5.

It’s plausible that the FCC could open up 87.7 and 87.9 FM for New Zealand style unlicensed broadcasting in areas where there are no low-power TV stations on channel 6. When the Commission finally sunsets analog LPTV, then these frequencies could be available everywhere.

With a limit of just one watt of power, quite a few stations could share even just two frequencies in most towns just by putting enough physical space between them. Yet, it’s still possible that demand could outstrip supply in very dense cities like New York.

I doubt this is something that the National Association of Broadcasters would go for, even if offered as a way to entice current pirate broadcasters away from licensed stations on the rest of the dial. Because of that, it’s unlikely the FCC would be inclined to implement such a service, either.

Nevertheless, one can still dream.

The post New Zealand Has Legal Unlicensed Low-Power FM appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The New York Times reports that a huge refugee camp in Calais, France is “finally” gone. “The Jungle,” as its residents called the site, offered shelter to thousands of North African and Middle Eastern migrants. It was a great big ramshackle humanitarian crisis, and now authorities have cleared it out. Al Jazeera says that some of these refugees have slipped past the evacuation busses intended for them and headed for various subway stations in Paris.

My question is what has happened to “La Jungala,” The Jungle’s makeshift community radio station. I’ve sent a query to the operation via its posted email address, but I’m not sure when if ever I’ll get a response. Jungala’s website was always a bit economical about the station. I quote from the mission statement: 

“We live in a refugee camp in Calais.

Some people call it the ‘Jungle’.

We make radio programmes.”

The station’s Twitter page hasn’t been updated in awhile; nor has its SoundCloud account. But its Facebook page mentions some recent collaboration with a Mobile Education for Refugees program and has posted some pictures of the event.

photo: La Jungala

Here’s an excerpt from the Facebook post:

“For the past few weeks we’ve had a regular group of 16 year olds coming to the bus who enjoy using the space to play music. These kids have music in their souls and the bus feels brighter when you can hear the rhythms they create floating down the bus stairs. So they were the perfect group to choose to do a radio workshop with the lovely team from Jungala Radio!”

I’ll publish news about La Jungala’s status when I get it.

The post The “Jungle” of Calais, France is gone, but where is its radio station? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Listeners located in the U.K. who enjoy Ireland’s RTÉ 252 radio service are breathing a sign of relief. The planned 2017 closure of this longwave station has now been put on indefinite hold, according to Independent.ie.

I first reported on RTÉ 252 two years ago, when news of its shutdown–originally set for January 2015–put longwave radio back on my radar. Though unused in North America, the longwave band uses frequencies much lower than the AM band (also called mediumwave), typically between 148 and 283 kHz. The advantage of these frequencies is that they can travel much longer distances than AM or FM.

An Irish diaspora in the U.K. is the primary audience for RTÉ 252, which broadcasts programming from the Radio 1 nationwide news and talk service. As Paul Bailey explained in a post this past June, the cost and complexity of maintaining the large LW transmitter and antenna amid budgetary pressures, along with the preceived obsolescence of the service, were the cited reasons for retiring the station.

There was public outcry in the wake of the original decision to shut down RTÉ 252, which resulted in delaying the date two years. That was followed by research from a group called Irish in Britain that argued the station helped listeners in England, Scotland and Wales keep up to date with matters at home and retain a “sense of Irishness.” A survey the group conducted showed that 92% of respondents listened to the station most or every day. Apparently, that added up to enough pressure on the Irish state broadcaster to keep RTÉ 252 going for the time being.

Ultimately RTÉ would like to transition listeners to a digital platform that presumably would be less expensive to operate. However, the broadcaster lost out on a bid to be included on a DAB digital radio multiplex that would cover the country.

Though RTÉ programming is available online, the streaming station is still less accessible to many who primarily listen in their cars, who don’t have home internet, whose mobile data plans are limited, or who don’t use smartphones at all. While this may seem like a small audience, when we reflect on the fact that broadcast radio is still predominant in cars in the U.S., and that the internet radio audience is still far ouclassed by broadcast, it’s easier to understand how vital any broadcast service can be, especially when the programming is highly valued by its audience.

The post Ireland’s Longwave Station RTÉ 252 Spared from Imminent Closure appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Khadija Ismayilova in her Baku studio.

When last we checked in on Azerbaijani radio host and investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, she was languishing in prison. Courts had convicted and sentenced her to 7-1/2 in the slammer for “running an illegal business, tax evasion, abuse of power and embezzlement.”

Since then, Ismayilova has been freed and now lives under house arrest in Baku. On Thursday she spoke via webcast at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C. about the repression that citizens and journalists in Azerbaijan face. Her comments came as the country prepares to vote on a constitutional referendum that would allow the president to dissolve parliament.

Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch summarizes Ismayilova’s remarks, which centered around her compilation of a list of attacks on Azerbaijani citizens:

“The situation is still fluid, but so far police have detained at least 27 political activists and released 7 without charge.  Relatives and lawyers of several detainees expect administrative court hearings soon on unspecified charges. Most of those detained are from the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, whose leadership and rank-and-file membership has faced a slew of politically motivated arrests in recent years. A few are from the youth opposition group, NIDA (Azeri for exclamation point), which has also been hit with politically motivated arrests. Today, police camped out at the home of a NIDA activist on his wedding day, waiting for him. He wasn’t home and he never showed up.”

You can watch and listen to Ismayilova’s testimony here:

The post Radio host Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan is free, sort of appeared first on Radio Survivor.

India’s broadcast regulator, which keeps close tabs on its community radio stations, has given permission to 115 of them to continue operating. They received notice of a list of  Grant of Permission Agreements (GOPAs) on August 29. These allow the mentioned organizations to continue running through their license period or up to December 31 or this year, whichever date comes earlier.

It’s worth perusing the GOPA document to get a sense of India’s content requirements for community signals. Quite a list, I think. Note this provision: “The permission holder shall not broadcast any programmes, which relate to news and current affairs and are otherwise political in nature.”

