Poking at the Pockets

I've been transcribing interviews with Colombian community radio pioneers. From what they say, I learned that someone wanting to start a new community radio program needs to think about: 1) the program's goal; 2) the program's audience; 3) how the program will facilitate participation so that it's a dialogue and not just a monologue; 4) how often will the show air? 5) how long is your commitment to producing your program?

Our program will be called Poking at the Pockets. The motto will be something like: "a program that explores those sometimes invisible pockets of non-while, non-Christian, non-heteronormal cultures in Norman, Oklahoma. A program for those of us suffocating under the weight of white, middle-class, heterosexual Christian hegemony in the heart-land." As I write this, we haven't finished our first program--and it's already November! so I really don't know what the final version will be. The general idea is to stir into visibility, to serve as a loudspeaker for those pockets of cultural expression that stray away from the heavy Oklahoma norm.

The audience is those of us who need and want to know that, despite the loud weight of mainstream hegemony, small pockets of difference survive around us. Small audience, perhaps, but if one of my Colombian friends maintains a program about poetry in Puerto Inírida, a small town in the Colombian rain forest, as he says, a frontier town where they only want to listen to vallenatos, why can't we have a program about difference at the heart of sameness? 

Although we don't have a radio station yet, we thought about asking friendly places like The Earth Café (the best baking in town), Guestroom Records, and others to play our program on CDs. Someone said we could drive around town and play the programs on a loudspeaker mounted on the car's roof, the way they advertise merchandise and the arrival of the circus in Latin America. In typical mid-western USA politically correct style, someone else responded that that would be sound pollution.

It's hard to think about participation; maybe inviting people to propose themes? How often will we be on the air? Originally I thought Poking at the Pockets would be a weekly program. I've had to re-think this. With full-time professional jobs, kids, pets, and other stuff, maybe every three weeks max? In terms of commitment, I think we should commit to at least a year. But who knows? My co-producer could move away from Norman, or we could burn out in a couple of months ... I can see now how vulnerable a community radio station is, there's nothing really holding the volunteer producers.