31 dicembre 2007

Un caldo augurio a tutti noi

Come è stato il vostro 2007, che cosa vi aspettate dal nuovo anno? Personalmente vi auguro tutto il bene possibile. Niente di "strepitoso" o "insuperabile", ma un anno sereno e prodigo di qualche soddisfazione. Sarebbe già tantissimo, no?
Per Radiopassioni è andata proprio bene. Questo è un blog di nicchia, senza alcuna pretesa di notorietà. Ma intanto ha superato le 190 mila pagine servite in due anni e due mesi di presenza online. E quest'anno ha sfiorato gli 83 mila utenti unici, contro i 33 mila del 2006. Quasi il triplo, chi se lo sarebbe mai aspettato. Gli indirizzi IP "ricorrenti" sono quasi 20 mila. Il che non significa certo avere ventimila lettori fedeli, ma in epoca di connessioni xDsl con indirizzi quasi statici è pur sempre lusinghiero. I feedback che mi arrivano, i vostri auguri, incoraggiamenti e immeritati ringraziamenti, sono i sintomi di un lettorato attento, competente e, soprattutto, appassionato. Mi sembra fondamentale, spero che continuiate a trovare qui qualche spunto decente. Io cercherò di fare del mio meglio, si sarà capito che questa piega editoriale imboccata da un hobby nato davanti alla radio, in orari impossibili, mi diverte molto. In ogni caso vi ringrazio di cuore e vi chiedo scusa per le imprecisioni e tutte le altre cose che non vanno.
E per la radio che 2008 sarà? Per l'ascolto delle emittenti lontane temo ci sarà ancora meno trippa per gatti. In compenso credo che la tecnologia SDR ci aiuterà. Siamo un po' nella stessa situazione di chi estrae petrolio. Bisogna scavare sempre più in fondo, spostare le piattaforme sempre più al largo. Ma lo yield, il rendimento, aumenta grazie alla tecnologia. Sull'altro piatto della bilancia per l'ascolto delle onde medie il rischio è che il ciclo solare abbia una curva d'attacco molto ripida, e che le condizioni peggiorino rispetto a quest'anno, ricco di ascolti storici (fatti da altri, ma anche gli spettatori si divertono grazie al cielo).
Qualcosa mi dice che le onde corte internazionali potrebbero attraversare un piccolo revival: le zone di crisi si moltiplicano e Internet continua a essere poco accessibile e troppo controllabile. Staremo a vedere.
Il 2008 dovrebbe essere, per l'Italia, l'anno della radio digitale, satellitare (con Worldspace) e terrestre (con il DAB+ e altre iniziative di cui sentiremo molto presto parlare). Considerando che potrebbe anche essere l'anno della partenza effettiva del WiMax, le cose potrebbero farsi interessanti.
Cercheremo di stare al passo e seguire tutte queste evoluzioni. Mi piace pensare che RP possa continuare a essere un modesto ma avanzato punto di riferimento non solo per gli "impallinati" della radio ma per tutti coloro che amano, utilizzano o servono in qualche modo questo mezzo. Quando si parla di radio gli agganci storici, culturali, artistici, geopolitici e sociologici sono talmente numerosi (spero di essere riuscito, magari goffamente, a dimostrarlo) e anche qui mi piacerebbe che il ruolo svolto da RP potesse crescere. Così come sul piano più propriamente tecnologico e di relazione con Internet e altri mezzi. Tra social media, del resto, ci si intende. Sarebbe bello riuscire a rafforzare il "brand" RP anche fuori dalla cerchia hobbystica, facendo assomigliare il blog a un progetto editoriale più articolato, che possa raggiungere i professionisti della radio "ma anche" come direbbe Valter nostro, gli altri giornalisti, gli operatori culturali, l'università, le aziende, i regolatori... Non sarà facile ma forse è arrivato il momento di provarci.
Buon 2008!

Il dilemma pubblicitario di Radio France

Si scrive "regole pubblicitarie" si legge" finanziamento della radiotelevisione pubblica" e "qualità dei programmi". Il Wall Street Journal affronta la questione della pubblicità sulle reti radiofoniche pubbliche francesi, che per regola possono ospitare solo 20 minuti giornalieri di annunci e solo se l'inserzionista è un'altra azienda pubblica. Circa l'8% del budget di Radio France è coperto dalla pubblicità ma in previsione della futura privatizzazione di aziende come Gaz de France, è verosimile che le entrate si riducano. Il direttore esecutivo, Martin Ajdari, sta cercando di convincere il legislatore ad allentare i regolamenti, dando a Radio France la possibilità di ospitare annunci di aziende private di interesse nazionale.
E' il dilemma di un sistema radiotelevisivo che diventa forte proprio grazie all'assenza di troppa pubblicità, ma che fatica a far quadrare i conti a causa delle politiche di taglio sulla pubblica spesa. Un vero paradosso, specie se si pensa che proprio la qualità dei programmi pubblici attira sulle emittenti pubbliche un'audience colta e danarosa, molto appetibile per gli inserzionisti. Mentre sul fronte commerciale, la cattiva qualità livella tutto verso il basso e fa diventare le stazioni private popolari sì. Ma in una fascia di pubblico sempre meno affluente.
Nell'articolo si parla ovviamente anche della Rai, citata tanto per cambiare come esempio (negativo) di emittente televisiva pubblica zeppa di tette e pubblicità e di conseguenza sempre meno apprezzata e soprattutto poco credibile quando si tratta di stabilire la quota di denaro pubblico da riversare nelle sue casse. Per quale motivo se la programmazione è alla pari (cioè molto in basso) con quella dei canali che almeno si finanziano solo con la pubblicità? E' chiaramente un modello che per un vero ente pubblico non può funzionare. Ma qual è allora la linea di compromesso ottimale, considerando che almeno nel mercato radiofonico anche il modello commerciale puro sembra essere entrato in crisi?

Radio France Seeks Easing of Ad Rules

State-Run Stations Want to Air Spots From Private Firms

By DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS
December 31, 2007

PARIS -- When state-controlled Gaz de France is privatized in 2008, state broadcaster Radio France will lose a key advertiser.
Under a 1951 law, Radio France, which operates news, music and general-programming stations, can accept ads only from state-run companies. That wasn't much of a problem when most of French industry, such as carrier Air France and phone company France Télécom, was in state hands, but as the French economy has evolved and Paris has privatized many of its largest companies, Radio France is struggling to maintain its historical mission of being a public-service broadcaster that operates free from the constraints of the commercial-driven radio market.
Radio France still receives state handouts, derived from a tax on television-set ownership, that account for roughly 90% of its €590 million ($868 million) annual budget. (By comparison, in the U.S., National Public Radio had revenue of about $170 million for the year ended Sept. 30, 2006.)
Limited advertising from state-run companies covers almost 8% of Radio France's costs. When Gaz de France is privatized, it will leave a hole of €2 million, more than 4% of annual ad revenue, that the broadcaster must fill from a dwindling number of potential advertisers. "We need to have a wider choice," says Radio France Chief Operating Officer Martin Ajdari.
A few weeks ago, the state broadcaster asked the French government to open the seven stations it operates to advertising from nonstate companies.
[...]

Mille microemittenti FM nei cieli di Berlino


Non è un problema di frequenze ma di sensibilità politica. Per stimolarla, gli attivisti radiofonici di mikro.FM promuovono a partire da domani primo gennaio 2008 e per nove giorni nell'etere berlinese una maratona di trasmissioni FM a bassissima potenza. Lo scopo è ottenere dai regolatori della regione brandburghese una frequenza aperta alle esperienze radiofoniche comunitarie, libere e non commerciali. Per questa particolare forma di attivismo definito "non illegale" ma neppure esplicitamente autorizzato, mikro.FM accenderà dei veri e propri Hot Spot in FM, utilizzando minuscoli trasmettitori da 0,15 watt realizzati con pochi euro (i kit sono realizzati dalla berlinese Piradio. Raggio di copertura previsto, appena 50 metri. Le trasmissioni potranno essere ascoltate anche in diretta streaming sul sito di mikro.FM
Il comunicato stampa dice che le radio comunitarie non sono concorrenti delle emittenti commerciali ma intermediatrici culturali e messaggere di nuove idee.

Lasst tausend Radiosender blühen - Berliner Woche Freier Radios Medien & Telekommunikation

Pressemitteilung von: mikro.FM

- Berliner Radioinitiativen veranstalten vom 1.-9. Januar 2008 eine "Woche Freier Radios" in Berlin.

Mit zahlreichen Mikrosendern und einem Audio-Stream wird vom 1. bis zum 9. Januar in Berlin Freies Radio empfangbar sein - ohne Lizenz, aber völlig legal. Um zu demonstrieren wie vielfältig und lebendig Freie Radios in allen Teilen der Welt sind, werden exemplarisch Programme übernommen, Berichte und Hörspiele gesendet sowie die jeweiligen medienpolitischen Diskurse dargestellt. "Wir rücken mit jedem Sendetag im Programm näher an Berlin heran", so Heiko Thierl von mikro.FM. Während der beiden letzten Tage wird der Fokus dann auf Berliner Radiogeschichte und -initiativen gerichtet. "In Berlin und Brandenburg fehlt einfach ein Freies Radio," sagt Heiko Thierl zum Hintergrund der Aktion. "Was in anderen Bundesländern seit Jahren zivilgesellschaftliche Praxis ist, scheitert hier am politischen Willen - nicht an fehlenden Frequenzen!"
Berlin und Brandenburg sind medienpolitisch durch eine gemeinsame Landesmedienanstalt (MABB) aneinander gebunden. Das Berliner Abgeordnetenhaus hatte der Änderung des gemeinsamen Medienstaatsvertrages bereits zugestimmt, doch die Staatskanzlei des Landes Brandenburg war bisher nicht bereit, Freies Radio zu ermöglichen.
Seit Jahren verlieren werbefinanzierte wie öffentlich-rechtliche Radios "Markt"anteile, besonders unter der jungen Hörerschaft, die sich von den Programmachern weder verstanden noch vertreten fühlt und sich lieber um die social networking-Angebote des Web2.0 schart. Freie Radios, mit ihren durch Diversität geprägten Programmen, bieten hier eine echte Alternative: Sie schaffen einen öffentlichen Raum, in dem sich Subkulturen und Minderheiten austauschen und darstellen können. Von ehrenamtlichen Enthusiasten/innen ohne wirtschaftliche Interessen betrieben, sind Freie Radios weniger Konkurrenz für gehegte Privatfunk-Pojekte als vielmehr Ideengeber und Kulturtechnikvermittler.
Mit dem Aufruf "Lasst tausend Radiosender blühen" will das Projekt ein Netz von Radio-Hot Spots über Berlin spannen. Entsprechend findet schon am zweiten Tag ein Löt-Workshop für Mikrosender statt. Über einen Audio-Stream versorgt, werden diese dann Kostproben von dem bieten, was andernorts (von Lateinamerika bis Ost-Asien, von Rostock bis Freiburg [im Breisgau]) alltäglich ist: Freies Radio.