Here is most the relevant section (I grabbed this off a pdf and apologize for any errors):

“5. Content regulation & monitoring

The permission holder shall adhere to the following principles in the broadcast of programmes through the CRS (community radio service):

i) The programmes should be of immediate relevance to the community. The emphasis should be on developmental, agricultural, health, education, environment, social welfare, community development and cultural programmes. The programming should reflect the special interests and needs of the local communitv.

ii) At least 50% of content shall be generated with the participation of the local community, for which the station has been set up.

iii) Programmes should preferably be in the local language and dialects.

iv) The permission holder shall have to adhere to the provisions of the Programme and Advertising Code as prescribed for All Indla Radio.

v) The permission holder shall not broadcast any programmes, which relate to news and current affairs and are otherwise political in nature.

vi) The Permission horder shall ensure that nothing is included in the programmes broadcast which: a. Offends against good taste or decency; b. Contains criticism of friendly countries; c. contains attack on religions or communities or visuals or words contemptuous of religious groups or which either promote or result in promoting communal discontent or disharmony; d. Contains anything obscene, defamatory, deliberate, false and suggestive innuendoes and half truths; e. ls likely to encourage or incite violence or contains anything against maintenance of law and order or which promote anti-national attitudes; f. Contains anything amounting to contempt of court g. Contains anything affecting the integrity of the Nation; h. contains aspersions against the dignity of the President, Vice President and the Judiciary; i. Criticises, maligns or slanders any individual in person or certain groups, segments of social, public and moral life of the country; j. Encourages superstition or blind belief; k. Denigrates women; l. Denigrates children; m. May present/depict/suggest as desirable the use of drugs including alcohol, narcotics and tobacco or may stereotype, incite, vilify or perpetuate hatred against or attempt to demean any person or group on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, race, gender, sexuai preference, reiigion, age, or physical or mental disability.”

The post India clears 115 community radio stations for operation appeared first on Radio Survivor.

I can’t find any updates on the fate of Sierra Leone radio manager Sahr Amadu Komba, who “fears for his life,” according to journalist rights groups. Mr. Komba got the heck out of that country’s equivalent of Dodge this month after pissing off the wrong people. Like lots of folks in and around Sierra Leone’s eastern Kono district, he’s been wondering out loud why the region has been plagued by floods. Komba’s Eastern Radio 96.5 FM recently broadcast a conversation with some activists who blame the latest flood on illegal mining in the area. The July 27 disaster wrecked homes and blocked the road connecting a local mining town to Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.

Next thing you know this happened, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists:

“According to news reports, Karamoh Kabba, the most senior government official in the region, defended the mining in the region in a in a July 27 interview with the government-owned Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation 90.2 FM, and likened Eastern Radio’s broadcast to those of the Rwandan station Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, which broadcast messages calling ethnic Tutsi Rwandans ‘cockroaches,’ and threatened to kill them ahead of the 1994 genocide of Tutsis.”

Human rights groups called the comparison ridiculous and demanded Kabba’s resignation. Apparently they’re not the only ones asking him to quit. A group of Koidu women also want him out following what they call his “total disrespect” of their mobilization against illegal mining.

As for Komba, he apparently has resurfaced but is keeping a very low profile. “He fears for his life,” CPJ says, “and has limited his movement after receiving further threats. Most recently, he said, a man accosted him at a gas station on August 6 and told him, ‘We will handle you’.”

The post Is a dissident Sierra Leone radio host still on the run? appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Radio Survivor’s Matthew Lasar is fascinated by the news of what is going on at community stations in places outside of the U.S. like India, South East Asia, Mexico, and Africa. He is especially interested in the dramatic and sometimes extreme nature of the “normal” experiences of stations like these. “Community radio in those places find themselves in very fraught relationships, and tense relationships, with larger communities around them,” Matthew Lasar said on this episode of the podcast.

You can support the work that goes into Radio Survivor in two ways:

• Make a monthly contribution through our Patreon campaign.

• Make a one-time or recurring donation with any major credit card via PayPal.

Show Notes:

• Matthew Lasar on Madibeng FM in Brits, South Africa.

And of course, Matthew Lasar has been writing about community radio elsewhere:

• Zambia
• Ghana
• Mexico
• Honduras
• India

• Podcast #33 1/3 – World Radio Day with Francesco Diasio, AMARC Secretary General

The post Podcast # 59 – Community Radio Africa appeared first on Radio Survivor.

As the three or so people who regularly follow my Radio Survivor posts know, I keep an eye on community radio stations in Africa. It is more complicated and in many ways more interesting to run such operations in various African countries. It is also more difficult to follow these projects from my basement office here in San Francisco, much less provide some kind of context for their endeavors.

For example, I’m trying to figure out the context for the brouhaha that took place at Madibeng FM radio in the town of Brits, South Africa some weeks ago. Basically around the third week of July the community station scheduled a discussion about the disappointment some have expressed with the nearby Bapo ba Mogale tribe’s land leasing arrangement with the the Lonmin platinum mining company. Among the grievances: that the Bapo ba Mogale Traditional Council cut a deal in which the tribe is paid in stock shares rather than royalties, potentially short changing the community. Others charge that the tribe’s leaders have never really disclosed the content of the agreement. And there are allegations that a royal palace of some sort was initiated with public funds. All in all, the complaints focus on the probability that your average Bapo resident isn’t properly sharing in the Lonmin largesse.

“Ambassadors” outside Madibeng FM on July 21

So Nick Motloung (see above) the General Manager of Madibeng FM thought he would have a few concerned Bapo members over for a chat over the airwaves with some of the tribe’s leaders. The next thing everyone knew, Bapo’s Investments CEO drove in around 300 of his “ambassadors,” basically unemployed kids, to surround the station and force it to cancel the discussion. The following day three busloads of Bapo combatants showed up again, presumably just to make sure everyone was clear on keeping their mouths shut about the whole thing.

Here are some of the Madibeng GM’s comments on the ordeal (I’m assuming that ‘Mr. X’ is probably that investments CEO):

“On the 21st July 2016, about 30 to 40 community members marched to the radio station seeking evidence relating to all the allegations made against ‘Mr.X’. The station manager and his team, upon seeing the mob locked themselves up inside the studio. The group of people stood outside the building for a while, singing and chanting outside the building as well as the waiting room of the radio station.

