2007 Grantees

Northwest Community Radio Network Collaborative Newscast

Jonathan Lawson, Executive Director, Reclaim the Media
Seattle

CONTACT INFO

Reclaim the Media
PO Box 22754
Seattle, WA 98122
(206) 931-0565
E-mail

Web site

To launch an hour-long, weekly newscast culled from the best public affairs programming produced by more than 40, often-isolated community, college and independent radio stations throughout the Pacific Northwest. Seattle-based Reclaim the Media will use the newscast to anchor a new content-sharing network that will expand the pool of regional news and programming for local audiences.

Check back for future news and updates.

• August 2009
• August 2008
• April 2008
• November 2007
 
 
 

Northwest Community Radio Network Collaborative Newscast from J-Lab on Vimeo..

2007 grantee Karen Toering talks about what parts of the project make her proud, as well as what challenges it has faced. This interview took place on April 5, 2008, at the New Voices 2007 Grantee Meeting at the Hilton Garden Inn in Washington, D.C.

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Listen Up! Northwest Rides Strong Wave into its Second Year

August 2009

By Tom Regan

Early this summer Reclaim the Media’s Listen Up! Northwest (broadcast, podcast and blog) celebrated its first full year on the air and on the Web. The show is now being carried on 18 stations in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Northern California, plus a number of online Webcasts.

“The issues-based focus of the program has helped Listen Up! Northwest become a useful resource for community organizations around the region…“

Executive Director Jonathan Lawson reports that Listen Up! Northwest remains the only regionally focused community media program currently being carried over such a broad area. The program’s podcast, available at http://www.listenupnw.org and through the Apple iTunes store, has over 750 subscribers. As a result of the program, communities in the urban centers of Seattle, Portland, and Anchorage, as well as in rural Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and British Columbia, are able to hear a unique range of stories produced by their regional neighbors - stories describing social and environmental initiatives and solution-oriented community action.  Lawson says audience response continues to be strongly positive, communicated via e-mailed comments and listener feedback from stations carrying the program.

From the beginning, one of the main goals of the project has been to pool the audiences for high-quality community radio journalism being produced around the region. Lawson believes this goal has been met, with the number of stations and organizations - now 29 - providing material to the show expanding faster than the number of stations currently airing Listen Up! Northwest.

Stations currently carrying Listen Up! Northwest:
• CJLY Nelson/Kootenay, BC
• CJSF Burnaby, BC
• KAOS Olympia, WA
• KBCS Bellevue/Seattle, WA
• KBOO Portland, OR
• KEUL Girdwood, AK
• KPOV Bend, OR
• KRFP Moscow, ID
• KSER Everett, WA
• KSOW Cottage Grove, OR
• KSKQ Ashland, OR
• KSVR Mt. Vernon, WA
• KUGS Bellingham, WA
• KWMD Kasilof/Anchorage, AK
• KYRS Spokane, WA
• Boise (ID) Community Radio
• Hollow Earth Radio
• Partytown Radio (Modesto, CA)

More significantly, says Lawson, “the issues-based focus of the program has helped Listen Up! Northwest become a useful resource for community organizations around the region working for civic engagement and positive change on environmental or social issues.“

“I often will hear from listeners thanking us for featuring stories that are not otherwise given much air time, or from organizations whose contact information we mentioned on the air,“ says producer Yuko Kodama. “Organizations want to know how to get copies of the program, to share with constituents or use as an organizing or educational tool. One listener appreciated that Native American voices are featured so prominently on the show. Others have appreciated hearing many perspectives on race on a number of shows. I’ve heard from Oregonians and Washingtonians who just appreciate hearing about community activities in British Columbia and Alberta - a world which often seems weirdly cut off from the States despite our proximity.“

Aside from the number of regional radio stations that broadcast the program, Lawson says that in the fall of 2009, the show will also be posted regularly to Pacifica’s AudioPort system. Lawson is also investigating other Web-based distribution platforms including the Public Radio Exchange. Recognizing that not all rural areas have high-speed bandwidth to download the program from the show’s Web site, rural stations will be given the option to receive current and archived programs by mail.

Stations and other organizations providing content to Listen Up! Northwest:
• Boise Community Radio
• CFRO Vancouver Coop Radio
• CJLY Nelson/Kootenay
• CJSF Burnaby
• Common Language Project, Seattle
• Crossing East, Portland
• Destination DIY, Portland
• Earthbeats
• Encounters North, Anchorage
• KAOS Olympia
• KBCS Bellevue/Seattle
• KBOO Portland
• KCAW Sitka
• KRFP Moscow
• KSKA Anchorage
• KSKQ Ashland
• KSVR Mt. Vernon
• KWMD Kasilof
• KYRS Spokane
• One America, Seattle
• Rabble Radio, Vancouver
• Reclaim the Media, Seattle
• Redeye Coop, Vancouver
• Reel Grrls, Seattle
• SCAN-TV, Seattle
• Sierra Club Radio
• Steppin’ Out Of Babylon, Eugene OR
• TUC Radio
• Womens Independent News Gathering Service, Burnaby

Lawson says that in the future, the distribution strategy will be evaluated in terms of how four goals are being met:

1. Making the program available to community radio stations for weekly broadcast, regardless of each station’s urban/rural setting, financial constraints, technology infrastructure or ability to access membership-based distribution networks such as Pacifica’s Audioport or PRX.
2. Ensuring that distribution is easy to integrate with different ways community stations already acquire syndicated programs.
3. Keeping the program easily available for individual Web listening and keyword search.
4. Modeling low-cost ways of accomplishing distribution using a combination of free software, widely adopted internet technology, and, where necessary, non-Web distribution, including physical mail.