Programmübersicht:
1.1.'08 - Hörspiele und 24 Sendepausen
2.1.'08 - Asien und Lötworkshop
3.1.'08 - Afrika und Lateinamerika
4.1.'08 - Nordamerika
5.1.'08 - Westeuropa
6.1.'08 - Osteuropa
7.1.'08 - Deutschland, Österreich und Schweiz
8.1.'08 - Deutsche Geschichte Freier Radios
9.1.'08 - Sendungen von Berliner Radiogruppen

Frequenzen:
95,2 Mhz // 107,1 Mhz // 107,7 MHz

mikro.FM
c/o radiokampagne.de e.V.
PF 029919
10132 Berlin
Infos: www.mikro.fm
Mail: info (at) mikro (dot) fm

mikro.FM ist eine Initiative freier Radiogruppen in Berlin mit dem Ziel Freies Radio in Berlin zu etablieren.

About Mikro.FM

Mikro.FM wants to realize a Free Radio in Berlin. For may years a variety of different local initiatives have attempted and campaigned to create a non-commercial frequency. Still without an ongoing station in operation. In many other countries, the rights for community access to radio are long understood, but in Berlin and Brandenberg* the struggle continues, and it is not the lack of frequencies, but the failure of a political will. With the last changes in the state media laws, while the Berlin Senate gave a green light, the Brandenberg region did not see the need to alter the circumstances of frequency access.

So to make not just an example but a functional reality of what non-commercial radio can mean for Berlin, Mikro.fm offers everyone from Berlin and anywhere to join in the creation of an alternative media through the use of neighborhood Micro transmitters, a form of low-power-fm radio which is not (yet?) illegal.

Our basic principles and attitude:

- All our work is based on the principles of Sobotnik
- All music played is based on copyleft licensing (GEMA-free)
- All content should at the very least be in accordance with a general concern for human rights
- Everyone is welcome to participate

* Bundesländer, i.e. Brandenberg, are regional territories similar to the states in US, belonging to Germany and sharing many common laws, though actually they may be considered even less independent than the states in the US .

Citizen bara

Uno sgradevole apprezzamento sulla giovanissima figlia della fidanzata di uno dei due, un appuntamento per dirsela in faccia in un'area di parcheggio per camion. Ma questa volta la conversazione sulle frequenze dei baracchini CB con cui quasi tutti i TIR del mondo sono equipaggiati - questa almeno la ricostruzione della polizia di Detroit, evidentemente su imbeccata di altri camionisti che hanno intercettato il litigio via etere - è sfociata in tragedia e uno dei due, il 44 enne Gregory Hobalt, dello Iowa, ci ha rimesso le penne. Gli investigatori hanno fermato il probabile accoltellatore, un texano di 36 anni.
Se non sbaglio gli incontri de visu nel gergo della Citizen Band si chiamavano "verticali". Questa volta è finita in orizzontale.

Dec. 30, 2007, 10:14PM
Trucker slain after talk on CB radio conversation
(AP)

SCIO TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The Washtenaw County sheriff's department says a 44-year-old man was stabbed to death at a Scio Township truck stop after a conversation on a CB radio led to a confrontation.
The department tells The Ann Arbor News officers got a call Saturday to the TA Travel Center in Scio (SY'-oh) Township, about 35 miles west of Detroit.
They say Gregory A. Hobalt of Davenport, Iowa, was pronounced dead at the University of Michigan Hospitals.
Authorities are holding a 36-year-old man from Garland, Texas, while they determine charges.
They say the suspect apparently made offensive comments on the CB radio about the 10-year-old daughter of Hobalt's girlfriend. via etere - è sfociato in tragedia e uno dei due, il 44 enne Gregory Hobalt, dello Iowa, ci ha rimesso le penne. Gli investigatori adesso stanno cercando il probabile accoltellatore, un texano di 36 anni.
Se non sbaglio gli incontri de visu nel gergo della Citizen Band si chiamavano "verticali". Questa volta è finita in orizzontale.

Kenya, bavaglio sulle dirette radio-tv

Ci risiamo. In Kenya le elezioni presidenziali - che pure si erano svolte senza problemi e con gli osservatori internazionali che non avevano rilevato irregolarità particolari* - stanno degenerando in violenze e morti perché i sostenitori di Raila Odinga non accettano la sconfitta di misura contro il rieletto Mwai Kibaki. In effetti i risultati sono arrivati a rilento e il margine di vantaggio non è certo schiacciante.
Insomma, gli animi si sono surriscaldati e il governo in carica ha pensato bene di vietare alle stazioni radiotelevisive di dare troppe notizie live. Basta notiziari, "nell'interesse della sicurezza pubblica," ha detto il ministro degli interni John Michuki.
Ora, lo sappiamo tutti che in Africa la radio vanta episodi di fulgido attaccamento agli istinti più bestiali, culminato (verso il basso, si intende) con le trasmissioni della madre di tutte le hate radio, Radio Mille Collines. Dai microfoni di quella stazione rwandese partirono nel 1994 gli incitamenti al massacro dei Tutsi e molti di coloro che stavano dietro i microfoni dell'odio razziale sono poi finiti sul banco degli imputati del Tribunale penale internazionale per il Rwanda.
Ma quella esercitata in queste ore in Kenya somiglia più alla censura che all'odio.

*[Mi correggo, una dichiarazione ufficiale del capo delegazione dell'UE, Alexander Graf Lambsddorf, resa nota il 30, parla invece di conteggi ufficiosi non corrispondenti a quelli ufficiali. Intanto oggi 31 i morti aumentano e si va verso lo stato d'emergenza.]
Kenya suspends live broadcasts
30/12/2007 22:44 - (SA)

Nairobi - The Kenyan government on Sunday suspended all live radio and television news reports as riots spread across the country after President Mwai Kibaki's re-election, said the information ministry.
Ministry of information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo said: "I am directed by the minister for internal security John Michuki that in the interest of public safety and tranquillity I order the immediate suspension of live broadcast until further notice.
"I am also directed to order that all media houses and journalists in general stop forthwith any broadcast of inciting or alarming material and take responsibility for such broadcasting with the law."
The measure was announced as disgruntled supporters of defeated presidential challenger Raila Odinga took to the streets in several cities across the country, including Nairobi and several opposition strongholds in western Kenya.
At least five people had been shot dead by police in western Kenya since the electoral commission on Sunday declared Kibaki's victory amid allegations of vote rigging.
Il Kenya ha smesso da tempo di essere una nazione facile da ascoltare alla radio. Un tempo le sue frequenze in banda tropicale dei 60 metri erano tra le più potenti e facili da ascoltare, ma questo accadeva diversi anni fa. Oggi la statale KBC si ascolta raramente e solo in onde medie. In compenso, in tutto il paese si moltiplica l'offerta di emittenti commerciali in FM. Proprio da una di queste, Capital FM di Nairobi, ho tratto il seguente l'articolo sulle speranze di vittoria di Odinga. Speranze frustrate dai duecentomila voti che lo separano - ufficialmente - dal rivale Kibaki (vincitore con 4,5 contro 4,3 milioni di preferenze). Odinga è un altro personaggio da film. Ingegnere meccanico, ha studiato a Lipsia e Magdeburgo quando queste due città facevano parte della DDR. Uno dei figli si chiama Fidel. Forse la decisione di sospendere tutti i reportage in diretta è stata dettata più dalla paura che una opposizione troppo vociferante potesse portare a una revisione dei conteggi elettorali, che dal timore di un effetto Mille Collines. La mancanza di notizie non dev'essere mai vista come un rischio per la democrazia, sempre che il senso di responsabilità dei giornalisti abbia sempre il sopravvento. Non bisogna dimenticare che i "commentatori" di Mille Collines erano pilotati da qualcuno, mentre in Kenya la situazione sembra completamente diversa. Speriamo che il governo in carica e il presidente rieletto scelgano di tornare sui propri passi.

Raila: End of the road

BY ANNE KIGUTA

NAIROBI, December 30 - Raila Amollo Odinga’s bid to oust President Mwai Kibaki from State House has failed.
The blow to his ambition was delivered at an Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) news conference, where President Mwai Kibaki was issued a second and final mandate to lead the Kenyan republic. When the ECK Chairman Samuel Kivuitu made the announcement at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), winners and losers alike were unable to restrain their emotions, which have been running high for several months now. Raila’s supporters at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) were outraged by the announcement, which relegated the man they had prematurely announced as president to the Leader of the Official Opposition.

The hope


At the early stages of the vote count, it seemed likely that Raila would clinch the coveted seat. Preliminary tallies by independent media and official results by the ECK had credited Raila with a commanding lead early Friday. In one of the counts by the ECK, Raila was at 300,000 votes ahead of the President. ODM had however announced its own version of the presidential tallies and went as far as to call on the President to concede defeat. But into late Saturday, the gap had begun to narrow significantly.
At the KICC nerve centre of ECK activities, ODM party agents were not taking kindly to the new pronouncements by the commission. Before they knew it, the bridge between the two contenders was 38,000 votes.
The media briefing where the latest toll was announced deteriorated into a shouting match between ODM agents and supporters of the Party of national Unity (PNU).
A day later, Raila, who had not made any public statement since he cast his vote, demanded a public recount of all tallies in the 210 constituencies.
He stated that this was the only way he would concede defeat.
“This kind of exercise and impasse can only be resolved by a national recount in Nairobi under the full glare of media watchfulness and the involvement of election observers,” Raila said making it clear that he would not go down easy.
And as tension mounted, particularly in areas perceived to be his strongholds, Raila appealed for calm countrywide: “This great nation of Kenya is greater than all of us and I want to appeal to our people to exercise restraint. Our nation must be a nation that respects the rule of law and order.”
But even at the thought of conceding defeat, Raila punched holes into the viability of a Kibaki administration saying it simply wouldn’t be practical in the 10th parliament.
He said the incumbent would be unable to run the House after ODM scooped a majority of seats in Thursday’s Election.
The Langata MP-elect pointed out: “The constitution says clearly that the president can only appoint members of other political parties with the express approval of that party. Faced with a minority like right now he will barely be in a position to negotiate and will begin to entice them by appointment in the cabinet without even consulting the parties.”


Early Years


The 62-year-old engineer has spent his life mainly as an opposition candidate. In the 60’s he secured a scholarship to study at a Technical University, in what was then known as East Germany.
Raila comes from a family of political strings. His father Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was Kenya's first vice president after independence and his brother Oburu Odinga is a parliamentarian.
Disagreements between the Odinga family began with the first Kenyan government, prompting and the late Jaramogi to become a key opposition figure against the governments of founding father Jomo Kenyatta and later President Daniel arap Moi.
And in his father’s footsteps Raila opposed Moi government’s single party rule earning him nine years in jail. He was charged with treason for the failed 1992 coup attempt, and fled to Norway under self exile.


