Report-back from the AMARC 9 conference in Jordan

When radio fosters the participation of citizens and defends their interests; when it reflects the tastes of the majority and makes good humour and hope its main purpose; when it truly informs; when it helps resolve the thousand and one problems of daily life; when all ideas are debated in its programs and all opinions are respected; when cultural diversity is stimulated over commercial homogeneity; when women are main players in communication and not simply a pretty voice or a publicity gimmick; when no type of dictatorship is tolerated, not even the musical dictatorship of the big recording studios; when everyone's words fly without discrimination or censorship, that is community radio…The purpose - whence the name - is to build community life ("Manual Urgente Para Radialistas Apasionados", Jose Ignacio Lopez Vigil, 1997).

“...the most life changing event I've ever been involved in, in my entire life...“

-Jerome Edge, Swinomish and Upper Skagit tribal member, host of hip-hop show “Massive Mix Session,”

and co-host of NAMAPAHH First People’s Radio, commenting on the AMARC9 conference.

Selecting an Appropriate Delegation:

While under-represented by United States membership, AMARC is the preeminent and most powerful community radio organization in the world. AMARC, a French acronym, translates as the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, and maintains an international secretariat in Montreal, Canada. The AMARC conference, held every three to four years, brings together members from around 100 countries worldwide, and offers an amazing opportunity for free interchange of ideas. The Ford Foundation grant of $19,750 (issued in two related grants of $16,750 and $3,000 for associated research) enabled the Prometheus Radio Project to bring leaders in the field of community radio and media reform to Amman, Jordan, as well as lead an exciting transmitter-building workshop at the conference. Channel Foundation issued a grant of $5000 to pay the full expenses for the attendance of two indigenous women from the Americas. After the conference, representatives of the Prometheus Radio Project traveled with several members of the delegation to Reesheh, a small town in the south of Jordan. Here, we demonstrated community radio in action. Using the transmitter built by participants at the Prometheus conference workshop just days before, Prometheus partnered with the people of Reesheh to construct a complete radio station. During this process, we taught essential skills, such as audio production, interviewing, and show planning.

A large number of qualified candidates applied for financial assistance to attend the conference. After careful deliberations, we decided not to give full scholarships; instead, several partial awards were allocated, ranging from $250 to $1250. As a result, we were able to bring a much larger group- a delegation of 17 people total- from all across the US. The final selection brought together diverse individuals representing over 25 groups, including numerous non-profit organizations, media advocacy structures, and community radio stations. The two additional indigenous women were chosen by Women's International News Gathering Service (WINGS), and their expenses were fully funded. This funded delegation also featured a substantial group of academics, representing the University of Oklahoma, the California State University at San Bernardino, and the University of Ohio –Athens, among others. Through this support, we were able to convene the largest US delegation ever to attend an AMARC conference! A complete list of the delegates, along with a short biography of each one is located at http://www.prometheusradio.org/amarc9delegates.html.

Additionally, a number of others also came, through support of their home stations, personal funds, and in connection with other international travel. In all, approximately 30 people from the US attended the AMARC conference. We include some quotes from reports by members of the delegation in bold typeface.

Community Radio Abroad: Lessons Learned for the United States

“Attending the conference was an amazing experience for me in terms of meeting all those community activists from around the world and listening to their diverse experiences in community radio broadcasting.”

-Ahlam Muhtaseb, assistant professor of media and communication Studies, California State University, San Bernardino

In some respects, the United States is a favorable environment for the field of community radio. Many Americans experience relative affluence, making leading technologies affordable, and most people in the United States have universal access to the airwaves: Nearly everyone has a radio, whether at home, in the car, or at work. This, augmented by the comparatively large base of individuals having gained an education and then technical skills via their professions, has certainly encouraged the growth of community radio in the US. Yet, as panelists speaking at the conference reiterated again and again, the US trails it global contemporaries, substantially, in certain specific sectors. For instance, barriers to starting community radio in the US are significantly greater than those in many “developing” or “less developed” countries in the Global West and Global North. Clearly, the United States stands to learn a great deal from those abroad.