While the long-term financial stability of the program remains somewhat uncertain, Reclaim the Media has been able to leverage some additional funding for the program and plan to begin direct station funding in January 2010.

Listen Up! Northwest has primarily been supported with start-up funds from J-Lab, an unsolicited gift from the Media Works Initiative, in kind support from KBCS, other grants and individual contributions. As the program moves into its second year, Lawson says they will attempt to diversify the show’s funding in two ways:

• By instituting carriage fees in January of 2010 for participating stations.
• By seeking specialized foundation support for gaining carriage on rural and native stations, and for supporting more radio journalism by producers covering rural and native issues.

“This fall we will conduct an interview-based assessment of community radio stations in Northwest states and provinces, to identify stations’ need for local/regional programming, their interest in broadcasting Listen Up! Northwest, and their ability to pay monthly carriage fees,“ says Lawson. “At the same time, we will also assess each station’s local public affairs production capacity and interest in journalistic collaboration through Listen Up! Northwest.“

Reclaim the Media will then set a carriage-fee schedule based on a station’s operating budget, amount of public affairs programming and other factors.

Lawson feels good about what the program has accomplished in its first year of operation.

“Listen Up! Northwest has established itself as a rare vehicle for regional collaboration among Northwest community radio stations, and an equally rare home for grassroots coverage of regional responses to environmental, economic and social issues,“ he said.

 

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Listen Up! To Radio Activity

August 2008

The Northwest Community Radio Network is on the air.  As of June 2008, host and producer Yuko Kodama has been assembling a weekly edition of Listen Up! Northwest at community radio station KBCS, in Bellevue, Wash., culling and curating contributions from station-based and independent producers in the region.  Some programs have been produced around a central theme.  For example, one edition featured stories about local agriculture while another featured a profile of the movement to save local seeds, backyard chickening, and taking over public land for farming. So far, seven stations in Washington state and Idaho are regularly airing the program, and in prime times too:  morning or evening drive. Carriage is expected to grow with greater outreach efforts, including at this summer’s GrassRoots Radio Coalition conference in Portland, Ore.

The program is available online for download or streaming.  The network is offering it for free, but asking station subscribers to pitch in $10 to $50 per month to help cover costs. Check out Listen Up! Northwest’s FAQ to glean more details on distribution and producer participation.

Reclaim the Media is planning to launch a special Web site for Listen Up! Northwest, featuring blogs, links and photos related to the stories. They also plan to offer radio production training workshops to recruit more producers to the program.  Producers receive $35 per story.  You can read submission guidelines here.

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Hear Here!

April 2008

A new collaborative radio program produced by and for community radio stations in the Pacific Northwest has finally found its voice. After months of planning, Reclaim the Media hired community media producer Yuko Kodama to produce and anchor a pilot, completed in early April. The program has a home: KBCS radio has agreed to provide office and studio space. And, the show has a name: Listen Up Northwest.

You can listen to the MP3 by clicking here.
The pilot edition featured pieces contributed by four member station producers on an environmental initiative of the Samish Nation, homelessness in Seattle, arts and empowerment in women’s prisons, and remembering Japanese internment.

According to Reclaim the Media’s Jonathan Lawson, the new producer will focus on acquiring, assigning and editing content for the program while his administrative team will emphasis fundraising, promotion and outreach/station recruitment.  Regular weekly production is under way. They hope to have 6 stations committed to broadcasting the program by May, doubling to 12 stations by fall 2008.
Station-based producers are invited to pitch stories and ideas that give a sense of regional identity. Lawson reports they’ve decided to shift some grant funds away from equipment and toward stipends to reward reporters whose stories make it into the program.

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A New News Network for the Northwest

November 2007

Reclaim the Media is confident its effort to build a regional network of noncommercial radio stations will soon lead to the launch of a collaborative, regional news and public affairs program.  The network is bringing together stations from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

A dozen stations are represented on the project’s new steering committee, which has met via conference call to discuss content, style, production issues, and the hiring process for the grant-funded position of organizer/producer. That position was formally posted and 25 people applied for the job. The steering committee interviewed top candidates but decided to postpone the hire in order to raise additional funds from network member stations to pay this new staff person. 

In the interim, Gavin Dahl of member station KAOS in Olympia, Washington, has taken on the role as producer through an Evergreen State College internship. Dahl is producing pilot newscasts in the fall, developing relationships with contributing producers and helping secure financial contributions from member stations. A blog provides updates on issues of interest to participants.

Reclaim the Media has purchased portable recording kits for reporters to use. They have been working with the Pacifica Network to use and customize its Internet-based Audioport content-sharing system. This will enable NW Community Radio Network contributors to file their stories through the Web.

On a related note, Reclaim the Media assisted several community groups in their applications for FCC noncommercial licenses, anticipating that successful applications would expand and strengthen the radio network.

In October, Reclaim the Media held a Community Media Film Festival which offered another opportunity to promote the Northwest Community Radio Network news project to potential participants and donors in Western Washington.

And, the project got a promotional boost in the Prometheus Radio’s winter newsletter, which reaches many low-power broadcasters.

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