Tuning into an Afghanistan Odyssey and other Grassroots Radio Adventures on your Computer

by Leigh Robartes

Tuning into an Afghanistan Odyssey and other Grassroots Radio Adventures on your Computer

   Besides hours of locally produced programming, there are many syndicated grassroots radio programs that may be considered for broadcast on Radio Free Moscow.  Many of shows are produced by volunteers make their programs available free to any station that wants to air them.  Others are produced by professionals who want exposure for their programs on community and pirate radio stations. 

    You’ll need a sound card and speakers attached to your computer to hear these shows.  If you have a high-bandwidth connection, listening or downloading these shows should be quick and easy.  For modem users, be aware that some come in the form of broadcast-quality sound files that can take an hour or more to download.  If you have a modem, you may want to download these programs while you sleep and listen the next day.  Other shows are also encoded in RealAudio or lower audio quality MP3 files, suitable for listening to over a modem.  To listen to RealAudio, you need to download a free player from http://www.real.com.

    The most active program trading spot on the net is the A-Infos Radio Project at http://www.radio4all.net.  Every day, regular programs, one-off specials, speeches, audio from demonstrations and news reports go through this website.  Most are broadcast quality mp3 files.  Begun in 1996, A-Infos Radio Project now sports a five-year archive.  The all-volunteer Independent Media Center websites are also a great source of audio, especially during major mobilizations against corporate globalization and the war.  The IMC began during the Seattle anti-WTO protests as a way to get around the corporate media biases and blackouts of the movement.  Use the search function to search for audio on any of the dozens of IMC websites.  The mother website is http://www.indymedia.org.  On the left side of the page there’s a search function, and below that a listing of 83 different IMC websites from around the globe.  Some that have audio included NYC, Seattle, San Francisco Bay area, LA and Madison.  There’s also http://www.radio.indymedia.org.

    Here’s a list of interesting radio programs that can be heard over the Internet.  Keeping in mind that few people have the time or resources to listen to radio programs on their computer, think about which ones people might want to listen to on their FM radios here in Moscow.  E-mail your suggestions to radiofreemoscow@hotmail.com.

Flashpoints.  1 hr., daily Mon.-Fri.  Your daily, investigative news magazine from the liberated airwaves of KPFA.  This excellent example of radio’s potential isn’t syndicated yet, but expect it to be in the future.  Archived in RealAudio at http://www.flashpoints.net.  Streamable mp3’s available for 24 hours each day at http://www.kfcf.org/archives .  Click on “5:00pm” or “5:30 pm.”  You can also listen live weekdays at 5:00pm at http://www.kpfa.org.

Sustainability Segment.  Half-hour.  http://radio4all.net Environmental Issues from Seattle’s KEXP, as part of the Mind Over Matters series airing in that city every Saturday and Sunday morning 6-9 am.  You can stream it live at http://www.kexp.org. 

Making Contact.  Half-hour, weekly.  The best news program on non-commercial radio in the US is actually a weekly documentary.  Produced by the National Radio Project, each show involves months of planning and addresses pressing issues ignored by the mainstream media.  The show's insightfulness is its chief selling point.  http://www.radioproject.org.  Available in RealAudio.  Generally heard locally on KZUU, 90.7 from Pullman Mondays at 5:30pm except Dec. 24 through Jan. 7.  Signal may be fuzzy in parts of Moscow.

High Country Radio News.  Half-hour, weekly.  Hosted by Betsy Marsten, co-editor of High Country News, this show covers the issues of the Rocky Mountain west with interviews, documentary-style reports and a headlines segment.  Focuses on the environment and development.  You’ll hear tough questions asked of those on all sides of the issues. Available in RealAudio only.  May not be free for radio stations.  http://www.hcn.or.

People’s Tribune Radio.  Half-hour, bimonthly.  Produced by the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, this show often takes the form of investigative documentary. http://www.lrna.org or http://www.lrna.org/3-ptr/ptr.html or  http://www.radio4all.net.  Available in RealAudio.

TUC Radio (Times of Useful Consciousness).  Half-hour, weekly.  This excellent show tackles the trends of our times head on through interviews, produced segments and speeches.  Past topics include genetic engineering (Jeremy Rifkin with the Biotech Century), Does Your Cell Phone Affect Your Brain?, From Biotech to Nanotechnology, from Rats to Atoms: Arpad Pusztai & Pat Roy Mooney, Nuclear Weapons in Space and Space Junk: Jackie Cabasso & Bruce Gagnon, Manufactured News and Altered Thinking: John Stauber, Jane Healy, & Chett Bowers, Extinction in the Age of Progress: Stephanie Mills & Langdon Winner, Jeremy Rifkin, Christopher Hitchens: The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Dennis Brutus: Cry for the Beloved Country, Peter Dale Scott on “Plan Colombia” and Ward Churchill: History of COINTELPRO and the FBI.  Audio available on http://www.radio4all.net.  Website (no audio) is http://www.tucradio.org.

Between the Lines.  Weekly, half hour.  Professionally produced weekly newsmagazine featuring interviews with progressives not normally given exposure.  Also a headlines segment featuring the week’s underreported stories.  http://www.btlonline.org or http://www.radio4all.net.  New show every Thursday.

