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Community Radio Needs You

25.05.2004 08:52 | Education | Indymedia | Repression

The community radio movement has grown worldwide over the last 30 years establishing a new tier of broadcasting that is challenging the traditional public and commercial sectors.

But just as community radio in the UK is starting to finally get a foothold, intense lobbying from the commercial sector to restrict community radio could limit its growth and even possibly kill it at birth.

pensioners making community radio - Radio Z - published by Imedana
pensioners making community radio - Radio Z - published by Imedana

Baby DJ - Radio Z/Imedana “Wem der Sinn nach Umsturz steht”
Baby DJ - Radio Z/Imedana “Wem der Sinn nach Umsturz steht”


Community radio is characterised by public access to and public participation in radio production - the management of a community radio station is in the hands of its listeners and users.

Community radio's emphasis on participation allows listeners to become involved in their station to a degree not possible with local public or commercial stations. Community radio breaks down the traditional divide between broadcaster and listener. With community radio, the listener can become the broadcaster and get engaged in the production of media and in the process of communication.

Community radio can also bridge the communications divide in other ways. Radio is a cheap, established and effective communications medium and is able to reach the poorest communities in the most remote of localities - poor communities in the North as well as the South, from marginalised populations on the fringes of urban environments to small rural communities in remote locations.

In Europe, community radio has largely grown out of the pirate radio movement and many former pirate stations are now completely legal. In Germany Radio Z is one of the oldest free radio stations being founded in 1984 and starting broadcasting in 1987, and now community radio stations are sharing their programmes in an internet archive for non-commercial use.
Whilst the media law in Germany principally supports community radio with the demand for "diversity of opinions", and "programs have to contribute to literacy, education, culture and entertainment" and "that significant political, social and philosophical groups are to be given a say, too", the main difficulties for community radios lies in insufficient funding.
Some like Radio Patapoe in Amsterdam and Contrabanda FM in Barcelona remain unlicensed in continued opposition to legal restrictions. In the UK, Radio4@ recently celebrated five years of broadcasting no-budget community pirate radio in Brighton despite several attempts by the DTI to take them off the air over the years.

In North America community radio has developed as a licensed service in the main, though a few community stations are deemed illegal due to the restrictive regulatory framework and a lack of available frequencies - see Free Radio Berkeley and San Francisco Liberation Radio. The Microradio and Low Power FM projects have also played a part in developing community radio in the US.

[More links to community radio stations worldwide.]

In Latin America, the community media sector has grown in the last fifty years to become thousands of radio stations. In the 1980's, there were only a handful of independent radio stations in Africa - now hundreds of community broadcasters are on air. Asia is now starting to open up - Nepal has been a shining example in South Asia where there are now seven community radio stations on air and fifteen more that are about to start. Countries in South-East Asia, the Philippines in particular, have had a strong tradition of community broadcasting that continues to grow. Community media is all over the world in every continent but not yet in every country.

In the UK, community radio is under attack just as it is getting established. The UK Government's Access Radio pilot scheme has seen 15 community radio stations broadcasting - including Resonance FM in London - successfully for over two years now. Recently the creation of a £500,000 Community Media Fund has been announced to help finance the community sector. However, the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA), a powerful industry-sponsored lobbying agency, is seeking to stifle the growth of community radio by arguing for a regulatory framework that would bar certain areas in the UK from having the right to set up a Community Radio station. In other areas, Community Radio stations would not be able to carry advertising and sponsorship at all - thus depriving them of much-needed income.

More information on the campaign to promote community radio in the UK and oppose the commercial lobby can be found here.

Comments

Hide the following 5 comments

FEAR CHANNELS

25.05.2004 12:27



NEW CORPORATE WATCH NEWSLETTER INVESTIGATES THE CORPORATE COMPETITION:


CLEAR CHANNEL KILLED THE RADIO STAR

What’s on the radio,
propoganda, mind control
And turnin it on is like
puttin on a blindfold
Turn off the radio!
Turn off that bullshit!
Turn off the radio! Turn off that bullshit!
(Dead Prez,
Turn Off the Radio)

As Tony Blair instigates deregulation of the UK radio market, corporates are preparing to take over. The most notorious, and most likely to succeed in the UK market, is US conglomerate Clear Channel. But the most informative website on the corporation - the long running, obviously anti ‘Clear Channel Sucks’ - has mysteriously disappeared from the net. Corporate Watch takes up the challenge. Just what will you be listening to? By Jonathan Atkinson

Background
Clear Channel Entertainment already have over 1,000,000,000 listeners worldwide - that’s a sixth of the world’s population. In the US, they have an audience of 103,000,000. Clear Channel US (aka SFX, one of their more well-known subsidiaries) owns and operates over 200 venues across the country. They are in 248 of the top 250 radio markets, controlling 60% of all rock programming. They outright own the tours of musicians like Janet Jackson, Aerosmith, Pearl Jam, Madonna and N’Sync. They own the network which airs Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, Casey Kasem, and the Fox Sports Radio Network, and which used to air Howard Stern.