According to the information, ‘Mr. X’ is the man imposing himself as the attorney, the agent as well as the tribal council’s spokesperson. The radio station had a number of live broadcasts after hearing the pleas by community members bemoaning the fact that the conditions of the village is not improving even though there are mines surrounding the area. These arose after some of the community members leaked a new information revealing that the four -CK [stock?] certificates of companies servicing the village of Bapo Ba Mogale contained some irregularities. The directors of those companies are not members residing in Bapong nor members from the royal family. After a long tiresome investigations by the hawks and the public protector, there has not been any fruitful outcome. Recently a new information was uncovered and is now in the hands of the respective departments.”

I think this is where Madibeng FM is located.

Now for some context. First of all, it’s very difficult to figure out what is going on on a day to day level at Madibeng FM, since it has no website, appears to have no online stream, and only sporadically posts comments on Facebook or Twitter. But the station is located in Brits, South Africa, which has a population of around 50,000 mostly black African people. Brits is located in the North West province (one of South Africa’s nine provinces) under the jurisdiction of the Madibeng municipality.

The Google maps photo to the above left, taken in August 2010, is the last known Google shot of where the station Madibeng FM is situated. Brits is fairly close to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa, as well as Johannesburg. It is also situated near the Madibeng Local Municipality which sits at the foot of the Magaliesberg Mountain Range. There reside the Bapo ba Mogale people in 43 villages that coexist with huge platinum and ferrochrome mining sites on the south west side of the area. The main village is called Bapong, located about ten miles south west of Brits.

This little community radio struggle is happening as South Africa is going through a politically earth shattering election cycle. Across the country, black South Africans have delivered an enormous blow to the African National Congress, the political party that delivered the country from Apartheid and created its modern state in the 1990s. Appalled by what they see as corruption and cronyism, young people are leaving the organization in droves and embracing competitors such as the Democratic Alliance and a smaller party called the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Many voters still appreciate the role that the ANC played in liberating the country. But today they’re focused on fairer taxation, the adequate delivery of utility services, and income inequality. In the municipality of Madibeng, 54 percent of voters supported the ANC, down from almost 75 percent in 2011. Meanwhile a host of smaller political parties, most notably the DA and the EFF, took over 36 percent of the vote.

So there is obviously an urgent need to discuss taxation and service issues, to which Madibeng FM is responding, and an entrenched strata of administrators and politicians who would very much like those conversations not to happen. Hence the standoff of July 21 at Madibeng FM.

That station isn’t the first to find itself in the crosshairs of a political crisis. In Zambia a regional government official tried to close down a community radio station’s board last year because he did not like the political affiliations of some of its members. When this failed the government still tried to block discussion programs at six other community radio operations. Last year Botswana’s government pondered whether to accelerate its community radio service, but became mired in a debate over whether such stations encourage “tribalism.”

Looks like Madibeng FM tried to take tribalism head on last month and ran into a heap of trouble for it. From the looks of that Twitter post I embeded up top, it appears that General Manager Nick is trying to keep the conversation going where and when he can. I’ll keep following that situation as best I can from here.

The post The perils and joys of running a community radio station in South Africa appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Are you working abroad? Do you now live in some wonderful city that is fascinating and different, but also pretty difficult to navigate through, socially speaking? Well, one solution is to do what Michael Egerton, now an expat resident of Hong Kong did: start an Internet radio station.

Egerton hails from the Netherlands. He lives on Hong Kong’s biggest island: Lantau. Hence no surprise that he dubbed his station Radio Lantau. The South China Morning Post has a great profile of the operation. It caters to around 12,000 listeners, many of whom miss the kind of tunes they heard back home. Comments from Egerton’s fans attest to this:

“His show is pretty much the only Hong Kong programme I listen to. Old school hip hop on Hong Kong radio is really not happening.”

“A lot of music he plays, I would say he plays for western listeners … stuff that reminds me of back home, back in the day.”

Having spent some weeks in Hong Kong not that long ago, I can corroborate these quotes. Hong Kong AM/FM listeners are really into talk radio. No surprise there. The place is so intensely political because of its fraught relationship with the People’s Republic of China, hence the yearning for 24/7 commentary. The other radio genre they love is (obviously) “Cantopop” (or HK pop as it’s also called), which is lots of fun but very idiosyncratic.

So if you are looking for the latest western stuff, music-wise, you are going to have to resort to your own devices, figuratively and literally in Radio Lantau’s case.

The post Lonely in Hong Kong (or elsewhere)? Start an Internet radio station appeared first on Radio Survivor.

It looks like the staff of South Africa community radio station Madibeng FM 105.3 thought an on air dialogue with activists critical about a cash-for-mining-access deal would go smoothly. Unfortunately they were wrong. On Thursday beneficiaries of the controversial arrangement with the Lonmin platinum metals consortium surrounded the building and forced management to shut the program down.

According to area press, opponents of the discussion arrived “chanting, slamming the door and shouting that they wanted to speak to the manager.” Police came and negotiated a deal. Bottom line: Maidbeng FM “should stop reporting” on the controversy.

One of the activists who hoped to speak on the program called the arrangement “rubbish.” “I am pissed off,” he added. “We are supposed to be telling the community what is happening.”

What “is happening” is, of course, a matter of opinion. But here’s what I can figure out so far. In 2014 Lonmin cut a deal with the Bapo ba Mogale Community. The latter organization controls a large swath of land in South Africa’s North West province. Lonmin paid 640 million Rand in cash and stock shares for unrestricted access to the area, plus “a right to a 12% royalty on mining profits and a 7.5% share of the lucrative Pandora Joint Venture,” according to the GroundUp news service. Pandora is a collaboration with another platinum mining company.

But there has been dissention among members of this community, some of whom have taken the deal to court in nearby Johannesburg because they say that they have never seen the agreement. Among its possibly less palatable provisions, the Bapo community agreed to waive its legal right to royalties from Lonmin’s operating companies. Instead, Lonmin will fork over a single sum that Bapo can use to buy company shares.

One of the litigants told Africa’s Mail & Guardian that without “being given an opportunity to view and interrogate the relevant documents relating to this deal, the community has no idea whether or not it is in a better or worse position than before the deal was entered into.”