“Rather than leave our communications regulation entirely in the hands of unelected officials, we must try to create spaces for active dialogue and participation.” -Evan Light

To be specific, the most challenging issue facing community radio in the US lies in having to overcome legislative and regulatory barriers. For both full-power (<100,000watts) and low-power (<100watts) license-seekers, access to community radio is limited by an opaque and consequently prohibitive application processes. It is therefore incumbent upon the FCC to overhaul their licensing procedure. They need to make it more easily understood. And, the guidelines by which the FCC grants licenses must be re-established with a firm focus on what will best serve our communities. Audrey McGee, a representative of WORT-FM in Madison, Wisconsin, explains what the US could learn from India:

India has its own legislation for community radio, while in the U.S. community radio is still legislated under the large commercial radio rules. Because the goals of community radio and commercial radio are not the same, community radio needs separate legislation to address its particular needs.

The United States could take lessons from a number of models for legislative reform, especially in Latin America and South-East Asia. Evan Light, of the National Campus and Community Broadcasters, explains that,

[w]hen Colombia rewrote their constitution in 2002, they gave every citizen the right to found a media of communication. Today there are 600 community stations in Colombia and they hope to have 1,200 by 2010 or so – ideally one in each municipality in order to guarantee that each citizen really does have access to media.

The United States took a substantial, but much shorter step in the same direction in 2000, with legislation allowing Low-Power FM. Sadly, these new laws stopped short of creating community radio for all, as most new stations have been relegated away from major urban markets. Consider this comparison in scale: Colombia, as Light notes, has established 600 community radio stations since 2002. The United States, over 8 times larger than Columbia, and over 6 times more populous, has licensed only 700 new stations in this time.

Many of the US delegates were amazed and inspired by the perseverance that community radio operators in the Global South demonstrate daily in the face of abject conditions. Emmanuel Johnson, a station manager from “Radio Peace” in Liberia, told of insurmountable infrastructure problems, destroyed roads, and other byproducts of 19 years of warfare. Although he will soon complete a University degree, his school has neither adequate supporting resources nor internet access. Still, he works constantly to keep the station on air, and refuses to let it 'go dark.'

The conference also provided insight into women's equality, and ways of involving more women in the community radio discussion. According to one of the panels, led by representatives of the Women's International Network, women make up only 17 percent of community radio broadcasters in the US. Audrey McGee explains:

Women tend to have difficulty in conceiving of themselves as broadcasters, that “our” events should be on the radio. Women also tend to avoid conflict, and this will keep them seeking out confrontational issues to report on. To overcome this, in Ghana, workshops were held by women, for women, they called this “creating safe spaces” and answered basic questions, from a fear of technology to the difference between biases and objectivity.

Finally, the US could take an example from much of the world by instituting youth in radio programs. One of our delegates, Dov Hirsch, proposed the creation of a Youth International Network for community radio; consent and approval of the proposal was virtually unanimous among delegates. Hopefully, this momentum will drive the new program into existence in the coming years.

“The secret of sustainability, as determined by dozens of community radios I know in Africa, is making sure that everyone, or at least diverse members of various associative groups, knows that local broadcasts are a resource that exists for them.”

-Debbi Winsten, 17 years of community radio and development experience

Evaluating Community Radio:

What the US Can Learn From the Rest of the World

Another facet to consider in understanding the state of community radio in the US, compared to the field abroad, is that of the evaluation process as it relates to funding. In the United States, the prevailing method of evaluation relies on either listenership figures (gathered by the commercial radio measurement service, Arbitron) or on the amount of money a station is able to fund-raise. These observations were presented at the conference by Dr. Kate Coyer, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She undertook preliminary study last summer of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) funding priorities in research commissioned by the Social Studies Research Council (SSRC). Dr. Coyer pointed out that these standards, used by the CPB, among other funders, pose a huge roadblock to community radios in low-income and low-density (i.e. rural) areas. This, the current system exercised in the US, stands in stark contrast to many evaluation and funding methods abroad. As Audrey McGee summarizes with this example:

Kate’s presentation of ways we measure for funding show that US government is not requesting the kind of information that would give a true measure of success for CPB funds application process- not the number of listeners, but who is participating. US doles out money based on number of listeners and how much money is raised by the station. In Britain the question is: what service are you providing to your community? This question is much more relevant to the mission of community radio.

