Twin City Groups Gear Up for Community Radio
Each month in Minneapolis-St.Paul, Minnesota people representing almost twenty community groups covering issues from immigrants rights to media justice get together to plan for their future community radio stations. The people are as diverse as they are determined, featuring small business owners, social services providers, artists, and activists. Main Street Project is a "grassroots cultural organizing, media justice and economic development initiative" that's helping to connect communities and gear up to get on air.
"We see LPFM as an opportunity to build our own media infrastructure, free of filters, that puts the power of the microphone in the hands of the people who live and work in this community. The two neighborhoods we’re focusing on, Phillips and Frogtown, are the most racially diverse and economically marginalized neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. In addition to the usual challenges, the stories about what happens in these communities tend to be produced by people outside of these neighborhoods," said Danielle Mkali, Media Justice Organizer at Main Street Project.
Next year's opportunity for nonprofits to apply for community radio licenses means that these communities could soon be broadcasting their own stories from within their neighborhoods. Right now the FCC is predicting at least a handful of new licenses will become available in the Twin Cities.
Main Street Project is working in neighborhoods with many Somalians, Ethiopians, African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Community radio could offer many of these groups their first chance to broadcast messages to their communities in their native languages.
One group that participates on the coalition is Migizi Communications. "They develop skills-based media-making training with Native Americans, and especially young people," explained Mkali. They seem like a natural fit for a community radio station.
Mkali was slightly surprised to receive support from another group, KFAI. KFAI, Radio Without Boundaries, is an established community radio station that's existed in the Twin Cities since 1978. Why would a community radio station support other community radio stations that may compete with them for listeners?
Unlike the corporate media business, community radio values cooperation and social justice more than competition. Mkali explained KFAI's perspective, "They know what it's like to build a station. There are folks who aren't listening to KFAI but still need community radio. More people of color need to be involved in producing media. They feel it's their responsibility to help make better media happen in the Twin Cities."
Prometheus is excited to support Main Street Project and their partners to apply for licenses in the Twin Cities. Their model of monthly gatherings to plan, strategize, and build relationships with new diverse partner groups is the stuff that community radio dreams are made of!