It was, one presumes, this controversy that Madibeng wanted to vet on Thursday. GroundUp reports that police were back to deal with the crisis on Friday. Three buses full of supporters of Bapo ba Mogale’s CEO returned to the station, once again demanding to speak with the station manager. On Saturday he received a certified letter from Bapo ba Mogale. “We further bring to your attention,” it warned, “the unethical conduct that you display seems to be furthering the unknown motives of a splinter group that is opposed to the Bapo ba Mogale traditional council and its corporate wing.”

The post South Africa community radio station forced to cancel discussion about mining deal appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The Blackwater Estuary is in the English county of Essex. Despite its closeness to Colchester, England’s oldest town, it is a remote and lonely stretch of water, just down the coast from the busy seaside resort of Clacton on Sea. The small village of Bradwell is an ideal location for a nuclear power station, forlorn and unloved. On some weekends, teams of volunteers head for Bradwell with their tool boxes; in July 2014, the nuclear power station welcomed the return of a famous and iconic neighbour, the Ross Revenge, which is now moored in the estuary adjacent to the power station.

The Ross Revenge, commissioned in 1960 for the Ross fishing company, was an Icelandic trawler supplying the UK market with fish. The vessel was involved in the “Cod Wars” of 1975-6 when she regularly featured on the UK’s TV news. Then the Ross company put her up for sale. She was eventually acquired by…

Radio Caroline, which started in 1964 broadcasting music all day on 199 metres (about 1506 kHz) MW, and quickly established a large audience for her broadcasts from a converted passenger vessel, the Frederica, renamed the MV Caroline. Flying a flag of convenience, the vessel broadcast from international waters off the Suffolk/Essex coast. “Pirate radio” had arrived in the UK. More stations followed, broadcasting from other ships or from disused wartime structures in the Thames Estuary.

During 1964 Radio Caroline acquired a second vessel, the Mi Amigo—previously known as the Bon Jour, which had broadcast pirate radio to Scandinavia—by merging with another pirate radio station called Radio Atlanta. The original Caroline vessel then moved anchorage to the Irish Sea near the Isle of Man, broadcasting all the way, leaving the Mi Amigo off Essex. To ensure a good supply of fresh eggs for breakfast, the MV Caroline crew included a number of hens!

The stations on structures were found to be illegal under existing laws, and were closed down by the courts; after much huffing and puffing and pressure from Europe, the UK government passed the Marine Etc. Broadcasting Offences Act of 1967, and all the stations closed down—except Radio Caroline.

In March 1968 the money ran out, and the two vessels were boarded and towed to Holland. The MV Caroline was in a poor state and was broken up, while the smaller Mi Amigo was left in case a buyer could be found.

In the early 1970s, Radio Caroline recovered the Mi Amigo and re-anchored off the coast. To help pay the bills, the ship often broadcast programmes aimed at European countries where pirate radio had not yet been outlawed during daytime, and programmes aimed at the UK in the evenings. Unfortunately the Mi Amigo had deteriorated and was not on the air with any consistency. Then in a storm on the night of March 19-20, 1989, the Mi Amigo lost its anchor, ran aground and sank near Shoeburyness in the Thames Estuary, where the wreck remains to this day.

An enhanced Sonar Scan of the Mi Amigo wreck, including the remaining part of the transmitter mast | Port of London Authority/Mayor of London

Radio Caroline then acquired the Ross Revenge, anchored it in international waters, and resumed broadcasting. A sturdy vessel, she served the station well, and broadcasts were heard regularly from 1983 to 1990.

The period was very eventful, however, and the station had problems with supplies and other matters. On 19 August 1989, there was a raid on the vessel by Dutch authorities—fed up with illegal broadcasts aimed at Holland—which put the station off the air. The legality of the raid, on a ship in international waters, remains controversial.

Then on 19 November 1991 the Ross Revenge ran aground on the Goodwin Sands in the English Channel. Although the crew managed to get the vessel off the sand bank, the ship was abandoned and they were rescued; the ship was towed and impounded by the UK authorities, who detained it.

Despite this, Radio Caroline continued to broadcast – using satellite radio instead of the AM band. A radio studio was established in Maidstone, Kent, and Radio Caroline became a legal UK broadcaster.

The Ross Revenge at Bradwell | Steve Anthony/Maritime Journal

Volunteers from the listeners formed the Caroline Support Group to raise money and care for the vessel, which made limited public appearances in the 1990s but has spent most of the time hidden from view in the backwaters of Essex and Kent, and at Tilbury Docks, in compliance with its detention conditions.

The ship is used from time to time for special events, sometimes in conjunction with Manx Radio, the commercial local station on the Isle of Man, and over the years there have been attempts to secure a licence to transmit a full service on the AM band, without success.

Visitors to the Ross Revenge usually access through the Bridge, which on my last visit was acting as a shop, descend to the record library, mess and galley, descend further to the two radio studios-still equipped with their 1970s technology-and can view the engine room and hold, where the RCA transmitters were, below the studios. The living quarters are below.

Next year it will be 50 years since the Government first attempted to rid itself of Radio Caroline. The lady herself has no plans to leave just yet-and the support group are marking the 49th anniversary of the passing of the MEBO Act by having a party on Mersea Island-within sight of the Ross Revenge-on the 13th August.

The post The Lady Is Still Here – Radio Caroline’s Floating Legacy appeared first on Radio Survivor.

The BBC is entangled in a scandal which has strained relationships between its management and broadcasters, almost to breaking point, and devalued the public’s trust in the BBC.

It is a case study in how inappropriate behaviour can become entrenched and out of control-and how hard it is for a large organisation to deal with it.

In the 1960s, the BBC was slow to adapt to changes in society and audience requirements and was resistant to modernisation. But the explosion of British pop music and “Beatlemania” forced it to reluctantly start to cater for pop music fans.

The BBC looked at Radio Luxembourg, which provided pop music programmes each evening beamed at the UK, and began using some of its most popular freelance presenters on the BBC, including the personality who had been voted as most popular DJ two years running by the readers of a pop music newspaper. His name was Jimmy Savile.

Savile was a flamboyant man with a broad Yorkshire accent, an unusual vocabulary and original approach to presenting, who originally emerged as a dance hall DJ before gravitating towards radio. His “Teen and Twenty Disc Club” very quickly became one of the most popular programmes on Luxembourg’s English service.