To improve the system, the US community radio world needs to present CPB with an alternative to the rather primitive methods they use for evaluating impact today: a straightforward, legally defensible measure to look at whether community radio stations are living up to their missions. In turn, CPB must develop funding strategies that are responsive to those findings. To search for alternative measures and solutions, Prometheus Radio Project encouraged members of the US delegation to open their minds to new methods of evaluation, and to learn from the positive examples of other nations.

The delegation may not have found a “magic bullet” (a set of easily administered, quantitative criteria that can effectively measure the public service value provided by community radio). But, many important insights were gained from presentations given by individuals from around the world.

Mangelete Radio, located in Kenya, used anecdotal and statistical data to discern how specific programming is having any effect. For example, the station observed how a new show on sustainable farming influenced a diversified number of local crops and other agricultural output. After hearing from a woman inspired by a human rights program to file a legal suit against her abusive husband, the station examined court records and found a corollary spike in similar cases since the program first went live.

“Folks insisted that the act of producing community radio is what most effectively creates social change.” - Laura Newman, a delegate from the University of Ohio-Athens, and a WORT volunteer

Community radio practitioners from around the world reiterated the conviction that programming content should not be the sole target of evaluation. Rather, the whole process, from program beginning to end effect, must be inspected. It is this process which provides the tool to ensure that all local stakeholders are involved from the very beginning. It also sheds light on key elements missed by other evaluations, such as the dynamics of time and energy donated by volunteers.

Fily Keita, an AMARC delegate from the West African nation of Mali, divulged a fascinating anecdote about asking the right questions. Station staffers were surprised to hear a resounding “NO” to a survey asking if the community radio station had made life better. Many respondents explained that they needed better infrastructure, a new school, or more jobs to make life better. The wording in the survey was then reworked, and new questions were asked. “Have programs been relevant/useful to you? Has the radio changed the way you live your life? Has the radio improved your daily life?” Responses to these questions were overwhelmingly positive.

Indeed, better evaluation requires asking the right questions. And, to provide even better results, community radios need specific goals for social impact. To this end, international community radios tend to have clearer, better-defined goals than their American counterparts. For example, many stations in Latin America have very transparent and outspoken socially progressive agendas. Andrew Stelzer, a delegate representing Free Speech Radio News describes radio in Latin America as “an unabashed tool for social change and activism”. He continues on to further explain, “[Community radio stations in the US] need to figure out what change they are actually trying to make, and then figure out if it's happening. The focus and goals of stations in the US might be... unclear.”

In the United States, the missions of community radio stations tend to fall into two categories. Some stations see themselves as an open forum- a soapbox and free speech institution for anyone who steps forward- much like a public access TV station. Anyone within the community is allowed to take part in the station, provided they meet certain basic criteria of civility and volunteerism. Other groups take a different approach. Recognizing that most media is flooded with the values of the dominant culture, this approach defines the station’s mission more specifically- to represent the under-represented voices. Thus, these stations tend not to play music that can be heard on commercial channels. They do not make space for conservative local commentators whose opinions they believe to have adequate “media space” in the mainstream. In fact, many stations define their mission using elements of both approaches. This can lead to disruptive conflict within the station, as every community possesses intelligent, well-meaning people on both sides of this issue of whether the station best serves all local voices or particular underserved local segments. Clarifying the implications of their mission might further the effectiveness of many of these stations within the US. This, in turn, could make it easier to measure their effectiveness.

Finally, the delegates learned about novel, inventive, and participatory means of evaluation. Presenters from Columbia described a program where local people drew pictures representing their feelings and the effects of their radio station. The results were incredible: the images demonstrated not only wide listener-ship, but also sentiments of local ownership, and the powerful connection people felt with the station.