The Quest for Presidency


Raila’s search for the top seat was first put to the test in 1997’s multiparty elections. He came in third after President Moi and Mwai Kibaki who was then the Democratic Party of Kenya (DP) candidate.
Undeterred by his loss, Raila began oiling his machinery for the 2002 General Election. But at a time when there was growing discontent in the Moi rule and when several opposition candidates had declared interest in the top seat, Raila who by then had emerged as a force in Kenyan politics played his cards close to the chest.
So it was an ambush for many opposition politicians at a time of deal-cutting when during a public rally in October of 2002 Raila endorsed Kibaki’s candidacy.
But the famous ‘Kibaki Tosha’ statement (translated literally to mean Kibaki will suffice as president) came back to sting Raila after he fell out with Kibaki, alleging claims that the latter did not honour a memorandum of understanding on power sharing.
As a result, Raila led a rebellion within cabinet culminating in his expulsion from the elite group of ministers and his vote hunt ever since to State House.


Tahiti, tempi duri per le piccole radio

Eravamo tutti convinti, noi ascoltatori delle onde corte, che alla base della costante erosione del numero di emittenti locali attive su queste frequenze ci fossero precise ragioni di costo e qualità. Anche per le stazioni più piccole e a carattere comunitario, ci avevano sempre detto, è importante garantire una buona resa audio, cosa che con le onde corte non sempre è possibile. Per forza la gente smette di ascoltarle. Poi le onde corte sono inefficienti, i trasmettitori sono anche più difficili da manutenere, se si rompono nessuno li ripara più...
Tutte ragioni molto valide, per carità. Ieri mi è capitato l'occhio su questa breve corrispondenza della lontana Tahiti Presse. Il comune di Arue ha deciso di chiudere la sua emittente comunitaria Pacific FM, nata nel 2000 per iniziativa di Boris Léontieff. Un personaggio notevole questo Léontieff, fratello di un ex presidente del governo locale e fondatore di Fetia Api, uno dei partiti autonomisti (contrapposti agli indipendentisti e vicini, oggi, al Nouveau Centre di Hervé Morin) della Polinesia francese. L'idea di Pacific FM risaliva al 1996 ma il CSA, l'authority francese, impiegò quattro anni per autorizzare le trasmissioni. E nel 2002 Léontieff scompare in mare, per un incidente aereo. Ma perché Pacific FM deve chiudere? Perché non ci sono soldi: più di 121mila euro di budget nel 2006, diecimila euro al mese, mica poco in effetti. E poi perché la concorrenza da parte dei grossi gruppi mediatici è troppo agguerrita. A Tahiti? Vabbé la prendiamo per buona.
Come ho già avuto modo di scrivere in passato io appartengo alla fortunata categoria di DXer che può ancora vantare il ricordo delle trasmissioni di Radio France Outremer in onde corte. La Nuova Caledonia non sono mai riuscita a riceverla, ma Radio Tahiti sì, quando era attiva nei 19 e 25 metri. Ovviamente non poteva durare per sempre (peccato però perché in pieno Pacifico le onde corte dovevano assicurare una bella copertura). Noto adesso con disappunto che anche in FM la radiofonia locale non sempre riesce a prosperare.


Société : 29/12/2007 à 10:50
Derniers jours d'émission pour Pacific FM, la radio de Arue

(Tahitipresse) - Nahiti Communication qui gère la radio Pacific FM a décidé, lors de sa dernière assemblée générale, en septembre dernier, de dissoudre l'association au 31 décembre 2007 et, du même coup, d'arrêter l'activité de la radio qui émet à Arue depuis sept ans. La station vit donc ses derniers jours.

"L'aspect associatif de cette structure dans un marché déjà bien encombré et la forte concurrence de groupes de médias qui monopolisent le marché des annonceurs radios n'ont jamais permis à cette antenne de se développer comme elle l'aurait voulu", explique le service de communication de la commune de Arue.
La municipalité, par le biais de subventions, était le principal soutien financier de cette structure qui a coûté à Arue 14,6 millions Fcfp (environ 121 600 euros) d'aides en 2006. Enfin, les locaux qui accueillent la radio sont devenus vétustes et demandent notamment la restauration de ses installations électriques et un investissement supplémentaire, précise-t-on encore du côté de la mairie. Pour cet ensemble de raisons, il a été décidé de cesser l'émission de Pacific FM.
Sous l'impulsion de Boris Léontieff Pacific FM avait été fondée le 25 septembre 1996 sous l'impulsion du maire d'alors de la commune de Arue, Boris Léontieff. Plusieurs années ont été nécessaires pour obtenir l'accord du Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) et permettre ainsi la mise en place technique de la radio. En janvier 2000, l'association qui gère la radio a obtenu la liste des fréquences disponibles et Pacific FM a pu se placer sur la bande FM, sur les fréquences 87,8 et 106.4. Il lui faudra encore plusieurs mois afin d'arriver à une configuration technique basée sur l'informatisation et l'utilisation de logiciel radiophonique pour commencer à émettre, officiellement en novembre 2000, en orientant sa programmation vers un public adulte (25 à 40 ans).
L'association Nahiti Communication a sollicité et obtenu une subvention communale de 12,3 millions Fcfp (environ 102 500 euros) pour payer les indemnités de licenciement et les soldes de congés payés des employés de Pacific FM ainsi que la facture de 5,6 millions Fcfp (environ 46 600 euros) due à TDF (Télédiffusion de France) pour la diffusion sur les ondes de la radio de Arue et diverses charges de fonctionnement.
Le matériel informatique et audio de la station sera mis en vente aux enchères.

Liberate il Nord

Il Washington Post si occupa delle trasmissioni radio verso la Corea del Nord. Un tema non particolarmente nuovo, ma in questo caso la storia è ricca di particolari sulla vicenda di Kim Seong Min, transfuga dal regime settentrionale e oggi animatore di Free North Korea Radio negli studi di Seoul.

Sending Out Signals to Long-Isolated North Koreans
Defectors Who Once Worked for Government of Kim Jong Il Now Broadcast From South of the DMZ

By Francine Uenuma
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007; A27

SEOUL -- Trained as a military propagandist in North Korea, Kim Seong Min has turned his skills against the government that once forced his allegiance. From a small radio studio in Seoul, he and a handful of other North Korean defectors deliver daily broadcasts to people who remain behind in the isolated communist state run by Kim Jong Il.
"To give food provisions, if the Kim Jong Il regime still exists, is merely prolonging their lives in a state of slavery," said Kim, founder and director of the station known as FNK, for Free North Korea Radio. "But broadcasts . . . give an opportunity to change their own future, and provide food for the spirit."
The North's estimated 23 million people have little accurate information about the outside world. Listening to foreign news sources is illegal, part of a government effort to block infiltration of subversive ideas. But as more North Koreans buy low-cost radios brought in from China, violating that ban has become easier.
Kim said he fled to China in 1996 after attempts to contact a relative in Seoul were discovered. As an illegal immigrant, he was apprehended by Chinese authorities, jailed and severely beaten. Sent back to North Korea for public trial (and almost certain execution), he made his second escape, he said, by jumping off a train traveling 50 mph. For the next eight days, he ate grass roots and rode atop train cars to get back to China, where he lived for several years before making his way to Seoul.
Now he passes his days trying to hasten the end of the government he built his career promoting. FNK's two-hour daily broadcasts are a rare entity -- by North Koreans, for North Koreans.
All told, Seoul has three privately run radio stations targeting the North: Open Radio for North Korea, Radio Free Chosun and Kim's FNK, the only one run by defectors, who are helped by a committed South Korean staff. Washington-based Radio Free Asia and Voice of America also broadcast to the North.
"The problem in North Korea is the mind-set," said Tae Keung-ha, president of Open Radio for North Korea. "Isolated for half a century, they have no ability to compare their situation with other countries and other people."
His station's broadcasts avoid overtly political messages in favor of cultural subjects. While for some North Koreans "politics is a matter of life and death," others turn away from it, he noted. "We want to broaden our base as much as possible. For that purpose our radio programs are soft."
Kim Yun-tae, director of Radio Free Chosun, said his station takes a similar approach. "At first we were doing more propaganda broadcasting, but we changed our minds," he said. Added Kyounghee An, the station's international manager, "We don't think we can cause the collapse of the regime directly. . . . We think after listening, people can compare their real situation to Kim Jong Il's propaganda and can change their minds, step by step."
Radio Free Chosun broadcasts North Korean domestic news as well as stories of escapes, revisions to North Korean textbooks and dramas about Kim Jong Il.
The two stations run by South Koreans have defectors on staff who try to make the broadcasts palatable to a North Korean audience, smoothing out political and cultural differences in language, for instance. Tae, of Open Radio, said those staffers can help listeners make sense of such unknown words as "Starbucks," or explain that in a capitalist economy, "a pizza deliveryman is not someone who is a slave but works for other consumers."
Of the three, FNK is the most openly hostile to the North Korean government. In the words of vice director Lee Kuem Ryong, North Korea "is a big jail for everyone in the country."
For its staff of defectors, the work is highly personal. Most, after all, are recent escapees.
Kim Seong Min coordinated internal propaganda for a North Korean military brigade, producing plays and shows promoting the government and its programs.
Announcer Eun Kyung Kim was also a propagandist, spreading Kim Jong Il's ideas by loudspeaker from a vehicle before escaping across the Yalu River with her son on her back. Reporter Kyeong Il Cheong, who was caught and sent to a labor gulag after his first escape, sometimes mentions his status as a graduate of the elite Kim Il Sung University in an attempt to give his words greater credibility.
The stations have Web sites, but with Internet access all but unknown in the North, the sites target South Koreans. "Our two main focuses are to tell the North Korean people the truth about South Korea, and the South Korean people the truth about North Korea," said FNK's Kim.
FNK has used the Internet to disseminate secretly shot footage of executions and of children scrounging for scraps of rice in villages affected by famine. The station obtained video images of members of an underground church praying (a grave offense in a nation where the leaders are supposed to be revered as divine) but decided to withhold it to protect the safety of those pictured.
At its inception, FNK provoked a bellicose reaction from across the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean Peninsula. A written statement attributed to Kim Jong Il said the staff's actions "should never be forgiven" and promised to "punish the traitors." Staffers have received threats in the mail -- axes covered in fake blood, dolls stabbed with daggers and ominous letters.
There are opponents in the South as well: Student groups have held violent protests outside the station's offices, at one point injuring Kim so severely that he was hospitalized.
Determining how many people are listening to the stations' broadcasts is impossible. Though jamming is an impediment, improved signals and electricity shortages that stop the jamming limit North Korea's ability to block broadcasts completely.
"The only way to get information about North Koreans listening is through the people who go from China back into North Korea regularly, but those people are difficult to meet," said Kim of Radio Free Chosun.
The South Korean government, eager to encourage good relations with the communist capital, Pyongyang, discontinued most of the programs its Korean Broadcasting System aimed at the North. But it has taken a hands-off approach to the private stations, broadcasters say, allowing them to operate but offering no financial support. All three services indirectly receive about $200,000 in U.S. government funds annually through the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy.
To qualify for the grants, the private broadcasters "had to get training on international standards of broadcasting," said John Knaus, the endowment's senior program officer for Asia. Defectors are prohibited from religious evangelizing or calling for violent action against the North Korean government.
Despite the difficulties they face, the broadcasters say they remain committed to breaking through North Korea's wall of silence.
Kim Seong Min, who displays a stack of letters expressing gratitude and asking for help, says that each individual affected by his station is important: "We are going to keep broadcasting, even if one person listens to that radio."


