Community Radio

Personally, previously when I thought of a media genre that fosters community building, radio would not have been the first to come to mind. However, the following examples demonstrate that radio is by no means a one-way mode of communication, broadcasting only the voices of a few; rather, what creates radio programming is the voice of the people, and therefore it reflects the voice of the people. Radio simultaneously reflects and creates community.

            For people living in Fort McPhereson in the Northwest Territories, their local radio station CBQM provides a means for everyone in the community to speak and be heard by the community. As one announcer says, they’ll let pretty much anyone on the air if they ask. This is shown in the range of people who host a show over the course of the documentary including: the pastor, a policeman, and a pair of ragtag musicians with questionable musical talent, among others. The messages of the pastor and policeman are messages for the community on events, and official announcements, such as sharing the problem of house eggings. One does not actually need to be a host to get a message out, however; many of the shows operate as an open dialogue between host and listener, with listeners calling in messages which are instantly relayed over the airwaves. For example, Deborah invites Christine to her house over the radio. CBQM, in keeping everyone apprised of community events and concerns, and giving everyone an almost voyeuristic view into the lives of people that want to make thier personal buisness known, radio in Fort McPhereson simultaneously reflects and creates the community.

Image from: 

http://movies-sawyerneilcaldwell.blogspot.com/

            Austrailian aboriginal radio has a similar structure, but nationwide, not just within one town. Queensland’s station 4AAA broadcasts nationally, and allows families to send messages to incarcerated members of their families along with a song dedication. These messages resonate with members of other communities who hear them, because the problems plaguing aboriginal communities are similar across the country. This means 4AAA closes gaps of distance and creates community locally and a sense of imagined community of aboriginees across the country, as well as in individual towns. Listeners may not ever meet each other, but knowing they have shared experiences and stories leads them to identify as one community. This is heightened by the use of aboriginal kinship terms in broadcast messages, creating a sense of separation of the aboriginal community from the non-indigenous Australians(Fisher 2009:295). Thus, in reflecting common struggles of the community and using shared kinship terms, radio also creates a sense of community among Austrailian Aboriginees that goes beyond one locale, and spans the country.

            To reflect community, however, radio need not share individual stories. For example, during the Revolution in Algeria, people turned to radio for news of the revolution. The program Voice of Fighting Algeria was not voiced by all Algerians, but by those leading the revolution. The broadcast, however, reflected the desire of a large segment of the native Algerian population to end the repressive colonial regime. In this way, it reflected the national community of nationalist revolutionaries, but it also ''consolidat[ed] and unifi[ed] the people'' (Fanon 1965:84). People only needed to say I listened to the Voice in order for others to know that they were on the same side (Fanon1 1965:87). The French authorities began jamming the program, leading to it hopping from signal to signal. As a result, even those who were not fighting on the front line had the shared experience of searching for the signal and fighting the French control of the airwaves to stay informed. They also relived the events of the revolution collectively through conversation about the program(Fanon 1965:85). The Voice reflected the revolutionary desires of the Algerian people, and brought them together by creating a shared sense of struggle and community among all those who wanted to see the French fall from power. 

Naturally, these broadcasts can only reflect and create community if people are listenting to them, and they almost universally are. In sharing many voices and community specific concerns, with a specific audience in mind, communities are created and brought together because they see themselves reflected in the programs they listen to. 

Works Cited

Allen, Dennis

            2009 CBQM. National Film Board of Canada.

Fanon, Frantz

            1965 This Is the Voice of Algeria. In A Dying Colonialism, Pp. 89-97. New 

             York: Grove Press.

Fisher, Daniel

            2009 Mediating Kinship: Country, Family, and Radio in Northern Australia.

            Cultural Anthropology 24(2): 280-312.