Debbi Winsten, who has worked with community radio around the world, described another intriguing, literacy-optional means of analysis:

Using whatever is available locally (sticks to draw in dirt, charcoal on mud walls, flip charts and markers), we create rudimentary pictures (or pictograms) as the basis for a simple survey. This is accessible to all because we track our results visually, using readily found objects (coins, pebbles, bottle caps, leaves) to keep count so everyone can observe the results and learn about the community.”

Outcomes of the Conference: New Connections, New Ideas, New Plans

Aside from providing an excellent forum for discussion, the conference also proved fruitful for Prometheus Radio Project and the delegates. While it may be impossible to list every outcome, and while networking and relationship-building is especially difficult to document, our participation in this conference has led to several major initiatives in North America. And, of equal importance, it and has provided great benefit to everyone who attended.

Perhaps the most significant outcome is the new formation of AMARC North America. Although AMARC has an incredible membership-base around the globe, its US presence has been largely inconsequential. AMARC has never had a North American secretariat, and many community radio stations in the US have never heard of AMARC, even though they may share similar principles. Past attempts to organize were difficult to coordinate and ultimately failed. This current delegation injected new energy into the process, and brought individuals with the necessary motivation to collaborate and expand the organization.

Evan Light, who conceded a very close election for AMARC North America president, has entered into a partnership with AMARC members in South America. He will travel to Uruguay in March to assist in the final edition of a legislative study on community radio. Even explains, “Looking at the legislation of 14 countries, [the study] will propose ideal legislative models for enabling the sustainable development of community radio.” The study has already been proposed to the InterAmerican Human Rights Commission, and will also be presented at the OURMedia conference this April.

Debbi Winsten will return to Liberia to continue working with local broadcasters. Her last project there marked the start of community radio in Liberia, and she will assist producers who are now beginning to expand their reach.

Prometheus Radio Project (http://www.prometheusradio.org) met dozens of international radio activists and taught a large share of them crucial skills in constructing a radio station. Prometheus also used the conference to introduce a new volunteer-matching program called Channel Zero. This online database will connect stations that require technical services with volunteers who are looking to help. And the results are already evident: Two Kenyan women who attended the conference, Doreen Rukaria and Carol Mwinzi have been invited to attend workshops led by Prometheus volunteers in their home country this January.

Connectivity between delegates has led to strengthened national networks of media activists and academics. The National Conference for Media Reform (http://www.freepress.net/conference/), led by Free Press (http://www.freepress.net/), will feature a panel resulting directly from the AMARC 9 conference. Four delegates, Mansoor Sabbagh, Jackson Allers, Kristin Shamas and Ahlam Muhtaseb, will lead the an open discussion of Arab / Muslim issues in American Media. The panelists’ first point of contract was made in Amman, during the conference.

Finally, the delegates have brought back and reported a wealth of information to their communities in the US. Jerome Edge and Eduardo Delanderos-Tierre, along with the other radio hosts, have produced multiple programs with content obtained at the conference. Andrew Stelzer produced a feature for Free Speech Radio News on the Prometheus radio station-building in Reesheh, Jordan. This feature can be found here: http://www.fsrn.org/news/20061201_news.html. Audrey McGee, Elizabeth DiNovella, and Norm Stockwell wrote pieces on the conference in the WORT newsletter. Kristen Shamas, who did much of the translation for the station-building project, wrote an article for the Prometheus newsletter, as did Siyade Gemechisa, Prometheus’ new volunteer coordinator. Pictures from the Reesheh are at this site… http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r78/diznila/ Video was also taken by Danila Apasov, and it is currently awaiting editing.

This list of outcomes will only continue to grow as the delegates continue to report on the substance of the conference and utilize the valuable lessons learned. While the AMARC conference convened over the course of but a few days, the information, inspiration and relationships drawn from the experience shall continue to thrive, indefinitely.

