When flooding rains pounded Texas earlier this summer, many communities found themselves in crisis. With wired network infrastructures flooded and unusable and power a sometimes-thing draining the battery-packs at cell tower-sites, many Texans found themselves reaching for their radio to find out what was going on.
One area that was hit very hard by the rains was Austin and surrounding towns, including Wimberley, Texas: flash-flooding sent a wall of water down the Blanco River in the Wimberley Valley on Memorial Day weekend that swept away entire structures, killing several people and doing millions of dollars in damage. Just a couple of years earlier, folks there had founded a non-profit organization to apply for an LPFM license. Construction permit in hand, when the rains came and wiped out most other community communications they did not stand idly by. Continue reading “Radio in Times of Crises”
Tag: radio free waveland
Microradio as Bridge to Recovery
Radio Free Waveland is microbroadcasting messages of hope. 
This clip (2:29, 1.2 MB) from a recent interview with a volunteer who served thousands of meals at the New Waveland Cafe demonstrates the station’s function as a bridge between the patchwork of grassroots groups who showed up to serve the still-reconstituting community – they range from Seventh Day Adventists to organic farmers practicing anarchism.
“There’s so much animosity along class/culture lines in this country, it’s good to show up and be an example of how many untruths are told about people…that are, you know, not Christian, or just different, you know, the xenophobia that gets pushed. It’s been challenged here,” says Dave Sayotovich, “and the station has been a big part in that.”
Scene Reports: Mississippi, D.C., California
Mississippi: A crew from the Midwest has arrived in Waveland, Mississippi, where the eyewall of Hurricane Katrina made landfall. 30-foot storm surges left survivors literally naked – yet a tent city of sorts has blossomed among the destruction. “Radio Free Waveland” is now providing a 40-watt morale boost among those trying to make the most of a desperate situation (still no FEMA there).
District of Columbia: WSQT gave a fiery interview to the folks at Free Radio Santa Cruz this week. The station is currently off the air after donating its transmitter to Gulf Coast relief efforts and is also relocating following a visit from the FCC earlier this month. I’m a big fan of WSQT’s intensity: it is a guerrilla war, and time and numbers work in our favor.
California: Stephen Dunifer and volunteers with Free Radio Berkeley are assembling a 75-watt transmitter to send to New Orleans. Also, there have been more reports about Berkeley Liberation Radio returning to the air on a regular basis, although details remain sketchy.