30 dicembre 2007

Radionomy, Web radio per tutti

Qualcosa mi dice che nel 2008 le iniziative alla Radionomy fioccheranno e saranno gettonatissime. Ho trovato la notizia di questa nuova piattaforma per la creazione facilitata e gratuita di canali Web radio su un blog anglo-francese, Mashable. L'idea non è del tutto nuova, diversi siti Web consentono di assemblare un canale di Webcasting, ma Radionomy lo fa basandosi su un modello di revenue sharing e offrendosi di coprire i costi per i diritti d'autore, fungendo quindi anche da libreria di contenuti.
Curiosamente è un'avventura tutta europea e nasce da quattro giovani imprenditori belgi, uno dei quali, Alexandre Saboudjian, ha già creato Musicmatic una startup specializzata in Web streaming per i punti vendita retail. Per il momento il sito di Radionomy funziona in versione beta privata, il lancio della beta pubblica è previsto verso metà febbraio. Radionomy è stato ufficialmente presentato ai blogger belgi a Bruxelles, in una location molto appropriata: l'antica Maison de la radio che fino al 1960 ha ospitato a Bruxelles l'Institut National de Radiodiffusion, poi RTB e RTBF. Oggi la Maison è stata convertita in spazio multimediale con cinema, sale e ritrovi.

Radionomy: Créez votre propre Web Radio (coup de coeur Mashable)
Friday 28 December 2007 à 04:46 — by Aziz Haddad

Radionomy est un nouveau service (encore en bêta privée) lancé par 4 entrepreneurs belges et qui a pour objectif de permettre à chacun de créer simplement (et gratuitement) sa propre Radio en mettant à disposition de ses utilisateurs un large choix de musique, de jingles et de contenu mais également en leur permettant d’y intégrer leurs propres créations: contenu audio, podcasts, reportages, etc.
Radionomy diffuse ces radios dans le monde entier et supporte tous les frais dont les droits d’auteur (pratique, surtout lorsqu’on sait que le budget de dépenses annuel moyen d’une webradio en France est de 3.860 euros). Le service se finance grâce à une diffusion modérée de publicité sur les radios. Radionomy partage les revenus avec les créateurs des radios, en fonction de leur audience, une audience potentielle qui est bien réelle: Selon le dernier rapport de Médimetrie 29 % des internautes français écoutent une Webradio tous les jours.
Pour ceux qui se demandent: Pourquoi créer sa Web Radio? En fait, les raisons sont aussi multiples que celles qui poussent à créer son propre blog: s’exprimer, partager sa passion, diffuser du contenu, ses goûts musicaux, ses podcasts, ses créations, ses coups de coeur/coups de gueule,….
La bêta publique est prévue pour mi-Janvier 2008. Un site dédié aux auditeurs et aux producteurs complètera le dispositif. Un player Radionomy sera disponible, offrant diverses fonctionnalités (même si n’importe quel player autorisera l’écoute des radios créées avec Radionomy).

29 dicembre 2007

Niente calypso per Zurigo


Lo stream su Internet diffonde ancora le allegre note della musica reggae e gli avvenimenti un po' più cupi dei notiziari della BBC, ma la stazione privata Radio Tropic "Le soleil de Zurich", ormai ha i minuti contati. Dieci anni di attività strenuamente portata avanti dal fondatore Frédéric Dru, franco-svizzero con radici martinicane. Al Tagesanzeiger Dru dichiara di aver voluto costruire una sua "architettura musicale", ma di non aver avuto molte chances. Una frequenza e una zona di trasmissione inadeguate, il rating pubblicitario che privilegiava sempre le altre stazioni (l'audiradio elvetica non dà i numeri sui programmi in lingua straniera). Zurigo è una città elegante e cosmpolita, niente affatto seriosa, ma l'offerta musicale caraibica di Radio Tropic forse era un po' troppo specialistica e esotica. Alla fine, dopo dieci anni, Dru ha dovuto cedere il controllo della sua creatura e l'acquirente è una vecchissima volpe della radiofonia commerciale europea. Quello stesso Roger Schawinski che trent'anni fa, dalla cima italiana del Pizzo Groppera diffondeva i programmi di Radio 24 in una Svizzera ancora congelata nel monopolio pubblico. Recentemente Schawinski era arrivato a dirigere la tv satellitare Sat Eins ma dev'essergli tornata la voglia di fare radio nella "sua" Svizzera. E la somma offerta a Dru (quanto, non è stato detto) doveva essere di quelle difficili da rifiutare. Insomma, nell'ottobre scorso Radio Tropic è passata di mano e da gennaio sui 93 MHz partirà la nuova programmazione di Radio 1 con un target più generalista: maschi tra i 30 e i 60 anni. Quelli che hanno i soldi e vogliono spenderli, altro che calypso e marimbas.
Sul sito di Tropic i lettori sono invitati a lasciare l'indirizzo. "Continueremo a trasmettere, anche se in forma e su scala più limitata, vi faremo sapere come", recita l'avviso. Ma al giornale elvetico Dru dice di non avere idea di che cosa può accadere. Hmm, mi sa che lo sappiamo benissimo. Ciao, Radio Tropic, è stato divertente.


Zürich
Der Sound aus den Tropen verstummt
28. Dezember 2007, 23:17 – Von Walter Jäggi

Radio Tropic in Zürich war kein Sender wie alle anderen. Das Programm war überraschender, internationaler, farbiger. Doch ein Geschäft wurde es nie. Ende Jahr ist Sendeschluss.

Noch läuft heitere Musik aus südlichen Gefilden über das Sendepult im kleinen Studio an der Limmatstrasse unter dem Hochnebeldeckel. Doch Frédéric Dru, Gründer, Besitzer und Chef von Radio Tropic, ist bedrückt. «Es ist traurig zu sehen, wie es nun zu Ende geht», sagt er. Zehn Jahr lang hatte er für seine Radiostation, «le soleil de Zurich», gekämpft und gelebt, doch schliesslich musste er aufgeben und seinen Mehrheitsanteil verkaufen.
«Roger Schawinski und seiner Radiocrew wünschen wir viel Erfolg», heisst es auf der Homepage von Radio Tropic. Aber Dru weiss, dass mit dem Besitzerwechsel der typische Tropic-Stil aus dem Zürcher Äther verschwinden wird. «Es wird sehr lange dauern, bis wieder so etwas entsteht wie Radio Tropic», sagt er. Seine Idee war es gewesen, der Musik aus Afrika, Süd- und Mittelamerika zu mehr Bekanntheit zu verhelfen, jenen traditionsreichen und quicklebendigen Musikrichtungen, die sonst leicht im trendigen Einheitsbrei des Mehrheitsgeschmacks untergehen.
Und sein Anliegen war es, mit dieser Musik Emotionen zu vermitteln. Dass das Herz dabei sei, habe er immer wichtiger gefunden als das Geschäft, sagt er. Doch Geld sei eben hier zu Lande ganz besonders wichtig. «Man kann nicht einmal an ein Fest gehen, ohne dass die Leute ständig von Geld reden und an Geld denken.»

370 Musikstile und BBC-News

Das Programm von Radio Tropic war ein typisches Spartenprogramm. Aber dennoch breit gefächert. 370 Musikstile hat Dru für seinen Sender definiert; er will dieses Wissen auch noch in einem Musiklexikon festhalten. Da gab es Blues, Soul, Reggae, Tropical Jazz, Gospel, Tango und vieles andere, was sehr hörenswert, aber in der Schweiz wenig bekannt ist. Es war ein Sender für Neugierige, für Schweizer so gut wie für Heimwehüberseer. Und übrigens auch ein Sender mit sehr guten Kurznachrichten, übernommen von den renommierten Radiosendern BBC und Radio France internationale, mehrsprachig natürlich.
Benachteiligt und ohne Hilfe
Wenig Verständnis, klagt Dru, habe sein Konzept bei den Behörden gefunden. Man habe Radio Tropic eine ungünstige Frequenz und einen ungünstigen Sendestandort zugewiesen. Das Versorgungsgebiet sei, wie unter anderem die Wettbewerbskommission bestätigt habe, so sehr begrenzt gewesen, dass er beim Verkauf der Werbezeit gegenüber den anderen Lokalsendern benachteiligt gewesen sei. Die Hörerforschung durch eine SRG-Tochtergesellschaft sei für Tropic hinderlich angelegt, indem fremdsprachige Sendungen gar nicht gemessen würden, die ausgewiesenen Hörerzahlen seien deshalb viel zu gering gewesen. Anteile an den Konzessionsgebühren oder andere Hilfen habe er nie erhalten. Alles in allem sei so die Rechnung nie aufgegangen.
Im Schweizer Lokalradiokonzept seien Spartensender mit spezieller Musik wie Radio Tropic nicht vorgesehen oder fast schon unerwünscht. Ein Chefbeamter des Bundeamtes für Kommunikation habe ihm gesagt, die Musik sei gar nicht wichtig. Das sieht Dru natürlich anders. Musik könne doch Harmonie, Frieden vermitteln. Das Behördenargument, Zürich sei schliesslich nicht bilingue, brauche also gar kein fremdsprachiges Lokalradio, kontert Dru entschieden mit der Feststellung: «Zürich ist doch polyglott und international, man soll doch die Mehrsprachigkeit hier pflegen!»

An Sympathien fehlt es nicht

Ende Jahr ist nun Sendeschluss. Dru, französisch-schweizerischer Doppelbürger mit Wurzeln in Martinique, wird im Studio, das er zum grossen Teil selber gebaut hat, «die operationelle Tätigkeit aufgeben», wie er sagt. Wie es weitergehen soll, weiss der 63-Jährige noch nicht. Sympathie-Mails von Hörerinnen und Hörern kommen auch aus dem Ausland, wo Radio Tropic via Internet zu hören war.
Dass sein Unternehmen gescheitert oder eher zum Scheitern gebracht worden sei, könne nicht an der Qualität des Programms gelegen haben, meint Dru. Er habe seine Mitarbeiter immer zu grösster Sorgfalt angehalten und sie auch ausgebildet, die Sendungen systematisch zu gestalten. «Ich wollte musikalische Architektur machen», sagt der studierte Architekt. «Aber man gab mir keine Chance.»