The BBC was launching a new television pop music show called “Top of the Pops” and Savile became one of its key presenters. The snazzy dresser who smoked fat cigars and had a two-tone haircut—white on one side and black on the other—soon became a major personality. He also began fundraising for hospitals (where he worked as a part time porter). He walked from John O’Groats to Lands’ End. His charitable work over many years won him civic awards.

Then he died, and the BBC mounted a major tribute programme to him on the main television channel.

There is an old saying that goes, “all that glitters is not gold.” No sooner had his funeral—a large affair—taken place than allegations of sexual offenses appeared. Then it was revealed that the BBC’s own flagship investigative news programme, “Newsnight,” had been investigating his activities for some time, but BBC management had suppressed the story.

The allegations indicated that throughout his career Savile was a serial sex offender and, to the horror of the BBC, had been committing his offenses in their studios.

It got worse. Because of the publicity surrounding Savile’s alleged offending, more and more victims came forward naming more household names with long broadcasting careers at the BBC. Two were sentenced to prison after being found guilty by courts: Rolf Harris and Stuart Hall. Hall was released from prison in December 2015; Harris is still in prison. Further allegations against them have been made and they face further court trials.

The scandal also enmeshed another radio DJ, Dave Lee Travis, who was accused of improperly touching other BBC staff. He was prosecuted and found guilty although not imprisoned, and he still denies the allegations made against him.

The enquiries widened as more allegations flooded in, naming former members of Parliament and pop music personalities. The well known singer Sir Cliff Richard was watching breakfast television at his home in Portugal when the BBC began showing live pictures of a police raid on his apartment in the UK. The BBC had clearly been tipped off in advance, which is against the rules. Richard has now been investigated over allegations which he denies, and the file has been sent to the director of public prosecutions to decide if there is a case to answer.

Allegations were also made against another BBC radio presenter, Paul Gambaccini, who was suspended by the BBC for two years until the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) decided in his case there was no case to answer and he was reinstated. A husband and wife who are both presenters on BBC local radio are facing court proceedings concerning alleged sexual offenses, as is a DJ on a local commercial radio network. All three are currently suspended.

It was then revealed that as long ago as the 1950s a radio presenter who died in 1967—who presented record request programmes for children on The Light Programme, the forerunner of BBC Radio 2—had been the subject of complaints by angry parents, whose children had been invited to the radio studio and had been molested there. The BBC at the time had dismissed their complaints as ridiculous and taken no action.

The BBC set up its own internal independent enquiry under Dame Janet Smith. The BBC needed to know urgently what had gone wrong, how their studios had been used for sexual offenses, and for how long. Many of their staff and presenters were required to give evidence to her Committee of Inquiry, which cost the BBC more than £6,500,000 (about $9,400,000)—roughly the value of 45,000 television license fees.

The enquiry, which published its findings in February 2016, found that cultural factors at the BBC stopped staff reporting their concern to managers, especially where those concerns related to presenters or “talent.” The report revealed that a total of 117 BBC employees had heard rumours about Savile. Those who were aware of the rumours should have reported them to management, but did not. Senior management were not aware of the rumours. During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s young people attending the studio for episodes of Top of the Pops were “at risk of moral danger.” There was still an atmosphere of fear in the BBC.

One DJ on BBC Radio 2—Tony Blackburn, who had often appeared as a presenter on Top of the Pops on television, and is not the subject of any known allegations—came in for criticism in the report. The Committee thought he had not been open with them. Blackburn was sacked by the BBC and his programmes handed to Gambaccini, who revealed that the remaining BBC Radio 2 presenters were appalled at Blackburn’s treatment, and were afraid for their jobs.

It seems that a chasm has opened up between BBC presenting staff and management, and there are campaigns to reinstate Blackburn and sack the BBC Director General, Tony Hall (no relation), instead.

The Government reacted to the scandal by publishing plans to change the way the BBC is governed and to bring its activities under the control of the regulator for the media, Ofcom, thereby ending the BBC’s 90-year independence. The BBC has paid a high price for the renewal of its Charter (license to operate).

We do not prosecute dead people, so the allegations against Savile remain allegations; however, Savile’s ghost will be haunting the corridors of power at Broadcasting House for years to come.

Photo of BBC Broadcasting House by David Jones, used under a Creative Commons license.

The post The Ghost of Broadcasting House appeared first on Radio Survivor.

On Saturday July 2 Australia will hold national elections for all 226 members of its Parliament. Supporters of community radio across the country are taking advantage of this attention to demand the restoration of $1.4 million in cuts to the service. Almost 49,000 Australians have added their names to a #keepcommunityradio petition page.

The petition reads in part:

“Community radio serves so many Australians; from radio reading for people with a print disability to programming in the different languages spoken across our country, to Indigenous broadcasters, faith based stations, regional stations and youth stations.

Please don’t leave community radio behind.”

The petition is addressed to leaders Malcolm Turnbull of the Liberal/National Coalition and Bill Shorten of Labor. Both the Labor and Green Parties say they’ll restore the cuts if elected.

#keepcommunityradio Tweets

The post Nearly 50k sign petition to protect Australian community radio appeared first on Radio Survivor.

Listeners are campaigning to save a long wave radio station from closure, but the management are adamant it will close.

RTÉ Radio 1 is the general information and entertainment service of the Irish Republic’s public service broadcaster. UK listeners can currently hear the station on internet, Freesat (satellite radio) and 252 kHz long wave.

The main subject of our story – the long wave station at Clarkstown, Ireland – became the replacement for the much missed medium wave station at Athlone. RTÉ hoped the long wave signal would better reach the Irish diaspora as far as London to help them keep in touch with home.

A long wave service can cover distances of over 500 to 1,000 miles in daylight, and even further at night. Many European nations have citizens working and living in other European countries, who want to stay in touch with home. There are extensive seagoing industries — fishing, shipping, oil — and the LW signals warn them of storms coming. These days satellite communications are widely used and the LW broadcasts are less important.

The drawbacks of LW are that large antenna systems are needed, which take up a lot of space; high power is needed to produce a very strong ground wave for daytime reception; and only a limited number of stations can be fitted into the band, so they must all share frequencies and take steps to avoid interfering with each other.

Over the years radios coming onto the market in Europe frequently do not include the long wave band.

