Two hundred participants gathered at the Seventh Annual Grassroots Radio Conference hosted by hydro-powered community station WJFF in the Catskills August 8-11. Keynote speakers included Errol Maitland, co-founder of WBIX, a 24/7 internet community network and longtime Pacifica producer and technical director; Dee Dee Halleck, media activist, founder of Paper Tiger Television and co-founder of the Deep Dish Satellite Network; Granny D (aka Doris Rollins), a 90-year-old widow who walked across the country in 1999-2000 to demonstrate her concern for the issue of campaign reform; and legendary musician and activist Pete Seeger. WJFF general manager Christine Ahern and a team of WJFF volunteers put together the event.
The conference included a hands-on news track taught by National Radio Project’s Philip Babich; Free Speech Radio News’ Jeremy Scahill; and WBIX’s Ryme Katkhouda.
GRC7 attracted representatives from Independent Media Centers, cable access television, internet media, micro-broadcasters, community radio stations and organizations, and community media activists. Among the presenters were Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman; Pacifica’s Leslie Cagan; Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting founder Jeff Cohen; Working Assets Radio’s Laura Flanders; NFCB’s Carol Pierson and Kai Ayetoro; microbroadcasting pioneer Petri Dish; AMARC’s Elizabeth Robinson; WINGS’ Frieda Werden; a-infos’ Lyn Gerry and Shawn Ewald; and TUC’s Maria Gilardin.
The Grassroots Radio Coalition was begun in 1996 by Cathy Melio from WERU in East Orland ME and Marty Durlin from KGNU in Boulder CO to affirm the importance of community-based media. Previous conferences have been held in Boulder, Bar Harbor and Madison.
Resolutions were passed by acclamation in a plenary session.against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act; in favor of a unique spectrum for digital radio; and in favor of basing the framework of the World Summits on the Information Society on the Millennium Declaration, the Beijing Declaration and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Conference workshop topics included Strategic Media Organizing, Labor Radio, Governance Structures, Youth Radio, Music Programming vs. Homogenization, Webcasting, and Sharing Local Stories Regionally and Nationally. Performances by Reverend Billy, Dave Rovics, Sonia of Disappear Fear, and performance artists NaCl as well as an open mic were enjoyed by attendees.
Photographs of the conference are available at wjffradio.org, and audio of the conference workshops, panels and plenaries is available at radio4all.net.
For more information, contact Marty Durlin at 303 449 4885; or Christine Ahern at 845 482 4141.
Marty Durlin, KGNU Station Manager