Iran: guerra, pace o radio?

Molto documentato e interessante, l'articolo di Helmut Gabel sulla rivista Telepolis, del gruppo editoriale tedesco Heise (riviste di informatica ma anche l'edizione tedesca di Technology Review, la rivista del MIT) parla della repressione delle minoranze religiose in Iran, dove i sufi subiscono ogni sorta di angherie. Il racconto è disseminato di riferimenti alle emittenti in onde corte e tra le altre viene presentata in dettaglio Radio Zamaneh, emittente "contras" finanziata dagli olandesi e attiva su Internet, satellite e, fino a poco fa, in onde corte, attraverso un relay ucraino. Sembra però che la frequenza in onde corte (6245 kHz) sia stata cancellata, chissà perché.
Radio Zamaneh è uno dei progetti della OGN olandese Press Now, che sul sito Web annuncia anche il progetto di una stazione "off shore" per l'Uzbekistan, per il quale è alla ricerca di un responsabile. "Press Now is seeking a Project coordinator / Radio Editor-in-Chief / Director for a new off-shore radio station for and on Uzbekistan. This new radio project based in the Netherlands wishes to disseminate news from and for Uzbekistan. It aims to inform and raise awareness among its listeners by broadcasting professional, objective and non partisan radio programmes which gives a voice to the unheard majority of the population in Uzbekistan. The radio project is a grassroots initiative and will start as a one-hour-weekly broadcast of news, entertainment and reportages of diverse Uzbekistan-focused programmes. Key words of the radio initiative are: professional, non partisan, independent, innovative, participatory and with special interest for the youth in Uzbekistan."
Proprio oggi è in edicola il numero del Quaderno Speciale di Limes su Iran, Guerra o Pace, che analizza i potenziali scenari di guerra e le varie opzioni diplomatiche. Il contributo di Gabel mi sembra un ottimo complemento.

Ein gefährlicher Gegner?

Helmut N. Gabel 29.12.2007
Iran: Die Verfolgung der Sufis

"Die Menschen im Iran fragen sich, ob der Sicherheitsrat der Vereinten Nationen lediglich hinsichtlich der Aussetzung der Urananreicherung entschlossen und effektiv handelt, während das Leben der Menschen im Iran, deren Grundrechte täglich zunehmend verletzt werden, seitens des Sicherheitsrates nicht als wichtig erachtet wird. Freiheit, Demokratie und Menschenrechte sind selbstverständliche Rechte der iranischen Nation. Wir Iraner hoffen, dass die Vereinten Nationen sowie sämtliche Menschen und Institutionen, welche die Demokratie und die Menschenrechte verteidigen, ihre Unterstützung der Bewegung der iranischen Nation für Freiheit und Demokratie nicht vorenthalten." Der Ruf nach Freiheit kommt von Akbar Ganji (1) und richtet sich an Ban Ki-Moon, den UN Generalsekretär.
Freiheit ist dieser Tage ein seltenes Gut. Manche sind überzeugt davon, dass in der Islamischen Republik Iran dieses Gut fehlt. Die Regierung Ahmadinedschad trat 2005 mit dem Versprechen an, mehr Möglichkeiten zu schaffen und die wirtschaftliche Situation für die Mittellosen zu verbessern (2).
Mitte Dezember 2007 bat Ahmadinedschad seine Wähler öffentlich um Entschuldigung dafür, dieses Wahlversprechen nicht eingelöst zu haben. Seine Bewegung wird vor allem von den Basitschi und den Pasdaran, den Revolutionswächtern, aus unterschiedlichen Gründen getragen. Die Basitschi hatten sich bei der Wahl strengere islamische Sitten und mehr Geld auf dem Tisch erhofft. Basitschi-Einheiten und Pasdaran haben viel Zuwendung vom Präsidenten im Gegenzug erhalten. Die Pasdaran durften sich immer mehr Kuchenstücke der Öl-, der Bau- und der Telekommunikationsindustrien einverleiben (3).
Doch viele Wähler Ahmadinedschads zeigen sich bitter enttäuscht (4) von der Politik ihres Präsidenten. Zu Hause kommt nichts auf ihren Tisch von den geschätzten 160 Milliarden Dollar Öleinnahmen. Ganz nach dem Geschmack derer, die strengere islamische Sitten gefordert haben, dürfte die Regierungszeit Mahmoud Ahmadinedschads aber schon sein. Wenn sich Frauen für Frauenrechte zu offensiv einsetzen, finden sie sich schnell im Gefängnis oder mit Peitschenhieben abgestraft (5). Gefängnis und Gewalt erwartet Studenten, die aufmucken (6). Der Gewerkschaftsführer der Teheraner Busfahrer, Mansour Osanloo, wurde im Juni 2007 geschlagen und verhaftet. Zuvor hatte er in Brüssel bei der EU vorgesprochen und seinen unfreundlichen Empfang in der Heimat vorausgesagt (7). Religiöse Minderheiten haben laut Innenminister Pour-Mohammadi im Iran keine Rechte.
Ob sie nun Bahai, Sufis oder Sunniten sind, im Zentrum des Schia-Islam scheinen sie nicht willkommen zu sein. Die Liste der Betroffenen hört bei den Journalisten sicher nicht auf, aber sie gelten als Symbol für Meinungsfreiheit und ihre Arbeit wird von Ahmadinedschad zwiespältig gewertet. Solange sie seinem Meinungsstrom, seinen Ideen und Interpretationen folgen, lobt er sie, aber wehe sie werden kritisch und weisen mit der Feder auf Missstände hin. Viele Zeitungen wurden verboten, erschienen unter anderem Namen und wurden erneut versenkt. Kein ganz neues Spiel im Iran, aber seit die Hardliner an der Macht sind, werden die Daumenschrauben für freie Denker wieder enger gezogen. Nur ein kleines Beispiel ist Emadeddin Baghi (8). Adnan Hassanpur wurde sogar zum Tode wegen Spionage verurteilt (9) vom Samstag 10.November 2007.
Das Prinzip ist immer gleich: die Vorwürfe reichen meist von Beleidigung islamischer Werte über Geheimnisverrat an die Feinde bis zu Systemdestabilisierung. Trotz vieler Hindernisse und Einschüchterungen finden sich immer noch Journalisten und Schreiber, die vor allem auf neue Medien ausweichen und ihre Eindrücke, Gefühle, Meinungen und Hoffnungen schriftlich weiterverbreiten. Im Nahen Osten führt der Iran die Zahl derer an, die das Internet nutzen.
"Die gefährliche internationale Situation des Iran und die Auseinandersetzung zwischen dem Iran und dem Westen haben die Weltöffentlichkeit und insbesondere die Vereinten Nationen von den unerträglichen Verhältnissen, welche das Regime für die Menschen im Iran geschaffen hat, gänzlich abgelenkt", so Akbar Ganji, der seinen Brief (10) an Ban Ki-Moon im September schrieb. Der Casus Belli scheint zwar abgeschwächt, aber die Stoßrichtung scheint eine andere zu sein (11). Das Wort von der sanften Revolution im Iran, die das System beenden soll, macht schon länger die Runde (12).
Das Regime im Iran achtet auf solche Signale ganz genau und greift sie sofort als Spielball gegen seine inneren Gegner auf. Alle die jetzt mehr Freiheit fordern, laufen Gefahr als Gegner der Nation, des Islam und der Werte des Velayat-e-Faghi-Systems bezeichnet zu werden. Mögliche Folgen: Gefängnis, um für eine Weile aus dem Weg zu sein; Tod, um ganz aus dem Weg zu sein und andere deutlich vom Widerstand abzuschrecken.

Apokalyptische Dimensionen

Das prinzipientreue Regime steht auf dem geistigen Fundament, das sehr radikal denkende Ayatollahs aufgestellt haben. Sie vertreten eine sehr eng ausgelegte apokalyptische Interpretation des schiitischen Islam. Sie sehen es als Aufgabe der Regierung die Nation auf die physische Wiederkunft des Messias, den verborgenen 12. Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, vorzubereiten (13). Teil dieser Vorbereitungen ist die "Säuberung der Gesellschaft von unreinen Elementen". Ein weiterer Teil ist das Hervorrufen von Chaos, um damit die Bedingungen für die Wiederkehr selbst zu schaffen und nicht wie andere glauben, darauf zu warten (siehe Messianische Entschlossenheit (14)). Diese Ayatollahs erlassen Fatwas, Rechtsgutachten, die es der Regierung erlauben, gegen ihre Gegner vorzugehen.
Ein gefährlicher Gegner im Iran scheint der Nematollah Gonabadi Sufi Orden (15) zu sein (vgl. Der iranische Mythos (16)). Dieser spirituelle Orden bekommt angeblich immer mehr Zulauf von jungen Iranern, die genug haben von intoleranten Auslegungen des Islam und unter der Atmosphäre von Unterdrückung im Land leiden. Sie nehmen also teil an den Veranstaltungen des Ordens, beschäftigen sich mit friedliebenden Auslegungen des Korans, beschäftigen sich mit Musik und Poesie, beschäftigen sich mit ihrer persönlichen spirituellen Schulung und bringen ihren religiösen Obolus, Zakat, den Sufis.
Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani hat eine Fatwa erlassen, die eindeutig die Sufis als gefährlich für den Islam brandmarkt (17). Konkurrenz sehen die Fundamentalisten gar nicht gern. Und schon gar nicht, wenn das liebe Geld mit ins Spiel kommt. Um diese Gefahr für das Regime abzuwenden, sind im ersten Schritt vor allem die Basitschi-Mitglieder ideologisch darauf eingestellt worden, die Sufis nicht als Moslems, sondern als unrein und als Säule der Feinde aus dem Ausland zu betrachten. Im zweiten Schritt haben vor Ort Mullahs ihre Basitschi angestachelt, die Gebetshäuser der Sufis zu zerstören und die Sufis aus dem Ort zu vertreiben (18).
Im Februar 2006 sind mehr als 1000 Sufi in Qom ernsthaft verletzt und festgesetzt worden, als sie sich der Zerstörung ihres Gebetshauses zu widersetzen suchten. In Boroujerd sind im November 2007 mehr als 500 Sufis in gleicher Weise aus ihrem Gebetshaus vertrieben worden (19).