READ MORE:  http://www.corporatewatch.org/newsletter/issue18/part2.htm

Corporate Watch
- Homepage: http://www.corporatewatch.org


peer to peer Radio

03.06.2004 17:55

I've noticed, with copmmunity radio, that the search for mainstream funding can seriously compromise the autonomy of the broadcasting.

Worth checking out is the concept of peer to peer radio software. eg.  http://www.peercast.org which is opensource.

Everybody ( with a mac/pc & broadband connection ) can 'broadcast'. Broadcasting can be anonymous.

Commercial outfits such as Virgin are trying to get in on the act with pay per listen subscriptions. (?)

The future is digital radio with webcasting. Imagine your portable radio picking up from a website! Try nicking the sound system now Mr Plod etc. etc.

mark r


Radical Radio for Manchester

10.06.2004 21:27

COmmunity radio is great! ALL FM in Manchester even lets a pair of the local anarchists have a fortnightly show :D

Radical radio for Manchester!
Under the Pavement on ALL FM 96.9 every other Monday 10pm – midnight.

“alternative radio for Manchester’s radical and activist communities!”

featuring guests, interviews, whats on guide, news from Indymedia, and an eclectic mix of music. (check out the playlists on our website for the type of stuff we’ve played on previous shows)

Next show Monday 14th June 10pm-midnight.. features, among other things….

** Guests in the studio talking about the Manchester Radical Bookfair and Critical Mass,
** Interview with Bruce Kent about the case of prisoner Ray Gilbert ,
** Tracks from the new Robb Johnson album.

if you’re in Manchester or the surrounding area tune in on 96.9FM (the transmitter is pretty strong and you can apparently pick it up as far out as Warrington and Glossop…)

You can also listen online through our website www.underthepavement.org

.
- Homepage: http://www.underthepavement.org


Community Radios in Paraguay in the Process of Regularization

19.06.2004 09:40

08-06-2004 (UNESCO) - Over one hundred community radios in Paraguay that
are currently operating without a license could very soon receive special
permits to begin broadcasting in full legality according to a pledge made
by the authorities of the countryís ComisiÛn Nacional de
Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), which under Paraguayan law has the mandate
to regulate broadcasting and allocate frequencies.
 http://portal.unesco.org/ci/ev.php?URL_ID=15904&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201

The promise came at the end of a two-day seminar on "Paraguayan
Broadcasting in the 21st Century", held in Asuncion, on June 2-3, 2004,
organized by UNESCO, the Paraguayan Parliament's Commission on Media and
Information and the Jakue'ke National News Agency.

The meeting brought together over 100 participants representing
community, educational and religious radios, as well as commercial
broadcasters and the national, public radio corporation. It also
included academics, students, representatives of CONATEL and of the
executive and legislative powers of government and a selection of
international experts.

The pledge by CONATEL marks a distinct break from tradition in Latin
America, whereby in the vast majority of countries of the region,
community or non-commercial broadcasters have not been recognized by law
and therefore do not have permits or licenses allowing them to access the
airwaves. As a result, and in light of the difficulties in
obtaining these permits, many of these stations have decided to
broadcast without one, which in practice means illegally, something that
UNESCO does not condone and has repeatedly stated that only legal
broadcasting can be tolerated and supported. The issue of illegality has
been at the root of difficult relations between the region's
community and commercial broadcasters.

In recent years, and to improve the situation, UNESCO has been sparing no
efforts to advise national authorities and urge them to seek ways to
progressively grant licenses to these type of broadcasters which serve
such a vital service to smaller, marginalized or particular sectors of
society.

The decision taken by the Paraguayan authorities is very much welcomed by
UNESCO and it is hoped that this will pave the way for the other
countries of the region to take similar action with the goal of ending
the issue of illegality but also, more importantly, granting access to
the airwaves and giving a voice to all sectors of society.

As a result of UNESCO's cooperation with the Paraguayan authorities, the
latter have also requested UNESCO assistance in adapting their
broadcasting legislation so that the recognition of community radios will
not only be by special permit but also go one step further and become
enshrined in a new modern and democratic law which they wish to adopt as
soon as possible.


Link(s)
Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), Paraguay
 http://www.conatel.gov.py/

Contact
Marcello Scarone Azzi, UNESCO mailto:m[dot]scarone[at]unesco[dot]org

Source UNESCO

radioista


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