SHE’S WILDEWOMAN #6: Radio, Why We Still Tune In

Aug 28

By Allison Parssi

Growing up in suburban South Florida as a music lover left very few options to discover new music outside of the Top 40. I became a relentless radio station channel surfer, always trying to find something acceptable to listen to. The summer of 2012 was when Icona Pop released their massive hit, “I Love It”, and I actively tried to tally how many times I could hear the song in a day. Both my parents hated me for it, and I eventually started buying CDs for our car rides.

Despite the lack in variety, I always preferred listening to the radio. I liked listening to the hosts talk and imagining what behind the scenes looked like. In fact, when applying for college I had to answer a short answer question, “If you could do anything without the risk of failing, what would you do?” My response was to start a radio station where independent artists would be the main focus. Actually thinking these kinds of stations didn’t exist, you can imagine how surprised I was to find my college radio station at the club fair.

I remember seeing their blue and yellow banner from halfway across the room and stopping in my tracks. Deciding to join took all of thirty seconds. Walking to the table, I couldn’t tell if I was excited or nervous, I just knew that it was something I had to do. Who knew when I’d have another chance to be a radio DJ?

It’s safe to say that I learned some very valuable lessons in my four years DJing and volunteering in college. Outside of the music I was exposed to and the technical aspects of having a radio show, it helped me gain confidence and become a stronger public speaker. This music microcosm revealed to me how toxic masculinity is perpetuated within the industry at large. It taught me the value of community involvement on campus as well as in the surrounding city. The station also showed me how radio can be an important educational platform through their evening and weekend specialty shows.

The station’s specialty shows were often hosted by community members - not students - and focused around a theme or genre of music. These shows ranged from House to Disco, Blues to Reggae. Each of the DJs used their show’s program to its fullest capacity - bringing in their own mixing equipment and libraries, offering personal knowledge and historical context to the music they were playing, and bringing in guests to talk about the music and current events. These shows were a complete 180 from what I grew up with. They expanded my understanding of radio as a platform, and ultimately laid the groundwork for how I choose to continue to be involved and interact with it.

DJs and hosts offering their shows as an educational platform isn’t anything new. There’s a rich history of community radio stations working together to create change within social justice movements. I recently attended a non-commercial radio panel conversation where panelist Davey D of KPFA discussed the influence of radio in the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr. understood and recognized the power of radio early on and worked to build a network of Black broadcasters across the country. With the Southern Christian Leadership Conference office located right underneath WERD, the first Black owned radio station, Dr. King worked closely with host “Jockey” Jack Gibson. He used Gibson’s platform to make announcements himself and pass along pertinent information for the station to relay to other hosts, stations, and respective audiences.

In August of 1967, Dr. King gave a speech to the National Association of TV and Radio Announcers (NATRA) in Atlanta where he addressed the role of the Black radio DJ. He made the point that televised news caters to the white upper middle class. This in turn led Black people to depend on radio to understand current events, policy changes, and how it would affect them in the bigger picture. He thanks specific hosts - Georgie Woods in Philadelphia and Pervis Spann in Chicago - for their fundraising efforts, voter education, and civil rights advocacy through their platforms, but he also thanks everyone for their overall, unsung leadership. Radio was “creating the powerful cultural bridge between Black and white.”

Similar communication and organization happened within the Latinx radio communities in 2006 in response to U.S. immigration policy changes. However, this movement and community didn’t have a political leader to organize the effort. Radio personalities like Eddie “Piolín” Sotelo rallied together to not only disperse information, but considered it their duty to activate listeners to become more engaged and participate in the protests. Even though these efforts were almost immediately shut down by larger media corporations, they managed to make a significant impact as half a million people marched and protested in Los Angeles alone.

Today, we are seeing radio rise as a platform for activism once again. First in pivoting programming to offer news and relief updates as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, and then in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Community radio stations are offering resources, covering protests, and inviting artists and activists from their surrounding communities to talk over the airwaves. Stations like Chicago’s Vocalo have shifted their music curation to speak to the movement - paying close attention to the messages of their music and cutting out the songs that don’t align with their social justice mission. They are airing “Community Updates,” a kind of Public Service Announcement (PSA) offering local news, locations and hours of food pantries, and information on how to volunteer and get involved with organizations. Meanwhile, Radio Milwaukee recently launched a new podcast, By Every Measure, that explores the history of systemic racism within their city. Radio hosts and staff members are once again taking on the responsibility of conveying the truth and people are here to listen.

Even with the introduction and increased use of streaming services, radio continues to hold a dominant position in how people consume audio. Especially in times of crisis, people turn to their trusted radio hosts to get the information they need. In the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the low power station WQRZ was one of only four radio stations to survive and became the only station to broadcast relief information at ground zero. Their communication was so important that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) increased their power to cover a larger area and FEMA handed out radios to the survivors so they could tune in. When Hurricane Wilma hit two months later, another low power station in Immokalee, FL was the only station to transmit information on where to go and what to do, in Spanish as well as in the indigenous languages of their community. As recently as two weeks ago, when a tornado descended upon Chicago, I witnessed my neighbors tune in to a radio station for safety updates.

In the midst of a pandemic, a social justice movement, and an election season, we are consuming an immense amount of information. Between the fast rate that news is changing and the looming fear of that news being false, people are constantly overwhelmed and skeptical. This is why we need local and independent media. DJs and hosts at these stations are people we know. They are people who live in the communities they serve and are in-tune with what their communities need. Despite the never ending effort to consolidate and homogenize radio, independent and low power stations continue to survive. Supporting these stations through listening, volunteering, and donating is just as important as the stations doing the work. One cannot exist without the other and right now radio is proving to be a platform we can’t risk losing.

This Week’s Resources and Links:

Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio by William Barlow (excerpt)

Transcript of Martin Luther King’s Speech to NATRA

Voice of América: The Spanish-language DJs Behind the New Wave of Latino Activism by Alexandra Starr

The Power of Conservative Talk Radio by Sarah Leeson

Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest, and Politics in FM Radio Activism by Christina Dunbar-Hester

One More Scoop of Vanilla: A New Proposal Looks to Loosen Radio Ownership Rules by Marissa Moss

What Impact has the Pandemic had on Audio? By Brittany Faison

The Black Music History Library curated by Jenzia Burgos

2020 NPR Tiny Desk Contest Winner - Linda Diaz

New Music to Listen to:

CUT EM IN (feat. Rick Ross) by Anderson .Paak