Widerstand um der Freiheit willen

Die Kalkulationen der radikalen Ayatollahs in aller Ruhe in einer Stadt nach der anderen die Basitschi zu mobilisieren, um sie von den Sufis zu säubern, haben sich bislang nicht erfüllt. Die Sache mit den Sufis schlägt immer höhere Wellen. Mehdi Karroubi schrieb nach den Ereignissen von Boroujerd als erster einen offenen Brief an Innenminister Pour-Mohammadi, bat um Aufklärung der Vorfälle und nahm die Sufis in Schutz. Der Philosoph Javad Amoli und Ayatollah Fazel Meybodi erhoben ihre Stimmen für die Sufis (20):

Eine Petition zur Unterstützung der Sufis, die über tausend Unterschriften bekannter und hochrangiger Politiker, Denker und Reformkleriker versammelt hat, kursiert (21) im Iran. Sie liest sich wie eine Versammlung reformorientierter Kräfte.

Die Unterzeichner sind keine Derwische und möchten auch keine werden. Ihr Interesse gilt der Freiheit. Sie wollen ein Ende der Ära Ahmadinedschad einläuten. Dr Sadr Haj Seyed Javadi und Hashem Sabbaghian sind prominente Mitglieder von Nehzat-e-Azadi, sie stehen hinter der Petition (22).
Der ehemalige Sicherheitsberater von Khatami und Mitglied im Teheraner Stadtrat, Saeed Hajjarian, der maßgeblich zur Aufklärung der Ketten-Morde beigetragen hatte, findet sich unter den Unterstützern. Yousefi Eshkevari, Mohsen Kadivar, Fazel Meybody, Ahmad Ghabel sind reformorientierte Geistliche und Schriftsteller, die sich in die Petition neben vielen anderen eingebracht haben und nach Freiheit rufen. Sie alle sind Teil der Reformbewegung im Iran (23).
Doch Aufmerksamkeit für die Vorgänge im Iran kommt auch aus dem Ausland. Eine 11 köpfige Delegiertengruppe der EU machte sich auf den Weg in den Iran, unter anderem auch mit dem Thema Menschenrechte im Gepäck. Die Vorfälle in Boroujerd kamen zur Sprache und es war auch möglich, mit betroffenen Derwischen zu sprechen.
Der Druck auf die Regierung war stark. Man möchte im Ausland gerne als gerecht gelten. Das erste politische Opfer des Drucks kommt aus dem Innenministerium: Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, stellvertretender Innenminister, wurde als Verantwortlicher für die Vorfälle in Boroujerd entlassen. Kommentatoren sehen diese Maßnahme von oberster Stelle als Ausgleich, um der Sufiangelegenheit den Wind wieder aus den Segeln zu nehmen, die sich nun in der ganzen Welt Gehör verschaffen und sich über das Verhalten der Verantwortlichen in der Islamischen Republik Iran beklagen (24).
Die überwiegende Mehrheit der Delegierten plädiert dafür, die Sanktionsschraube gegen den Iran nicht noch fester zu ziehen. Sie befürchten eine Verschärfung der Repressalien gegen religiöse und ethnische Minderheiten (25).

Das "Herz der Kultur-NATO"

Die Hardliner im Iran beobachten die Aktivitäten der Opposition akribisch und versuchen, jegliche Kritik als Verrat an der Islamischen Republik Iran zu diskreditieren. Kontakte ins Ausland werden als Spionagetätigkeit gewertet. Jetzt, kurz vor den Wahlen zur Majles, scheinen die Hardliner ihre Gegner einschüchtern oder zu Fehlern verführen zu wollen. Das Sprachrohr der harten Positionen ist Kayhan, eine Zeitung, die von Dr Hossein Shariatmadari herausgegeben wird. Sie soll ausgesprochen gute Kontakte zum iranischen Geheimdienst unterhalten (26).
Anfang Dezember 2007 veröffentlichte Kayhan einen ganzseitigen Artikel über die Gefahren für die IRI. Es heißt, der Artikel enthalte das Material von zwei Jahren Recherche (27). Die Hauptthese des Artikels bezeichnet die Holländische Regierung als das "Herz der Kultur-NATO". Damit wird Holland als führende europäische Nation betrachtet, die gegen den Islam und gegen die IR Iran vorzugeht. Der holländischen Regierung wird vorgeworfen, einen westlichen Kulturstrom in den Iran einzuschleusen, um die Werte der Islamischen Republik zu zerstören und sie durch billige und substanzlose westliche Werte zu ersetzen.
Hauptwerkzeug (28) der Holländischen Regierung sei das aus Amsterdam seit 2006 sendende Radio Zamaaneh(Neue Zeiten) (29). Farahnaz Karimi (30); eine iranisch stämmige Abgeordnete der holländischen Grünen wird beschuldigt, im Auftrag des holländischen Geheimdienstes Radio Zamaaneh aufgebaut zu haben. Kayhan benennt alle Mitarbeiter des Senders, veröffentlicht die Adresse und beschreibt minutiös, wie tief der holländische Steuerzahler in die Tasche greifen musste, um diesen Kulturfeldzug zu führen.
Es ist die Rede von 15 Millionen Euro, die sich Radio Zamaaneh noch mit anderen Initiativen teilen muss. Mehdi Jami, Exiliraner mit Wohnsitz in Holland, ist Schriftsteller und Filmemacher. Er leitet Radio Zamaaneh mit dem Anspruch, freien professionellen Journalismus unter Mitarbeit von Laien aus dem Iran zu bieten. Zum Beispiel organisiert er einen Schreibwettbewerb unter jungen Iranern. Kayhan bezeichnet ihn als Marionette der holländischen Regierung (31). Manche Exiliraner halten Radio Zamaaneh vor, nicht wirklich freien Journalismus zu betreiben. Sie werfen Jami vor, zu wenig kritisch der Regierung im Iran gegenüber zu sein, zu undeutlich auf Einschränkungen der Freiheit hinzuweisen und ganz auf der Linie des Systems zu bleiben, wenn auch eher reformorientiert. Kayhan sieht das anders.
In dem besagten Artikel wird ein Vergleich mit anderen Sendern, die in den Iran senden, gezogen. Der entscheidende Unterschied für Kayhan ist, dass die Sendungen von Radio Zamaaneh nicht die Absicht verfolgen, ihre Hörer durch Kritik an diesem oder jenem zu überzeugen, wie Radio Farda, Radio BBC und Deutsche Welle das tun, sondern schlichtweg westliche Kultur in den Iran einzuführen und damit junge Iraner von der rechten Lebensführung abzubringen. Mehrere Aspekte werden dafür angeführt: ein bestimmter westlicher Musikstil, die Kontaktmöglichkeit zwischen Männern und Frauen und das offene Reden über Sex. Den Aufruf an die Bevölkerung im Iran sich bei der Gestaltung des Programms zu beteiligen, kommentiert Kayhan als Spionage und Möglichkeit für Dissidenten, mit Auslandsgeheimdiensten in Kontakt zu stehen.
Schließlich kommt der auch der verborgene Imam wieder mit ins Spiel. Nach den Vorfällen in Boroujerd sendete Radio Zamaaneh ein Interview mit Dr Nour Ali Tabandeh, dem Oberhaupt des Nematollah Sufi Ordens über die Dämonisierung der Sufis und über die vergangenen Zerstörungen ihrer Gebetshäuser durch die Basitschi. Der Kayhan Artikel führt dazu aus, dass der Nematollah Orden der schlimmste aller Sufi Orden sei, der behaupte ein schiitischer Orden zu sein.
Radio Zamaaneh habe Dr Tabandeh ermöglicht, sich wichtig zu machen, außerdem würde er sich als Stellvertreter des Verborgenen Imams betrachten. Der Verborgene Imam ist ein brisantes politisches Thema im Iran, da sich die Legitimation die Gemeinschaft der Rechtgläubigen zu führen im Zusammenhang mit ihm ableiten lässt. Neulich wurden bei den Freitagsgebeten in Teheran Broschüren verteilt, die eine frappierende Ähnlichkeit zwischen Präsident Ahmadinedschad und den alten Beschreibungen über das Aussehen des Verborgenen Imams bei seiner Wiederkehr nahe legen. Hier versucht wohl jemand die starke Autoritätsgläubigkeit im Volk auf eine subtile Weise zu steuern.
Kayhan hält Radio Zamaaneh durch die oben angeführten Punkte für die Speerspitze der niederländischen Regierung gegen die Islamische Republik. Neben Radio Zamaaneh haben die Niederlande noch weitere Islamfeindliche Ereignisse zu bieten, erfahren wir aus dem Artikel. Der Film "Submission" von Theo van Gogh und Ayaan Hirsi Ali und der nachfolgende Film "Submission 2" beschäftigen sich mit der Situation von Frauen in islamischen Gesellschaften und zeigen kritische Szenen (32).
Auch der Fall der Exiliranerin Sooreh Hera (33), die seit sieben Jahren in Holland lebt und Fotografien von homosexuellen iranischen Flüchtlingen mit Masken von Mohammed und Ali ausstellen wollte, zählt für Kayhan zu den unterminierenden Vorgängen der Niederlande gegen den Islam und gegen Iran. Wenn wir alle diese Vorwürfe ernst nehmen, so ist hier ein klares Feindbild herausgearbeitet. Wem also Kontakte zu diesem Feind nachgewiesen werden, könnte leicht in die Schusslinie der Hardliner geraten.