The LW station in Ireland was set up in 1989 as a commercial radio station called Atlantic 252, broadcasting rock music to the UK. It established a loyal audience, but could not compete with the UK’s established network of commercial local radio stations, and made a loss. It closed in 2002.

RTÉ saw the chance to acquire a long wave station — a long held ambition — and snapped it up. A period of re-engineering followed to improve the facility. The service quickly built up an audience in the UK, appealing to English as well as the diaspora. There were still reception issues.

The distance between Dublin and London is around 300 miles. In London, RTÉ began to suffer co-channel interference from the other user of 252 kHz: Tipaza, Algeria, some 1,000 miles from London.

Tipaza beams Chaine 1 to the Algerian diaspora in France. The transmitter was quite ancient and began to drift from the nominal frequency. The staff at Tipaza did their best to keep their station operating and on frequency.

Listeners in London and eastern England began to hear the morning call to prayer and other items from Chaine 1 clearly under RTÉ.

Then Tipaza failed completely and went off the air for months. A German transmitter company was awarded the contract to replace Algeria’s entire public broadcasting system. When Tipaza returned to the air, the signal was stronger and the co-channel interference moved closer to Dublin.

The usual methods of reducing co-channel interference were perfected by the FCC for the US’ AM band. They include using directional aerials, and cutting the power at night. Unfortunately those methods are not as effective on LW as they are on MW.

Ireland’s economy deteriorated and RTÉ’s finances were affected. In 2014 RTÉ announced they would close the LW station in a few weeks, saying it was obsolete and closure would save 250,000 euros (around US $280,000).

The listeners were having none of it. A huge outcry ensued which won them a stay of execution while other methods of reaching the diaspora were investigated. Somewhat miffed at having their plans thwarted, RTÉ reduced the power, badly affecting reception.

Then RTÉ joined a consortium to bid for the second UK national DAB digital radio multiplex. That would have given RTÉ national coverage in the UK.

Alas, the other bidders won and RTÉ is not included on the implemented multiplex.

There is a saying that the opera is not over until the lady sings. The campaign to save RTÉ on 252 continues; the Suits are insisting the switch will be pulled in 2017 — but the lady who sings, Madame Godot, has not yet arrived at the stage door. Hopefully, as usual, she won’t.

Previously:

• RTÉ Shutdown Plans A Reminder Of Longwave Radio
• https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2014/10/20/rte-longwave-closure-postponed/
  

  The post Saving RTÉ 252 Long Wave, Ireland’s Long Distance Broadcast Service appeared first on Radio Survivor.

  ]]> https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/06/saving-rte-252-long-wave/feed/ 1 36510 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/05/behind-radio-curtain-state-europe/ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/05/behind-radio-curtain-state-europe/#respond Thu, 19 May 2016 21:00:44 +0000 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=36424 Editors note: Paul Bailey writes the Goodbye AM blog, covering the decline of broadcasting on that band, particularly in Europe. We asked him to share his perspective with Radio Survivor readers, and we look forward to his future contributions. -Paul In Europe we call the AM band the “medium wave” band (there is also a […]

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  Editors note: Paul Bailey writes the Goodbye AM blog, covering the decline of broadcasting on that band, particularly in Europe. We asked him to share his perspective with Radio Survivor readers, and we look forward to his future contributions.
  -Paul

  ---

  In Europe we call the AM band the “medium wave” band (there is also a “long wave” AM band). Until recently, the medium wave band was crowded with all the stations in Europe. There are still small local stations active on the band, but for 90 years it was dominated by the state broadcasters and their high power transmitters which enabled their services to be heard in neighbouring countries in daylight and all over Europe in night time conditions.

  Not anymore. Tune along the band today–if it isn’t drowned out by the interference from broadband equipment and digital television power supplies–and count the gaps.

  The state broadcasters have been hit by the soaring cost of energy, coupled with audience change and recession, which has reduced their operational incomes. So (apart from the UK, so far) the high power transmitters have been shut down to save money, and their radio services moved to cheaper platforms such as FM and the digital radio DAB system implemented in Europe.

  The infrastructure of the high power broadcasters–the masts–is 70 years old and crumbling, and is deemed too expensive to repair or replace. Just weeks ago, one of the two masts at Start Point in England, which relays BBC high power services, was damaged in a winter storm and demolished. It will not be replaced.

  The state broadcasters in Europe were traditionally financed by a television license scheme. Some countries have now changed the funding model for their state broadcasters.

  In the UK, the BBC has secured a further 11 years of funding through the TV licence, which raises around £4 billion a year to fund its domestic services. If you watch or record television you are required to have a license; not having one is a criminal offense.

  Unfortunately for the BBC, the last decade has seen more households ceasing to own televisions, further reducing their income. The number of households without television is now 1.3 million, or 4.7% of all households. If they watch BBC content on mobile devices, they don’t owe the BBC a penny.

  On top of that shrinking income from TV licenses, which are price-capped, the government will stopp meeting the cost of free television licenses for senior citizens. The BBC now has to fund those, taking a further £650 million out of the operational budget. It also now has to hand over some of the license income to commercial broadcasters, to help improve their services.

  We are waiting to hear from the BBC how they intend to balance their books but we already know that some radio services are being combined and others are going internet only. There is particular concern for the BBC’s network of local radio stations, which cost more per year than the BBC’s major radio network, but have declining audience.

  There is also a decline in the ownership of radios. Generations have now grown up who have never owned a radio, they just have phones. This is impacting the local commercial radio stations, as advertisers are reducing their spend. Young people do not consume TV channels or radio stations like I did when I was a teenager; they download. This is reflected in the pop charts, which are largely compiled from download activity.

  After 20 years, and much hype, the take-up of digital radio has not met expectations. The low power has proved to be too low to provide a reliable signal, coverage remains incomplete, and the only major manufacturer of DAB digital radios has ceased production.

  A new Radio Curtain has descended on Europe, shutting many of us into our own countries, unable to hear each other’s services, many of which are only available on the internet in their home countries.

  This has caused concern in the European Parliament, with MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) calling for all the services of all the state broadcasters to be available in all of the countries in the European Union. But where will all the money, frequencies and audience come from?

