Community Media: Serving More Than a Geographic Region
Community media outlets like KKFI 90.1 FM in Kansas City have thrived for decades, maintaining a well-established broadcast model: high-quality studio sound broadcast to a wide geographic area serving the "community." Non-profit community radio station like KKFI, along with college radio and small commercial radio stations keep costs low by renting small studios and operating with few paid employees. These stations attract small audiences but differentiate themselves by focusing on community issues, music and culture. This focus is what defines community media, along with -- in the case of community radio -- maintaining cooperative ownership, not corporate ownership.
Community radio operators always knew that "community" was more than a geographic region; it was the various cultural, ethnic, social and artistic communities for which locally-produced radio shows target. KKFI has local radio shows by or directed to African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and immigrants, women's, LGBT audiences, Native Americans, artists, stage performers, and musicians of all sorts. All these communities are located within the geographic boundaries of the 60-plus mile broadcast listening area around Kansas City.
Were it not for local radio hosts serving up the music, news and talk reflecting the Kansas City area many of these voices and stories would not be heard. Until very recently broadcast media was the the only place to tune in.
More recently blogs, podcasts, social media, and other digital media outlets are pulling listeners away from traditional broadcast media. The new media has altered the media landscape, providing the means for individuals and groups to publish and promote the content they produce, bypassing the very media outlets who championed their cause.
Has the new media created an environment that competes with traditional broadcast media, lessening the impact and magic of community radio?
Radio Free Kansas is one such example. RFK airs a weekly podcast show on Blog Talk Radio addressing local news topics, and stitches together national progressive free news sources like Between the Lines and Free Speech Radio News. These same national news sources are what community radio stations like KKFI have used to build their stations.
One RFK show that caught my ear was an episode that included a reading of a spellbinding Thomas Merton poem about the "Child Bomb" dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The recording of the reading was jointly produced by Land of OZ and Amerikan Heartland and distributed on A-Infos Radio Project, which allows sound producers and listeners to share information for free, many available through Creative Commons licenses.
Despite the ease of producing and distributing media like RFK does through Blog Talk Radio, I think what's important is that the stories that need to be told are finding new outlets and audiences.
Community radio operators always knew that "community" was more than a geographic region; it was the various cultural, ethnic, social and artistic communities for which locally-produced radio shows target. KKFI has local radio shows by or directed to African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and immigrants, women's, LGBT audiences, Native Americans, artists, stage performers, and musicians of all sorts. All these communities are located within the geographic boundaries of the 60-plus mile broadcast listening area around Kansas City.
Were it not for local radio hosts serving up the music, news and talk reflecting the Kansas City area many of these voices and stories would not be heard. Until very recently broadcast media was the the only place to tune in.
More recently blogs, podcasts, social media, and other digital media outlets are pulling listeners away from traditional broadcast media. The new media has altered the media landscape, providing the means for individuals and groups to publish and promote the content they produce, bypassing the very media outlets who championed their cause.
Has the new media created an environment that competes with traditional broadcast media, lessening the impact and magic of community radio?
Radio Free Kansas is one such example. RFK airs a weekly podcast show on Blog Talk Radio addressing local news topics, and stitches together national progressive free news sources like Between the Lines and Free Speech Radio News. These same national news sources are what community radio stations like KKFI have used to build their stations.
One RFK show that caught my ear was an episode that included a reading of a spellbinding Thomas Merton poem about the "Child Bomb" dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The recording of the reading was jointly produced by Land of OZ and Amerikan Heartland and distributed on A-Infos Radio Project, which allows sound producers and listeners to share information for free, many available through Creative Commons licenses.
New Politics Podcasts with Radio Free Kansas on BlogTalkRadio
Despite the ease of producing and distributing media like RFK does through Blog Talk Radio, I think what's important is that the stories that need to be told are finding new outlets and audiences.
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