Sweet Home Pennsylbama?
Alternative Radio?
- Opera Unite
Opera Unite allows you to serve or share your data, such as photos, music, notes and other files, easily and directly from your own computer. You can even run chat rooms and host entire Web sites. - Prometheus Radio Project
The Prometheus Radio Project builds participatory radio as a tool for social justice organizing and a voice for community expression.
Silenced Voices?
The 106.7 frequency on the FM dial in the Suburbs of Harrisburg has been, to say the least, fluid. In the last few years it has gone from a format of "Cool Pop", adult contemporary mixed with "light alternative" performers like Tori Amos, to "Office Music", light pop from the late 60's to late 90's, to "Hip-hop, hair bands and everything in between", music from the late 1980s to early 2000s. On January 20th, the frequency made another switch and went to a "contemporary country" format.
It's not the only station in the region to make a radical change in format; a "Smooth Jazz" station went to a classic rock format, and the only station in the area that catered to an African-American Audience went to sports radio.
Off the top of my head I can name; two stations that play "classic rock", four that play country, though one of those plays "country gold", at least three religious stations, a news-talk station. There's also the NPR station and Philadelphia's WXPN. In an area that has a fast-growing Latino population, there is, to the best of my knowledge, no station that broadcasts in Spanish.
A lot of this has to probably do with media conglomeration. Most of the stations in Harrisburg are owned by one of the large companies like Cumulus media. But why is there a need for so many stations playing basically the same style of music. It may have a lot to do with the areas between Harrisburg, Lancaster and York, PA. Between, and beyond these fairly urban areas, are various small, heterogeneous towns. Usually dominated by one or more ethnicities, and mainly White, with a large fundamentalist Influence. This region could also be why, PA according to the Southern Poverty Law Center ranks 1st in the Northeast Region in terms of active 'Hate Groups' and why white supremacists plan to rally at the capital.
So what's the best way to get the voices of the silenced out. Perhaps a "micromedia" approach needs to be looked at. Either setting up Low-Power FM, with help from Prometheus Media, or more ambitiously go to the web using technology like Opera Unite.