Links:

(1) http://www.angelika-beer.de/index.php?/s,2,4,10/o,article,586/
(2) http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=A&Id=2540
(3) http://www.bfai.de/fdb-SE,MKT200710298000,Google.html
(4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2224061,00.html
(5) http://www.we-change.org/spip.php?article19
(6) http://www.sueddeutsche.de/ausland/artikel/736/147391/
(7) http://www.angelika-beer.de/index.php?/s,2,4,94/o,article,566/
(8) http://www.2manysecrets.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/journalist-und-menschenrechtsaktivist-im-iran-festgenommen/
(9) http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=3856&Alias=wzo&cob311577
(10) http://www.angelika-beer.de/index.php?/s,2,4,10/o,article,586/
(11) http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2987791,00.html
(12) http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/kultur/aktuell/das-gespenst_der_sanften_revolution_1.570803.html
(13) http://sweetness-light.com/archive/iranian-leaders-argue-over-who-is-holyist
(14) http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/23/23675/1.html
(15) http://www.icchome.org/main/default.aspx
(16) http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/22/22413/1.html
(17) http://www.insideofiran.com/en/?p=694
(18) http://www.iran-now.net/$180801
(19) http://www.boell.de/downloads/presse2007/iran-report1207.pdf
(20) http://www.zeit.de/2004/47/Iran?page=8
(21) http://www.insideofiran.com/en/?p=696
(22) http://www.jomhouri.com/plus/german.htm
(23) http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/10/3EF66742-3374-45C6-B07E-391CA350D6EC.html
(24)http://www.rojname.com/index.kurd?nuce=188307 ;www.gozaar.org/template1_en.php?d=608
(25) http://www.tobiaspflueger.twoday.net/stories/4531763/
(26) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/22/world/middleeast/22shariamadari.html?ex=1348200000&en=eb55affe88c849ae&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
(27) http://www.Kayhannews.ir/860922/3.htm#other306
(28) http://www.pressnow.org/asp/countries_news_details.asp?NewsID=63&CountryID=56&offset
(29) http://www.radiozamaneh.com
(30) http://www.parlement.com/9291000/biof/02255
(31) http://www.iranvajahan.net/cgi-bin/news.pl?l=en&y=2007&m=10&d=11&a=8
(32) http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3974179.stm
(33) http://www.20min.ch/news/kreuz_und_quer/story/16950792

Telepolis Artikel-URL: http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/26/26914/1.html

Qui radio WRIV, vi parla l'America di Frank Capra

Il New York Times racconta la storia di una radio locale di Long Island, WRIV (come Riverhead), che trasmette sulle "obsolete" onde medie. Ma scalda i cuori della comunità locale, che tratta gli annunciatori come parenti. Solo pubblicità locale, 250 inserzionisti (negozi e ristoranti della zona), cinquemila persone sintonizzate, con picchi di 25 mila nel corso della settimana. La classica stazione da 30 chilometri di raggio (a parte i soliti DXer lapponi), un kilowatt, nessuna pretesa ma tanto spirito di quartiere. Una coda lunga ante litteram, che l'ubiquità del digitale rischia paradossalmente di distruggere (è proprio questo che vogliono i fautori del trionfo della digitalizzazione delle frequenze analogiche?) Commovente il punto in cui John Galla, deejay 60enne, dice "Avete mai visto La vita è meravigliosa, di Frank Capra? Beh, questa è Bedford Falls."


The Island
Radio, With a Side of Bacon
By COREY KILGANNON December 30, 2007
RIVERHEAD

“1390-WRIV — your hometown radio,” Bruce Tria said, his voice coming through the car radio Tuesday morning, and you knew you were driving on the East End.
WRIV is one of the oldest stations on Long Island, and its homespun blend of local news, community announcements and oldies has been a soundtrack for a generation of locals out here for a half-century.
Mr. Tria’s morning show, “The Dawn Patrol,” delivers a style of local radio that is nearly extinct on Long Island: a neighbor’s lost dog, a birth or death in the community, and news from the schools, the police and Town Hall. It is a slow-drip blend of slow-paced life that seems meant to waft into kitchens and mingle with the smell of bacon.
To creak up the carpeted stairs to the third floor of 40 West Main Street, an old building in downtown Riverhead that houses the station, is to step back into the golden age of radio. There, through a labyrinth of empty rooms, Mr. Tria can be found in the control room, leaning into a microphone bearing the station’s call letters.
The show is filled with a steady stream of opinionated callers and Mr. Tria’s barbed wit and pragmatic commentary, the kind you might overhear at the local bar or barbershop.
“Hello, you’re on the air,” Mr. Tria said, picking up the phone. It was an East Quogue caller, angry about her tax bill — those darn school district coffers. That got Mr. Tria started — few things don’t — and in his usual diplomatic style, he said the East Quogue school district has “a bureaucracy worthy of the Pentagon,” and delivered a tart treatise on school districts with big budgets and low ratings.
For 27 years, Mr. Tria, 51, has been giving listeners the time, the weather and a piece of his mind. All interspersed with his favorite music: “nonrock hits” and the great vocalists doing standards, which he calls “the best music ever made.”
The station, on the AM band, broadcasts at 1,000 watts from a 133-foot-high tower and can be picked up for a roughly 20-mile radius — less over land, farther over water — from Rocky Point to Peconic on the North Shore and from Bellport to Amagansett on the South Shore.
The folks down at the Riverhead Sewer District keep it on. So do the people at Suffolk County National Bank. You can hear it in the caddy shacks at the big clubs in Southampton, and there is a core listener base among the thousands who live in the many mobile home parks in town. And there are diehard local sports fans who tune in to the broadcasts of Riverhead basketball and football games.
“Most of our listeners are 40 and older, and many people keep the station on for company — you’re their companion, their friend,” said Mr. Tria, who bought the station with his father, Vincent Tria, in 1987. “We survive and thrive because we’re community-minded. I like being able to communicate, and I couldn’t really do that at a station where I’d have to play five lite-radio songs in a row.”
A tall, handsome man entered the station, with very white teeth and hair and a quick, wholesome wit.
“Galla’s in the house,” Mr. Tria said over the air, referring to John Galla, who takes over at 10 a.m. for his “Radio Factory,” featuring “quips and quotes from Galla’s notes.”
Mr. Galla, 60, of Wading River, clutched his material for the show: his usual scraps of paper and printouts of trivia. Mr. Galla, who has been working in radio since age 15, carried a jar of homemade pickles given to him by a listener and opened a Christmas card sent from a local bank and signed by the employees, all regular listeners. He called them perfect examples of the small-town charm of the station and its cozy relationship with listeners.
“If you’ve ever seen ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ with Jimmy Stewart, this is Bedford Falls,” he said. “Some people call it corny, but that’s what people want.”
“Look, our latest news off the wires,” he said, holding up a printout of the men’s bowling league scores, just faxed over from Polish Hall.
Mr. Tria was finishing up his show and put on “A Holly, Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives. With the song ending, Mr. Tria took the mike and said, “I think we all could use a little Burl Ives, don’t you?”
He mentioned the two-for-one drink specials at Gators Restaurant in Hampton Bays and told listeners that after confession at St. Rosalie’s, they could “amble on over” to Gators. Then he cued up commercials for Mastic Seafood and for the Robert James Salon in Miller Place.
The station survives through local advertising dollars. There are no national advertisers, but plenty of local restaurants and businesses buy on-air spots produced by the staff. Mr. Tria said there was a core of 250 steady advertisers over the course of a year. He said there had been estimates that the station gets perhaps 5,000 listeners at a time and maybe 25,000 tuning in at some point during the week.
Some people who have moved away listen over the Internet to stay connected to the East End, Mr. Tria said, after talking with a caller who lives in New York City but has a summer house here. He called to grouse about the mammoth indoor ski development proposed for Calverton.
Mr. Galla took over and took a call from a listener who had an opinion about what to put in the water in the stand to keep a Christmas tree fresh.
“Look at him,” Mr. Tria said. “He’s doing what we do best. He’s relating to the people out here.”

28 dicembre 2007

Arte, pirateria e radiofonia di strada a SF

Davvero molto bello questo articolo del San Francisco Chronicle dedicato all'esperienza artistico-radiofonica di una stazione "pirata" molto particolare attiva nella Bay Area. Dovete assolutamente andare sul sito del giornale per ascoltare il clip audio proposto.

Neighborhood Public Radio mixes up art and radio

Reyhan Harmanci, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, December 28, 2007


Every now and then since 2004, while scanning the lower end of the FM spectrum in certain parts of the Bay Area, it's been possible to cut through the static and hear something unexpected.
You might have heard a raucous noise band performing live, or a teenager interviewing another teenager about life in Hunters Point, or a roundtable of artists discussing their work, or a man-on-the-street-style interview done on the street, all courtesy of NPR.
That's not NPR as in National Public Radio, but, rather, a conceptual art project and mobile pirate radio station called Neighborhood Public Radio.
The loose collective, headed by artists Lee Montgomery, Michael Trigilio and Jon Brumit, typically sets up in an art gallery with little more than a banner, booth, microphone and transmitter and a rough schedule of hyper-local programs aimed toward maximum neighborhood participation.
There are no rules for the content on this NPR: expletives and mistakes are neither bleeped over nor edited out, nothing is off-limits and everyone is invited into the studio.
After spending the summer as residents at the Marin Headlands Center, NPR was recently added to the lineup at the prestigious 2008 Whitney Biennial in New York City, where, among other actions, it'll be occupying a storefront on Madison Avenue for the three-month duration of the big Whitney Museum art show.
Hundreds have participated in NPR programming since its inaugural five-day run at Oakland's 21 Grand art space in 2004, and NPR has set up shop in Serbia, Chicago, San Jose and Hamburg, Germany. Its long-standing partnership with San Francisco's Southern Exposure gallery carried through to the gallery's 2007 Off-Site project, a successful venture that programmed work outside the gallery's walls. The radio collective has also spent time ensconced in the Mission District storefront space of Artists' Television Access on the corner of 21st and Valencia streets. Staying visible is key to NPR's programming, which feeds on interactions from people just passing by.
"Radio is a deceptively powerful medium," says Oakland's Montgomery, a Diablo Valley College art professor, in a recent interview over coffee at Ritual Roasters, "even if commercial radio has lost a lot of its magic."
While simply parodying the original NPR was never the point, obviously the founders intended to critique the state of public, as well as commercial, radio. They've taken NPR's logo, slightly altered it to avoid copyright issues, and often riff on public radio's programming decisions. For instance, Montgomery once edited 24 hours' worth of NPR thanking its sponsors. Even at a few seconds per shout-out, the piece ended up being 12 minutes long. "It turned out that the top sponsor was Burger King," Montgomery says, noting that the relationship had something to do with Burger King sponsoring frequent traffic reports. "But even the Foundation for Public Broadcasting is funded by McDonald's. It's very much about corporate support."
For the Whitney, they are planning a project called "American Life," not unlike "This American Life," with different segments coming in from portable radio instruments (otherwise known as PRI, which also happens to be the acronym for "Public Radio International") live from different parts of the country.
"It's not that NPR is that bad," Montgomery says, "but is it really the best we can do?"
NPR was born, oddly, in a moment when Montgomery wasn't thinking about making an art project. He had a student, Jim Ryan, who wanted to collaborate with him on a radio project, and Montgomery has been a DJ at KALX and experimented with radio transmitters intermittently over the years. Artist Brumit came onboard to contribute his artistic ideas, and because Montgomery knew that he had traded a digital camera for a working transmitter and antennae.
"It's an interesting platform for us to experiment with sound and public interaction. We do it in an art context but in a way that involves the general public," says Brumit, who recently relocated to Chicago and is locally known for creating the annual tricycle races down Lombard Street. "We use broadcast as an artistic medium, as an alternative to alternative radio stations."
Montgomery also asked fellow (now former) Diablo College professor and multimedia artist Trigilio to help out with the fledgling NPR. As a graduate of Mills College's music program, he had messed around with transmitters before and even built one of his own, but to no great effect. Trigilio, who moved to San Diego to teach media arts at UC San Diego this past summer, ended up contributing more than technical expertise and an NPR station jingle: Before Stephen Colbert wowed America with "truthiness," Trigilio adopted a left-wing, Bill O'Reilly-like persona with a talk show called "The Starve Zone."
21 Grand founder and curator Sarah Lockhart says that she saw possibilities from the get-go. "The NPR concept, as I understand it, is not about being a radio broadcast from a remote location - it's performative," she says, "It takes place in front of the audience, as people can see it happening."
The project caught the eye of Southern Exposure Artistic Director Courtney Fink, who was curating the gallery's 30th anniversary show, "The Way We Work." For the better part of 2004, they worked together to develop programming for the six-week residency, which took place from September to October. NPR's contribution was called "Evenings and Weekends."
"It was beyond active," Fink remembers, estimating that more than 150 people participated in the project. "Every weekend was insane."
In 2005, NPR took its show on the road. It received a grant from CEC ArtsLink to go to Serbia to collaborate with kuda.org in Novi Sad, Serbia, after which it spent time working with sound artists from the European radio tradition in Hamburg and Berlin.
While NPR has never been cited by the FCC for any regulatory crimes, the nature of the project is rebellious. Even a low-powered transmitter can cover a neighborhood with illegal FM radio offerings. Officially, NPR is only streaming broadcasts on the Internet, although, as Montgomery says with a wink, "We can't stop people from rebroadcasting."
Some of the projects - like "Talking Homes," with small transmitters placed in houses - broadcast within legal transmission boundaries. Other times, word-of-mouth about a gallery show brings out people with low-level transmitters who help put NPR on the airwaves.
"We couldn't do a lot of the things we do with the organizations that support us if it was illegal, but if we were broadcasting, we would consider it to be an act of civil disobedience," says Montgomery, showing a politician's knack for spin.
Others say that the questionable legality of the work is part of NPR's message of expanding radio possibilities. "On a ground level, they are political," Fink says. "They are challenging what makes it possible for people to communicate."
Montgomery says their European trip opened the door to more experimental radio possibilities. NPR could have kept occupying storefronts and bringing in novice radio personalities into the studio, but it was not content to find a format and stick with it. Montgomery laughs at the suggestion that if the radio outlet got too good at programming, it could be in danger of becoming an actual community radio station - that would be playing it safe. "We are open to failing," Montgomery says, "and see that as a necessary part of the process."
With a grant from the Creative Work Fund and a base at SoEx, NPR developed the eight-month "Radio Cartography" through June 2007. It was a chance for contributors to NPR - including the three principals - to use it as a testing ground for experimental projects.
For instance, Trigilio produced "State of Mind Stations," in which he set up stations across San Francisco for people to record their state of mind. People could call in and leave messages to describe their emotional state, and Trigilio himself hit the streets to record what people were feeling.
While NPR is part of a larger movement in the Bay Area to do social practice work that expands the possibilities of public and performative art, Whitney Biennial curator Henrietta Huldisch says that the collective is "emblematic" of work being done in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest - but not everyone agrees that NPR's faux community radio approach has worked. Lockhart of 21 Grand says that she found the initial, more music-based offerings of NPR to be more compelling than its later work. Good intentions don't necessarily make good art. "It brings up questions on how you evaluate that art," Lockhart says. "Is it based on the service or some sort of aesthetic, art-based criteria?"
But NPR's ability to keep evolving bodes well for its future, as does its open-door policy on collaborating. Already, it has inspired people to start programs on their own. "I grew up with radio. I grew up with old radio plays," says Sigi Arnejo, an M.H. de Young Memorial Museum sales associate whose work with NPR led to the creation of Transistor Radio Theater, a group that produces radio plays. "When my uncle was in the Vietnam War, we'd sit in front of the TV and the radio. It's a form of history that's being lost, and I wanted to make sure younger people don't lose that."
Radio, heard streaming on the Internet, in a car radio or through a boom box, remains relevant. "Radio," Arnejo says, "it teaches people to listen."
Neighborhood Public Radio will be in New York City beginning in March for its three-month residency as part of the Whitney Biennial, but thanks to the Internet, you can listen to its broadcasts live or dig into its archived offerings. www.neighborhoodpublicradio.org.