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  ]]> https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/05/behind-radio-curtain-state-europe/feed/ 0 36424 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/04/time-make-haitis-40-community-radio-stations-legit/ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/04/time-make-haitis-40-community-radio-stations-legit/#respond Mon, 18 Apr 2016 10:52:12 +0000 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=36070 Reading the Miami Herald’s piece on Haiti’s 40 or so community radio stations, I kept wondering to myself, are they legal or not? The article says these signals are “difficult to locate” and have “no official listings and, under Haitian law, the stations do not exist.” So they’re not exactly pirate but they’re not really legitimate […]

  The post It’s time to make Haiti’s 40+ community radio stations legit appeared first on Radio Survivor.

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  Reading the Miami Herald’s piece on Haiti’s 40 or so community radio stations, I kept wondering to myself, are they legal or not? The article says these signals are “difficult to locate” and have “no official listings and, under Haitian law, the stations do not exist.”

  So they’re not exactly pirate but they’re not really legitimate either. The good news is that Haiti’s version of our Federal Communications Commission, the National Commission for Telecommunications (NCT),  wants Haiti’s parliament to recognize them as legal, outlining their rights and responsibilities. But “many stations will still have a hard time getting licenses because of a lack of sponsorship and other economic challenges.”

  The NCT has been working on this issue for [sigh] nine years. It seems like this matter ought to be addressed by Haiti’s lawmakers as soon as possible. Radio played a heroic role in the terrible Haitian earthquake of 2010 and was recognized for its contributions in a subsequent Knight Foundation Report.

  From the report:

  “The media development community should prioritize restoring local radio’s broadcast capacity and ensure that local media are given support to adequately respond in a crisis. As new platforms and technologies expand and are tested, it should not be forgotten that local radio still stands as a primary source of information for the overwhelming majority of the world’s population.”

  Meanwhile, South Africa says that it has now licensed over 140 community radio stations, and, “many of them are operating,” according to government communications minister Faith Muthambi, who has definitely mastered her communications regulatory jargon.

  “Together with entities, and Portfolio Committee on Communications in the short period we have managed to create an alignment and synergies to advance important policies;” she told SAnews.gov.za, “from the gazetting of the Broadcasting Digital Migration policy to the Community Broadcasting Support Scheme policy.”

  Now I have to add “gazetting” to my lexicon of communications buzzwords. Anyway, I’m going with my hunch that she thinks these community radio stations are a good thing. “We are working tirelessly to review their funding models to ensure long term-financial viability of these institutions as they carry their mandates respectively,” Muthambi added.

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  ]]> https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/04/time-make-haitis-40-community-radio-stations-legit/feed/ 0 36070 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/04/songs-radio-uk-community-radio-version/ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/04/songs-radio-uk-community-radio-version/#respond Sun, 10 Apr 2016 09:08:04 +0000 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=35985 I got a nice note the other day about my new book on radio from David Harris, who is a volunteer presenter at The Flash community radio signal, based in the town of Havant, near Portsmouth on the south coast of England. Harris is reviewing my book for Radio User magazine, a United Kingdom journal. The […]

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  I got a nice note the other day about my new book on radio from David Harris, who is a volunteer presenter at The Flash community radio signal, based in the town of Havant, near Portsmouth on the south coast of England. Harris is reviewing my book for Radio User magazine, a United Kingdom journal. The Flash plays classic rock from 1960 through 1999, plus blues and music by aspiring local bands. The outlet successfully applied for that opportunity for local stations to broadcast via a less expensive version of Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB), and is participating in the “small scale DAB” experiment.

  The first chapter of my book is titled “Songs About Radio,” and so Harris sent me his list of favorite radio themed songs. A lot of these tunes never made the songs about radio playlists we posted here some years ago, so I’m glad he contacted us.

  Here is David’s list:

  1. FM – Steely Dan (4’50”) Track 1

  Single released in 1978 and included on various Steely Dan compilation albums. This song was featured on the soundtrack of the long forgotten film, FM. The film is about FM radio in America which in the 1970’s concentrated upon playing tracks from rock albums rather than 3 minute pop singles.  What a pity we never had such stations in the UK in those days.

  2. London Calling – The Clash (3’20”) Track 1

  (1979 single and title track of the album).  This song is about a radio announcer setting out an apocalyptic vision of a post nuclear future.  I “London Calling” was how the BBC World Service used to announce itself.

  3. W.O.L.D – Harry Chapin (5’10”)  (Track 3)

  A minor hit in 1974. Chapin is not very well known, he died in 1981, but this track is well worth seeking out.  It tells the story of a late night radio presenter.

  4. All over the World – ELO (4’03”) Track 12

  1980 single and on various ELO Greatest hits compilations.  I thought this song captured the spirit of radio as it is a medium which is truly heard all over the world.

  5. You turn me on I’m a radio – Joni Mitchell (2’40”) Track 9

  From the 1972 album For the Roses.  I am a big Joni Mitchell fan but would agree that she is an acquired taste.  The lyrics are very poetic, copyright laws prevent me printing them here but well worth getting the album. In fact most of her albums from the 1970s are excellent.

  6. The Nightfly – Donald Fagen (5’45”) Track 6

  Title track from the 1982 album.  Fagen was one half of Steely Dan and this is a beautifully crafted song about a night time radio presenter on the fictional jazz station WJAZ.

  7. Song on the Radio – Al Stewart (6’16”)  Track 9

  From the 1978 album Time Passages.  Al is another of my favourite artists.  All of his albums from the 60’s and 70’s are worth checking out. This track has a great saxophone accompaniment.

  8. Roadrunner – Jonathan Richman (5’00”) Track 18

  (1976 single and various compilations) A great road record with a wonderful chorus of “Radio On”. Live version from the 1990’s.

  9. Tuned into You – Georgie Fame (3’37”) Track 1

  From the 2000 album Poet in New York). This is a jazz tinged album featuring Fame on vocals.  This song has a great line about being moved by the music played by American Forces Network (AFN)

  10. Do you remember Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio? – The Ramones (3’45”)  Track 16

  (From the 1980 album End of the Century). The Ramones songs are all rather similar and benefit from being fairly short.  This is a stomping anthem with a great beginning featuring a radio dial being tuned through various stations.

  11. Radio Free Europe – REM (4’03”) Track 2

  Single released in 1981 and it is on the 1983 album Murmur. I chose this as it is the only song I could find which actually namechecks a shortwave radio station.  Radio Free Europe used to broadcast to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe on SW but now is on FM in many countries and online.

