One of the biggest problems locally is the near-total absence of non-corporate media — especially in radio. Just about all the news and info comes from a tiny handful of state or corporation-owned stations.
Stupid legislation, furthermore, prevents Average Joes like me from deciding to start up a low-power radio station of my own. The only real requirement I’d accept as justified is the simple technical one of making sure the radio signal doesn’t interfere with any other station’s frequency. That’s a normal requirement worldwide.
Radio is very, very cheap to make. It’s so cheap that other existing radio stations enjoying their monopoly will never tell you about it.
Want to be on air within a few hours? Look at a one-stop solution. Just 24 grand gets you a 50 Watt Radio Station in a Box. And to bypass local laws entirely, have a look at this simple Internet Radio Solution.
But why hide your station online? The airwaves are supposed to belong to us. They’re public airwaves, after all. Instead, in order to start a station, you and I somehow have to “explain” how a would-be station is going to benefit “historically disadvantaged people” — whoever these might be. (I assume this legislation refers to women, dwarves, epileptics, the deaf, homosexuals or the blind. After all, each of these groups has been severely historically disadvantaged.)
So there’s no genuine freedom for you or I to create our own media, whether you’re a one-or-two person operation or a couple of like-minded friends with time to spare, looking to start a radio station.
For instance, because of this bizarre legislation, you have to “invent” a job for someone suitably crippled or “historically disadvantaged” in some way, in order to have your application considered. And taking it even further into the realms of absurdity, you have to somehow justify how this radio station will “help” one of the previously-referred-to disadvantaged, as well as show how you intend to train other epileptics — as well as “prove” that you have epileptics as part of your “management” structure.
But naturally the existing radio stations, which are mostly fronts for corporate entities, have studiously avoided much real discussion of this. Why should they explain to you how wonderfully they are benefiting from laws that prevent real competition?
(Don’t worry, there’s lots of fun radio archives for your downloading pleasure further down in this column.)
Get a crash course in reality at The Task of Activist Media and read radical political analyst Michael Parenti on Methods of Media Manipulation.
And for a large, United Kingdom-related collection of radio and TV items to download or watch, see what’s available at The Community Media Archive. Then, for some quiet fun, see what’s watchable at Beyond TV.
To show you again that a radio station can be made in your spare room, without needing huge sums of money — as the media would have you believe (and thus stop you from even thinking about it) — there’s the “do it yourself” kit method. Look at FM Radio Transmitters. Or, for about R2 000, here’s your ready-to-go FM Transmitter. Add another R400 for an aerial.
Look at the online info at How to Do a Radio Show. And Radio Berkeley is another useful area to learn about the basics of making your own radio station: Free Radio. You might want to download this PDF file: How to Do It: Micropower Broadcasting Primer.
Small, independent “mom and pop”-level radio stations are thus effectively blocked from being created locally, leaving it totally in the hands of rich and often government-connected corporations, the only ones with the ability and finances to play along with the absurd laws governing local radio station start-ups.
This leaves us with disguised, fake, “liberal” corporate radio, which portrays a political spectrum that in reality ranges from extremely conservative to only slightly conservative.
When did you last hear a local radio station devote any substantial time to any topic at all that might promote a course of action that would go against local corporate or government interests? (And one-minute telephone interviews don’t count.) It doesn’t happen — because it’s not “real” radio.
Now pause for a second and Take the World’s Smallest Political Quiz. And read the tie-in to this quiz, titled Just How Solid Is That Centre?.
So, while local radio might appear to be “representing the public”, it clearly isn’t — because the public themselves are blocked from actually creating radio. It’s a carefully fostered illusion, by the current corporate media, of the public being “represented”. We aren’t. We have no voice at all, except via the filters of the corporate media.
On the personal front, what you can do is to start listening to non-corporate radio and special-interest radio that shows you a reality and a perspective beyond local radio’s non-stop obsessive discussion of “race”, “business trends” and “consumer products”. Here are some alternatives to the corporate propaganda that is cramping our minds.
For example, for daily political news you can use IMC Radio Network. For another daily news show, see Democracy Now. Then try Flashpoints Radio. Its huge archive of shows is here.
And to get a clearer sense of the “other” United States, the one that doesn’t get shown much here, go to Air America Radio.
Remember the Vietnam veteran that Tom Cruise played in Born on the Fourth of July? Go listen to what the real Ron Kovic had to say a few days ago, at an anti-war rally. Listen to him and other audio news items at Radio 4 All.
Stepping sideways into darker territory, find the subjects in which you’re interested at Black Ops Radio Archives.
And because I’m a fan of the esoteric, New Age and conspiracy genres, I’ll focus on some of the huge libraries of radio shows online that will open your mind to new horizons and give you a “non-old-colonial granny” view of spiritual and New Age topics.
For instance, there’s a wide range of topics for downloading or listening at Feet to the Fire. And another archive, with hundreds of hours of listening awaiting you, is at Mysteries of the Mind.
Laura Lee is another long-running talk-show host whose shows cover what I’d call the mainstream or middle ground of assorted New Age-ish topics. Look at Laura Lee. To browse through more than 500 of her shows, see what’s available at Laura Lee Archives.
Interested in space or astronomy? Download or listen to the odd, eclectic and often informative shows at Radio Free Mars. Or to step into the great weird beyond, try a radical alternative viewpoint and download the radio shows of Jim Mccanney at Jim Mccanney Science.
How about a radio show that’s made by cheerful nerds and hackers themselves, detailing the latest exploits, news and fun that’s emerged in the world of computers and hacking. Why listen to nervous corporate media’s take on hacking when you can hear, first-hand, from the hacker underground itself. Run to the 2600 Hacker Radio Archives, its new shows and plenty of its old shows.
Finally, do you want to be a tourist but it’s too much effort to get out of your chair? There’s a radio show just for you. Click over to The World Traveller.
Until the next time, if corporate media don’t get me.
Quick picks
Stupid technology: Internet-Enabled Microwave Oven
Geek gadgets: LCD E-Mail Displayer
Fun for poor people time: How to Make a Duct-Tape Wallet
Say what? 3D Printer that Makes Copies of Itself
Things you wish your parents never did to you: Turn You Into a Baby Hitler for Halloween
Important political news: Sex Doll Sparks Bomb Scare at Post Office
When toys and culture collide: My Little Borg Pony
When geeks and Chinese communism collide: The ‘RTFM’ Mao Tse Tung T-Shirt
When religion and marketing collide: Couple Sells Candles That ‘Smell Like Jesus’
Lastly: An Indian Butter Company’s ‘Public Service’ Ads from the 1970s