On today’s mediageek we’re going into the archives to play a talk given by microradio pioneer Mbanna Kantako of Human Rights Radio at the University of Illinois, Springfield, in Feb. 1998. This talk originally aired on the predessor program to mediageek, Radio Free Conscience.
With all the activity going on in free radio it’s important to reflect on its history and see where it came from. In the US it started with a blind man trying to organize the residents of Springfield, IL public housing.
After the program airs I will post both the program, containing an edited version of the talk, and the full unedited version. This is step one of getting the pre-mediageek radio show archives available, since RFC aired biweekly for 5 and half years prior. There’s some interesting stuff, including coverage of the struggle over Pacifica and microbroadcasters, some of whom are no longer broadcasting.
Check back for progress on this project.
For more audio from Kantako and Human Rights Radio, see DIYmedia’s Mbanna Kantako archive.