Latino Station Highlight

The Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV), Viequense community group that played a key role in the struggle against the military presence here, received yesterday its Construction Permit from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate a radio station on frequency 90.1FM.  For a year and a half the Viequenses have awaited news on the project, Vieques Community Radio FM, a full power, educational, non profit station that will cover the Eastern area of the Puerto Rican archipelago.  During the past two years under the direction of Luis Alfonso Melendez, the CRDV has been developing the human infrastructure for the regional radio project designed specifically to impact the communities of Ceiba, Culebra, Naguabo and Vieques.

The CRDV works in collaboration with the Foundation for Culebra and the educational Project, Nuestra Escuela, on that sister island; in Ceiba, with
the Association for the Development of Ceiba (APRODEC) and in Naguabo with community groups that promote sustainable development in the zone. Other participating Vieques organizations include, Nuestra Escuela-Vieques, Vieques Womens Alliance, Agricultural Extension Service, Bieke Microbusiness Incubator, among others.  The main studio will be located in Vieques with satellite studios on Culebra and in the area of Ceiba/Naguabo. The project has the cooperation of the Communications Department at the Unviersity of Puerto Rico’s Humacao campus as well as their community investigations project of the Social Science Department.  UPR Radio  and WALO Radio (Humacao) have also bee very supportive in the preliminary phases of Radio Vieques.  Radio Vieques also works closely with *Taller C�*, the Cooperative of Puerto Rican Singer/Song Writers.

US based community radio entities have also helped in these initials steps in the creation of Vieques Community Radio FM.  At the recent Latino Public
Radio Consortium conference held in St. Paul, Minnesota, our youth representative, Josue Cruz, received several offers of support from representatives of National Public Radio and community radio stations that include not only possible programming for RCV/FM but also equipment and technical assistance.  Another group that has been extremely helpful in this early stage is PROMETHEUS, dedicated to assist community radio stations
throughout the US and other places around the world.

Vieques Community Radio FM (RCV/FM) works for the promotion of the historic demands of our communities for justice and peace. Democratic community development, decontamination, health problems related to military toxics, control of and future community use of ex Navy lands are the basic issues that motivate the organizers of RCV/FM.  Once transmission begins, RCV/FM will offer, through its Voice of the East programming, news, music, analysis of local, national and international events with space for cultural grupos, sports, student and union groups and government agencies with information for our region.

Over the past two years the CRDV and RCV/FM have carried out a series of skills buiding workshops on diverse aspects of radio and will soon hold
workshops on democratic organization and technical issues.  In each of the participating communities, work grupos are being organized to for the Board
of Directors that will direct the station.

Those interested in participating in the creation of this important community tool should contact RCV/FM by phone (787 375-0525) o email: 
robert.rabin@cprdv.org.

What will young Latinos, African-Americans and Asians who live in the Los Angeles area listen to that has been produced by public broadcasting? To try to answer this question, Radio Bilingue’s LA Public Media (link to http://www.lapublicmedia.org/) witnessed the reaction of over 150 young ethnic people as they listened to information programs and music shows. The responses of the listeners were recorded second by second in real time as they listened to various sound cuts and expressed their likes or dislikes by turning dials that were hooked into a computer that aggregated their levels. It was all very high-tech and very revealing. The “I like it” line plummeted when country-western music was played but increased markedly with stories about marijuana and also mentions of President Obama. 

The testing results are being compiled and will guide the work of the multi-cultural program producers that are Team LA Public Media. You’ll literally be hearing the results of this work in the near future.

The excitement about creating this podcast is audible in Felix Contreras’ voice and that excitement has carried over to the show itself. Felix and Jasmine Garsd of National Public radio have created a podcast and website about Latin Alternative music.

Convinced that there is a need for Latino-themed programming on NPR, Felix and Jasmine are in week Four of a ten-week pilot project that has Facebook conversations buzzing and so much tweeting going on you’d think you were in an aviary at feeding time. The first program focused in on soccer, the World Cup and one of its biggest fans, music superstar, Juanes. The rest of the line-up is living up to the high standards set by this first foray by NPR into Latin Alternative music. Felix and Jasmine are attending the Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York City and you can bet it’ll provide information and la musica for a number of future shows.

If you’re interested in broadcasting the podcasts, contact Ana Grunndman at NPR. Give the shows a listen and encourage NPR to continue this type of programming that includes Latinos and their diverse music formats.

Paredes Hablando by Stevon Lucero