Radio that reflects community

free103point9 Transmission Artist Anna Friz led the next panel at "Radio Without Boundaries, "Radio that reflects community." Since free103point9 is in the process of launching WGXC, a community radio station for Greene and Columbia counties in New York, this panel is of particular interest here. Victoria Fenner, Marian van der Zon, and Kevin Matthews were also on the panel. The panel, though, just trotted out tried and true-isms. Yes, it is important to build community for a community radio station. That seems part of the term "community radio station." Sure, some community radio stations forget that mission. Only Matthews made the good point that these community radio stations need to become multi-media groups that provide not just audio, but video, blogging, photography, and other media. Otherwise, this panel was preaching to the converted. Yes, a very dissapointing panel, that shed little new light on community radio.

WGXC Program Application

Want to do a show on the new community radio station coming soon to Greene and Columbia Counties in New York? Click here to download the WGXC Program Application. Go to www.wgxc.org for more information. Applications due Jan. 1, 2010.

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WGXC

free103point9's community radio station for Greene and Columbia Counties in New York has a name: WGXC. It stands for Greene and Columbia, or the x is for transmitting, or it can mean what you want. Read more about the project here.

Mission statement for Greene/Columbia community radio project

The Greene/Columbia community radio project is a community-run media project, re-envisioning radio as an innovative platform for local participation. Our inclusive programming connects diverse voices, and distributes information across the public spectrum in New York's Greene and Columbia Counties.

free103point9 will launch a 3,300-watt community radio station with a radio art bent, in 2010 on 90.7-FM in Greene and Columbia (and southern Albany) Counties in New York.

Building community one watt at a time

On May 10, free103point9's efforts to bring a community radio station to Greene and Columbia counties in New York went public with a workshop at the Catskill Community Center in Catskill. (free103point9 is applying for a full-power FM station to serve the community.) From Dharma Dailey, who helped run the workshop:

Volunteers of the forthcoming yet-to-be-named Columbia-Greene community radio station set up a tiny radio station at the Catskill Community Center. Though the signal barely reached to the sidewalk outside the community center, people of all ages and ethnicities took a seat beside an old school desk to take turns interviewing family, friends, and strangers. Radios were strategically placed in the Community Center bathrooms, the Community Center art Gallery, and just outside on the sidewalk. We taped a few questions to the desk to get people going — and go they did! From the time that the parade led by the Catskill Drum Corps landed at the front door of the Center to the end of Second Saturday revels, people took the opportunity to listen to each other. A dad and his daughter sit down facing each other. One playfully begins to “announce” in Spanish. Other Spanish speakers stop on the street. Where is that Spanish coming from? There’s no Spanish radio around here! A crowd gathers around the window. More people migrate to the microphone. Discussion. A public discussion. A long-retired reporter asks an eight year old drum corp drummer, “If you had a radio show what would be on it?” After answering, the drummer asks the reporter, “What brought you to Greene County?” People run out from the gallery, “We just wanted to see who’s talking.” Someone comes out from the bathroom to join the conversation. The music in the my neighbors’ voices tells me they appreciate the opportunity, the excuse, to get acquainted with each other. Here it is, live local radio. Click here for a very short movie about the event. Audio by Kaya Weidman, Dharma Dailey. Photos by Corrine and Dharma Dailey. Editing by Dharma and Michael Truckpile.

Academic papers on community radio

The new issue of the academic journal Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture is all about community radio, and includes: Kerrie Foxwell, Jacqui Ewart, Susan Forde and Michael Meadows on Australian Community Broadcasting; Stefania Milan on insights into feelings and muses of community radio practitioners; Dickie Wallace with an ethnographic view of the students and community members at a Massachusetts college radio station; Jan Pinseler on the politics of talk on German free radio stations; Özden Cankaya, H.Serhat Güney and M.Emre Köksalan on Turkish radio broadcasts in The Netherlands; and other essays and book reviews.