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  ]]> https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/04/songs-radio-uk-community-radio-version/feed/ 0 35985 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/03/restoring-voice-slain-community-radio-host/ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/03/restoring-voice-slain-community-radio-host/#respond Tue, 22 Mar 2016 21:54:17 +0000 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=35844 In 2014 armed thugs murdered Mexican community radio activist Atilano Roman Tirado as he spoke live in his station’s studio. I wrote of the crime on these pages. Tirado was a leader of a coalition of hundreds of families in Sinaloa asking for compensation after losing their homes to the Picachos dam. He was a […]

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  Atilano Román Tirado

  In 2014 armed thugs murdered Mexican community radio activist Atilano Roman Tirado as he spoke live in his station’s studio. I wrote of the crime on these pages. Tirado was a leader of a coalition of hundreds of families in Sinaloa asking for compensation after losing their homes to the Picachos dam. He was a harsh critic of the government. His program was titled “Asi es mi Tierra” – This is How My Land Is.

  “Officials say they will investigate the Tirado murder,” I noted. “They always say that. We hope that this time it is true.”

  I’ve received no word that a serious inquiry was made by the government. But happily The New York Times has produced a video documentary commemorating Tirado’s life, murder, and deep commitment to his Northern Mexico community. It is titled Unsilenced, produced by filmmaker Betzabe Garcia.

  Unsilenced is a remarkable work; a beautiful, slow moving portrait of Tirado’s home and cause. Tirado befriended Garcia while she was making a film about the Picachos crisis. “This story is not just about my friend Atilano,” Garcia writes:

  “It highlights the culture of censorship that has grasped our entire country. Atilano’s killing by gunmen inside a radio booth during the live broadcast of a show dedicated to airing the demands of his movement was a clear message of intimidation to the people, meant to quiet anyone who was also thinking of protesting injustice. When audio from the murder was retransmitted across the country by hundreds of other media outlets, the killers were able to amplify their message of violence and intimidation.”

  The documentary is narrated by Atilano himself via conversations she had with him before he died. “I want to give him back his voice and show that his courageous life message merits an even stronger platform,” Garcia’s post concludes, “Atilano may be dead, but his voice will live.”

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  ]]> https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/03/restoring-voice-slain-community-radio-host/feed/ 0 35844 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/03/harassment-community-radio-zambia-getting-worse/ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/03/harassment-community-radio-zambia-getting-worse/#respond Mon, 14 Mar 2016 08:01:13 +0000 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=35775 Last time we checked in on the community radio scene in Zambia, government officials were thwarted in their bid to dissolve the board of a local signal in that country’s Mkushi district. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have discouraged various law enforcement functionaries from mucking around with other community radio operations. The Panos Institute of Southern […]

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  Last time we checked in on the community radio scene in Zambia, government officials were thwarted in their bid to dissolve the board of a local signal in that country’s Mkushi district. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have discouraged various law enforcement functionaries from mucking around with other community radio operations. The Panos Institute of Southern Africa charges that Zambian officials have tried to block radio shows at stations in Chipata, Petauke, Kasama, Mpika, Mkushi, and Siavonga.

  “Just this week, police officers in Isoka stopped a paid for live political discussion programme on Isoka FM featuring Democratic Front President Miles Sampa,” the Institute reports, “who is also the leader of the Orange Alliance.”

  Here’s some more of the Institute’s statement on the alleged harassment: 

  “Overzealous and ill formed provincial and district administration officers in partnership with the local police have on many occasions crossed their legal boundary and disturbed community radio operations in their districts.

  This trend needs to be stopped. Community radio stations like any other registered media businesses and entities are mandated by law to perform their professional duties unhindered and within media space as enshrined in the Zambian constitution.”

  

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  ]]> https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/03/harassment-community-radio-zambia-getting-worse/feed/ 0 35775 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/02/women-community-radio-struggle-ebola-zika/ https://www.radiosurvivor.com/2016/02/women-community-radio-struggle-ebola-zika/#respond Mon, 29 Feb 2016 09:07:12 +0000 https://www.radiosurvivor.com/?p=35634 There’s a great interview up on SoundCloud with Anne Bennett, director of Hirodelle USA, which supports community based radio projects across Africa. I transcribed some of Bennett’s comments, which she made during a World Radio Day conference in London. They focused on how to get public health information out to women that women will regard as credible, […]

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  There’s a great interview up on SoundCloud with Anne Bennett, director of Hirodelle USA, which supports community based radio projects across Africa. I transcribed some of Bennett’s comments, which she made during a World Radio Day conference in London. They focused on how to get public health information out to women that women will regard as credible, especially regarding epidemics like Ebola and Zika.

  “I think the lesson is very clear that for the message to be received, the message needs to be trusted,” Bennett explained:

  “Top down messages with a government stamp are going to be met with disbelief. The other thing that comes out of Ebola is that your messages need to take into account social, economic, and political factors that affect the population. I was really struck when five governments came out and advised women not to get pregnant for up to two years. And while that may be sound biomedical advice, it’s entirely impractical for most women, especially women from vulnerable communities who don’t have access to family planning.

  So the whole context of telling women not to get pregnant, when women hear that information there’s a lack of credibility because it’s very clear that whoever is delivering that information doesn’t understand the situation they’re faced with. So they’re still hungry for the kind of information . . . how can they very practically protect themselves and their familiees from the virus given the fact that they have no access to family planning; and that there are high levels of sexual violence, for instance.

  So how do you bridge that gap? We think that gap can be bridged by giving tools to local journalists, especially radio, which has a very wide appeal. We think that in partnership with institutions of public health providing tools that those journalists need to report well and provide information to those communities, that’s really the approach.

  That includes local languages, so you’ve got local, community radio that’s broadcasting in local languages.”

  Bennett added that one of the advantages of partnering with local African institutions is social trust. This was the case when Hirodelle collaborated with a college signal out of the University of Sierra Leone. This gave the project “local legitimacy . . .  not going in and creating a stand alone NGO (non-government organization),” she concluded, “but creat[ing] something with a local partner. We were able to pull back and they were willing to take over.”

  H/T to SciDev.Net

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