The Short Wave Report.   Weekly, half-hour.  Fortunately, there are many short wave news broadcasts that get at stories seldom heard elsewhere.  Since short wave radio listening is mainly a hobby because of the work and money involved, as well as its often poor sound quality, Dan Robert has made it easy for you by recording the best off his solar-powered short wave receiver in the northern California mountains.  You can hear news broadcasts from France, Spain (which covers Latin America extensively), Germany, Russia and Cuba every week on this show while the staid BBC is dwelling on cricket matches.  http://www.outfarpress.com or http://www.outfarpress.com/outfarpress/shortwave.shtml or http://www.radio4all.net.

Changesurfer Radio.  Weekly, half-hour.  Towards a more “sexy, high-tech vision of a radically democratic future.” http://www.changesurfer.com or http://www.changesurfer.com/eventhorizon/index.html or http://www.radio4all.net.

Unwelcome Guests. 2 hrs., weekly.  Collectively-produced show from Geneva, NY brings you radical discussion.  Latest show is on whom benefits from war.  http://www.radio4all.net or http://www.radio4all.org/unwelcome or http://www.radio4all.org/unwelcome/archive.html .  Listen live Sundays 6-8 pm at http://www.weos.org/live.html or http://www.weos.org/LIVE.HTML.

Weekly Freak Show.  1 hr.., weekly.  Educational features and news geared at the activist community from pirate station Freak Radio Santa Cruz.  http://www.radio4all.net.

Radio For Peace International.  Not a show, but a station operating on the international short wave bands 24/7 from Costa Rica.  They also stream 16 hours a day on the internet, and you can listen to files of many of their shows in RealAudio.  Among them: Far Right Radio Review, Tropical Conservation News Bureau, Honoring the Earth: Indigenous Voices, University of the Air and Peace Forum.  For schedule and frequencies go to http://www.rfpi.org.  Listen at http://195.210.0.134:554/ramgen/encoder/rfpi.rm.

Alternative Radio.  1 hr., weekly.  One of the most famous shows in the group, features one hour lectures and interviews with the most knowledgeable and eloquent voices of social and political criticism.  No audio files available, but you can listen to the show livestreamed on http://www.rfpi.org. Their website is http://www.alternativeradio.org.  The show is also heard once a month on KPBX 91.1 from Spokane in the Tuesday at noon timeslot.

Women’s International News Service (WINGS).  Half hour, weekly.  News and features by, for and about women from around the globe.  No audio files available, but you can listen live when it airs on http://www.rfpi.org.  Website is http://www.wings.org.

STREAMING

Freak Radio Santa Cruz.  http://www.freakradio.org/.

KPFA, Berkeley, CA  http://www.kpfa.org or https://secure.transbay.net/kpfa/forms/0_aud.htm.

KMUD community radio from Redway/Garberville, CA http://www.kmud.org.

Microradio.net. streaming many stations.  http://www.microradio.net

Partytown streaming network.  Several streaming stations in one.  http://www.partytown.com/radio.

Bookmark this page::For a complete list of streaming radio stations (as well as radio stations in general) go to http://www.radio-locator.com.  There you can be linked to literally thousands of radio stations that stream on the web.

ENTERTAINMENT SHOWS

There are many more shows to explore at http://www.radio4all.net.  There are also entertainment shows available free or cheap to low power FM stations.  I haven’t started cataloguing them, but one that looks intriguing if only for its sheer bizarreness is the Subgenius’ Hour of Slack.  Go to http://www.subgenius.com and click on “HEAR.”

SHOWS ALREADY ON THE AIR LOCALLY

Democracy Now! In Exile.  2 hours, daily.  Pacifica’s Amy Goodman is one of the most courageous journalists in radio, and her show is the only daily show of its kind.  Her hardball journalism has won her awards, but she has also been harassed out of her home station (WBAI) and off all the Pacifica-owned stations (except KPFA).  She now broadcasts her two-hour war and peace report blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.  Her latest thrilling audio adventure is the broadcast of satellite phone reports from a group or journalists and an Afghani-American on an odyssey to Khandahar, which she has been broadcasting during the first hour since Dec. 26^th.  Past adventures include witnessing the Indonesian military kill 200 in an East Timor funeral procession (and almost getting killed herself), bringing Ralph Nader onto the floor of the Republican Convention for some impromptu debates, confronting Chevron about it’s lethal alliance with the Nigerian military, and live interviews with death row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal.  Generally heard locally Mon. through Fri. on KUOI 89.3 at 8:30 am and 2:30 pm.  If you miss a show, try http://www.kfcf.org/archives and click on “6:00 am” for the first hour and “7:00 am” and “7:30 am” for the second hour.  This streamable mp3 version of the show is available starting 1 hour after the segment airs and ending 24 hours later.  Also archived at http://www.democracynow.org in both RealAudio and broadcast-quality mp3, with each day’s show posted in the early afternoon.

Free Speech Radio News.  Half-hour, daily.  The striking Pacifica Reporters Against Censorship have been producing this daily (Mon.-Fri.) news program since the strike began in Jan. 2000.  Reports from Kabul, Belgrade, DC, London, NY, LA, Seattle, Idaho and many more places.  Reporters and producers are paid from listener donations.  As a final settlement of the Pacifica crisis draws near, FSRN may be the Pacifica Network News of the future.  Airs locally on KUOI 89.3 Moscow weekdays at 6:00pm and KZUU 90.7 Pullman Mondays at 5:00pm.  If you miss a show, try http://www.kfcf.org/archives and click on “3:00 pm” within 24 hours for a streamable (better than RealAudio) mp3.  Shows are archived in RealAudio and broadcast quality MP3 at http://www.fsrn.org after 2:00 pm each day. 

Leigh Robartes is a member of the board of Radio Free Moscow, Inc.

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