Radio in Resha

By Kristen Shamas

Sunday, November 19, 2006:

Badi, head of the Resha youth club, accompanied me across the street and through a sandy lot to the only shop in town. An elderly gentleman turned on the store lights and hurried to fill my request for a bottle of water. The shop was dim and understocked, but across the few shelves lay a range of oddities and treasures: small cubes for erasing stains from clothes, fingernail clippers with plastic tropical motifs, varieties of anise-flavored gum. As Badi and I returned to the community center, him refusing to let me carry my bag of water and crackers, we talked about how, prior to two hours before, no one in Resha knew Prometheus was coming to facilitate a low power radio station, but Badi was adamant that it was an incredible idea. “One hundred percent incredible,” he emphasized in Arabic. In Badi’s opinion, with which we all came to agree, Resha and community radio were an excellent fit.

Contrary to romanticized notions of the Bedouin as tent dwellers herding camels between oases, Resha is a community of settled Bedu situated in Wadi Araba--part of the Great Rift Valley stretching between the Dead and Red Seas--in which the residents live mostly in flat-roofed concrete houses and swap information among themselves regarding events such as the Arabic premier of Spiderman 2 on satellite TV.

As representatives of the Prometheus Radio Project, we traveled to Resha (hauling along with us bags of welding equipment, metal, wires, digital recorders, computers, cameras, batteries and adaptors) to take advantage of recent legislation allowing community radio in Jordan. Not only would we assist the locals in building a station, but we also aimed to introduce them to what was required to run it–i.e. interviewing, editing, programming and scheduling.

The tools of technology are not particularly pervasive in Resha, but they are present, and those who do not personally own such tools have at least sporadic access to someone or somewhere that does. Yet technology has not eclipsed Bedouin cultural forms in Wadi Araba; in fact, technology is put to their service. For instance, cell phones capture and circulate among the Bedu video and audio recordings of dancing, falcon hunting, and lyrical poetry. One aspiring film-maker displayed to us his set-to-Arabic pop music video of a Toyota truck-driving Bedawi being stalked by a camel, thus rendering the complex juxtapositions of contemporary Bedouin life.

Relocated during the 1980s away from areas of touristic development, the inhabitants of Resha are among several groups of Jordanian Bedu living on what effectively constitute remote reservations. Unsurprisingly, having lost their nomadic lifestyle, these groups are fiercely protective of their remaining customs and distinctive expressive forms. However, communication technologies are not perceived by the southern Jordanian Bedu as a threat to their cultural preservation, but rather the very means by which it will most likely succeed.

Thus, although the members of the Resha community center had no foreknowledge of Prometheus or a community radio station, they were more than pleased upon our arrival. Immediately, town members expressed a need for programming in their unique Arabic dialect; a desire to preserve their histories and stories; and their plans for local networking and community organization.

When, at various points during the week, it seemed that the radio station might not come to be–the sound board would not work, the local municipality did not consent to granting a broadcast license–Resha’s inhabitants grew more determined. Having spent days soldering and planning, and having learned of the global movement for participatory media and communication rights, our new friends saw Radio Resha not only as their radio station, but also as their chance to contribute to a broader community that transcended their remote locale. As a young housewife said after soldering a chunk of soundboard, “those bits of metal are like the bricks of the pyramids in Egypt–from something small, we are building something much bigger.”

Friday, November 25^th, Radio Resha successfully broadcast for a few minutes. As music in Arabic modality blared from the station via a nearby car radio, women trilled and the men grabbed our hands to join their circle stomp dance, the dabke. Like Badi expressed earlier that week, Resha and community radio made a good match: thus, these southern Jordanian Bedu joined a social movement for which they were ready.

Brief Biographies of the Ford Foundation Delegates

Note: Other North Americans attending AMARC who were not funded in part by the Ford grant to Prometheus are not listed, though they might have been quoted in other parts of this report.

Jerome Edge is a Swinomish and Upper Skagit tribal member, and one of the youngest programmers at KSVR-FM in Mount Vernon, Washington. Jerome hosts his own hip-hop show, the “Massive Mix Session,” and co-hosts NAMAPAHH First People’s Radio with Robin Carneen.