To hear a clip from Neighborhood Public Radio's "State of Mind Stations" project, in which random people on the street discuss their present state of mind, go to sfgate.com/entertainment.

Svizzera, avviato l'iter per le nuove FM locali

Il regolatore elvetico UFCOM ha avviato l'indagine conoscitiva prevista dall'iter di concessione dell 41 frequenze FM locali (e 13 televisive) bandite lo scorso agosto. Le domande presentate possono essere prese in esame sul sito dell'authority e commentate fino al 20 febbraio prossimo. Le prime licenze verranno presumibilmente concesse entro l'estate.

Radio OUC e TV regionale: indagine conoscitiva su 72 domande di concessione

Biel-Bienne, 28.12.2007 - L'Ufficio federale delle comunicazioni (UFCOM) ha avviato un'indagine conoscitiva relativa alle 52 domande di concessione per l'emittenza di programmi radiofonici e alle 20 domande di concessione televisiva. Per le 54 concessioni messe a concorso sono state in totale presentate 72 candidature, consultabili ora sul sito dell'UFCOM. I pareri possono essere inoltrati entro il 20 febbraio 2008.

A fine agosto 2007, l'UFCOM ha messo a concorso concessioni per l'emittenza di 41 programmi radiofonici locali-regionali su OUC e 13 programmi televisivi regionali. In data 5 dicembre 2007, ultime termine per l'inoltro delle domande, i dossier di candidatura pervenuti erano 75. Nel frattempo 3 candidature sono state ritirate. Le cerchie interessate sono ora invitate a esprimere il loro parere in merito alle 72 domande di concessione rimanenti. I pareri devono essere inoltrati all'UFCOM per via elettronica entro il 20 febbraio 2008.
Al termine dell'indagine conoscitiva, ai candidati verrà garantito il diritto di audizione in merito ai pareri espressi in tale ambito. In un secondo tempo, l'UFCOM sottoporrà al Consigliere federale Moritz Leuenberger, Capo del Dipartimento federale dell'ambiente, dei trasporti, dell'energia e delle comunicazioni (DATEC), le domande di concessione valutate in base ai criteri di aggiudicazione enunciati nel bando di concorso.
Con ogni probabilità le prime concessioni verranno rilasciate a inizio estate 2008


Singapore, vado a Singapore

Channel News Asia annuncia che MediaCorp, conglomerata di 13 stazioni radio di Singapore, comincerà a trasmettere 24 ore al giorno su tutti i suoi canali a partire dal 2008. MediaCorp gestisce anche Radio Singapore International e anche diversi canali locali vengono ritrasmessi in onde corte su frequenze dei 49 e 41 metri. Tutte o quasi sono molto regolari qui in Europa, specialmente nei pomeriggi autunnali e invernali e di notte durante tutto l'anno. Non so se anche la programmazione sulle onde corte verrà prolungata (se lo sarà, gli orari non ci riguarderanno molto dal punto di vista propagativo e per noi le cose non cambieranno) ma intanto approfitto per inserire qui due tabelle con tutte le frequenze oggi attive.


Sleepless in Singapore?

MediaCorp Radio has news for you: There is now something to look forward to in the wee hours of the morning.

Come Tuesday, its 13 stations will broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At present only eight stations broadcast 24/7. The new additions will be Chinese station Capital 95.8FM, Malay station Ria 89.7FM, classical music station Symphony 92.4FM, the news channel 938Live and the international channel 96.3FM.
DJs man the decks from 6 am until 2 am. However, the late slots — from 2 am until 6 am — will not feature live DJ commentaries, but a pre-recorded selection of songs. In the case of 938Live, some programmes featured earlier in the day will be re-broadcast.
Many listeners are welcoming this move.
"Why not? Some of the stations already broadcast till late, they might as well extend a few more hours," said National Serviceman Tan Weiye, 20.
"I wouldn't mind 938Live broadcasting 24/7, because sometimes I can't catch whatever programmes they broadcast in the day. I can listen to them if they repeat some of the day's programmes at night. I don't have to wait until the weekend for re-broadcasts."
Retiree Stephen Seow, 67, who counts Bach and Stravinsky among his favourite classical composers, said: "I'm old and sometimes I sleep late and want to listen to the radio. It's soothing to hear classical music to help me relax." In a recent AC Nielsen survey of the top 10 highest-rated radio stations in Singapore, nine of the stations belonged to MediaCorp.
From its inception as a single radio station in 1936, MediaCorp Radio has grown to become the largest radio network in Singapore, and also operates a Digital Radio service. Said Zakiah Halim, its vice-president of Malay, Indian and Community Programming: "We recognise the growing demand to provide quality and engaging radio entertainment to our listeners all day long.
"'Sleepless in the city' just got more vibrant and exciting with radio. You can turn us on anytime … and that's got to be music to your ears!" - TODAY/ar


27 dicembre 2007

A ciascuno la sua (blog) talk radio



L'ultima frontiera del podcasting si chiama Blog-talking. Un curioso e intrigante ibrido tra blogging, podcasting e... Talk radio. Un bell'articolo della Reuters descrive tre servizi per i quali basta disporre di un computer per la connessione e una linea telefonica presso cui essere chiamati. In pochi minuti si possono impostare autentici phone-in shows, cioè le dirette audio (via Internet) con gli ascoltatori che possono intervenire in tempo reale, anche attraverso il telefono. Proprio come alla radio, ma con diverse funzionalità aggiuntive, compresa la possibilità di raggiungere ospiti da intervistare e ascoltatori ovunque sia disponibile una connessione alla rete.
Gli aspiranti conduttori possono emulare personaggi come Howard Stern o Rush Limbaugh, a seconda dei gusti, con nuovi servizi come BlogTalk Radio, creato da Alan Levy quasi per caso, dopo che il padre si era ammalato e aveva insistito affinché il figlio escogitasse un modo per essere sempre in contatto con gli amici. Alan propose a suo padre di costruire un blog, che poi divenne un memoriale. Dopo questa esperienza Levy decise di escogitare uno strumento che non fosse solo in grado di "trasmettere" il parlato ma di ridiffondere anche gli interventi audio degli ascoltatori.
Lo stesso concetto è alla base degli Skypecasts, che tra l'altro integrano sulla stessa piattaforma anche le "telefonate" in ingresso (effettuate ovviamente via Skype).
E infine Talkshoe, che comporta il prelievo e l'installazione di un software speciale. Qui il concetto è più simile a un social network fatto per audiobloggers e piccole comunità ma i canali attraverso cui intervenire si moltiplicano: telefono, Skype, Voip o il software correlato ShoePhone, un client Voip orientato al conference calling.
In tutti e tre i casi gli eventi live si possono "registrare" e si trasformano in un attimo in un podcast. Secondo me, questi nuovi mezzi di espressione potrebbero diventare ancora più interessanti se immersi nel contesto delle Web radio o delle emittenti radio convenzionali. Può essere un ottimo argomento di discussione al prossimo RadioCamp.