Evan Light is a masters/PhD. candidate in communications at Universite du Quebec, Montreal and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Campus and Community Radio Association (Canada). He has been involved in community radio in the United States and Canada since 1993 and is an active member of media policy reform movements in the Americas.

Andrew Stelzer and Jackson Allers represent Free Speech Radio News, the only daily half-hour progressive radio newscast in the US. Andrew has taught numerous training workshops in places like Bolivia, Mexico, and post-Katrina New Orleans. Jackson served as the Chief of Radio for the United Nations mission in Kosovo, and in July and August of this year he reported extensively on the Israeli military offensive in Lebanon. He is based in Beirut.

Norman Stockwell, representing WORT-FM, has worked with community radio around the world, and has worked on solidarity projects in El Salvador, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia, and China, among others.

Pete Tridish, co-founder of Prometheus Radio Project, has worked for years to improve community radio in the US, battling the FCC and building countless low-power FM stations. Pete has led radio trainings in numerous countries, including Guatemala, Venezuela, Nepal and Tanzania!

Ahlam Mutahseb is an assistant professor of media and communication studies at California State University, San Bernadino. Ahlam also works with Alternate Focus TV, which attempts to provide a more balanced narrative of the Middle East.

Debbi Winsten has 17 years experience empowering citizen voices in the United States, Asia and Africa. She collaborates with diverse cultures on community radio and outreach using participatory, literacy-optional tools for sustainable development. Debbi helped Liberians mobilize 25 community radio stations before the 2005 elections, and recently established local broadcasts in Cameroon’s North West Province.

Laura Newman is a graduate student at the University of Ohio-Athens, currently studying communication for development practice and theory, with a focus on community media (specifically radio). She has volunteered at WORT-FM and WOUB, and will travel to South Africa this summer to research the effects of radio there.

Sheila Katzman works with the Women’s International News Gathering Service (WINGS), and FemVue radio. The former produces radio programs by and about women around the world, and the latter works as a Peace radio consultancy, training community broadcasters in Africa. Programs run internationally, and deal with countless women and gender issues (including human rights, and sexual reproductive health), political and social issues, and efforts to improve access to community radio. Sheila is also the former Chief of the United Nations Peacekeeping Radio in sub-Sahara Africa, and the Chief of Public Information for the UN peace mission in Sierra Leone. Prior to this, Sheila worked as a producer and host at WBAI/Pacifica radio. Her speaking engagements include: Explaining the MDGS: IAWRT Conf. in Virginia; Computer, Man and Society: The Sierra Leone Question and the Communication age- Columbia University, UNDP/NGO Conference, Alternative Communications in Africa.

Eduardo DeLanderos-Tierre works with KBOO in Portland, Oregon, broadcasting bi-lingually to the surrounding community. He has corresponded and worked with radio activists across the world, and hosts a weekly, art-focused show.

Elizabeth DiNovella has volunteered with WORT-FM in Wisconsin for the past 10 years, and works as the Culture Editor for the Progressive Magazine. She also produces Progressive Radio, which airs on 30 stations weekly.

Mansoor Sabbagh is a cofounder and co-director of Global Voices for Justice. The organization produces and broadcasts radio programs for community and public radio across the US, shedding light on important social, political, cultural, historical, and educational issues.

Kristin Shamas is a doctoral student at the University of Oklahoma. She also works extensively with OURMedia, an emerging global network attempting to facilitate a dialogue between academics, activists, practitioners and policy experts around citizens’ media initiatives.

Dov Hirsch represents KGNU, a pioneer in community radio, broadcasting out of Boulder, Colorado. In his capacity as an Adult Mentor in the Youth Radio Program, Dov trains local adolescents and teens in all aspects of radio journalism, from writing to audio editing, to field recording. Dov holds a Masters degree in Media Studies and conducts research on how democracy occurs through media.

John Bittner is the station manager of KGRH, in Tuba City, Arizona. The 100,000-watt community station features programming in multiple languages, and broadcasts directly to the native population in the surrounding areas.

Danila Apasov works with the Prometheus Radio Project. He served as logistical coordinator

for the United States delegation at the AMARC9 conference in Amman, Jordan.